Gakuen Alice: Volume 13

by Tachibana Higuchi, 193 pages

Mikan follows her best friend Hotaru when she's chosen to attend Alice Academy, a school for kids with special abilities called Alices. Imai's is an invention Alice, and Mikan, as it turns out, has a previously undetected Alice of her own--called a nulling Alice--and is allowed to stay at the academy as a student. But Mikan also has some mysterious connection to the school, as it seems somebody is out to get her. And she's not the only one in danger. With the help of Imai and her new friends, especially cranky fire-starter Natsume and sweet animal-whisperer Luca, will she be able to save herself and those she cares about from nefarious plots from the outside and from unknown persons in the institution itself?

In this volume, Mikan has to navigate the increasing emotional complications of Valentine's Day at Alice Academy, as it traditionally involves a lot more than just handing out chocolates to your friends and she's starting to feel torn between two in particular. And graduation for some of the upperclassmen is approaching, and Mikan wants to make sure her class gives them a proper happy send-off, not easily accomplished if they can't all agree on the same plan.

I like the general idea of this series, but I find it visually hard to differentiate between the five gazillion kids and teachers at school and keep all their names and Alices and relationships to one another straight. I'm still reading it, because I want to know who's up to what in the background, but when I can't remember or tell who they are once they're revealed, it makes it difficult to follow or to care. If I were reading them all back-to-back rather than spread out over months and months, it might help a bit, but not entirely. That frustration aside, the story's interesting and the characters suitably cute or mysterious. When I'm not confused, I'm enjoying it.