Gakuen Alice: Volume 16

by Tachibana Higuchi, 191 pages

A prank gets a little out of hand as everyone's souls trade bodies randomly and truths inadvertently get revealed to the wrong (or the right) people. In the confusion, Mikan resorts to using her secret "stealing" Alice to save a loved one as background conspiracies continue to stew.

It's still hard to keep all these similar-looking characters straight, but when it tries, the story is engaging and its mysteries deep and dark. It'd be nice to have a little less fluffy filler and a little more plot progress, but oh well.

Gakuen Alice: Volume 15

by Tachibana Higuchi, 193 pages

Mikan and her classmates are in the midst of a huge athletic festival. She throws herself into the various team-based competitions, hoping to forget her problems in the process, but two-faced, malicious Luna won't let her.

Still too much screentone and too many similar faces with the added issue of lots of unnecessary filler comprised of silly competition minutia that just distracts from the real, and more serious, plot. Buried in the excessive campy festival focus are nefarious schemes and a sweet story of friendship--but you'll have to dig pretty patiently to find them.

Gakuen Alice: Volume 14

by Tachibana Higuchi, 192 pages

There's a new transfer student at Alice Academy and she has it in for Mikan. Little by little, Luna is turning Mikan's classmates against her and silencing her--and anyone who might help her--with threats against her friends. And Luna's cryptic, cruel references to Mikan's long-missing mother make it sound like Luna's got her own friends in high places, so Mikan takes her seriously and suffers alone. Who's Luna working with and why? And can Mikan and her friends get to the bottom of the biggest mystery of all before something terrible happens?

Same pluses and minuses as in previous volumes. When the story just focuses on a small group of regulars, it's easier to read and follow than when it explodes into school-wide party or conspiracy mode.

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.