Gakuen Alice Vol. 01

Gakuen Alice Vol. 01, the classic bestselling manga by Tachibana Higuchi!

In Gakuen Alice Vol. 01, Young Mikan runs away to Tokyo following her best friend, Hotaru, who has been enrolled in an exclusive, secretive private school for geniuses. But it turns out that Alice Academy is a lot more than meets the eye. If Mikan wants to stay by Hotaru’s side, she has to both pass the strange “entrance exam” and face the even greater challenge of befriending her very odd new classmates.

Whether it’s Hotaru’s gift for inventing gadgets, the cranky Natsume’s fire-casting ability, or Professor Narumi’s control of human pheromones, everyone at the school has some sort of special talent. But what ability, if any, does Mikan possess? Mikan is going to have to rely on her courage and spunk if she’s going to stay in school, or even stay alive!

Biographical Note:

In an interview with Tokyopop, Tachibana Higuchi gave a detailed look on how she started as a mangaka.

“I first submitted a manga story a while after I graduated from high school. Up until then, I was studying for the entrance examinations for the Art University, and as part of that, I sometimes drew manga and four-panel strip comics for fun.

Because I was conscious of the fact that I had started drawing manga in earnest at a later age, I think my progress during the beginning on drawing and storytelling techniques was fast as I frantically tried to absorb everything I could learn about creating manga.

After the serialization of Gakuen Alice Vol. 01 began, as I got busy, I was so desperate to submit it on time that I feel that the drawings probably haven’t improved much compared to before. During the serialization of the manga, I think my story telling techniques improved more as I concerned myself with how to catch the attention of the readers, how well one can incorporate what the readers are seeking into the story.

Written and illustrated by Tachibana Higuchi, the chapters of Gakuen Alice Vol. 01 are published in the Japanese manga anthology, Hana to Yume, by Hakusensha. 31 volumes have been released as of March 2013.

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