Manga Review: ARISA

I've been on hiatus for approximately 3-4 months for this blog. And I DEEPLY apologize for that!! I have a lot of work to do (actually I should be doing homework right now) and I haven't had time to review any of the animes I've seen or watch new ones for that matter!! This is one manga that I read sometime in late September or early October.

Ahem. I'M READY!

Written by Natsumi Ando, who is primarily a romance mangaka, tried her hand at a mystery series. Overall, it wasn't bad! It had mystery, clearly, and pretty good characters. Although when you really think about who the culprit was, it was just the slightest bit obvious... or maybe not, because I didn't figure it out until the end....

Magazine featuring ARISA.

Anyway! ARISA starts off with two girls, twins. They're getting to see each other finally after a long time away due to a divorce. The main character, Uehara, Tsubasa, can't wait to see her sister Arisa. When they meet they have fun and act just like before they were split up. While hanging out, Arisa suddenly jumps from a window! She isn't dead, only in a coma, but the confusing part is, why did she do it? Uehara and Arisa had been sending letters back and forth since they were separated and Arisa was always writing about happy things in her life, like how she was president, she had a sweet and good looking boyfriend, and a best friend who was nice. Uehara knew her as a sweet sister. Wanting desperately
to find out her reasoning to jumping, she infiltrates the school, posing as Arisa. She soon finds out about "King Time". A time only for their homeroom, one day of the week only at a specific time. They take out there phones and type "king" their wish. One person's wish is chosen, and seemingly, no matter what the wish is, it is granted! What the hell is going on?!

Do NOT be fooled by it's cover!!
Volume 9 Official Cover

I won't reveal anymore, but it starts off strong and very intriguing. Don't judge a book by it's cover VERY very much applies to this manga series. It's cover may look super cute and adorable, screaming 'I'm a shoujo book! READ ME!" but it. Most certainly. Is not.

The genre is mystery (already said that) and drama/suspense. Not really romance drama because there really isn't any romance in the novel series at all. The characters are not cliche or generic, but some don't get as much development as they could. Meaning they do the flip flop. (reverse harem kind of -ish)
Of course, they are all still good. Though most are insane in some kind of way. Seriously. Other things are the questionable situations that these MIDDLE SCHOOLERS are in. As in, it doesn't fall in the sense of reason for them to be in, or have access, to certain things that come in the story. It mostly occurs later on. The art is really good and the dialogue is also very nice.

Which leads me to the last thing about this manga series. What. The ever loving fudge. Was with that ending?! It was RIDICULOUS! The series had reached it's climax, and the main character was figuring out who had done it and their back story. They started crafting a master plan and then it gets so ridiculous it ruins pretty much the WHOLE series which was overall a good read!

Disregarding the ending, it was a good series that nicely fit into the mystery genre. Seeing how the author was generally a shoujo/romance mangaka she did well on this. Now NOT disregarding the ending, IT WAS RIDICULOUS! You could CLEARLY see how much of an amateur she was in that ending. First off, the characters suddenly decided to become completely different people and the logic was completely off.

Overall, a good series, BUT if you can't take bad endings then you'll have to just stay clear of this. I mostly recommend just not reading the last few pages of the last chapter. Or the last chapter at all for that matter! Just avoid it. But if you are okay with it ending badly, but it overall being a good manga, and you like mystery, I say go for this one. Also, it's not like a hardcore, logic mystery like some people may enjoy so it may be below your point of interest if you are one of those people.

This? NONE of this happens in the manga! NONE! If your looking for and or expecting
 something like this, go read Mint na Bokura or something.
Brown is Arisa, blonde is Uehara.