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Alternative Titles

Japanese: PandoraHearts

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 24

Chapters: 107

Status: Finished

Published: May 18, 2006 to Mar 18, 2015

Genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Mystery

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: GFantasy

Authors: Mochizuki, Jun (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.56¹ (scored by 63,491 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #114²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #53

Members: 182,572

Favorites: 16,797

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Reviews

Filtered Results: 92 / 98

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Apr 25, 2010

Neiru2013

Recommended

Preliminary (48/107 chp)

I never expected to like Pandora Hearts. I hate the Victorian era, get easily bored by mysteries, and am typically annoyed by fluffy cuteness. I much prefer violence, blood, and deep, dark storylines. And yet, I love Pandora Hearts to pieces!! I think I experience it from a different angle than many other PH fans, so I want to offer my perspective.

I love all the characters here. Really, I've never loved so many characters so much before. They all have very colorful personalities, representing most of the standard animanga archetypes but elaborating on each in unique ways. I connect with all of them very strongly. ...

Apr 2, 2015

WavyBunny

Recommended

This is my first time ever writing a manga review, so please bare with me.

I want to start saying that this manga may not be the easiest reading; the plot is like a puzzle, at first you get to see the big picture, but without getting into the details, you won't reach the end result. I must say that this may be my favorite part about the series, each little detail is relevant either for the main plot or to get some character development and that enriches the story more and more every time you read. There's actually no time to get bored because everything ...

Jun 15, 2009

shinigamiallie

Recommended

Preliminary (25/107 chp)

I can't stress how completely amaing this manga is. I started out watching the anime and when the episodes wouldn't come fast enough I began reading the manga...and now I'm waiting for each chapter to come out.

I've always liked interesting spins on Alice in Wonderland and this one tops them all for me. All the characters are interesting, deeper than they look, and keep you guessing as to who they really are and what secrets they are hiding. Where some characters may have come off as cliche in the first few chapters it is revealed later on that they have much darker and deeper pasts ...

May 27, 2013

reversereality

Recommended

Preliminary (84/107 chp)

“Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

What would you think when someone just told you that your existence is a sin? That’s practically saying that you should never have been born. Certainly, that isn’t a very nice thing to say, but when people actually start to persecute and throw you into a jail for it, it begs the question: What did I do?!

Paralleling the themes of identity crisis makes a wonderful comeback from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” into this manga “Pandora Hearts” by Jun Mochizuki, where we have a young 15-year-old noble that ...

Aug 15, 2015

TohyaHachijo

Recommended

Out of all the anime. manga, visual novels I have read or seen, Pandora Hearts is the one that will always be engraved in my heart and the others as well.

Nothing is stereotyped about this series, there is no lovey-dovey romance for otaku basement-dwellers, instead, this manga focuses on something that has been long overlooked: friendship. It doesn't matter how old one is, its gender or anything else, friendship will always be the greatest form of love and I'm glad the authoress managed to convey this message with such a masterpiece.

Story: 10

Don't let the Tumblr shippers/fangirls fool you, there barely is something that can be ...

Feb 22, 2009

Aris18

Recommended

Preliminary (46/107 chp)

Note- I first wrote this review in 2009, but have found some things that needed updating.

I stumbled across the manga because of it's interesting name. And I'm glad to say that the story is just as interesting as the name.
I won't go too much into the plot, as you can read those in other place, so I'll just say that the story line's incredibly original, enjoyable, as well as pretty dark and with many plot twists. The main characters, Oz and Alice, are fairly likable, and the supporting cast, Break, Sharon, and Raven, aren't done to badly either. My favorites are ...

Apr 16, 2015

Terah

Recommended

"All Good Things Must Come to an End".

It has been a long 5 year journey that Pandora Hearts has taken me on. I am sad that the long years of waiting and excitement when a new chapter for Pandora Hearts was finally released is now gone forever. However along with the sadness, comes the excitement and happiness of finally reaching the one thing that I always wanted since the beginning. The ending.

Art ~ 9

Pandora Hearts starts having decent art in the first chapter. The characters looks nice, and the background is decent. However, as the series continues, you begin the notice the better details, and ... the art improving as a whole. There isn't much that I can talk about the art (I don't really care for art too much when reading something) other than the fact I really liked it.

Character ~ 10

"Not Doldum, Not just a revertebration. Echo will... I will...protect this girl of my own free will! I will not follow your orders!" ~ Echo

Out of all the things that I love about the manga, the characters are what I loved the most. Each character is well constructed, and all have their own unique personalities. I never grew bored of any character in the manga. Each of their back stories were so interesting and captivating, that I could not choose a favorite character until the ending. Every character was relate able and likable. Another part of the characters that interested me and that I loved was that the characters never went stale, because each and every character went through great character development. Each and every character grew and learned to accept who they are, and learn from their mistakes. My favorite example is Echo's character development. In the beginning, she was very negative about the way she viewed herself. Her very name was used to detriment her own value as a person. "Even if I'm to be tortured, to be mistreated, to be humiliated, Echo doesn't have the right to fight against it." ~ Echo. She doesn't believe she is worth anything, and that she has no rights because she is just an echo, a reverberation. She always referred to herself as Echo in third person as if she is distant to even herself. However, finally at the end she refers to herself as I, and breaks through the chains that held her down.

Story ~ 10

Imagine you're just taking a peaceful stroll in the park, when someone randomly appears, punches you in the face, and proceeds to tell you that everything you thought about life was wrong. That is basically Pandora Hearts in a nutshell. You go along reading it, and just as you start to get a hold of the situation, BAM PLOT TWIST. You would think that the one or two plot twists are good enough? BAM MORE PLOT TWIST. Eventually, I started to doubt every little thing the author put, and I was right to doubt. Pandora Hearts has so many plot twists I lost track. Does this mean that the story is bad? NOPE. It made the story all the more interesting to read, and elevated the story higher. The story was well written, that there weren't major plot holes that ruined the overall enjoyment of the story.

Enjoyment ~ 10

I loved Pandora Hearts with a passion. I would always be excited and savored every page as a new release came out. And just as the chapter was coming to a close, and the climax was coming, and I'm sitting on the edge of my seat, in small print at the bottom left corner it says "Please wait until next month to find out what happens next!". With this, I throw my hands in the air in a small fit of rage as my initial excitement dies down and a sense of dread comes over me as I count the number of days left until the next chapter. This however did not take away from my overall enjoyment of the manga. This actually made it better, as I became more and more eager as the manga was coming to an end.

Overall ~ 10

Overall, I loved every little thing about Pandora Hearts. What can I say? It was part of me ever since I was about 13 years old. It brought me great joy, sadness, anger, excitement, and many more emotions. Any story that can bring all these different emotions is one that I would consider a masterpiece. Although I won't say that it will be for everyone else, I recommend this manga to every that reads manga to even those that don't. It is a great manga with a great intriguing story, art that is pleasing to the eye, and likable and relate able characters.

Pandora Hearts is and possibly will always be my favorite manga of all times. The time i spent reading this manga was worth it and I hope that many future readers will enjoy it too. With this my review comes to a close, and so will my 5 year journey with reading Pandora Hearts. As I continue to read more and more manga, I will definitely always come back to this one.

"A good life is when you assume nothing, do more, need less, smile often, dream big, laugh a lot, and realize how blessed you are."

Apr 26, 2010

Rampant

Not Recommended

Preliminary (33/107 chp)

I do not really have a ton of specifics to say here because I just really could not care about this...there was nothing to hate and nothing to love. The premise was a little interesting, but this manga prefers to bog itself down with poorly written gags, atrocious dialogue, and frivolous declarations of affirmation than actually focus on either action or story.

The basic premise of the story is nice enough - secret mysterious prison like madman world that exists alongside the normal world and represents awful things for pretty much any human being. Okay, nice enough! Except...they never explain pretty much anything about it in ... particular. Even worse, our main hero is straightaway declared to be the key to obtaining that power...and no one really says why. We get some vague exposition along these lines, but never anything interesting or helpful; all the interactions and dialogue are more along dramatic lines.

Similarly, there is an interesting enough idea of needing to get back Alice's memories. Great, so we have an actual mission! Except there is no real rhyme or reason to how she gets them back (she just does), and it never really becomes anywhere near a main focus; again, dramatic character interactions and meetings kind of train wreck all of this.

The characters are all essentially uninteresting - Oz the tragic hero who overcompensates by being excessively friendly and accommodating, Gilbert who exists basically to be his homoerotic friend (they made his character dark for a while, then just totally destroyed that to get him back to being homoerotic), Alice the initially tsundere, then just naive and secretly really nice...(ch. 20 p. 32 - She gets angry easily, and her words are harsh, but...the real Alice is very gentle, and loves to cry, and she is very stupid as well...her appetite is also very huge!) *yawn*. Some of the characters have potential for being interesting, like Break or Vincent, but then never actually get to be interesting. The dialogue, always fractured, and ADD of this work ensure that they cannot have any profound details or interactions. It always comes back to bad gags or bad friendship speeches...

All in all, this is not really a work worth anyone's time. It offers a nice concept and world, but fails to flesh them out, it offers boring characters, boring dialogue, boring character interactions, beyond typical gags, and the banter is always lacking in wit. It throws vague calls to Alice in Wonderland mythos and expects you to think that it makes it instantly awesome (unfortunately...this works on almost everyone...). This is a work that offers frivolities instead of awesomeness.

Jul 29, 2009

Yemi_Hikari

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (28/107 chp)

Pandoras Hearts is one of those Mangas that has a great storyline with great parts to it, but also some things that can drive the reader nuts.

Story: 6

I found the new use of shingami in the manga to be very unique, unique in the fact that the soul reapers so to speak, aren't really dead souls in the asspect that we usually see, like in Shifumi Letters or Bleach. This was a plus when I first started watching the Anime, which drew me to the Manga.

Also, the storyline is chalk full of references to Alice in Wonderland. Many of the characters and chains are based ... off of characters from the book, and if you have read the books or seen any of the adaptations, this too might also draw one in.

I also saw a resemblance to the short Manga, Fairy Cube. The re are small elements in there that fit into both, like the stuffed rabbit toy, the small girl, or even the fact that there is a raven based being in both of these peices of work. Perhaps Pandora was influenced. In fact, it is likely that Pandora is highly influenced by a lot of things.

Normally, this would get the story a eight or higher, but I came across the problem of the fact that there are some rather dry cliques and humor running about that tend to get dragged out to the extreme, to the point at times of annoyance. I wish not to go into them as that would rather ruin the story.

Art: 8

The art is lovely, and well done, but there are a few times that it gets a little bit sloppy. This tends to be more noticible if one comes from an Anime that has brushed up and covered these mistakes up. And to note, I've studied art, so I could possibly be nitpicking things, but there were a few points where, even though I enjoy the art work pretty much, there were times I was a bit turned off. But then I'd come across an extremely good peice and it would go back and forth..

Character: 7

Gilbert is my favorite character. You learn early on that he has problems beliving in himself and his abilities, not to mention self esteme issues. He is also very loyal, yet also very childish, for which he gets made fun of. One also learns that his outward appearance doesn't exactly match his inner, but this isn't something one learns until later on.

Alice is another one of my favorite characters. Most of the really good humor comes from her, Gilbert or the Uncle, but mostly her. She also has a majorly firy temper that one can find quite enjoyable. Her self pity moments are rather logical, as she has been trapped in the abyss for so long.

What isn't so good is our main hero. Sure, he is all spunky and happy go lucky in the beging of the Manga, but when he takes an angst trip, boy does he take them. One needs to be forewarned that there might be times that one might want to strangle him for these reasons. There are also a few other such problems too, that brings a really good character cast down from normal.

Enjoyment: 9

Despite the problems in the Manga, I find I am enjoying the storyline very well. It is unique enough that one wants to find out the ending and to see where the author takes the reader on this journey.

Overall: 8

One needs to be fully forewarned, as great as Pandoras Heart is, there are going to be times when one may or may not get frustrated with the storyline. I know I have and I have had to put it down, cool down a bit, and come back. Particularly when the main character has gone into his angsty moments.

Jul 18, 2010

IceAndCream

Recommended

Preliminary (50/107 chp)

What's the best way to describe Pandora Hearts? Tough call. Because it's pretty far out there. Think of it as a hybrid of Fullmetal Alchemist and Black Butler. FMA, for the thick plot, mystery, and variety of characters. Black Butler, for the gothic-Victorian-supernatural-fantasy themes and art style. And throw in some character names from Alice in Wonderland. And freakishly creepy doll-monsters. And another dimension....

Despite having an incredible variety of themes, they work together surprisingly well. You get an action/drama/fantasy/mystery. Plot twists or character developments keep coming, so things never get boring. Actually, I ...

Apr 13, 2010

LavenderKiwi

Recommended

Preliminary (Unknown/107 chp)

Sorry, I am going to make this review long so i can go into detail forgive me =)
~story~
The story line was brilliant and different from anything i had ever read/heard of and it was amazing. The creepy feel it gives off makes the story line addicting with its twists and turns that leave you amazed and wanting more to its lovable ability to suprise you and never let you guess what happens next the story was much better than most play offs of alice in wonderland plus alot better than the original other worldly alice in wonderland.
~Art~
With amazing character disign and great costumes how ...

Apr 27, 2021

234Mannan

Recommended

(Spoiler free)
Pandora hearts is a journey, a puzzle.
and its quite misleading as a series. There is hardly anything "romantic" about it. At its core its a tragedy with characters that have psychological problems and it further potrays themes of self worth, loyalty, friendship, obsession to name a few.

Some stories are character driven, some are plot driven, some only rely on symbolism and complexity to tell a tale, In case of pandora hearts, its all of the above. It balances everything with a twisted and a complex plot and amazing yet relatable characters(my favs being Oz and Gilbert) . Frankly its the only book series i ...

Sep 10, 2012

fairydownfall

Recommended

Preliminary (76/107 chp)

Because I found the story had a somewhat slow beginning, in spite of everything that happens in the first volume, I never imagined I would end up adoring Pandora Hearts as much as I do at this point.

I'll start with the characters, since they really pull this entire manga together for me.

I have never ever came across such unique, distinguished, characters before in a manga. There is a large cast, and every single character - even the minor characters - have depth. They have personality and secrets and make mistakes and they all feel very real. What I especially like about the characters ...

Jun 23, 2021

PandoraHurts

Recommended

"Someone once said it was a dark place that swallowed everything up- but it wasn't as if there was never any light there."

No matter how long it has been since I first started reading Pandora Hearts, the sadness, and happiness I felt after I finished reading it are still vividly in my heart. The story and characters are just phenomenal, with everything meticulously planned and devoid of any mainstream clichés.

Story ~ 10: Unlike most adventure and mystery series, Pandora Hearts actually focuses on the story and world-building just as much as it does on the protagonist. It has a remarkable storyline and plot twists, ...

Sep 17, 2021

LightOfVoid

Recommended

"Someone once said it was a dark place that swallowed everything up. But...it wasn't as if there was never any light there--"

I consider Pandora Hearts to be in its own category above all others - the level of craftsmanship and love gone into the storytelling is simply nothing short of a masterpiece. It is an exploration of psychology, an exposition of life and death, and a story filled with immense joy and sorrow. The artwork starts out good, and continues to improve significantly until the very end. Pandora Hearts is not just a typical Shonen/Action/Fantasy manga, but rather it supersedes all that. Please, please give ...

Jul 24, 2016

ManiacalBookUni

Recommended

"Those who come to the Abyss are all the same. They're all desperate to get something back. But everyone goes mad partway..."

*shock face*

See, I really, really don’t understand how a mangaka and f-ing story writing genius, can immerse readers in something so gloriously messed up, beautiful, emo, crazy, funny, deep, and downright strange like it's nothing. More than just a few times I laughed out loud and shook my head thinking: psshh, that’s absolutely ridiculous and stupid, then turned the page only to stop just short of curling up into a ball in a dark corner, gently caressing the book and whispering softly to ...

Dec 23, 2022

DeadlyChuck314

Recommended

Pandora Hearts is a story that cannot be described in a single word. Mind-melding, convoluted, and above all else, beautiful, this manga treats the reader to a rollercoaster of emotions they could never experience in a million years.

This piece of literature cannot be overstated. From it's fascinating world to the horrors of a hellish alternate dimension called "the Abyss", Pandora Hearts manages to surprise you in every measurable metric. At the beginning, the story may seem fast-paced, or the characters could be considered tropey, however Jun Mochizuki doesn't take much time to unmask to true nature of the universe she created.

The story itself may ... be too complex and spoiler-heavy to discuss, however there are minor flaws that one can nitpick upon. In terms of its place as a mystery, it is nothing less of compelling, with each scrap of evidence dispersed throughout the chapters slowly piecing themselves together into a beautiful picture: the truth. Despite this, it was as if all the clues to solve this mystery weren't presented to the reader. We see things that we had no idea could even happen, and at the end of it all, I couldn't help but feel as if I was cheated. Regardless, this is a flaw that is easy to look past, and doesn't necessarily take away from the satisfaction of it all; the satisfaction of perfectly pieced puzzle.
The pacing is another aspect that could be perfected, but this is only bothersome in the beginning. Once the reader gets to the bulk of the drama and action, they begin to understand the complex circumstances surrounding the world better, and aren't constantly forcing themselves to go with a flow they can't comprehend.

Don't let all this criticism avert your eyes from the fact that this has one of the single best plots I have ever seen. The suspense keeps you on the edge of your seat. The symbolisms are multi-layered. The world is beyond refreshing and can be experienced again and again perpetually. Everything may seem confusing at the start, where the reader, just like the protagonist, has no clue what is going on, but this Kafkaesque atmosphere only serves to enhance the ultimate pay-off you reach after this 100 chapter journey.

Pandora Hearts is exceedingly ambitious thematically. From the ideas of loss to acceptance to self-sacrifice to friendship, this vast array of themes allows this manga to appeal to most audiences. Realistically, anyone who reads this could interpret it differently, giving Pandora Hearts a re-readable quality and truly shows the effort and mastery put into this piece of art.

The characters are all well-developed and feel human. Despite the massive cast, everyone is given a respectable amount of screen time in tandem with a unique and enjoyable personality. It's mostly because of these characters that so many different themes and feelings can be expressed. Those 2 aspects of the story work hand in hand to amplify each other's significance, making this story more unforgettable than it already is.

The art is jaw-dropping, and you can really see it's quality increase over this manga's 9-year serialization. As the series progresses, we see more page-wide panels where each individual stroke conveys the terror of a looming monster or the joy of spending time with your friends. Naturally, there are manga out there with much better art than Pandora Hearts, but it serves its purpose perfectly in this scenario, and there is no moment where anyone would genuinely wish for better art.

Ultimately, Pandora Hearts is unmatched. There will be no other manga with so much love and care poured into the construction of its intricate world, and no other manga that will give you an unparalleled feeling of joy once you clear those final, long-lasting pages.

Thanks for reading.

Jun 6, 2016

FlameHazeHero

Recommended

Overall Rating: 10
Story: 9
Characters: 9
Development: 10
Pacing: 10

WARNING: DO NOT WATCH THE ANIME, THE ANIME ENDS PREMATURELY AND YOU WON'T GET THE SAME EXPERIENCE.

... Genres: Psychological Thriller (differs among sites), Gaslamp Fantasy, Mystery, Adventure, Shounen

Synopsis:

As the story starts off seeming somewhat typically, we are thrown into the light-hearted introduction of Pandora Hearts which takes place in a setting somewhat reminiscent to the Victorian-Era. Oz Vessalius, the next-of-kin as heir to the Vessalius house, one of the 4 Great Dukedoms alongside the Nightrays, Rainsworths and Barmas, is seen picking on his timid servant, Gilbert, not long before his rite of passage in which he will be introduced into society.

However, this calm before the storm is quickly blown away as during the Rite of Passage, Gilbert suddenly attacked Oz with a sword, and cloaked figures appear and banish Oz into the Abyss, the setting of a fairy tale that was supposedly told to keep kids from misbehaving. They declared that the sin Oz was committing was his very existence.

As we are thrown into the story we learn that the Abyss is home to denizens called Chains, and one such chain is the B-Rabbit, Blood Stained Black Rabbit, Alice, with whom he must make a contract in order for them both to escape the Abyss. It isn't long until the two are backed into the corner by the eccentric Xerxes Break into assisting the organization known as Pandora in obtaining the Core of the Abyss. Oz and Alice agree, so that Alice can recover her fragmented memories in the process.

Review:

Do not let the Shounen genre and some somewhat familiar themes such as Alice's amnesia deter you from reading this manga, for, as the plot develops over time at an amazing pace you'll come to find why I gave the manga such high marks. In fact, the iffy introduction and the somewhat familiar themes are the only reasons I gave this manga's story and characters 1 point short of perfection. However, over time these familiar themes are shown to be handled with such care and are presented so interestingly and amazingly, which is why it was ONLY 1 point short of perfection.

I, at first, was planning on dropping this manga, though the setting itself made me feel somewhat hopeful that this series would evolve into something more. We see so commonly modern, medieval or futuristic settings, or some odd hybrid of any or all of the three -- and in all 3, it is so tiring for every series to take place in a high school setting. The fact that Jun Mochizuki, the author of Pandora Hearts, thought to put the series in a less common setting interested me greatly.

And right I was. You may find yourself hooked about 6-10 chapters in when the psychological themes of this manga begins to become more prominent when its finally shown that his series shies away from letting anything be irrelevant, and it makes everything relevant in such a great way. And its at this moment that the manga will start doing what it does best: Making you feel like it, like many shounen, has already presented all necessary world building information, and that the plot will revolve around that, while its mystery themes leave you with questions that also make you doubt the former feeling, interesting you to find out what more developments will take place, and though I don't wish to ruin the surprise, it is better to tell you that its definitely the former. You must never underestimate the world or the plot, as you can be sure there will always be more information that'll be incredibly relevant that only makes the plot all the richer.

This series will gradually develop into a more complex, beautifully tragic story with an immersive world and amazing characters. Another one of this series' strong points is its pacing and development speed, and the characters, some of which may start off seeming typical, will develop into characters who'll make you feel sorrow for some of them, and how each of their personality traits and actions taken by those personalities have story-relevant reasons behind them and the interesting motives behind each character's motives.

This series is greatly recommended to any fan of manga, especially mystery and fantasy manga. Despite the scarce fight scenes, the series presents an amazing story with great pacing, great development and is beautifully tragic. The series melds together its somewhat odd mix of genres in an interesting, incredibly way and puts them in a setting within an incredibly immersive world. Do not drop this manga early on, as you will be missing out. I recommend reading 10-25 chapters, as its introduction is somewhat iffy, but later develops into something greater, though it'd be better for everyone to just read it through to the end.

WARNING: DO NOT WATCH THE ANIME, THE ANIME ENDS PREMATURELY AND YOU WON'T GET THE SAME EXPERIENCE.

Aug 27, 2014

kawaiiklutz

Recommended

Preliminary (95/107 chp)

Ok...I wrote 10 for everything. It's hard not too! I adore this manga...I first started reading manga Sailor Moon and that got me hooked. When I watched the Pandora Hearts anime I was; Meh...I loved the characters but my personal opinion is that they messed up the plot a bit. Too many holes. Then I read the manga and it was wonderful!

Each character has a good/ happy/ tragic backstory. The plots twists are amazing, they will surprise you. I didn't expect to really like this because surprisingly I am not fond of Victorian era. Kurshitsuji is a exception. This is a wonderful manga that ...

Mar 31, 2021

Alice0006

Recommended

Pandora Hearts is the most beautiful story I have ever read in my life.

Pandora hearts is a really complicated psychological dark fantasy with a lot of plot twist. Almost every chapter you will see pieces of memories from the character so you will be thrown to the past a lot of time, sometimes you will even forget things. If that happen, simply read a again from the beginning. For me, this is what make Pandora Hearts is beautiful. You need creativity and empathy to understand the story. You need creativity to understand the world of Pandora Hearts because many things are really different with ...