If you don't like non-linear, disjointed storytelling without a consistent, literal narrative, don't read this. It's confusing even if you can sort of follow what's happening. The art's nice though. Second, even if you do like stories like that, it's still a weird fucking story.
I enjoyed it for its absurdity but I have very weird standards so most people probably won't like it very much. It's low score seems to support that.
You can read this before or after you've read the manga, hopefully it'll help you make sense of this story.
TL;DR at the bottom.
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The story starts off with our very normal Japanese high school boy
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MC accidentally ending up in Wonderland. Somehow. It's never explained, but it's not important. He comes across a man with bunny ears, named White Rabbit, and is taken to a castle to meet the Prince of Hearts. He finds out he is going to marry the Prince in the place of his first fiancee, Alice (yes, that one), who ran away. Why is a black haired, Japanese boy a suitable replacement for Alice, a white, blond haired girl as a Prince's fiancee with two e's? Well, his name is Arisu, you see. So he's good enough. It's all good. Don't question it.
Anyway, he goes along with this, and ends up trying on the dress he's supposed to get married in and making himself pretty, enjoying "his" reflection and how feminine "he" is (this is important), and then inexplicably decides to run away after all. "He" encounters the first Alice, who can travel through dimensions, and stays there as a guide for novice dimension hoppers. Like Arisu. Alice shows off some powers before they both get captured by the Prince and crew and then explains that because they're from another dimension, by coming to Wonderland *what they think becomes reality for them.* Alice has control over this. Arisu doesn't.
Alice takes Arisu back to "his" home and they stay there for a couple months before Alice decides to return to Wonderland for her dimension hopping license, as it's apparently illegal to hop dimensions without one. She takes Arisu with her in case she needs to use "him" as bait to distract the Prince and his servants. Turns out the Prince is over her. He's smitten with Arisu, who is most definitely not into him nope. Oh wait, except "he" is. And is also a woman now.
Still with me?
Ok, so at this point, the linear narrative kind of dissolves. What you need to keep in mind from this point on is that
a) Arisu and the Prince are connected because they love each other
b) Arisu hops dimensions based on how she feels
c) the chapters where the Prince and White Rabbit are living with Arisu at "his" parents' home (her mom and dad still think she's a boy) and have part time jobs is their "home" dimension. The ones where shit is totally different is when they're in another dimension or hallucinating or something.
So the "main" arc is that the Prince is in love with Arisu, and even though she's in love with him she doesn't want to admit to it or accept that she wants to be a woman.
The reason I'm mentioning this is because, at its heart, this is what the story is about. There's a lot of disjointed, alternate reality warping in this story, and a lot of it is symbolic. Some of the chapters are clearly semi-hallucinatory fantasies created by Alice to represent what she *really* wants. Some of them are fever dreams the prince has while he's sick. Some are real dimensions one or more of our main characters end up in. Usually because they're chasing Arisu. The trick to following this story is to know which is which. Follow what's happening in their home dimension and you'll be able to follow along better. Ask yourself "is what's happening figurative or literal" a lot.
This kind of progression goes on for awhile, and then the Prince proposes to her and she freaks out and ends up in another dimension where she meets a *different* prince, the Prince of Spades, who claims he knows her and is madly in love with her. She's like "whatever" and goes back home, and then later on that prince kindaps her and explains about his history with her and why he's in love with her. It's never explained why he has this history with Arisu, but I think he fell in love with a different version of her and that version is... somewhere else? Idk.
Anyway, once she's kidnapped, the Prince of Hearts (her prince) gets beat up by the Prince of Spades, and then claims he's going to take back his castle, which has been conquered in his absence (he left it behind to live with Arisu in her dimension), to try and save her. And then the manga ends. That's it. Thaaat's all there is!
:I
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TL:DR trans girl with dimension hopping/reality altering powers goes on a prolonged, multi-dimensional drug trip to try and run away from the fact that she's both a girl and in love with this Prince guy from another dimension. Then she gets kidnapped by a different prince in love with a different her and THE END
Nov 27, 2018
Fushigi no Kuni no Shounen Arisu
(Manga)
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If you don't like non-linear, disjointed storytelling without a consistent, literal narrative, don't read this. It's confusing even if you can sort of follow what's happening. The art's nice though. Second, even if you do like stories like that, it's still a weird fucking story.
I enjoyed it for its absurdity but I have very weird standards so most people probably won't like it very much. It's low score seems to support that. You can read this before or after you've read the manga, hopefully it'll help you make sense of this story. TL;DR at the bottom. --- The story starts off with our very normal Japanese high school boy ... |
