Red Hot Chili Samurai Vol. 1, Karakuri Odette Vol. 3 & Alice In The Country Of Hearts Vol. 1 & 2 - Manga Review

This collection of different manga volumes resides within a texture of love vs. reality. Everyone has an idea of who their perfect perception might be but simply, at times, does not know how to approach it. Odette is beseiged by the fact that she is an android and has to learn how to accept and act on her emotions while Alice in her adventure in a skewed vision of Wonderland is trapped with the psychology of her own making. Life becomes what one makes of it.Red Hot Chili Samurai Vol. 1 The mixture of Western and Samurai mysticism plays here with the basis of honor versus need. The idea of bartering within the section of pride tends to play more into the scenario as an imbalanced family highlighted but a non-conventional warrior seeks to make their voice known. The reality is that there is a double cross negotiated between the lines using the mythic turtle and the crane. The protagonist seems aware of his flaws despite a constantly volley of double standards. The humor keeps it light but not on the level of “Ratman”. The use of a ninja character that only communicates through stenciled signs like a Warner cartoon gives the continuity a sense of levity.Karakuri Odette Vol. 3 This sci-fi manga works within its process by allowing for a disconnect of humor and physical distractions. The story follows a boy and a girl android, attending high school. The situation within every conception is utterly unrealistic but follows within the pubescent structure of  the “does he like me” scenario and the etiquette therein. The irony that builds is that whenever anything becomes tense or emotionally draining, the requisite battery pack for the bots stops charging. Most of interactions are wantonly stale. However, the interaction between a real girl and the bot about what they are really feeling but not saying is quite well done considering the amount of subtext that needs to be related.Alice In The Country Of Hearts Vol. 1 The essence of a reinterpretation of the Alice story has always been marred in the era in which it is perceived through. With different incarnations over the past yar, this angle plays more like a Baz Luhrman vision where the styilzation of the plot and personalities are overwrought yet structured in the correct capacity. In this story, Alice is kidnapped down the rabbit hole by a guy named White who comes off like a stalker. Blood, who runs the organized crime syndicate out of the Hatter Mansion explains the wars going on within the Kingdom. The intonation that “everyone will love Alice” along with “one with duties” does show a heiarchal structure which is enhanced by the short but effective permutation of the Queen Of Hearts. The semantics of the world come into sharper focus with Nightmare, The Dream Demon whose integration in the story is less than imperative. Alice's quest to fill up her bottle by talking to people pushes the story but besides everyone professing their love, the conflict needed to sustain the story has not quite shown its face.Alice In The Country Of Hearts Vol. 2 The continuing acceptance of Alice's psyche built into this world here becomes more about the relationships and less about the world that is being created in any distinct form. The angle of the clockmaker is quite an ingenious perception of the fable in the fact that it shows the semblance of the mortality or lack of it within this world. The key that still needs to be resolved is that what prize does Alice offer these minions with her love? A glimpse into this problem is seen through the eyes of the punk Cat who wants to know what it is like to be an Outsider. Like the perception of Oz in “The Wiz”, the idea here is moving exactly in the way askew angles should. There is a tinge of innocence counterbalanced by a dark undercurrent and aspects of secret alliances, especially between Blood of the Hatters & Vivaldi, the Heart Queen. That relationship above all has the most intensity and worthy of its own manga. There is something undeniably dangerous about it that can't be captured within a Alice storyline perhaps. The plot thickens but its directive needs to intensify.