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Title:
  The Gentleman's Alliance Cross vol 2

UK Distributor:  VIZ Media

Created by:  Arina Tanemura

Suggested Retail Price (SRP):  £5.99

Number of Pages:  192

ISBN:  978-1421511849

Reviewed:  30th March 2008 

Reviewer:  Ami-chan

 

Following directly on from the first manga our main character finds herself promoted to the position of Platinum, this is the title given to the president's girlfriend.  However, all is not what it seems as her position is fake to stop the other girls advances within school.  Haine find this a strange situation to be in, as unlike before she is treated with respect and people are happy to help her.  It is a hard position for Haine to maintain though, as although she has mellowed out since her Yanki days, there are still moments when that side of her reappears.  A funny example of this is at the school sports day, where she loses the false crowns on her teeth, which sends her into a rampage with her running about like a angry bull around the sports field!  It is only when Maora catches her up and returns her teeth that she returns back to her normal state. 
 

From reading the first two volumes it is apparent that the story is more character driven, as within this volume you discover more information about not only Haine but also Shizumasa and Maora.  For example, Haine's past is further revealed by showing how she met Shizumasa for the second time when she was a delinquent and how that helped her to step back onto the right path.  The character development for Shizumasa and Maora though will not be revealed here as I do not want to spoil the story for anyone who is intending to read it!  All that I will say is that more is revealed in this manga about Shizumasa's split personality.

The advantage of this volume compared to the last is that it allows you to adjust to the large number of main characters in the manga, and become better acquainted with them.  In fact the only new character introduced into the story is Haine's birth father who appears towards the end of volume two.  The art style also keeps to Arina's high standards of drawing, although I did notice one small continuity problem - that being that in a few of the panels, Haine is still wearing a tie instead of the bow.

In conclusion, the story of the Gentleman's Alliance so far can be compare to the peeling

of layers off an onion.  At the moment we are only looking at the surface of these characters but as we read on we will peel away more of these layers and begin to understand them more.

Extras

Yet again as with volume 1 there is a page dedicated to 4 panel manga strips.  This particular section follows the theme of the different kind of dreams each main character would have.  There is also a glossary covering the key Japanese terms mentioned in the volume that we may not be familiar with.  Finally, throughout the manga is Arina's commentary which in this edition, refers to a recent operation that she had on her neck (very random!).

Product: Extras:
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