Resuming my log/recap of the Gakuen Alice manga... Jeez, this manga has turned entirely into a soap opera now... At first the story was light hearted and fun, like the anime, but now the story has become such a clusterfuck of complex relationships and heavy emotional moments... it's like woah, I can hardly even handle this...
10/09/2016
Chapter 138-139
Mikan learns that Goshima and the el principal are behind her mom's death. Then the acedemy starts getting attacked by the z group.
We learn that the elp clone is rebelling against the original.. Now all 3 schools are being attacked, and the mid principal's barrier has been destroyed.. Shiki then makes a deal to become the new middle school principal and have a truce with the high school..? I have no idea...
Mikan doesn't care about escaping now, she cares more about saving the school.. Shiki accepts the deal and restores the barrier, but in exchange he has to agree to give mikan to elementary principal..
Chapter 140-141
Shiki's deal made it so he now has control over the entire dangerous ability class, and ESP only gets mikan. Also, he's not allowed to put mikan in danger. Luna is sad about yuka being gone and no longer has a grudge against mikan.. Natsume is no longer required to go on dangerous missions because of his health, but he stays in the dangerous class anyway so he'll have access to the main building and can search for mikan.
Mikan is now living in isolation under esp's control, but she at least has bear with her, and shiki and her uncle (high school principal) visit her often.. She is able to live positively because of that..
She wanted to use her Alice to save nobara from persona's curse, but shiki said doing that would convince ESP to back down on their deal and start taking advantage of mikan. Nobara is now on life support...
She senses her parents ghosts protecting her, and she also senses that natsume is trying to find her...
Chapter 142-144
Everyone wants to send presents to mikan since she can't come to the Xmas party. Natsume is sending her the repunzel book, to hint that he'll save her. But they don't want ESP to get suspicious, so everyone else is sending other Grimm books.
ESP found out that Shiki worked with yuka and the Z terrorists and stole the Alice stones of his clones. He demands that Shiki return them or his deal will be off... He discusses this with noda, jinno, and HSP and thinks that using mikan to get the Alice stones out of him would put mikan in danger.
The Xmas party scene is really cute. Shiki gave mikan a live feed of the party so she wouldn't feel lonely. The others say this would just make her feel worse. Mikan is depressed from watching it, and bear gives her a present. Then shiki teleports everyone's presents to her.
10/14/2016
Chapter 145
Natsume finds his way to Mikan's balcony... Mikan says she doesn't have a present to give him in exchange for the christmas present he gave her, so Natsume asks for a kiss instead. He then gets the super embarrassed Mikan to confess her love for him, and she gives him her special alice stone that she created using all the love in her heart... Natsume says this completes the proposal ritual that he started with his alice stone he gave her... they kiss again, under the full moon as their witness...
Chapter 146-150
Ruka finds Natsume and he tells him about how he met Mikan.. Ruka is worried about Natsume's health which has gotten worse than ever now.. but Natsume wants to rescue Mikan no matter what even if it means his life will be shorter. He doesn't want to make the same mistake Narumi did.
Shiki explains how when he and Yuka took the alice stones from ESP's clones, then they joined forces with the rebellious ESP clone, the leader of Z, they gave Z all of those clone stones, and he became strong enough that he could control all of ESP's other clones... or something like that... so Z has become a bigger enemy than even ESP was.
And it seems Persona has joined Z now, and is trying to gradually gain power within Z to eventually take it over... and he has allowed Reo and other Z operatives to enter the academy. Shiki summons Narumi and gives him the job of being a spy, working for both the academy and Z to find out what's going on and stop Persona... I think Persona actually hates the ESP now because he is preventing Mikan from being able to use her powers to save Nobara. Meanwhile Reo and the other Z people are plotting to kill ESP.
Later, Natsume beats up the mind reader kid for revealing that he is now engaged to Mikan.. The high school council guy confirms that everybody still has the extra alice stones Mikan inserted into them back when they were hiding in the high school... Akira has Amplification, Tsubasa has pheremone, Ruka has Barrier, and Natsume has "Wish".. they are planning to let Z carry out their plan to take out ESP, and then in the chaos they will stop Z as well.
Chapter 151-153
Finally Reo's concert starts, and he tries to brainwash everybody into wanting to kill the ESP... but instead everybody just collapsed. The ESP comes up to Reo and mocks him for failing his betrayal plan.. it seems ESP now has control over the clone that is in charge of Z.
Then Narumi grabs ESP's neck from behind.. he has some kind of poison alice similar to Persona's... Mikan catches the concert on TV just as this is happening.. Narumi threatens ESP's life and tells him to reveal all the shitty things he's been doing... It seems like the HSP has ordered people to turn off the broadcast, since Narumi got involved just now he fears that this could be connected back to Shiki...
Narumi does a long, poorly translated speech, Mikan cries as she sees this, and wants to go stop him but Bear stops her...
10/15/2016
Chapter 154-156
It turns out Narumi had the wrong guy... that wasn't the ESP, it was Goshima disguised as him... the real ESP shows up with some thugs to try to take Narumi out... Hotaru and the others help Reo get his microphone back so he can help Narumi out... ESP barely escapes with his life...
Now ESP has concluded that Shiki double crossed him and broke his deal, so he is attempting to take Mikan out of her maze sanctuary and gain full control of her. Some people from the dangerous ability class, who are now on MSP's side, came to rescue Mikan.. they tell ESP that there's no proof Shiki double crossed him. It could've been the previous MSP who set up a weakness in the barrier to help Reo, and because ESP is trying to kidnap Mikan without confirming the deal has been broken, it is actually ESP himself who has broken the deal.
Mikan sees Nobara's spirit, and she goes to where Nobara is to try and save her. ESP sends Persona after Mikan, but Persona stops when she sees Mikan doing her best to save Nobara... after Mikan successfully heals her, Persona then attacks the ESP's guards instead.
Chapter 157-160
Persona tries to take Mikan to the former MSP to help keep her safe... The words of Mikan's dead keep repeating in Persona's mind, about how his alice can be used for both good and evil... Mikan notices parts of the building being destroyed and the ESP's henchmen aren't chasing her anymore, and Persona explains that Natsume and the others have started a direct attack on the ESP. Mikan wants to help and is also worried about Natsume sacrificing his life.. Persona respects Mikan's decision and goes to fight alongside her...
Hotaru used the time travelling alice to see into the future and give everyone tips on what to expect... she gives Mikan and Persona one of her weird weapons...
The ESP is too injured to use teleportation anymore.. he's getting desperate and now he has Luna controlling a bunch of students who are already injured and need to recover. Persona uses his alice to protect Mikan from Luna, at the expense of getting injured... She tells Mikan to run away while she distracts Luna, but Mikan doesn't want to leave Persona behind.. she takes her on her back and faces Luna...
Luna is a complete psycho, doing all of this just out of devotion to the ESP... she even sees Mikan going out of her way to save her dad's murderer, and she still...
Meanwhile, Natsume looks like he's about to finish off the ESP, then he gets stabbed in the back by... someone.
Chapter 161
holy fuck this is getting awesome...
Narumi helps Reo get to the broadcasting room, and Reo uses his alice to broadcast a message of hope to all the students, telling them to stop letting other people use their alice for their dirty work... The students controlled by Luna start regaining control... Luna herself is starting to hesitate and question herself...
The last remaining students still under Luna's control jump toward Mikan, and suddenly a bright light shines from Mikan.. her nullification/stealing alice causes Luna's soul-stealing alice stones to fall out of everyone. It's like Reo's message has activated a hidden strength within Mikan that she never knew she had.
Chapter 162-163
HSP gets a message telling him about the abnormal amount of alice energy unleashed by Mikan.. Mikan recalls Noda's lesson about the 4 different levels of alice powers... the one that is only available when you're a child, the one that is weak but has a long lifespan, the one that can only be used by decreasing its user's lifespan, and the one that can unleash a huge power, but doing so will end that alice's lifespan prematurely... Mikan just used up the last of her nullification alice.
Even after that, Luna still has some control, but Reo's message has gotten to her and she is now hesitating to attack Persona/Mikan.
Natsume is now setting fire to the whole building... it seems like he's sacrificing himself in order to break threough the ESP's barrier.. Ruka says that they're only hope to save Natsume is getting Mikan...
Because of the chaos caused by Natsume, Mikan and Persona are no longer being pursued... Persona convinces Mikan that he can recover on his own and she should go to help Natsume... but by the time she gets there, Natsume has already stopped breathing.
10/17/2016
Chapter 164-168
A long, drawn out scene where Mikan tries everything she can to revive Natsume... but she has lost most of her alice powers, and even inserting her and Natsume's exchanged alice stones into Natsume's body still isn't enough..
ESP still tries to capture them even after all this... Luna grabs ESP and stops him. She gives a speech on how she's seen ESP regress into this immature child, and until now she has tried to ignore it... she decides to turn over a new leaf and join the MSP/HSP's side instead. ESP is finally forced to step down...
Imai and Noda take Natsume to teleport him to the hospital, but they aren't confident he'll make it. Hotaru seems to want Noda to do something with his time travel powers, but he says he can't change the past.. Mikan isn't allowed to go with him so she doesn't know whether Natsume survived or not. Now, the principals of the school are deciding on what to do with Mikan.. now that she has lost her alice powers, she's no longer able to attend the academy. And because she's a special case, due to all of the knowledge she has gained from being connected to the academy's upper management, they are forced to erase all of her memories of the academy as well. Narumi explains that it would be very dangerous to let Mikan keep her memories.. she would be targeted by everybody.
Chapter 169
Mikan tries to stay cheerful during her last days with her classmates, so that everyone's memories of her will be of her smiling... but when she goes to bed alone, in Natsume's room, she can't help but constantly think about Natsume's promise that he'll definitely come and take her away from this school... and Hotaru's promise that she'll definitely bring Natsume back.. after her memories disappear, she'll no longer be able to wait for him... she must be hoping for Natsume to come and save her from getting her memories erased...
Also, Persona decides to leave the school, because he can't make up for all the things he's done... Nobara wakes up and notices he's not there anymore.. she's still in critical condition, and losing Persona has made it worse..
Chapter 170-171
Narumi gets the class to talk about their memories with Mikan.. each character tells what their most unforgettable memory involving Mikan was... this was really sweet... but with Hotaru and Natsume not there it's kind of sad too..
lmao.. the mind-reader kid talks about how Ruka missed getting a kiss with Mikan.
it gets really sad when it's Sumire's turn to talk about Mikan, and she refuses... and instead Mikan talks about her favorite memory with Permy, when they worked together to save Natsume from Z.. Permy wanted to forget about Mikan so she wouldn't be sad, but Mikan is making that impossible, and she starts crying..
Everyone gives Mikan a big bouquet of alice stones as a going away present...
10/25/2016
Chapter 172-173
Ruka confessed his love to Mikan again, and said he would definitely come and find her after he graduates, and that he won't lose to Natsume this time...
Bear is being cold towards Mikan, because they are about to separate from each other...
that night, Mikan thinks about Natsume and Hotaru, who she hasn't been able to say goodbye to yet... then suddenly, Hotaru teleports into her room. She says she can't stay long, but wanted to at least spend Mikan's last night at the academy with her... she starts sleeping in Mikan's bed while Mikan talks to her about her most memorable times with Hotaru... Hotaru says her most memorable moment with Mikan was when Mikan followed her all the way to the academy... Hotaru believes that Mikan will be able to cross any gap in order to see her friends again...
Then Hotaru zaps Mikan to knock her unconscious, and her brother and Noda, carrying Natsume, are there telling her they have to go back into space-time... they're doing some weird paradoxical thing in order to try and revive Natsume, and if Hotaru spends any longer in this time period it will mess things up and take even longer to revive hime...
Chapter 174-175
this is getting way too sad omg
so what happened was... Hotaru convinced Noda to take her and her brother back in time to when Natsume was still breathing.. she wanted to see if there was anything she could do... Noda warned her that Natsume's fate of dying here is a very strong fate, and that messing with that fate will have drastic consequences... basically the person who prevents Natsume from dying will be erased from that history, including everyone's memories of that person... Even after hearing all that, Hotaru runs up to Natsume to try to heal him... Imai runs up to Hotaru and uses his alice to heal Natsume instead. He didn't want Hotaru to be alone in receiving these consequences...
Noda minimized the damage by replacing the dead Natsume he was carrying with the one they brought back to life... but it still isn't enough to save Hotaru and Imai from their sacrifice... after that, Hotaru convinced Noda to let her see Mikan one last time, and that's what happened in 173.. then she also went to leave a message for Ruka...
Chapter 176-177
everyone sees off Mikan as she leaves... Naru says that he is very proud of her for exceeding his expectations and becoming friends with the entire academy... Bear hides in Mikan's suitcase and tries to go with her... the high school principal gives Bear his approval to go with Mikan in exchange for promising not to let anyone see him move...
a very long drawn out farewell scene... Mikan believes in Hotaru's words, that she will find a way to come back to everyone again...
yep... it's really happening... Mikan is losing her memories...
then suddenly... Noda jumps in through time-space, carrying a living Natsume.. he isn't even sure what time period he's in...
this is about a week after Mikan left... oh okay, I thought it was at the same moment that Mikan was getting her memories erased...
Chapter 178
Mikan is 16 now... Bear broke his promise and started moving around in front of Mikan and her grandpa... but he stays still whenever other people show up, so everyone just thinks Mikan is crazy...
There have been a bunch of kidnappings in the town where Mikan lives.. although the academy is protecting this town with a barrier, it seems some people have still managed to find out that this very important person connected to the academy is living here...
Mikan rejects every guy that asks her out... she still has this vague feeling of someone very important to her that she forgot about...
When the kidnappers attack Mikan and her friends, one of Mikan's friends attacked the kidnappers... she then reveals her true form (he), as Goshima... then a mysterious wave of fire appears... seeing this caused Mikan to get weird feelings.. Narumi also shows up... then Natsume comes and grabs Mikan...
Chapter 179
Natsume greets Mikan in his usual way.. by groping her and commenting on her boobs..
more alice people show up... Mikan is confused as to how all of these people know her. Ruka is there too..
Mikan gets a vague sense of familiarity, but her logic tells her that these are kidnappers, so she tries running away...
Natsume grabs her again and tells her how much he missed her... Mikan can't help but feel things for him...
the alice stone in Natsume's pocket glows...
this is the alice stone that Mikan created with all of her feelings.. that she gave to Natsume...
after Hotaru sacrificed herself to revive Natsume, she prayed on Mikan's alice stone... Mikan here's this when she holds the stone in her hand...
"I wish that... when this stone reaches Mikan some day... she will overcome her lost memories... and will remember the person she loves most."
the stone disappears..
let me guess.. this causes her to remember Hotaru?... no of course not... she calls out Natsume's name.
in fact, she remembers everybody now...
Chapter 180 - Finale
Mikan only has some of her memories back... Narumi says it was a miracle caused by Mikan's own powers, but Mikan says that someone else had a hand in this... she explains how she heard a voice when she held that stone... it was a familiar voice...
Ruka is holding that earplug device that Imai left him... he might still know something about Hotaru?
Goshima explains to Mikan that he was the one that killed her mother... and that he was brainwashed by the ESP... in order to pay for his crimes, he has agreed to stay by Mikan's side as her guardian in the form of a female friend.
the high school principal explains that they have to take Mikan away because she is now a target by this new group called the "Alice Hunters", made up of the ESP's former allies. They had discovered that they can use the blood of alice users or former alice users in order to harness their power to use in future generations... because of this, the academy has decided against its previous decision, and agreed that it is safer for Mikan to be with the Academy.
HSP also explains that they have been investigating why they all feel like someone is missing from their memories... and they have learned the names "Imai Hotaru" and "Imai Subaru"...
hearing these names gives Mikan this huge feeling of dread... as if she has lost a part of her soul... this is a far more intense feeling than what she felt about the person she loved...
Shiki and Noda both show up, and they tell Mikan everything they know about Hotaru.. only Shiki, Noda, and Ruka have what remains of the memories of Hotaru..
Ruka gives Mikan some mushroom earplugs that Hotaru left him.. the recorded sounds in them have already disappeared... but she can still just barely hear something from it...
Mikan having absorbed that alice stone, she regained some of her alice back... even though Mikan can't remember Hotaru, she wants to join the investigation team to help search for her..
suddenly, all of Mikan's classmates teleport in to see her... even Persona and Nobara are there, with a baby..
Ruka and Natsume are also on the investigation team... they both feel like they owe their lives to Hotaru...
It ends with Mikan, Natsume, and Ruka setting out on a journey with Noda's help to search for Hotaru...
Such a great ending... I like how it comes full circle with the whole thing being once again about Mikan doing whatever she can to be with Hotaru...
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