Alice-san Chi no Iroribata

Frommidgard Dec 9, 2023

6

By the Furnace of Miss Alice’s House is one of the least known manga I've read. The review section looked lonely so I decided to stop by- It starts with our protagonist Alice, moving into country-side to her hometown after her grandma's death. The reason why she moved to the rural side leaving the luxurious life of Tokyo puzzled her childhood friend Harumi. It's about their circumstances in the countryside lifestyle in an old house and foodstyle cooked in a traditional japanese fireplace, irori. It's one of the fluff reads for sure. The gourmets might make you drool as the artist draws them in an appealing and realistic way with recipes and tips which the readers are probably not going to try. It has got those cottagecore vibes, slow living and escaping from all those chaos in the city life. The sudden nostalgia of past forgotten memories and enjoying the changing seasons are also portraited in the manga beautifully. Aside from these, sudden death of a close person you looked forward to visiting is something perhapes most readers can relate with. The aesthetics of this manga is some thing I personally adored. When they sat down to eat I somehow wanted to join too, despite being aware of the fact that it's not possible. Reuniting with old friends, slowly remembering the moments you spend with them is also presented in this manga.  The characters did quite well. Alice appeared a kind caring women with a clumsy personality and a beautiful appearence. While the other protagonist Harumi was an average teenager with a hairstyle resembling an urchins. As for his personality, he was kind and helpful. For the side characters, we've got Honoka-chan who is a childhood friend of Harumi. She is a tomboy, athletic and a tsundere; has a crush on Harumi. There's also a cat and a grandpa. The cat was fine and grandpa was cool just like the ones you usually see on shounen anime or manga. I personally do not like age gap romances espeacially when one of the characters is a minor which was the case in this manga. Although there's no 'serious' relastionship between the characters, Harumi being just a high school character aged 16 is something that made me feel uncomfortable. There also these awkward sexual tension between the characters that serves as "fan-service" to the reader; one of my biggest icks. Fan service that is portraited as humor material is acceptable but not when it is placed to "tempt" readers in my opinion which happened with this manga. These points sure did dishearten me but doesn't take place in every chapter; not spoiling the fun to read this manga. In conclusion, this manga is an enjoyable one and does the job to warm your heart. If you don't mind age gap romances or fan services that aren't that extreme then I'd say it's a must read. As for me, I had no idea that it will contain my  pet peeves but that doesn't change the fact that I enjoyed reading it.  Overall, 6/10 read for me ( I down-rated it from 6.7 to 6 cause the relationship went quite serious in the last few chapter. It's a shame that the plot was comforting at first, it would be easier to dislike it if not.) Reviewed at 30th chapter.