The Gentlemen's Alliance †, Vol. 4

紳士同盟 クロス [Shinshi Doumei Cross] #4

by Arina Tanemura, Nancy Thistlethwaite (Editor)

From the creator of Full Moon o Sagashite Please note: Reads Right to Left (Japanese Style)

In return for a business loan of 50 million yen, the prestigious Kamiya family gave their daughter Haine away to the Otomiya family. Haine, now an Otomiya, is appointed to the student council of the exclusive Imperial Academy, a private school for the aristocracy. Even though Haine is of proper lineage to be on the council, she finds herself struggling to find her place among the many secrets of its elite members, especially those of the president who holds her heart--Shizumasa Togu, aka "the Emperor."

 

Students at Imperial Academy are lining up for the "Confess Your Love" rally, during which students announce the name of the person they love to the entire student body, hoping to win over that person's heart. Maora wants to confess to Maguri, but Maguri already has plans to confess to Shizumasa!

Genres: Manga, Romance, Shojo, Graphic Novels, Young Adult, LGBT, Comics Manga

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Name in Japanese: 種村有菜 (Tanemura Arina)
Western Zodiac: Pisces

Arina Tanemura was born on March 12, 1978. She's the author of Full Moon O Sagashite, Time Stranger Kyoko, Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne, The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross, Sakura Hime Kaden, and more.

Her favorite hobby is Karaoke. One song that she sings is Smile, originally by Myco. She has two cats, named Riku and Kai. She has one elder and one younger sister and one brother. She's the type who hates to lose in anything. She also likes Ribon.

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of Haine never second-guessing her feelings or having the slightest amount of self-preservation when she's in love. That self-destructive streak pops up in Tanamura's other series, Sakura Hime, as well. It's especially trying here, since both of the guys that Haine is... dealing with... (not to spoil it too much) act like jerks so often. Ushio is an obvious counterpoint to that idea, though she barely shows up in this volume.

I'm mostly here for Tanemura's fussy, beautiful art. I'm always half-anticipating her storytelling to fall off the rails, and would be pleased to be proven wrong about that with this series. Four volumes in: so far, so good.

I enjoyed the Cinderella-themed episode in this volume, both its visuals and the parallels it draws with Haine's situation. The bonus stories were nice, too. I prefer bonuses that feature characters from the main story to unconnected standalone short stories, which I always find literally forgettable, and tend to skim through or skip.

[Luke Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was definitely the weakest volume of The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross so far, mostly because of all that love drama. To reinforce what I think I said in an earlier review of this series, honesty is really the best policy when it comes to relationships, and yet without that, where would our drama be? Unfortunately, this kind of drama is the type that's really annoying and easily avoidable when you logically think about it.

It's already been revealed to the reader that the Shizumasa at Imperial Academy is actually not the real him. Instead, it is his identical twin brother serving as a shadow. The two hate each other's guts and their relationship is so twisted that the fake Shizumasa (only hint of a first name we have so far is Ta-) is willing to push Haine away from him and emotionally hurt her so she can belong to the real Shizumasa. However, Toya wants Haine to be with the shadow, and the real Shizumasa is kind to Haine yet incredibly rude to everyone else, and the fake Shizumasa can get incredibly angry and accidentally hurt Haine and yikes, we are in a pickle.

Part of what makes this drama kind of dumb mostly has to do with how Shizumasa and his twin are drawn. They're supposed to be identical (they are on a chapter page), but in the actual manga illustrations, Arina Tanemura lightens the real Shizumasa's hair, making it painfully obvious to the reader who's who. Yet, whenever a character in the manga feels something different, they completely brush it off, which is frustrating as a reader when you know that they're not the same person and yet you see Haine confuse them for that. I kind of want to point at Shizumasa's hair and be like, "Does this look different to you?"

Motives are a tricky business. While I don't like Ta-'s aggressive side, his care for Haine is genuine (although that scene when she wouldn't let go of the ball kiss with Shizumasa and he ordered her removed from her title as Platinum was just plain brutal and highlights the melodrama of the series). However, Shizumasa seems to be in the same boat but is just a complete a-hole to his brother and the people around him. We'll see where this ends up.

I'm still a really big fan of Maguri because he's just so goofy and actually sweet underneath his tough exterior. Chapter 15 (the first chapter in this volume) had a great idea of Maguri trying to confess his feelings at this rally at the school festival but then realizing that the fake Shizumasa only loves him as a friend, but it didn't feel like the focus and ultimately was rushed. This scene was super heartbreaking, but it really shows his growth as a character when he later tries to cheer up Haine.

Those bonus short story chapters were all incredibly well done, though. All of them were heartwarming, Toya's showed his motive, and overall they were fun. I WANT THERE TO BE MORE IN MORE VOLUMES!

Overall, I'm still thinking this could easily be a super light slice of life school comedy instead, but it's shojo, so we can't have that. I hope there's better to come next volume! Cheers!

[Bibliothecat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Students attending the Imperial Academy are placed in a hierarchical order based on their parents' income and social standing. Haine is in the bronze class and is not even allowed to interact with the highest gold class - yet the gold class is reserved for the head of the school council, also known as the Emperor, who happens to be the one Haine has set her heart on. When chance allows for her to join the school council, she finds that now that she can finally speak to the Emperor, he does not seem very willing to do so.

I wish I could cover The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross with praise - yet if I try to describe it in a few words I'd come up with chaotic, illogical and terrible humour. From the time of its release, it has been my least favourite series (one-shots not included) by Arina Tanemura and has yet held that position. It's a bit of a modern take on Cinderella with a school for a backdrop that could have taken many routes - but it seems to have gone all over the place.

Let's start with my biggest peeve - where does this all take place? Judging by the names and clothing, it can only be Japan - or a pseudo-Japan? Because although it reflects our contemporary time in many ways, many of the social norms make no sense. Haine is given up for adoption in exchange for 50 million yen, the school's hierarchy seems absolute - you can't talk with people in higher classes and you can rise up in class if your parents pay enough money. Teachers barely seem present, it's like the students run the school in which gang fights are a thing. There's a lot of family abuse going on and people can be proclaimed dead without any investigation, there are forced marriages and just so many extremes. If this were a fantasy setting I wouldn't have minded - fictional worlds can have any rules. But in the setting in which it's presented, it just caused too much disbelief in me.

With that off my chest, let's go back to the beginning. Although the school's concept could have proven an interesting story, it's barely relevant. The plot consists of the characters' dilemmas - and boy are there many. There is not a single character with a normal life that isn't frightfully melodramatic. Let's look at Haine; she's cute but also an ex-yankee/gangster who can easily beat someone silly (why are there knife and snake fights at school again?). She became a yankee because she wanted to prove that she's not worth anything - because, you know, her dad sold her and all. In her mind, her new adoptive family doesn't really want or need her, she's just a burden - so what better solution than to roam the streets at night looking for trouble.

Of course, her whole adoption thing proves to have much more to it, her father's just another tortured soul trying to do the right thing. Her mum goes half insane over it which, once again, didn't make any sense! She's had her teeth knocked out during her yankee-time and whenever her now fake-teeth come out, she goes all strangely berserk - hello humour, you almost made me smile.

Anyway, Haine goes into depression-phase multiple times throughout the story. There are many would-be-climaxes that are either resolved too fast or just interrupted so it could be resolved in a later volume. And because Haine's problems aren't enough, the author made sure that every.single.character. has at least as many to whine over.

If this story would have been much shorter, less wanna-be-depressing and either in a fictional setting or one that makes sense in our world, this could have been a decent story. The council was quite a nice set of characters. I like how they were all pretty different and became great friends.

Shizumasa, the Emperor, starts off as your standard stand-offish main guy but he turns out to be pretty interesting. I feel as though he actually had a legitimate reason to be a jerk to everyone and you know, he's the first to get over himself. His backstory is by far the most interesting and it led to interesting conflicts - it was pretty easy to root for him and hope for a happy ending.

So, while I could try to look past the many, many flaws and read on for the good aspects and hope for a happy end - I can say the ending was a happy one for the characters, if not for me. It was utterly unsatisfactory and pretty much cheats its way past the main obstacle that stands between Haine and Shizumasa. Why resolve the story's main conflict if you can simply ignore it and they all lived happily ever after!

Despite all, I still find myself reading this from time to time. Although most of it is spent shaking my head, there must be enough good in it to make me reread it.

[✮Octjillery✮ · Rating 4 out of 5]

First read: probably 2008
Second read: December 2021

Biggest plus for me is still that crazy-detailed Tanemura art.

There are still problematic themes and elements here, but Haine having absolutely no hobbies or anything she's interested in other than Shizumasa/"Shizumasa" is frustrating. You're 15, how do you not have anything else to do? I like romance--thats why I still enjoy shoujo--but it's not everything. Probably because I'm 30 and desperately trying/need to find more josei, I guess.

Real Shizumasa might care for Haine but he's a piece of shit. Ta-- is a jerk at times but he's been so absolutely fucked by his family, like, come on. Toya is one of my favorite characters and the one scene broke my heart.

[Kaya Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was full of drama, entertainment, and great art again! Giving this one five stars since I picked it up with only the intention to read one chapter, but then read the whole thing in one sitting, so there's that! I love Maora and Maguri, and Haine and Ushio. The emperors are entertaining as well, as well as the supporting cast.

[Francine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really fun series. Haine remains a bit of a dweeb, like many shoujo heroines who can't do anything without their love interest's approval. But I am starting to get really attached to some of these characters (mostly Maguri and the Postman, in this volume).

[EyrisReadsTheWorld · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cette fin, olala, mon cœur a failli s’arrêter. Heureusement, j’ai vite enchainé sur le volume 5 pour survivre. J’ai bien aimé ce tome, on en apprend plus sur Maguri. Il est vrai très chou. Tout le monde est chou en fait xD

[Em Mirra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pending.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

damn, what are they doing to my heart?

[Federica Malpasso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Molto, molto carino il capitolo 23.
Ancora mi sento abbastanza confusa sul tutto, tuttavia qualcosa sta diventando pian piano chiaro.
Le tavole ahimè restano troppo cariche di dettagli.

[Betz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bin irgendwie zwiegespalten- einerseits ist die Geschichte seeeeeehr überladen, aber die Story ist deutlich stringenter als im vorherigen Band

[-moonprismpower- · Rating 4 out of 5]

Come on come on!!! No I want shadow to win Haine’s heart.. And what’s the real reason that Haine’s real father sold her for money??! Because he kept his two other children???

[Kelley Angelica (bookswithbuns) · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Actual: 3.75⭐, rounded up) // Full review to come.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay I see what’s happening now.

[Amanda Setasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite volume, but it was interesting at least. I didn't like them basically making most of the volume into a "Cinderella" sub story though.

[Yoyomaus Die Büchereule · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zum Booklet:
Endlich beginnt das Kulturfest und Haine ist als Mitglied des Schülerrats stark in die Organisation des Events eingebunden. Doch auch bei all dem Stress bleibt ihr noch genug Zeit für ihre große Liebe Shizumasa: Für ihren gemeinsamen Tanz mit ihm auf dem Ball hat sich Haine extra ein wunderschönes Abendkleid besorgt und hofft aus tiefstem Herzen, ihm dort endlich näher zu kommen.

- Achtung Spoiler -
Endlich ist das Schulfest da und auch wenn Haine als Platina ihre Aufgaben zu erfüllen hat, versucht sie sich einzubringen. Zu ihrer Freude macht ihre Schwester ihrem Stiefbruder zum Liebesbekundungswettbewerb eine öffentliche Liebeserklärung die der arme Kerl nun nicht mehr ausschlagen kann. Haine freut sich besonders auf den Ball, dafür hat sie sogar ein atemberaubend schönes Kleid organisiert, das einer Platina wirklich würdig ist. Sizumasa indessen tauscht seinen Platz mit seinem Doppelgänger für diesen Abend ein und so ist es der echte, aber auch der falsche Shizumasa, der Haine einen Kuss auf dem Ball stiehlt. Als der Doppelgänger wieder sein Amt einnimmt und von der Sache Wind bekommt, scheint dieser mehr als eifersüchtig zu sein und ohne dass Haine etwas davon mitbekommt, was sie eigentlich getan hat, wird sie als Platina entlassen. Als sie das alles nicht wahr haben will untermauert der Kaiser seine Entscheidung, indem er sie schlägt.

Was soll ich sagen, die Zeichnungen waren wie immer ein Traum und besonders die Ballszenen haben mir sehr gut gefallen, da Haine wirklich bezaubernd aussieht, fast wie ein Engel. Trotzdem hat mich auch dieser Band nicht überzeugen können. Immer wieder springen die Doppelgänger und auch die Gefühle hin und her. Die arme Haine wird immer mehr hin- und her geschubst und schlussendlich sogar für etwas bestraft, was sie ja nicht wissen kann. Dass Shizumasa sie sogar schlägt fand ich doch recht überflüssig. Ich weiß, dass Japaner auf das ganz große Drama stehen, aber ganz ehrlich, welches Mädel würde sich so etwas gefallen lassen und dann noch hinter dem Typen hinterher trauern, besonders, wenn sie einmal ein Yankee war und so taff ist wie Haine. etwas unschlüssig, aber okay. Weiterhin nervt mich dieses Liebeskarussell, welches sich hier aufbaut. Haine und Shizumasa. Haine und der Doppelgänger Shizumasa. Haine und Ushio. Ushio und Senri. Maora und Maguri. Maguri und der Postbote. Haine und ihr Stiefbruder. Ihr Stiefbruder und ihre Schwester. Das ist einfach viel zu überladen, das macht echt keinen Spaß mehr.

3 von 5 Sterne

Taschenbuch: 184 Seiten
Verlag: TOKYOPOP (24. Oktober 2008)
Sprache: Deutsch
ISBN-10: 3865806740
ISBN-13: 978-3865806741
Vom Hersteller empfohlenes Alter: 13 - 16 Jahre
Größe und/oder Gewicht: 12,6 x 1,5 x 18,7 cm

[Hannah H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite Magna!

[Dharia Scarab · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I don't normally write reviews unless I have something specific to say, here's the break down of how I rate my books...

1 star... This book was bad, so bad I may have given up and skipped to the end. I will avoid this author like the plague in the future.

2 stars... This book was not very good, and I won't be reading any more from the author.

3 stars... This book was ok, but I won't go out of my way to read more, But if I find another book by the author for under a dollar I'd pick it up.

4 stars... I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be on the look out to pick up more from the series/author.

5 stars... I loved this book! It has earned a permanent home in my collection and I'll be picking up the rest of the series and other books from the author ASAP.

[Cassiopeia's Moon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've told myself over and over again to always write the reviews before starting reading a new volume! But this time I couldn't. I was awake until 3 a.m. reading... So I apologize in advance if this won't make sense (and the review of all the others..).

The story still contains all its humor and drama (and still has its awesome art work!). Haine's family's getting a bigger role and we get more back story to most of the characters. Also, there is romance ;)

Somewhat confusing romance...

The story grows with each volume and you get a better understanding for everybody. This is absolutely a manga I'll read again!


P.S. Maguri's on the cover^^

[R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not sure who to like or dislike at this point. "Shizumasa" seems to be caring yet incredibly cruel at the same time, which is odd to wrap your head around. The "shadow" (as that's apparently the only alternate name given at the time) is becoming nicer and more of a character you want to like, but then ends up being intentionally cruel (though for understandable reasons that only he knows). Makes you kind of feel bad for everyone and yet wonder at their cruelty and stupidity at the same time. Cinderella's ball sure didn't turn out as planned.

[Lara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, yeah, the situation with Shizumasa is FINALLY starting to make a LITTLE sense, but I feel like it's too little, too late for me. There just doesn't seem to be any real depth to the characters or the situations they are in, at least not so far, and I find myself more frustrated with the story than anything else. So I think I'm done. Especially when I see that there are seven more books in the series. I'll move on to something else, thanks.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

By now, I feel like a lot of the guys except the vice president is starting/slightly falling for Haine. And we get to see her sister and brother in this volume! And the twin brothers are starting to "fight" over Haine, although she gets totally confused and hurt because she doesn't know about the whole twin issue. She still thinks there is only one Shizumasa Togu.

[Dylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay good book , okay so the cross dressing gay guy has a crush on the other gay guy. Wierd. That's why I focus on Haine and Shizuma and Takanari. Whoa! Shizumasa making out with Haine! What are Takanari's feelings?

[Pinky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mao-chan dresses like a girl because he has feelings for Maguri, but their dads don't except their feelings. Maguri decides to stop chasing after Shizumasa. Shizumasa doesn't want Haine to be the platinum anymore.

[Kitty N. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The series is really a good one Haine really is my favorite character and I love the postman and warden who protect her, the twins really drive me crazy when they not only hide their feelings from her but also torture her mind by switching every once in a while but the series overall is amazing

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad, and I love the art. Arina Tanemura is one of the greatest artist of mangas in my opinion. The story line still confuses me, but I'm starting to understand it and I love all the plot twists.

[Amy]

Gentlemen's Alliance , Vol. 4 (The Gentlemen's Alliance ) by Nancy Thistlethwaite (2007)

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume answers most of my questions and i love the ball part.

[Amethyst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremly amazing!!!

[Avery Engstrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I FINALLY understand the thing with the fake Emperor and the real one. Totally unclear up until now.