SHINSHI DOUMEI CROSS

DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

MANGA Comedy31☆Ai Dream
ONE SHOT DramaShoujo Eve Ringo Jikake no 24 Ji

REVIEWS

• 

  RoseFaerie

  45/100
  This manga managed to squeeze in every conceivable soap opera trope into 11 volumes! An impressive feat!

  The fact that the plot is set in motion with the main character being sold and it's brought up so little that I can't even make many "My parents sold me to One Direction" jokes is criminal. However, there's still a bountiful amount of chaos and bad soap opera tropes to go around. This manga is a lot of things, but it's never dull. Melodramatic and stupid beyond belief, yes, but dull? Never. It's such a shame because I actually think the story and characters showed a lot of potential, but then... Arina Tanemura writing with no plan happened.

  Haine was sold as a child. Her parents from the wealthy Kamiya family gave her to the Otomiya family in exchange for a business loan. She now attends Imperial Academy, a school for the fabulously wealthy, as a Bronze, the lowest ranking type of student in the school hierarchy. In a twist of fate, the boy she fell in love with as a child is the "Emperor" the student council president with absolute power. The love-struck Haine (who happens to be a former delinquent) ends up becoming his bodyguard. She soon discovers that the Student Council members have more secrets than she thought...

  This story had potential. We have the pseudo-Ouran rich people school with a social hierarchy and a female lead who's a delinquent battling depression and the trauma of being abandoned by her biological family. The cold-hearted male lead clearly has some stuff going on, which could lead to drama. The side characters are well written and are interesting enough to stand on their own.

  Arina Tanemura said that while she was writing this she just went with the flow, and you can tell that this story was not planned. It's all over the place and just falls apart at the end. It's a compilation of every melodramatic soap opera trope you can find. I was pleased that the story explained why Haine had feelings for Shizumasa Toguu. The two times they met really helped her from her lowest points and encouraged her to move on. I was disappointed that the story didn't acknowledge that she was in love with an ideal and not the real person. You see Shizumasa has changed since the two last spoke, and he now claims to hate Haine.

  You see, Shizumasa Toguu actually has a secret twin brother! He's ill, and his brother attends school in his place! That's this whole separate thing with family drama that is eerily similar to Fruits Basket where the family tries and produces twins to have stunt doubles, even having double wives. If you're the double, you must live life locked away until something happens to the original so you can save face. Your death certificate is forged, which is illegal, and there's all kind of human rights violations going on here. It makes no sense, and it gets super weird at the end with how it's all executed, and Haine gets shot and stuff, and there's a line that may implicate the Toguu family of practicing incest... I'm just going to spoiler tag the rest of the twists.

  But that's not all! Haine's biological mother has amnesia for no reason! And she's not her father's biological daughter! Her mother had an affair with her adoptive father. (I'm fairly convinced that her mom has Stockholm syndrome since her father forced her to date him, and he's implied to have sexually assaulted her and put her in positions where she can't refuse him.) Haine also has secret biological siblings, and her adoptive/stepbrother is in love with her! (I guess he'd be the Harry Styles in the "Sold to One Direction" scenario.) And her crossdressing friend has an alter-ego as a postman who's in love with her? Idk. Maora's feelings about Haine vs his feelings for Maguri and the Postman Election arc made no sense and existed solely to create drama. And Haine almost dies like four times, and she tries to burn her family's house down. Shizumasa has leukemia and needs his brother's bone marrow for some reason too. She also agreed to marry both twins in the end, which may have inspired the infamous Vampire Knight ending... I'm sure there's more stuff that happens, but I can't think of it right now.

  Nothing about the character's logic and actions makes sense the longer it goes on. Like, I think Arina Tanemura does an excellent job with mental illness and emotional struggles, but making the story make sense was a bit of a struggle this time. The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross tries to play itself as a serious realistic drama, but it's just too melodramatic and ridiculous to be believable. It had so much potential but then things just went off the walls.

  The characters are a mixed bag. I'll talk about the characters in relation to their romantic relationships so that I can rant about how much they suck. Haine's okay. I don't understand the extreme hate for her. She's not the sharpest tool in the shed, but she's well-meaning and tries to be helpful. She could be annoying with her mindless dedication to the twins even though they aren't that great. I preferred watching her platonic and familial relationships since they made more sense and felt less one sided. I thought she could be a super cool character with her delinquent past, not being super bright, and her struggles with depression. However, her potential was wasted by having her doggedly follow some guys around. Takinari is the brother she spends the most time with, and he's the only one she really interacts with enough to develop genuine feelings for. He's boring and a bit forceful, but he's not as bad as Chiaki from Phantom Thief Jeanne. You know, I'm realizing that Arina Tanemura should focus on other types of relationships instead of romance, since I don't like any of the romance she writes... He's sort of the bad-boy type with a tragic past. Shizumasa, the real Shizumasa, is super bland and has no redeeming qualities. He's just scheme-y and does horrible things, and he's forgiven for it because he's terminally ill and misses his brother. He has no chemistry and like 3 interactions with Haine, and I don't get why she's into him at all after the reveals or why he wants to date her other than spite.

  As for the major side couple, Maora and Maguri, they're some of the best characters in the manga. I was not expecting for there to be a gay couple, but there they were! (I think Maora is bisexual and Maguri is gay.) Maora is an eccentric, bubbly, and friendly crossdresser. He started out crossdressing since he was told that he couldn't marry Maguri as a kid, since they were both guys. And later he finds that he just likes wearing feminine clothing more often than masculine outfits. Maguri is dense and not particularly bright. He tends to push away those closest to him out of fear of those people leaving. He is part of a yakuza family, and he also had a crush on Shizumasa. (Just now noticing that the fear of abandonment is a recurring theme throughout the series). I really enjoyed watching them interact with the other characters and developing their own relationships. They should have been the main characters because they are leagues better than Haine and the twins. They win the best couple award, not that the bar is very high or anything.

  As for Ushio, the final main character, I really liked her and found that she also had a ton of potential. However, much of that potential was wasted. Ushio is a stoic, graceful, and comedically serious character. She's really a fascinating character to analyze since she's an unwanted illegitimate child who's been abused and barely escaped attempts on her life by her family members. She's a bit too attached to Haine and views her as the only good thing in her life. Her arc is all about her escaping from her emotional reliance on Haine and self-forgiveness, though the way it's executed makes no sense. Like I don't get how Haine's changed in a way that makes her uninteresting to Ushio. It's very unclear. Her romantic relationship was probably one of the ones I hated the most since she essentially is in a student-teacher relationship with the school doctor, who's also Shizumasa's butler. Not only is the age gap super weird and creepy, but he also jokes about raping Ushio in the beginning and is shown to be creepy and perverted, and it's implied that they sleep together, which is super weird. She deserves better. I think if they had left out the creepy bits, he could have been interesting. He kind of reminds me of a mix of Shigure and Hatori Sohma from Fruits Basket, with how he approaches Shizumasa and Ushio.

  The other romantic relationships are creepy or are incredibly forced and aren't worth my time explaining. I hated how Haine's father got off without so much as an apology for the trauma he caused his family. He sold his daughter and left her with serious mental health and self-worth issues, and he conflates her with his wife and doesn't acknowledge them as separate people with separate needs and wants. He also neglected her as a child. He forced his wife to enter a relationship with him, and he had his other daughter who is still in middle school acting as the sole parental figure for her younger brother.

  The art was nice to look at with cute outfits. It could get confusing since there were a few characters who looked similar and background characters would get brought back and I'd forget who they were. The eyes are noticeably big and more intense than they were in Jeanne, and I'm not sure if I'm as big of a fan.

  This manga wasn't the worst thing I've ever read, but it wasn't great. Off the top of my head, I can think of a few manga that execute the better plot elements better than The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross. Ouran did the rich kid school better. Kitchen Princess did the insane plot twists and love triangle between brothers in a way that actually worked. (Honestly, Kitchen Princess is basically the superior version of this manga). And Fruits Basket does the family drama better. Read any one of those instead of this manga, I beg you. It's not worth your time.

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