I like twisted fairytales and such stories, so I had hopes for this book which, sadly, weren't fulfilled. I guess you have to be both a Disney fan and someone who has played the game, which I just discovered is a thing, to enjoy it. I'm hoping that Disney Twisted-Wonderland picks up the pace as the story progresses, and that the links to the original story are stronger and better aligned. Other than a mention of the Queen of Hearts, her roses and "off with their head"s, the links were pretty weak. I appreciated the sudden transition from one place to another, via mirror rather than rabbit hole, and using card suits in the naming of many characters in the new world, but a lot of the plot seemed muddled and the text was sometimes too small for the page space. That, admittedly, is probably due to the size of my device screen, but it still looked unbalanced. I wasn't thrilled with the overt references to other Disney villains, but I wasn't surprised because this is a Disney publication and they were introduced in an interesting manner. The drawing is lovely, and I enjoyed the non-human characters a lot. Bottom line, I'm hoping that things tighten up, plot-wise, and move at a better pace as the story moves forward.

Absolutely adored this from start to finish! Definitely a build but volume but it had me intrigued by the end to see where the story goes! It gave me Promised Neverland vibes so I definitely can't wait to read the next volume!

Thank you for letting me read this in advance in exchange for an honest review!

My thanks to NetGalley and VIZ Media LLC for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

Ok, I'm not a huge Disney-head, nor do I play any console/computer games, so both of those tie-ins didn't ring any of my bells. I did understand the tie-in to Disney characters, it just isn't a huge selling point for me.

I don't think (?) there were any female characters in this book. Lots of pretty guys. I'm not against that, it just seemed odd to me. No whiff of romance, so not a BL that I could tell. Again, not against that, but some gender diversity would be nice if it's not going to be a BL. Maybe it develops into one later? I don't know the game, so not sure of how the storyline progresses.

The secondary characters all seemed to be incredibly immature in comparison to the MC. I felt badly for the MC, because he was completely kidnapped by accident and he LIKED his life, so not your typical portal story.

I guess since there is a lot of Wonderland and villain respect/worship, that the world our MC was brought to isn't going to make much sense and the characters from there would not be rational the way we would see it, but it was just...a tad too strange for me to enjoy.

Recommended if you like the game and are a big Disney fan. The artwork is pretty, so it's not hard on the eyes at least.

2, I am kind of confused and not overly impressed, stars.

This was gonna get a good review no matter the content. I love twisted wonderland. However, if someone comes into this manga knowing nothing about the content I can see it not being terribly appealing - especially if your are over middle school age.

A big thanks to NetGalley and Viz Media for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A new take on the Disney classics? Sign me up!

Disney Twisted-Wonderland by Yana Toboso is a manga series inspired by the mobile game of the same name. Only this time, the manga falls the magic-less first year, Yu. As he is whisked away to the Night Raven College, where his newly acquired friends gets him in trouble with the headmage. And the only way to save himself, is to join up with uncooperative first years and a fire breathing cat.

I quite enjoyed this manga, as it twisted the expected of a Disney classic. But some of the plot lines were a little hard to follow. Otherwise a great start!

I enjoyed this manga enough but didn’t find myself loving it. It may have just been that it was the first volume and it was just setting the story up. I liked the characters and could see how this was adapted from the video game and into the novel.

Yuken Enma is the assistant captain of his high school's kendo club. Dedicated to supporting his teammates He sees a horse drawn carriage when waiting for the bus one night then finds himself somewhere else. A different place where magic works, his phone doesn't Night Raven College. There are references to the Queen of Hearts and there are also references to other Disney characters but it's very brief. I love the story. I love the art it reminds me very much of the style of one of my favorite manga Black Butler. I can't wait for the next installment to se what happens next.

Yu is drawn into a world of magic and mayhem - but his hardworking everyman persona gives him a practical edge in tacking magical problems - even as he is left as the straight man in a comedy trio. Magical schools, Alice in Wonderland vibes and some slight Disney influences round out this manga based on a mobile game.

Having not played the game, I feel like I am missing some of the context for what was going on. Characters are suitably over the top by Wonderland standards. I liked some of the character art, but it was a bit difficult to distinguish between some characters without colour illustrations. This didn't hit home for me - but your mileage may vary.

Disney Twisted-Wonderland The Manga: Book of Heartslabyul Volume One is based on a Japanese mobile game.

Disney Twisted-Wonderland The Manga: Book of Heartslabyul Volume One
Written by: Yana Toboso
Publisher: Square Enix
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: July 11, 2023

At the beginning of the volume, we are introduced to Yuken Enma, a young man in Tokyo who is skilled at tendo. It’s established that his school’s club was just about extinct, but he built it back up on his own. Right before a major tournament, Yuken encounters a carriage. The next thing he knows, he’s bursting out of a coffin into a room full of people dressed in robes.

It turns out the location is Night Raven College, an arcane academy at Twisted Wonderland where fledgling mages go to learn magic. Yuken is confused, because he doesn’t know magic, and his protestations cause an uproar at the school’s orientation ceremony. A small monster named Grim crashes the ceremony shortly after and causes a scene, declaring that he should be a student at the school. When one of the students in the room goes to confront the small fire-breathing monster, Yuken tackles him to the ground, thinking he’s saving him.

It turns out the man is Riddle Rosehearts, the housewarden for one of the dorms, who is quite an adept magic user. He also firmly upholds the rules written by the Queen of Hearts. Riddle is quite offended by Yuken’s actions, and it’s clear that he will never get along with Yuken.

After this, the magic mirror is consulted, and it replies that Yuken does not have any magic. It also says that emptiness is all it sees in Yuken’s hue and form. After it’s made clear that Yuken comes from a completely different world and was brought here by mistake, the head of the school makes a deal with Yuken. He can stay in an abandoned dorm and work on the grounds to earn his keep as Yuken tries to figure out a way back to his world.

When we see Yuken working, he has to clean statues on the main street. Anyone who has any familiarity with Disney will recognize most, if not all, of the characters on the statues. They’re villains in various Disney stories, such as the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, Jafar from Aladdin, Ursula from The Little Mermaid, etc. Unfortunately, Grim, along with two of the new students (Ace and Deuce), get into a magic fight by the statues and burn the statue of the Queen of Hearts.

As punishment, Ace and Deuce, along with Yuken, are sent on a mission to find a mage stone in the enchanted mine. If they don’t find one by the next morning, the two students will be expelled. As they head to the mine, they come across an abandoned cottage, and it’s clear that it’s supposed to be one that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs lived in. Grim, who has followed the groups, joins them in the hope of getting a mage stone in an attempt to boost his power. They make it to the enchanted mine, but they find a creature guarding the mage stone and have to try to take it down.

The art in this volume does a good job of differentiating between our world and the world of Twisted Wonderland. During the time spent in our world, the characters are designed to look like they’re from a series set at a modern high school. When the story moves to Twisted Wonderland, the human characters from that world whose faces we can see have a “bishonen” look to them. However, when Yuken is in Twisted Wonderland, he still looks like he belongs in the modern day high school story. I think this design choice helps to make it clear that Yuken is an outsider and doesn’t belong in Twisted Wonderland.

But the one thing that kind of bothered me about the art in this volume is that it was making me think too much of the Alice in the Country of series by QuinRose. While the art may not look exactly the same, the vibe of it in both series feels very similar.

After I finished reading this volume of Disney Twisted-Wonderland The Manga: Book of Heartslabyul, I found it to be kind of “meh.” Not having any knowledge of the game it’s based on doesn’t help, but the fact that it’s an isekai story didn’t really help my appreciation of it, either. My favorite part of reading this volume was finding the Disney references. Outside of the Disney references, I didn’t think this manga really brought anything new to the table for an isekai story. And outside of Yuken, I found I didn’t really care about any of the other characters.

I don’t think that Disney Twisted-Wonderland The Manga: Book of Heartslabyul is necessarily a bad manga, but it just isn’t for me. Readers who are familiar with the Disney Twisted-Wonderland game, readers who enjoy isekai stories, and readers who are Disney fans that also enjoy isekai stories may find more to appreciate in this volume than I did.

Disney's Twisted Wonderland volume 1 is a great introduction to this new world and to a host of interesting characters with special abilities. I haven't played the video game and wasn't familiar with the characters or story but still found this volume easy to follow and intriguing. I can't wait to read more volume's in the series and find out how all the characters connect and why Enma was brought to the academy despite having no magic power of his own. Thank you VIZ media and Netgalley for the chance to read this series.

On his way home from class, Yuken Enma gets transported into a different world, one that is topsy-turvy and filled with magic. While being employed as a magical school's janitor, he has to figure out how to get home to Japan. Oh, and there's Disney references.

I was in it for the Disney references... but I was pretty lost from the beginning. This looks to be quite the lengthy saga beginning, and there's absolutely no resolution to anything in this book. It sets up a LOT, but nothing is explained at all. I've read manga before, and the art is comparatively on point, but there's a lot of action shots for a story that doesn't seem to make sense or have much going on. There are a few times when it feels like there are missing panels.

Maybe I'm just too old for this now, so I don't "get" it? Maybe because manga isn't my go-to reading source, I just don't connect with the whole thing. Or maybe it's just badly written? In any case, I won't be continuing this series, which is disappointing, because God only knows how Disney obsessed I truly am. Oh well.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley in return for sharing my thoughts on this book. Thanks to the author and publisher for this opportunity!

I knew very little about the game before reading this. But I love Alice in Wonderland and the artwork looked amazing. For not knowing anything about the game I don't think you are missing anything and it presents and solid introduction to the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and VIZ Media for the eARC.

Thank you to Viz Media and NetGalley for this eARC!

I've been following the Twisted Wonderland game for several years now, especially with the English release, so being able to check out this manga was awesome!

The first volume sets the stage for the series, in which Yuken Enma (Yu) finds himself transported to a world with magic and creatures who speak! A Coach had mysteriously delivered him to a prestigious academy that reveres several Disney Villains, and caused quite an uproar with his entrance.

Knowing the background of the game, I was really excited to read this first entry into the manga telling of this series! I'll definitely be purchasing a copy for my classroom manga collection. This is an excellent series for 7th grade and up, and even more so for those who love TWST's mobile game, or Disney in general!

What a fun start to a new series! I haven't played the game it's based on (yet), so I was worried I'd be in the dark about some things, but the manga exists independently of its basis, meaning I got all the introductions and some backstory without needing to play the game first. I'm an Alice fanatic so I was pretty sure I was going to like this anyway, and the story did not disappoint. With some genuine laugh out loud moments and a fun cast of characters, I'm already hooked on this series and am looking forward to the upcoming volumes!

The Twisted Wonderland mobile game has been huge in Japan for several years now. It's your basic bishounen dating game - lots of good looking boys fitting all the archetypes to excite young girls. So what does the manga offer? It should have been to give us more story and Disney enchantment. Instead, it managed to hit every cliché in the genre while tossing Disney references with subtlety of a lead zeppelin. It should be fun but ended up trite and like it was trying far too hard.

Story: Enma is the star kendo player of his school and managed to create a kendo club where there had not been one. He cares deeply for his 4 teammates and is looking forward to the big tournament coming up. But then one night when going home after practice, he is kidnapped by a giant carriage and ends up in a strange land where magic is real, Disney villains are idolized, and a school has grown around budding sorcerers. Why was he brought to the land when he has no magic? He'll have to discover this along with a magical sidekick 'cat'.

Kingdom Hearts this is not. Most of the characters spent the entire first volume spitting vitriolic catch phrases or looking helpless but cute. Enma, as a heroine, is rather robotic and boring - the fine upstanding young sportsman archetype that we have seen so much. Truly, the issue with this manga is that the story is uninteresting thus far and it was hard to root for the main character to return to Earth.

I can see the appeal of the worldbuilding: Harry Potter meets Disney Villains. It should have been fun but no one seems to really be enjoying the the Disney characters/worlds. Proclaiming, "Off with their head!" but only putting a magic-dampening manacle around their neck is a good example: some writer was trying really hard to pound a square peg into a round hole.

The art is as good as you would expect for a bishounen title. But then again, it does have to rely heavily on prepubescent girlie crushes on the hot boys to carry it above the dull story. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

Twisted Wonderland is certainly that, a twisted variation of Alice in wonderland. The art is fantastic, the characters are memorable and the story so far is getting good. I liked this a lot and am looking forward to the next in the series!

Disney Twisted- Wonderland, Vol 1 is exactly that, a twisted wonderland. Yu has been whisked away to Night Raven College, an arcane academy. The problem no only is he is not from their world. He has no magic and know's nothing about magic. Now he must help two students find a magic stone before they all get kicked out, which while devastating for the students, would leave Yu even more stranded than he already is.

Vol 1 was a quick read and will delight both manga readers and fans of the video game.

Delightful read to begin the first manga arc of the hit mobile game Twisted Wonderland. The lines of the art are dramatic, creating the perfect atmosphere at Night Raven College, a prep school for youth looking to hone their magic skills. This volume introduces readers to the main characters of Heartslabyul, the dorm inspired by Alice in Wonderland's Queen of Hearts. It's a fresh take on villains, fantasy, and the boarding school genre-- dare I call it dark academia? Not quite as the characters banters keep the mood light but the elements are there. Long time fans of the game (like me!) will find it a satisfying adaptation and read.

Even without knowledge of the game to lean on for context, the Disney Twisted-Wonderland manga is a fun read that spins typical Disney wonder with an odd, somewhat grim world with interesting characters that are the perfect mix of Disney fun and manga/anime wild. It’s a fun first in series, good for those who enjoy magical school stories and issekais.

This story has a nice blend of manga and Disney elements, like how Kingdom Hearts operates. It would be a good manga title for a junior high library, or even upper elementary. VIZ rates this for teens, so take a look at future volumes to make sure they're still appropriate.