There are so many things she wants, but she still hasn’t found out what she’s looking for … That’s Fu Arisugawa, an office worker too busy with her shopping spoils and whose motto is “Shopping is Living.” Meanwhile, for reasons she doesn’t yet understand, she’s interested in her cool-tempered and reserved boss. And there are her friends, too. Rio, who keeps her feelings towards Fu a secret; Mizuho, who always ends up dating losers; and Enjoji, who keeps interviewing University of Tokyo grads for an arranged marriage … Each are lost in their own way while searching for happiness. These four Alices wander through their lives of love … and shopping!!

We were very excited to be asked by Kodansha to translate another manga for them. The pressure was on because Tokyo Alice is one of their most popular manga in Japan.  The series has become so popular a live action version was recently made for Amazon Prime Japan. For me, as an outsider in Japan it was almost voyeur-like to peek into the lives of four Japanese girls as they fall in and out of love, deal with family, work and life issues and somehow maintain their close-knit love and friendship. It has been a lot of fun and as we progress through each volume our feelings for the characters and for the talent of the writer, Toriko Chiya continues to grow.