Gestalt 3

Yun Kouga – Viz – 2009 – 8 volumes

Now, I really liked the first chapter in this volume, but anyone unfamiliar with video game RPGs will have a hard time following the fight, as a lot of what goes on… well, they get pretty deep into hit points, defense points, heal spells, summoning elemental creatures, and stuff that is otherwise completely irrelevant to the story and is not explained well, but was cool all the same.

Aside from the first chapter, I feel like some of Gestalt’s bad habits are starting to fade away, and I’m growing more and more to like it on its own merits rather than because it sticks so close to a video game formula (though there are still some allusions to that, as I mentioned above). Most of what goes on here is a struggle with and possible origin for Black Olivier.  I found this to be a lot more interesting than the companion-gathering or the fight with Ouri’s somewhat faceless siblings.  In fact, the fight with Black Olivier takes a very unexpected and surprisingly permanent turn.  The volume leaves the story in a bad place, and I’m very much looking forward to the next volume not only to resolve the current rift between Ouri and the party, but because I want to see what becomes of Olivier, the true purpose behind the battle royale with Ouri’s siblings (hinted at via a fable here)… and I’m also curious about Black Olivier and what will happen once he reaches G.  Most of the novelty value in the series being so close in structure to an RPG has worn off, and now I’m genuinely interested in the story.

Of course, the series still has some rough points.  As I said, those unfamiliar with video game RPGs are going to have a hard time following the fights.  The story is still a little jumpy, and even though it settled down significantly in this volume, it still took me an awful long time to figure out what was going on with Ouri and where he was for the last third of the book.  There are also strange short chapters slipped between the longer ones called “Gestalt Theatre” which are unrelated gag chapters.  I appreciate their aim (to lighten the mood of the otherwise very dark story), but they aren’t very funny.  Of course, one of them is a cosplay chapter where the characters dress up as Super Sailor Moon and Morrigan, and even though I didn’t like the gag chapter itself, I thought that was pretty cute.

It’s still flawed, but a lot of what made the first two volumes hard to read has been eliminated, and a very interesting and engrossing fantasy plot is emerging.  It hasn’t changed much, but I care a whole lot more about the characters and what’s going on after this volume, and I am really looking forward to volume four.

This was a review copy proided by Viz.