Gestalt 5

Yun Kouga – Viz – 2010 – 8 volumes

Yay, Gestalt gets very serious and much better in this volume!  There’s still a few points where it’s not very clear what’s going on (for instance, all the characters hanging out outside while Olivier is debating with Messiah… that was kind of weird), but overall I like this shift in mood.  The story also shifted as well, and as of the end of the volume, it looks like it might be taking a new direction, at least temporarily.

The bond between Ouri and Olivier is a strange one.  Ouri’s gender isn’t so much the problem since she clearly feels quite fond of Olivier (Ouri is, of course, a man who was “handicapped” by being turned into a woman).  But she doesn’t want to push Olivier into anything he doesn’t want, so she has to settle into the role of protector and self-appointed “slave.”  She continually beats herself up over the loss of Olivier’s arms, and when another event happens at the end of this volume, she takes to beating herself up and inflicting damage on herself to atone for what was lost.  Strangely enough, while neither character’s true nature has been revealed, and both are acting themselves all the time, it still feels like we know more about Ouri than Olivier.  Well, we do, and Ouri is also easier to relate to than Olivier, who is pure and holy and without flaw, but you know what I mean.  Ouri is an extremely interesting character, and is the main reason I keep coming back to Gestalt.

I can take or leave Shazan, Suzu, and Sakata.  Both Shazan and Suzu get a little bit of a chance to shine here (in various ways, Shazan winds up doing something awful to snap Ouri out of her funk), but all three feel rather unnecessary in what is essentially Olivier’s journey to find himself with Ouri the body guard tagging along.

They move from the holy temple to the town of Titania, home to those who worship the god of death and rebirth.  Outsiders are not welcome, and Ouri finds herself shaken by the town’s rituals, which involve human sacrifices and the celebration of death in general.  That’s a big part of why the mood of the story suddenly turns dark, but the other part is what they wind up doing in Titania to try and get Olivier’s arms back.

After Ouri self-destructs and the party is split up, the book ends on a very uncertain note.  As much as I’ve been enjoying this story all along, this is the first time I’ve found myself really excited by the next volume.  You can see Kouga’s storytelling skills developing as the series goes on, so it’s settled down from its former random fights and is moving in a very interesting direction now.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.