Grand Guignol Orchestra 2

Kaori Yuki – Viz – 2011 – 5 volumes

Strangely, the same day I read this, I got Lychee Light Club in the mail, which is apparently based on a Tokyo Grand Guignol performance from the mid-1980s, a performance that mangaka Suehiro Maruo acted in. Strange that such an obscure form of theater should come up twice like that, though Grand Guignol Orchestra has less to do with the Grand Guignol style than Lychee Light Club.

Grand Guignol Orchestra is growing on me, though. While it hasn’t knocked my socks off yet or anything, I do like the story so far, I like the way things are developing, and I love the art. Typically, I’m already lost or bored by volume two of a Kaori Yuki manga (I’m sorry, I try to like them, and I will always buy her books, but it’s true).

Part of that is that everything is still a mystery at this point. Sometimes, the lack of information in a story can be annoying. This story walks the line, but everything is so interesting that I forgive it the obvious secrets. Some of the information does reveal itself by the end of the volume (the link between the Queen and Lucille, some of Lucille’s past), and what Lucille is looking for and why becomes obvious, but what exactly the nature of the current relationship between Lucille and the Queen remains the mystery, and there is currently still some ambiguity about what happened to former members of the unofficial orchestra. The nature of Lucille’s powers are also still something of a mystery.

All of what is revealed is pretty dark and tragic on some level, and some of it is also a bit bizarre. It’s melodramatic dark gothic fantasy at its best, and Yuki’s art is well-suited to this type of story. It’s not too terribly deep or complex at this point, and I’m still trying to sink my teeth into the characters, but it’s definitely going places.

And how are the characters as of this volume? Well, Kohaku and Gwindel, the two other members of the orchestra, are still just warming the bench at the moment, though something happens to Kohaku at the end of the volume that makes me wonder how he’ll continue doing his thing. Lucille is either completely transparent in his motives or deceiving everyone in a very clever way, I can’t tell which right now. He’s a very cheerful and fun character though, and watching him work these dark, disturbing jobs as if they were a game, and being very clever about it, is most of the enjoyment I’m getting from the series right now. Eles is still the stereotypical perky newbie, and she’s not really doing anything new or interesting, but I haven’t given up on her yet.

The first half of the volume is a strange story that talks about Lucille and the Queen. I can’t comment on that story, partially because of spoilers, and partially because it’s so bizarre that I don’t know what to say about it. But I LOVE the second story. Lucille and Eles have to infiltrate an evil convent said to be guarding the Black Oratorio, the book that Lucille is after. The convent is full of creepy nuns, and the story is pretty good at letting the nun’s masks slip, little by little, so that what seems like a cover-up turns into something much, much more disturbing and sinister by the end of the volume. And I’m not entirely convinced that it’s all the nuns’ fault.

Again, it’s still not rush-out-and-buy-it good, but it is definitely interesting and getting a little better with each volume. The unique art and gothic flavor of the story also make it stand out in the shoujo manga pack. It’s definitely worth a look if the story sounds at all interesting to you, and I’m looking forward to future volumes to see if it gets better.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.