Gestalt Vol. 3by Sheena McNeilReviews may contain information that could be considered 'spoilers'. Readers should proceed at their own risk. Publisher
Credits Grade: 3 Suzu battles it out with her sister. Black Olivier takes over when a new person shows up to take Olivier back to Father Messiah. Black Olivier grabs a handful of cancer cells from a sea dragon--a flesh-devouring poison--to hurt Ouri and the others. Ouri is forced to destroy Olivier's arms to save his life, but she can't face the horror of what he's done and runs off where he spends some time with a mountain gang. Is the quest over or will the group be reunited?Ok, so overall the manga-ka's storytelling ability has improved since the first volume, but that's not saying a lot, and it doesn't help much. After you get past the opening, which reads like gameplay for an RPG, some actual plot happens. No, really! It's not too interesting, but there is actually plot development. We even learn the historic love story of the god Gestalt and a human woman, a story only those like Ouri who come from the Island of G know. It's interesting that Ouri, who is a man trapped in a woman's body (as a "handicap" in the deadly game he's playing with his siblings--though I'm not sure how being a woman can be presented as a "handicap" without insulting many of the readers), seems to become more and more feminine as time goes on. One big drawback with this series is the confusing way it jumps around. There are jumps in time that go unexplained (we don't even know if a few hours or a few days have passed), so the reader is left to fill in the missing gaps with no information to go on. It's also often hard to tell when the action moves from one character to another. Yes, the characters look different enough that you can tell when Girl A jumps out from behind Girl B with a spell... but often we see the action and its results before we see the character responsible, and sometimes we see another character instead who appears to be performing the action. Girl A casts a spell, but the reader sees Girl B apparently cast a spell, talk about the spell and Girl A, maybe cast a second spell, and then Girl A appears. And because there's little rhyme or reason to the way the action skips around, it becomes increasingly difficult to follow the characters. And that's before you consider that at least two of the main characters have dual personalities (with another entity living inside them). My brain hurts. Gestalt is a poor attempt to turn what I can only assume is a boring, average fantasy game into a manga. And the story in this volume is constantly interrupted by mini Christmas and cosplay stories (I guess from the original serialization), which detract from any tension the plot might have been building. You can't go from a super-tense fight scene to wacky beach trips and cellulite humor, then expect to jump right back into the tense moment and continue the story. In a nutshell, not a series I recommend. A shame, because the art's not bad. Written: October 22, 2009
|
|
|
Home |
Features |
Columns |
Culture Vultures |
Report Card
Indicia | Contact | Archives © Sequential Tart, 1998 – 2021 |
