Manga Review: Olympos, Omnibus, by Aki

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Yen Press

Release Date: June, 2012

Volumes: 2 (1 in omnibus)

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells. RightStuf.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Desperate to make his dreams come true, a young man named Heinz appeals to the heavens for divine intervention. But he wasn't expecting a beautiful ginger-haired boy to appear before him in the midst of his prayer... Apollo, the god of the sun, brings Heinz to a realm beyond reality - an endless field of flowers beneath an infinite expanse of stars. There, Heinz meets Ganymede, prince of Troy, who has remained here for hundreds of years, bound by his own uncertainty and despair. At Apollo's bidding, Heinz attempts to convince Ganymede to leave with him in exchange for having his own wish granted, but can anyone free Ganymede from the trappings of his mind?

Quotes:

• "'You’re the only one here. Thus what you’re looking at is truly the one and only reality. To be insane in an insane world is to be sane. Do you understand?’” (Volume 1, Chapter 2)

Review

I mainly only picked this up because it’s just so pretty. The art is gorgeous, and there are these pretty colors pages, and it’s a nice big, one-volume edition. It just looks to nice and feels so nice in my hands. The story was not quite as good as I was hoping it would be, but it’s still so pretty.

I don’t know how accurate the story was to actual mythology (although I don’t think very, given the little blurb at the back of the first volume), but that isn’t too important to me. I don’t mind an author taking well-known characters and taking a different path with them. That isn’t to say that I would mind a remake of an old mythology story, though, because that would have been nice, too.

I enjoyed the stories in this book, and I felt for Ganymede several times, because the poor guy has been put in such a bad spot. The Gods are rather horrible to him. Apollo in particular, who I was rather interested in how his story progressed. The ending was rather open, not much of a conclusion, which bothers me a little.

It bothers me that several of the male characters look like girls. I did find the look of several of the Gods really intriguing, and liked what Aki did with them. As I’ve said, though, the art was really pretty. 

Overall this was a pretty good read. It was intriguing, short, not particularly intense or with a lot of character depth, but thoughtful and sweet. I enjoyed it, and am glad that I picked it up.