Manga Review: Grand Guignol Orchestra, Volume 5, Kaori Yuki

Rating (Out of 5): ~4

Publisher: Shojo Beat (VIZ Media)

Release Date: 2011

Volumes: 5.

Spoilers?: No.

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

Volume: 1. 2. 4.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Can a boy named Lucille defeat the dolls of the living dead?!

Reads R to L (Japanese Style).

Final Volume! Troubadour's Love Song Everything is finally in place for Lucille to face down the horrifying Queen Gemsilica. But unbeknownst to him, Eles switched the powerful Black Oratorio for Lucille's own blank hymnal. How can Lucille keep the queen from destroying the world with nothing but his voice to back him?

Review:

I’ve been meaning to finish this series forever. It’s one of the few Kaori Yuki series that’s fallen on the wayside for me. It just didn’t stand out, and I had a hard time remembering what had happened. It was mediocre. And so I’m surprised by how good the ending turned out to be. It was worth it, and I’m glad I stuck through to the end.

This is a zombie series; they’re invading, growing, but this orchestra knows how to calm and kill them. Only the royals are opposed to them, and there’s something more going on here.

We finally get to see real plot, meet up with the queen again, find out how this all started and what Lucille has to do with it all. And it’s a Kaori Yuki book, so of course it’s rather horrible. It’s bloody, there’s death, and a horrible reasoning behind it. It’s what you expect, and it’s well done. It’s surprising, exciting, bloody, and well-deserved.

But the most surprising part to me was the ending. Because it’s actually kind of happy? I was not expecting this, at all. But it was an actual happy ending, and I liked it. It was good and fitting, and made this even more worthwhile to read.

There was also an extra one-shot at the end, and it was surprising and intense, and also very good.

This turned out to be an excellent series, and it’s made me even more excited to read her newer books.