Ningyou Kyuutei Gakudan (Royal Doll Orchestra)

Happy New Year every one!!!!!!!!! Sorry I didn't post last week! I thought I'd take Christmas Day off, but since that upset some of my followers I'll try not to do that again!! ^^

Well, haven't I got a treat for you to day, it's a manga! That's right I still review manga! This manga was recommended to me under the name Royal Doll Orchestra, but you can't find much under that name. Most places use either the Japanese name or the French one. It looks like 19th century France but it's entirely different. In this dimension a dreadful virus has spread the world, like a plague. If you become infected by this plague you transform into something like a zombie doll. 'Cracks' appear on your body, your joints pertrude oddly and you lose all sanity and humane thoughts. The virus is spread if a contaminated 'human', called Guignols, bite you or if their blood enters your body. So it's like a Zombie apocalypse.
Lucille is a an extremely pretty guy, who enjoys using his feminine face to cross-dress and fool others about his gender. He is the conductor and singer of the secret orchestra who will play any melody requested as long as they are paid enough. This includes the forbidden melody's that can cause strange things to happen to the Guignols. Also in the secret orchestra is Gwindel, the silent giant who plays the Cello and Kohaku, the hot-headed one who plays violin.

As they work under the Court they do have to fulfill certain missions from the queen while performing. On one particular mission they uncover the dark secrets of a city, who are still trying to cope with being attacked by the Guignols when a Child of the Manor played her Piano. Apparently the only child who survived was her twin brother. But when Lucille discovers that the survivor is actually the talented pianist he persuades her to join the Secret Orchestra as their Pianist. The story is then mostly about the pianist, Celestial, discovering all sorts of things about the court, the secret orchestra and the members in it.
I personally really enjoyed this manga. It had a good balance between the gory zombie slaying and the sweet emotional bits of trust and betrayal. And it was pretty!
All the clothes are Victorian-esque, and I LOVE Victorian clothes! Unfortunately, because Celestial dresses as a boy we rarely get to see the stunning dresses that the females have, but Lucille is feminine enough to fill my desire for frills and lace! Yet, I think Kohaku is styled the best! The scar on his face and his tousled black hair make his bad temper so obvious and his clothes are all loose and baggy making him look like such a bad boy!!
The art is done really well! Not only does Kaori Yuki successfully draw all the delicate strokes of lace and curls of hair but she makes everything dark and threatening to fit in with the story. The pages are heavy and bring everything to a serious tone, even Lucille's blonde locks look evil! But the best part of her art is easily the Guignols. As I said, when the people are contaminated the get marks on their skin that look like cracks, those cracks look really 3D! But that's not even the best part! It gets better when they're joints petrude and they're faces take on a ghastly expression! It's horrifying, especially when they get blasted to bits!
The plot is a bit vague. After they get Celes to join the gang the plot loses it's good pace. A couple of chapters with little going on, then a really shocking chapter. So, no matter how much I may love those shocking revalations and dramatic fight scenes I have to read through the scene setting first. But I do love it, I'm hoping that the pace will get better as the story goes on. I predict that with in a few chapters the plot will ready it's self up for one really big story, possibly a climax, rather than all these short tales.
But truely, I love this! The characters are beautiful and interesting. Everything is fully animated. The fight scenes are quite graphic. The strories are gruesome. It's really dark and sadistic actually, but it's portrayed through the innocent eyes of a child. It's just really enjoyable! I can't wait for the next chapter!!

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