Elemental Gelade Volume 5

The end of the last volume saw Marl again attacking Cou – but with little time to respond, Viro (the newest member of the team, and a self-confessed fan of Cou’s) manages to React with him, to everyone’s surprise, and, eventually, to their worry.

Viro never told her companions that she was an Edel Raid, and what’s more, Cisqua’s radar makes it apparent that even this isn’t quite the case, because although she React with Cou, this went undetected by the radar itself. The Arc Aile trio then deduce that Viro must be a Sting Raid (an artificial Edel Raid), but also resolve to question her, insofar as this might put Viro’s motives under suspicion, implying that she might be an enemy of theirs.

Viro does indeed prove to be a spy for the Chaos Choir, but in trying to remain undercover, she has to call Cisqua’s bluff (which she overhears while pretending to be asleep) that if she were just a fan, she’d part ways with their company when faced with her original destination, or invent an excuse to carry on with them if she were a spy. But her mission being to watch over Ren, in particular, she concocts a plan to work her way back into the group, and despite fumbling, manages it when the group save her from the trap she lays (unbeknownst to them), rather than the other way around.

Throughout this volume, Viro then continues to become a distraction for Cou, forming a love triangle that evokes Ren’s jealousy, and, in her naivety, a rift between her and Cou, while Viro herself struggles with her increasingly genuine affection for Cou and her mission to kill him, freeing Ren to be seized by the Chaos Choir. Only the last episode moves on from the love triangle, with more of the Chaos Choir arriving to try and apprehend Ren by any means possible.

Parts of this volume reminded me that the story of Elemental Gelade is as much the story – in the eyes of Cou and Ren – of a personal journey, instead of a typically heroic adventure, to which most anime fans are accustomed. Of course, there is some overlap, and the Chaos Choir present Cou with a definite villain, in the face of which he can be a hero, but this doesn’t seem to be the shape of the story, or where its emphasis lay (at least not until the final volume). In that respect, it would have been beneficial if the series were better at conveying this, but instead t becomes more generic for it, or at the very least, that’s the impression it gives.

Overall, however, volume five plays out much like other volumes after the first, with a similar pace, balance of comedy, action, drama and romance. The love triangle makes it uniquely palatable, and generally more romantic, but it’s not too remote from other volumes, so those who have enjoyed earlier ones should be comfortable here as well.

In Summary:

Enjoyable, but not technically impressive or original for the most part.