Ranked #3145

Gestalt

Gestalt seemed to be an interesting story concept when I read about it and I found myself intrigued by the good artwork (for this era). Unfortunately and mostly because of the overall length and lack of any follow-up anime to carry on the story, Gestalt is left with a very unfinished feel to it.

The story revolves around a priest named Olivier, who having some sort of crisis of faith announces he is leaving his order and traveling to a forbidden land known as Gestalt or G as it is believed to be a cursed place. There he hopes to find the answers to his questions. Along the way he comes across a mysterious girl, Ohri who seems to be from the very land he wishes to visit. From here he begins his journey, while being pursued by a bounty hunter type elf that was sent by the leader of Olivier's order to bring him back. There is some good magical action and a good amount of comedy and mild fan service. Gestalt is not meant to be taken seriously but I did not find it excessively silly either. The plot is not exceptionally deep but it does do a pretty nice job of building up the world and delivering an interesting chapter of the overall story. Yes just a chapter, because by the end you will not get a resolution to any of the major plot elements. I do not know if there was an intention by the producers to make a further OVA but the ending as it is now is not satisfactory. Because of this series age I find it doubtful there ever will be one either.

The main characters of Olivier and Ohri were enjoyable but a bit shallow. Again the brevity of the series is mainly to blame. I found them interesting enough I would like to have seen more. The supporting cast is pretty basic and flat as well, though Suzu as the dark elf bounty hunter was the highlight. The villains’ motivations were not adequately explained either and seemed to be bad just because.. well they were the bad guys.

For a series of this era I found the artwork to be really good. Though they use a lot of the pastel colors that seemed washed out I still liked the overall style used. It loses some points for the inclusion of bishies, the main male villain in particular who if not for his voice actor I would have sword was a girl. I just never will understand what is so attractive about these feminized men. There is not much to comment on with the sound. The acting is good and I can’t complain about any of the performances but there is very little music at all. No opening theme and just a brief and unmemorable closing.

If you’re interested in a light hearted magical action then you could do worse than Gestalt. As long as you can look past the lack of a complete ending, there is some enjoyment to be found. I suspect the manga which ran 8 volumes would complete the story but at this time it has not been scanlated by anyone though it does seem be releasing this year in retail from Viz. I found it interesting enough that I plan to read it when it comes out.
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I'm going to be honest, I did not really enjoy watching Gestalt. It had good ideas in the beginning, and some neat scenes in the end, but everything else kind of let the good parts go to waste. Also, the ending leaves you hanging. It seems like it is supposed to be a continued series, but something happened to stop production.
(I should do some research to find out, but it's not that big a deal)

On the other hand, it's only an hour long, and a lot of plot is crammed in there.

Gestalt is not the worst anime out there, and is worth watching if you get bored. read more