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Olympos, Vol. 1 & 2 (2012)

by Aki(Favorite Author)

3.51 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0316232025 (ISBN13: 9780316232029)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Yen Press

review 1: Hmmm...I don't remember the last time I read a manga that had such beautiful artwork but was paired with what felt like such a "plotless" story. Although no, that's not quite the case. The plot is rather simple: Ganymede wants to get out of the garden Apollo has put him in (for whatever reason), and we're originally introduced to Heinz and mislead to think that he's the main character (although he isn't, and only sticks around for volume one as the second one isn't related to him at all and we never even find out what really happens to Heinz in the end). There's Artemis, who magically pops up out of no where are for some reason keeps sitting under a tree. There's Zeus, who for some reason makes an appearance in Apollo's garden in front of Ganymede yet never says a word, va... morenishing as fast as he appeared. For some reason some of the Greek gods exist and others don't - Apollo for example says that the goddesses Athena and Iris don't exist when the mortal girl Iris brings them up in a list of Greek deities that they worship, and the reader never finds out why they don't exist while gods like Apollo and Artemis are "perfectly legitimate". There were some interesting points, for example how the gods don't care about protecting humans. Hades was the only character I actually liked, mostly due to his Chesire Cat-like cryptic personality with his never-ending spew of riddles and dark thoughts. Other than that this book felt a little too much like a slap-dash plot that had to accompany some pretty artwork. The author's note after the epilogue ticked me off, to be honest. The fact that the mangaka asks the reader to sort of go along with her work just because she drew/made what she felt like making doesn't merit much respect from me as a reader. I agree, the art is very pretty in these two volumes, but the plot is so thin and has to be twisted and played with to a large extent in order to sort of justify it's own existence. I feel like this is one of those mangakas who expects their work to be admired and accepted for what it is without being able to handle criticism, which in this case is the follows:beautiful art, but very very very watered down, microscopic plot that had a lot of potential with some of the interesting thoughts being thrown out that sadly went no where.If you're in the mood for eye candy, pick this one up. But I personally don't care much when a writer has such a slap-dash approach to their work, and on top of that tries to justify it and make the readers swallow that, "just because".
review 2: I tried reading this on my tablet but couldn't because I found it boring. The best cure for that is to try again with the physical volume in my hands. Needless to say, I got into it more easily, though I put it on hold halfway through, then acquired a sudden urge of interest after learning that I had garnered a 90 cent fine from keeping this book for too long, LOLThe art is, simply to say, absolutely beautiful. The Author's Note at the very end apologizes for the art, to which I say "shut the hell up. The art is gorgeous, you idiot." Sigh, Japan and their humble society... mutter mutter.That being said, the story was confusing. I'm not sure if it's because it was a two-in-one volume that got me confused or what. In the very beginning there was a man named Heinz who is whisked away by Apollo to the "Miniature Garden", where he meets Ganymede--the beautiful Trojan prince that Zeus had fallen in love with and kidnapped to be with him in the heavens or something--who has resigned to his fate of never being able to escape. Heinz is determined though, despite Ganymede's "It's-useless-no-point-in-trying-anymore" attitude. Floating around and generally being an ass-nozzle is Apollo, whom all my friends mistook for 1) a girl and 2) the goddess Aphrodite. LOL, this is MANGA. All "girls" should be assumed to be men until explicitly stated otherwise.After some failed escape attempts, there is the back story of Ganymede, and Heinz never reappears in the story after this point, which confuses the hell out of me. It shows how Ganymede was "chosen" by the gods, kidnapped, and plunked into this weird world of flowers and ruins. He was at first resilient in finding a way to escape the Miniature Garden despite the constant teasing and bullying of Apollo, who is such an infuriating freaking asshole... Then we see Apollo conversing with Poseidon, who is portrayed as a blowhard with an inferiority-complex. And then the musings of Apollo, and lots of philosophical conversations concerning life, humans, the gods and their roles and purpose, and etc. Apollo converses with a mortal girl who was chosen as a sacrifice for him, and here's where I get kind of pissed off:The girl, named Iris, mentions Athena, who she says is the goddess of wisdom and war. Apollo says, "I've never heard of her before". To which Iris replies, "But she's one of the 12 main gods!" And then starts listing them off: Poseidon, Apollo, Artemis, Zeus, Hera, Hades, Demeter, Ares, Aphrodite, Athena, Hephaestus, Hermes, Hestia... And Apollo is staring at her thinking "I know less than half of them." He thinks "These mortals make up deities to worship" to which I reply:What the hell? I hate this! If you're going to use deities from history, Norse, Greek, friggin Hindu (!!!), then you better DAMN WELL write the story as if they existed! Only Apollo, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades exist in this story, which to me is stupid, and Apollo said upon being greeted by Hades, "I've only heard of you but never seen you before." What the heck? I like to think that the gods are all in their own respective "worlds" or spheres of the universe or something and do not cross paths unless absolutely necessary, like the previous example of Apollo and Hades. Hades had no reason to talk to Apollo except on a whim and the result was the first meeting. Zeus however MUST appear to everyone at some point, though he is like a "hands-off" kind of god, where he is simply a "face" that you put on "omnipotent, apathetic ruler of the universe" or something. That's just my idea... :|Also, the gods can't say anything but the truth, but they themselves do not know everything until they've tested out their power. Example (paraphrased like a few of the examples before) :Apollo: Zeus spoke, and it was doneGanymede: Where you there to see it?Apollo: NoGanymede: Then how do you know, did someone else tell you?Apollo: No, I just thought of trying to see if I could say it , and it turns out I can, so it IS true.Weird, but an interesting element to this story. But something else that irked me was the complete apathy that Apollo revealed to Iris in concern of mankind itself. They give the gods offerings and prayer and love and devotion, but Apollo tried to explain to Iris that they don't give a damn and they're not "watching over them" like some loving deity who cares for such puny insects such as them.To me, that would make gods obsolete if that were true. There is the ideology that God made the world then decided to keep his hands off and that nothing is controlled by him anymore. Good. If Zeus made the world and, as we've seen before, not directly involve himself in anything--besides kidnapping Ganymede--and reserves himself as an all-seeing entity with weird birds' wings, then why would the other deities exist if they were not "useful"? This makes me question whether THIS Apollo actually "created" music, the lyre, arts, and all that stuff. Why even have Poseidon ruler of the sea, or exist at all, if he doesn't care about the mortals' wellbeing? He likes the temples and worship, but that's just to fuel his ego, not because there's a symbiotic relationship with him and them. The only TWO deities who seem necessary are Zeus and Hades, but even then Zeus could probably take over Hades's role, but Zeus is probably justice, light, absence of sin, while Hades is everything but. He is not demonic in the sense of Satan, because like Zeus he favors none and hates none; he simply takes when your time has come and does it without malice. But he can be seductive in a sense...but that's because no one likes a soul to be kicking and screaming on their way to Hell.So that's my problem with that crazy logic. Another thing was at the last half of the "second" volume, things were getting weird. Apollo was seriously ...broody, and he found out that his twin sister Artemis was basically a "mirror" of himself and not truly her own person, or something. Hades is being Hades--seriously he's the only character that doesn't get on my nerves or make me scratch my head and go "What the hell?" because while I don't really understand his intentions on the surface, he speaks in a Socratic way that makes me think, but not out of confusion -__- -- ...Anyway... suddenly Hades and Apollo are talking about the "end of the world" in front of Ganymede, where they would use Ganymede as bait to make Zeus appear in the Garden...and then that idea is dropped...just suddenly they're talking about it...and then nothing happens so they just give up... Hades says something along the lines of , "Since we are immortal, doing useless things is not a sin like it is for humans, since their lives are finite." Okay...but seriously, talk about a major blatant plot thread that isn't ever tied up...Then there's more floaty Apollo and it ends so abruptly with Hades pissing off Apollo one more time in that kind of "Damn you!!!! >:O " ..Seriously, I was so mind-f*cked by the super-confusing pages before the end that I couldn't even read the last few pages at all... Like... "what?"Good parts of this: ART is marvelousBad parts of this: The interpretation of the mythology pisses me off (IT IS BLASPHEMY!!) and the head-scratcher that is the story itself, especially the ending... less

Download links for: Olympos, Vol. 1 & 2

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