Grand Guignol Orchestra

• Name — Grand Guignol Orchestra • Ja Kanji — 人形宮廷楽団 • Genre — Horror

• Type — manga • Author — Kaori Yuki • Publisher — Hakusensha • Magazine — Bessatsu Hana to Yume • First — August 2008 • Last — June 2010 • Volumes — 5 Grand Guignol Orchestra is a gothic horror shōjo (targeted towards girls) manga series written and illustrated by Kaori Yuki. Appearing as a monthly serial in the Japanese manga magazine Bessatsu Hana to Yume from the August 2008 issue to the June 2010 issue, the eighteen chapters of Grand Guignol Orchestra were collected into five bound volumes by Hakusensha—together with Yuki's romantic one-shot manga "Camolet Garden", which had appeared in the April 2008 issue—and published from February 2009 to August 2010. Set in a world where a worldwide epidemic of a virus has turned part of the population into guignols (zombies which resemble marionettes), Grand Guignol Orchestra focuses on singer Lucille and his orchestra, which destroys the guignols through music. At the 2009 New York Anime Festival, Viz Media announced that it had licensed the series for an English-language translation. It published the series under its Shojo Beat imprint, from October 2010 to December 2011. The series has also been translated into other languages, such as German and Mandarin. Grand Guignol Orchestra has been positively received by English-language readers, with three volumes placing on the list of the top 300 bestselling graphic novels. The series has received a range of reviews from English-language critics. Yuki's illustrations and premise were generally well-received, with criticism of the series focused on the narrative and page layouts.

Manga artist Kaori Yuki has described the setting of Grand Guignol Orchestra as the "Middle Ages (sort of) with a French air." The series takes place in a fictional universe, where a worldwide epidemic of a virus, the Garateia Shoukougun, has turned part of the population into guignols, zombies which resemble marionettes. Certain types of music can restore humanity and memories to the guignols while speeding up their destruction; the queen's Grand Orchestra destroys guignols through music, as does the much smaller, unofficial Grand Orchestra. If an area becomes more than seventy percent infected by the virus, the queen sends her Divine Lightning to destroy the area and keep the virus from spreading. The virus, however, originates from the first queen, whose father transformed her into a guignol; subsequent queens and their potential successors are grown from her cells. Opposed to the queen's rule is Le Sénat: consuls Richiteraitu and Barentinaitu, chancellor Meerschaum, and regent Jayasupā, all of whom have been governing for a century.

The plot follows the unofficial Grand Orchestra led by singer Lucille, who searches for a way to rescue his younger sister Cordierite "Cordie"—who now despises him as the cold-hearted Queen Gemsilica, convinced that he tricked her into becoming queen in his place. The other members include the violence-prone violinist Kohaku, who was bitten by a guignol; and cellist Gwindel "Gwin", a former sculptor of guignols who keeps his daughter's hedgehog with him. They are soon joined by pianist Celestite "Celes", who has lived under the identity of her twin brother, Elestial "Eles" after a guignol attack left her the only surviving child in her town. They periodically encounter Berthier, the unofficial orchestra's former pianist whose violence drove his beloved, Lucille, away and who was resurrected by Le Sénat after his suicide. Other reoccurring characters include Supineru, a spy for the queen who can manipulate her voice and whom Lucille befriended when she snuck into the all-male monastery as a child. The unofficial orchestra visits infected towns and destroys the guignols there for a fee. Eventually, they obtain the Kuro no Hijiri Tan Kyoku, rumoured to be able to destroy the queen and neutralize the virus when performed. Having left Eles behind for her own protection and unaware that she took the Black Oratorio out of fear of its effects on the orchestra, Lucille and his orchestra confront Queen Gemsilica, and find Berthier with a kidnapped Eles and the Black Oratorio. Queen Gemsilica is fatally wounded by their servant Cookiete "Cook". Secretly the host of the original king, Cook is responsible for the manipulation that caused her to become queen instead of Lucille. Berthier, persuaded to return the Black Oratorio, kills Cook as he attempts to escape, and the music of the Black Oratorio is broadcast throughout the world by the satellites formerly used for Divine Lightning. Upon hearing the music, the guignols sing along and are destroyed. Separated from Lucille and the orchestra, Eles realizes that she can live as herself now. Later, she joyfully reunites with Lucille, and rejoins the unofficial orchestra, all of whom have been affected by the neutralization of the virus.

• Illustration — A sculpture from the Park of the Monsters in Bomarzo, Italy. The park served as the model for the garden which appears in Lucille's memories of his childhood. Yuki noted that the title of the series was potentially misleading, as the orchestra is not composed of guignols; she chose the word "guignol"—which describes hand puppets, not marionettes—for its sound. Page limitations affected the roles of Kohaku and Carnelian, Lucille's castrato rival, although she felt that the story still ended as she had planned it. She also faced difficulty with Berthier's character design. Initially, she planned to have him appear in a "full-body animal suit" costume, but decided against the idea as "too comical." One of his early character designs was used for a minor character, an assassin for Le Sénat. Included with the bound-volume release of Grand Guignol Orchestra is "Camolet Garden", Yuki's 92-page romantic one-shot manga originally published in the April 2008 issue of the monthly shōjo (targeted towards girls) manga magazine Bessatsu Hana to Yume. It focuses on Ryū, who finds himself in a boys' dormitory, where its inhabitants have ranks corresponding to a deck of playing cards. He struggles to solve the mystery of the boys' dormitory, closed off from the outside world and where death only results in rebirth. In it, Yuki made allusions to the Victorian poem "The Lady of Shalott" by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. In retrospective, she felt that its setting was "not really the best," and the many characters presented some difficulty in remembering.

Written and illustrated by Kaori Yuki, Grand Guignol Orchestra appeared as a serial in Bessatsu Hana to Yume from the August 2008 issue, to the June 2010 issue. Hakusensha collected the eighteen chapters into five bound volumes, and released them from 19 February 2009, to 19 August 2010. At the 2009 New York Anime Festival, Viz Media announced that it had licensed the series and would publish the series under its Shojo Beat imprint. Viz Media published the series from 5 October 2010, to 6 December 2011. It also released a digital version of the series. The series is distributed by Madman Entertainment in Australasia (Australia and New Zealand). It has also been translated into other languages, among them German, Italian, French, and Mandarin.