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Elemental Gelade #1

Elemental Gelade Volume 1

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When sky pirate Coud Van Giruet discovers Ren, a girl with mysterious powers that can turn any human being into the ultimate fighting machine, he joins forces with the agents of the Elemental Gelade Protection Agency to protect her.

192 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2002

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About the author

Mayumi Azuma

96 books16 followers
Mayumi Azuma (東 まゆみ Azuma Mayumi, born April 24, 1975) is a female Japanese manga artist who is the creator of the now completed manga Elemental Gelade, which finished with eighteen volumes and was adapted into a 26-episode anime television series, and its ongoing spinoff manga Elemental Gelade: Flag of Blue Sky. She is also recognized for creating the manga adaptation of the video game Star Ocean: The Second Story.

Before her career as a manga artist took off, she started out working as an assistant to Kozue Amano, creator of Aria.

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5 stars
207 (33%)
4 stars
150 (24%)
3 stars
189 (30%)
2 stars
55 (8%)
1 star
17 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
Profile Image for Gabby.
1,107 reviews148 followers
February 18, 2017
I thoroughly enjoyed this volume! For something that I bought for under $1 I'm extremely happy with what I read!

A lot of manga take a while to get into the story- usually 1 or 2 volumes... but not this one! It gets into the action straight away and leaves you wanting more. Such an interesting and unique storyline I'm extremely curious to see what happens in the next volume.

Even in this first volume I feel like I already know each of the characters! Their personalities and art are so unique and endearing and I want to read more about them... now to find that second volume!
Profile Image for Yoyomaus Die Büchereule.
2,226 reviews31 followers
March 11, 2019
Zum Inhalt:
Eigentlich sollte es ein ganz normaler Raubzug werden... aber was Coud und seine Kollegen der Luftpiratenbande »Red Lynx« im Schloss erbeuten ist nicht ganz so üblich: In einer alten Schatztruhe verbirgt sich ein hübsches, aber sehr merkwürdiges Mädchen. Als dann auch noch die Organisation namens »Arc Aile« auftaucht, die es auf das Mädchen abgesehen hat, sind Couds Beschützerinstinkte geweckt. Er flüchtete mit dem Mädchen in das Luftschiff der Piraten...

Cover:
Die Cover der Reihe finde ich eher weniger spektakulär. Zu sehen sind hier meist ein oder zwei Charaktere des Mangas auf rotem Grund. Das war es auch schon. Keine Hintergrundgestaltung nichts. Deshalb dachte ich zu Beginn, dass das kaum ein guter Manga sein kann, aber so kann man sich irren... ;-.)

Eigener Eindruck:
Früh hat der Junge Coud van Giruet seine Familie verloren und wurde von Luftpiraten aufgenommen, bei denen er allgemein hoch angesehen ist. Bei einem Raubzug entdeckt Coud eine Trühe, die er unbedingt haben will. Als er diese öffnet, findet er jedoch keinen Schatz, wie er gehofft hatte, sondern ein schlafendes Mädchen. Wenig später stellt sich das Mädchen als Reverie Metherlance und eine Edilraid vor. Edilraid sind zwar menschenähnlich, besitzen aber die Gabe mit dem menschlichen Körper einer Person zu verschmelzen und so als Waffe im Kampf zu dienen. Edilraid sind selten und so ist es kaum verwunderlich, dass sich eine finstere Bande an die Fersen der Luftpiraten hängt und die Flotte komplett zerstört. Hals über Kopf können Reverie und Coud fliehen, doch das ist erst der Anfang ihres Abenteuers, denn kaum haben sie wieder festen Boden unter den Füßen, haben sie nicht nur ihre Angreifer im Rücken, sondern jemand anderes will Reverie für sich beanspruchen.

Was soll ich sagen? Einfach nur mega! Das ist genau das, was ein guter Manga für mich braucht. Eine gute und detaillierte Story, sodass man auch alles versteht, in dieser fremden Fantasywelt. Außerdem richtig tolle Zeichnungen für die Charaktere und Hintergrunddetails ohne ende. Getoppt wird das Ganze noch mit wirklich tollen Szenen rund um Emotionen und Spannungsmomente. Da kann man einfach nicht genug davon bekommen. Wenn man zu Beginn des Mangas noch ein bisschen verwirrt ist, was die Storyline angeht, so hat man bald einen guten Überblick, da wirklich alles erklärt wird oder sich in der nächsten Situation von selbst erklärt. Das macht wirklich jede Menge Spaß und lässt bei mir wirklich keine Wünsche offen. Man wächst während des Lesens mit den Charakteren und muss sich zudem immer wieder wundern, wo der Mangaka nur diese tolle Idee hergenommen hat und wo er sich die Inspiration für die Charakterdesigns geholt hat. Außerdem strotzt der Manga auch vor Humor, was ich bei solchen Storys immer als sehr wichtig empfinde. Ich bin hin und weg!

Fazit:
Idee: 5/5
Details: 5/5
Charaktere: 5/5
Spannung: 5/5
Zeichenstil: 5/5

Gesamt: 5/5

Daten:
Taschenbuch: 178 Seiten
Verlag: Carlsen; Auflage: 1., Auflage (22. Juni 2005)
Sprache: Deutsch
ISBN-10: 3551781311
ISBN-13: 978-3551781314
Vom Hersteller empfohlenes Alter: 12 - 15 Jahre
Größe und/oder Gewicht: 11,4 x 2 x 17,4 cm
Profile Image for Selena Pigoni.
1,942 reviews264 followers
August 5, 2021
I used to love this series (as proven by my previous review on another edition) but now... Eh?

It's okay. The action holds up okay, as do the character designs. The art feels a little dated, but it looks okay.

My biggest question is what DMP was doing with this one. The Kindle ebook has the pages going right to left even though the book is read right to left, meaning that you can't get the full effect of the two-page spanning panels, of which there are quite a few in this book. I also question the translation... Is this the old Tokyopop translation? Because the book is titled "Erementar Gerade" (for some reason that escapes me) but the in-text "roll credits" moment is Elemental Gelade, and the Tokyopop explanation seems the most likely. It being a straight scan would also explain why color pages are still black-and-white...

Anyway, volume 1 isn't as good as I remember it, but since the library has the series in digital, I'll probably keep rereading.
Profile Image for Petros.
Author 1 book170 followers
May 22, 2025
This funny Engrish titled manga began on a very positive note. The first chapters were screaming Skies of Arcadia and Lunar: Eternal Blue, two once-popular JRPGs from the early 2000s. Airships, pirates, and a science fantasy setting that invites exploration.

Then, within a few chapters, all those cool concepts got ruined. The airship crushes, making the rest of the story to be on foot, there is no piracy, there is not much adventure, and the girls with superpowers become your bog-standard gooner material. Even worse than that, nothing really stands out much. Every single one of its ideas has already been explored better elsewhere.
Airships: Eureka Seven
Pirates: Vinland Saga
Girls turning to weapons: Soul Eater

Once you’ve red enough manga, you realize there is nothing special about this one. It’s tame in everything. Well… almost everything. There is an unhealthy amount of sexual assault and objectification of women. Every major villain is a full-fledged rapist, and every girl the protagonist meets will be placed in compromising positions on every other chapter. The latter is (of course) presented as comedy in an attempt to make it passable. Well, it isn’t when you know the protagonist is fooling around with girls that get constantly sexually harassed.

Despite the attempts to explore themes of racism and inhumane treatment, it falls flat on its face. The girls with superpowers are sought by powerful individuals who want to exploit their weapon capabilities. Somehow that means the ‘toxic males’ have to constantly rip the clothes of the girls and to treat them as whores. The protagonist is, of course, a Good Samaritan who treats them like people and allows them to join his team. This comes off more like a typical indecisive harem lead that constantly expands his collection of girl trophies, than a well-fleshed out individual who makes wise decisions. Constantly joking about it by having lukewarm scenes of sex comedy does not help.

Just to be clear, there are plenty of dynamic women as well who fight fairly well in many occasions. The short gal with the machineguns and the rocket launchers being the most obvious one. But even they have to constantly run around in tight short pants and leather bikinis, showing off their cameltoes at any chance they get. Such presentation lowers the theme exploration to junk levels, akin to Elfen Lied and Akame ga Kill.

The problems don’t end there. Despite having action, Elemental Gelade has fairly dull action scenes. They are short, lack battle tactics, and end with typical power of friendship nonsense. The protagonist for example has a grappling hook as his secondary weapon that lets him climb on tall buildings, swing across chasms, and stop his fall. It was an easy was to make the fights creative and yet he hardly uses it. Action meatheads will also get nothing out of it. Despite the occasional laser show, beams and explosions feel simple and lifeless. Schlock manga like Fairy Tail and Black Clover are at least offering basic fighting shonen spectacle and aura farming. This manga does not.

And there is yet another negative aspect. The plot repeats itself. The locations and the characters involved may change, but the plot structure remains the same. The protagonist encounters a cute or sexy girl with powers, who is being manipulated (usually in a sexual manner) by a one-dimensional asshole. He will scream about how unfair that is (despite being a pirate who steals stuff) and will use the power of friendship to beat the asshole after a short action scene. Then he will add the girl to his team (harem) and loaf around in ways that usually lead to basic-harem sex jokes. Rinse and repeat in the next arc.

Thus, what began as a promising adventure of one man and one girl on an airship, ends up as one man and his bog standard harem, walking and dealing with rapists. This structure changes somewhat in the last arc, by being mostly serious and by having multiple scenes of body horror and mass destruction, but even there the resolution remains simple and bland. Thus, as a whole, Eremental Gelade wasted all its ideas early on and it quickly became a passable manga.
Profile Image for Chalinviri .
455 reviews
July 10, 2025
Esta muy fuerte este manga, creo que en el anime lo dulcificaron un montón, para empezar aquí el que pierde muere, y es como...que onda?.

Tenemos a Coud quien es un pirata (con todas sus letras) del cielo, es como un novato que siesta criando con esta pandilla que son como su familia, aunque son mucho mas complejos que solo ser camaradas.

en una de sus escaramuzas y por azares del destino se topa con Ren y contrario al anime, la relación de ellos es mucho mas seca e impersonal (aunque irónicamente el transmutar es algo muy intimo) y Ren al inicio solo ve a Coud como cama (eso si es muy cómico).

El desarrollo es muy muy lento, y hay mucha mas profundidad con los personajes como Cisqua (fisicamente parece Sakura Kinomoto), Rowen y Kuea (que no son amantes) e incluso Rowen tiene un desarrollo de personaje muy interesante.

Me sacó mucho de onda el maga, ya que contrario al anime que es mas ligero, rápido y cómico, el manga si profundiza mucho....ademas me gusta que el anime tiene final...el final del manga te deja con un continuara....

Aun así si recomiendo las 2 versiones para tener una experiencia mucho mas completa.
1 review
March 9, 2020
I like this book hope you like it too. First I did not wanna read the book but then I liked it a lot I might even read all of the serious because of my teacher... cou he is the maine carter and he was feeling sorry for himself when he comes across a box that the pirates have just stolen in the inside was a young girl her name is Ran she turns into a sword and a lot of people is hunting for her power cou likes her and wants to take her to a safe place but Ran have another place in mind. she wanna go to the place where she was born and if cou can get her there with no harm she will be an full fledged member of the Sky pirates.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Eric.
130 reviews2 followers
December 30, 2017
This is an older series. It's a mix of pirates and Soul Eater.

The main character is a pirate that is protecting his "treasure", and some of the girls can transform into weapons.

I wonder if the creator of Soul Eater got some of their ideas about people transforming into weapons from this?
Profile Image for Mikey The Librarian.
521 reviews4 followers
December 12, 2022
Full-Metal meets Skies of Arcadia meets your favorite late 99s anime. Fun read for those who like air ship pirates, adventure, and some serious heavy weaponry. Fantasy / Steam Punk fans lovers will enjoy.
Profile Image for Chris.
125 reviews32 followers
March 22, 2018
It was a cluster of cliches and the protagonist looks like Edward Elric, but I certainly had a good time when reading it. Plus, I genuinely did like the characters.
Profile Image for Nals.
159 reviews6 followers
May 26, 2023
Very fun, great art, exactly what it looks like.
586 reviews346 followers
Read
January 31, 2025
DNF about 30% in, didn't understand it and the Kindle version is poorly formatted. Maybe it would have been better in physical form, but this was from Libby.
Profile Image for Luula.
177 reviews25 followers
July 8, 2012
I've tried several times to read Elemental Gelade. There's nothing wrong with the series - it's one of the most capturing manga I've read, just that my local library always seemed to be missing one volume or another... So, here I am. This is quite possibly my fourth time of rereading the series...

Coud Van Giruet, known as Cou, is a sky-pirate. The book starts off in a raid he participated in. After the successful raid, Cou goes to investigate the bounty they collected. In it is Ren, an "Edel Raid". Ren is a living weapon made to be the ultimate fighting machine. But with the mysterious Arc Aile chasing after them, can Cou and Ren reach the Edel Garden safely?

As I said, I really enjoy this series, and I hope to finish it. The storyline is captivating, the characters are awesomely drawn and I love it.
Profile Image for Sophie Gonzales.
88 reviews10 followers
September 4, 2012
Actual rating: 2.5 / 5

There's always a certain amount of 'strange' guaranteed when you read manga. Plots are either exaggerated in some way (which can, sometimes, mean more awesome), and/or feature offbeat fantasy worlds.

Elemental Gelade is a unique sci-fi story, but I didn't find it that great. I don't know if this is just my problem, but sometimes I find manga difficult to follow because of jumps in time or location that aren't pointed out very clearly. Could this be an issue with translation? I don't know, maybe other manga readers can tell me if they've had similar problems. All I know is, Elemental Gelade presented me with an unforgivable amount of barriers. I couldn't even figure out whether the people who try to bribe the sky-pirates have good or bad intentions. Not to mention, the ending is very strange (even for a manga).
Profile Image for kuristina- tabreez.
1,030 reviews
February 23, 2013
Young sky pirate Coud van Giruet doesn't know what he's gotten himself into when he finds a so-called "Edel Raid", or human weapon, in the loot. This Edel Raid named Ren tries walking off the ship to Edel Garden as soon as she wakes up. By that point Coud has already sworn to take her there, and now the ship is being attacked by some strange self-proclaimed protection agency! What is a low-level pirate to do?!

-1st time reading
Profile Image for Karaoke OK.
94 reviews2 followers
September 15, 2008
[Series Length: 11 volumes / Read: volumes 1-6]

(Would you like me to post a short review of this series? Feel free to place a request in my GoodReads InBox. Thanks!)
Profile Image for Fugo Feedback.
5,199 reviews175 followers
June 27, 2012
Guion previsible. Dibujo zafable. Traducción pésima. Conclusión: no, gracias.
Profile Image for Jessica.
248 reviews
October 8, 2012
Hope it gets better. It was okay. I like it, but am skeptical. If it gets worse, I'm going to have to stop reading it. Don't want to waste my reading time.
Profile Image for Nitzan Schwarz.
1,249 reviews223 followers
August 13, 2015
Read: August 13, 2015

I'm putting the dates here so it won't count in the reading challenge.
Profile Image for Scott Whitney.
1,115 reviews14 followers
July 28, 2016
A light hearted story with a lot of potential. We will see if the rest of the story lives up to that potential. Some of the characters are a little annoying, but the story line has promise.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews