Monster 7
Posted: October 29, 2008 Filed under: Monster 2 Comments »This will also be short, but only because there’s not much I can say about Monster that won’t spoil the volume.
I’m much happier reading these volumes now that Johan is playing an active part. This volume follows a private investigator. This man, Richard, used to serve on the police force, but was forced off his job and gave up all his cases after he shot a murder suspect while drunk. As he interviews and digs for information surrounding the suicide of the boy from last volume, he realizes more and more that all his past unsolved cases were connected. It’s a really amazing way to introduce all the action and unfold the plot for the main characters in this town.
Tenma doesn’t really appear until the end of the volume. I would kind of like the action to switch back to him since I like the actual plot of the series, Tenma trying to prove he’s not a murderer, so much. Not focusing on him isn’t really boring or detrimental like it is in other series, though. I have yet to find myself uninterested in any of the side characters and the stories, especially since they always, always form a part of the cohesive whole. Of course, we get enough Johan that not having Tenma around very much is forgivable. Johan does… well, a terrible thing. We learn a bit of how exactly he works, and it is most fascinating as well as tragic.
Speaking of the Tezuka character cameos from Black Jack I talked about earlier today… this bothered me last volume, but the scientist in this series… he’s Shunsaku Ban, Tezuka’s oldest and most-used character. There’s no arguing this point, that’s just who he is. I don’t think his name is ever given, but I think that’s because everyone already knows (not that he doesn’t have a name in the series; I’m sure he does, I just haven’t seen it yet). I would have my doubts normally, but obviously Urasawa is a big Tezuka fan, given the fact he remade a single Astro Boy story into an entire series and that his main character in this series, Dr. Tenma, shares a name with Tobio’s father in Astro Boy.
By Johan’s terrible deed, do you mean showing the rabbit’s foot to the old guy? I felt so bad for Karl’s super sweet foster parents!
Oh, I know. I felt a little bad for Karl in general, but tossing his foster parents to the wayside (or so it seems) after he finds out about his real father was pretty cold.
For Johan’s deed, I was thinking more about how he was doing his best to try and talk the detective into suicide. That part really gave me nightmares.