Monster 17
Posted: October 29, 2009 Filed under: Monster Leave a comment »Naoki Urasawa – Viz – 2008 – 18 volumes
I knew it! I knew once the threads of the story converged, things would get really great really fast. I would have liked to have seen this happen more often, but then again, that isn’t the nature of the story. It’s supposed to have everyone working independently on different versions of the Johan riddle. This ending wouldn’t be spectacular if this wasn’t the first time it happened.
So. After a somewhat disappointing finish to the Anna/Johan confrontation last volume (I’m still not sure how that happened… how could a confrontation between those two be disappointing?), the action moves to a town in Germany called Ruhenheim. At first, it’s just Lunge hanging out for unspecified reasons. Then Grimmer joins him, and the two form an extremely unlikely pair that watches as everyone in the town goes insane. We eventually find out why both are there, and elsewhere, Tenma and Anna separately decide to join the two of them. We can assume Johan is hanging out somewhere, too, since apparently this is leading up to his… suicide?
Everything that happened here was pretty outstanding, and it was great to see the peace in the quiet little mountain town shatter as petty bickering escalated and people grew suspicious. I’m not convinced that the townspeople did everything implied, but we’ll find out next time. I also like that the setting is about to get cut off from the rest of the world by massive flooding. I’m curious as to how Tenma and Anna will get there, but I’m sure they’ll find a way.
If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to read the last volume right now.
