![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Nov. 9th, 2009 12:05 pmSo along with 20th Century Boys, I have also been reading Urasawa's Monster and I am now up to Volume 7!
I don't love Monster as much as I love 20th Century Boys, but I do like it a lot, especially now that the plot has picked up and gotten creepier and more complicated. The story follows Tenma, a Japanese doctor in Germany, who rebels against the prestige-based hospital system and chooses to operate on a young boy instead of the town's mayor, in a stand for truth, justice and principle! Unfortunately the child that he saves turns out to be a cold-blooded murderer who proceeds to go on a rampage throughout Germany. OOPS. After the initial setup, the plot follows Tenma as he careens around post-Cold-War Germany trying to stop Johan, gradually picking up allies and enemies, occasionally performing NINJA NEUROSURGERY, and avoiding the police (who of course think he is the prime suspect for the murders.) What makes the story exceptional is the way that the plot really intertwines with the culture and politics of Germany in the 90s. There are plotlines dealing with prejudice against Turkish immigrants, with the various political factions of the country and with the resentment of the people who lost their homes and businesses with reunification, and the whole situation is presented as accurately complicated and is really well-done. (There is also a hilariously accurate depiction of 80s and 90s fashions!)
Characterwise, I still spend more time facepalming at Tenma than otherwise (my biggest quibble with the series - the way various people keep meeting Tenma and knowing instinctively that he couldn't kill anyone! IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY! The series even recognizes this with Johan, which is why it ticks me off so much with Tenma) but I really like a ton of the side characters. Favorites include Anna/Nina, Johan's sweet, pretty and totally badass twin sister, and Tiny Adorable Dieter, who makes the most hilarious dubiousfaces, and who really should demonstrate more issues than he does, but I don't really care because he's hardcore adorable and adorably hardcore. (Urusawa is not as good at drawing differentiated/individual child characters here as he will get in 20th Century Boys, but he is AWESOME at drawing tiny dubiousfaces.)
( Spoilers under the cut! )
And hey, while I'm talking about Urusawa, I might as well add in ( spoilery reactions to Volume 5 of 20th Century Boys )
I don't love Monster as much as I love 20th Century Boys, but I do like it a lot, especially now that the plot has picked up and gotten creepier and more complicated. The story follows Tenma, a Japanese doctor in Germany, who rebels against the prestige-based hospital system and chooses to operate on a young boy instead of the town's mayor, in a stand for truth, justice and principle! Unfortunately the child that he saves turns out to be a cold-blooded murderer who proceeds to go on a rampage throughout Germany. OOPS. After the initial setup, the plot follows Tenma as he careens around post-Cold-War Germany trying to stop Johan, gradually picking up allies and enemies, occasionally performing NINJA NEUROSURGERY, and avoiding the police (who of course think he is the prime suspect for the murders.) What makes the story exceptional is the way that the plot really intertwines with the culture and politics of Germany in the 90s. There are plotlines dealing with prejudice against Turkish immigrants, with the various political factions of the country and with the resentment of the people who lost their homes and businesses with reunification, and the whole situation is presented as accurately complicated and is really well-done. (There is also a hilariously accurate depiction of 80s and 90s fashions!)
Characterwise, I still spend more time facepalming at Tenma than otherwise (my biggest quibble with the series - the way various people keep meeting Tenma and knowing instinctively that he couldn't kill anyone! IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY! The series even recognizes this with Johan, which is why it ticks me off so much with Tenma) but I really like a ton of the side characters. Favorites include Anna/Nina, Johan's sweet, pretty and totally badass twin sister, and Tiny Adorable Dieter, who makes the most hilarious dubiousfaces, and who really should demonstrate more issues than he does, but I don't really care because he's hardcore adorable and adorably hardcore. (Urusawa is not as good at drawing differentiated/individual child characters here as he will get in 20th Century Boys, but he is AWESOME at drawing tiny dubiousfaces.)
( Spoilers under the cut! )
And hey, while I'm talking about Urusawa, I might as well add in ( spoilery reactions to Volume 5 of 20th Century Boys )
