In pursuit of evil – a review of the comic book “Monster”, vol. 1-2

Hanami released Monster for the first time in 2014. Is it worth reminding lovers of Japanese comics about this publication after eight years from the premiere?

 

Doctor’s dilemmas

Monsterit begins like an innocent story of manners. Just the protagonist, the extremely talented doctor Tenma, faces a moral dilemma. Is the lives of patients more important or obedience to the hospital management?! The next day, after making the right decision from the hero’s point of view, he loses everything. Not only does he get demoted, but even his fiancée leaves him. And then everything changes. Three employees of the facility are murdered. The titular monster, whom the protagonist unknowingly helped, is responsible for their death. Because of this, Tenma eventually quits his job as a doctor to hunt down the Monstrosity and thus clear his conscience. Unfortunately, an astute investigator with an unfailing memory suspects him of killing the doctors and even of many other crimes. And this is just the beginning of this interesting story, in which I was particularly intrigued by the titular antagonist. With each subsequent chapter, we only get a small amount of information about him. That’s why it’s so easy to get sucked into this book. In addition, there are various, interesting threads, including neo-Nazis.

Monster Hunt

There are many interesting characters in Monster , whose characters are clearly outlined. For the protagonist, human life is the most important thing, he will do anything to save every human being. However, the titular Monster turns out to be an exception. Tenma feels responsible for his crimes, so he intends to take his life! Inspector Lunge, a brilliant detective, is distinguished by his incredible memory, as well as a certain unusual tic. Namely, every more or less important message is recorded by pressing keys on an imaginary keyboard! And the truest femme fatale. Eva, who from the first frame looks quite possessive, unpleasant person. In the pages of the comic, anger can contort her face so much that I’m surprised she had so many admirers. The line is decent when we talk about the appearance of the characters. However, due to the large amount of text, I did not pay special attention to the graphic side of the text. However, I should say a little more about the release. Because Hanami decided to include two parts in one volume, so instead of eighteen volumes there will be only nine! Four typos caught my eye, but other than that I have nothing to complain about.

Is it worth joining Dr. Tenma?

The advantage of Monster is undoubtedly the intriguing plot and interesting, though a bit clichéd characters. Ultimately, however, this position did not capture my heart. For this reason, I do not feel the need to reach for the next volumes right away. In a while, maybe I’ll come back to this comic, because I’m curious who or what the title antagonist really is. If someone or criminal and sensational stories, and loves manga, I think he will be charmed by Monster .