| Title | : | Naoki Urasawas Monster, Volume 2: Surprise Party (Naoki Urasawas Monster, #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1421501120 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781421501123 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 216 |
| Publication | : | First published September 1, 1995 |
Tenma springs to action when he discovers that Johan, the boy whose life he saved nine years ago, has grown up and turned into a serial killer. But when Tenma finds out that Johan has strong inside connections with government officials, he realizes that this monster is far more powerful than he could have ever imagined.
Naoki Urasawas Monster, Volume 2: Surprise Party (Naoki Urasawas Monster, #2) Reviews
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This was quite good and focuses on where Nina is and whos he really is and the psychological effects this encounter has had on the mind of Kenzo as he is trying to find about the origins and where he has been of Johan but what he discovers will change his world and will he able to save a certain someone? But when his life hangs in the balance and his job is threatened, suspicions are on him and he become a renegade what happens then? Plus what and who is Johan really?
This was a fascinating volume and like all great things ups the mystery and I love the slow burn and like seeing the fall out and the mysteries and the story with Nina. Plus I like how the writer in the end even amps up the tension and shows Kenzo in a weird position but never losing sight of the main story points and the art in here is so good. Some of the best for sure. Plus the ending will have you in smiles but great things happening. 3.5/5. -
The mystery is deepening and I'm getting sucked in with it. Nina is going to be a very interesting character even beyond being the twin sister. I like the doctor a lot more, too, and understand why he's willing to give up his practice so easily to right the original wrong he had done by saving the boy. It's creepy and fascinating, now. I'm eating out of the comic's hand. It's so easy to see how everything is going to turn to crap for these poor characters.
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So far I haven't really gotten enough in this series to really form an opinion as to whether I like it or not, but what I've read so far I'm really enjoying!
I look forward to seeing where this heads in the next 16 volumes!
The last scene was super sweet too :') -
Not quite as interesting as the first volume. But the plot is thickening. The characters are growing. Open ends will be connected in the coming volumes.
I'm going to read all 18 volumes of it. -
All the political machinations in this volume are great! The volume begins with Tenma realizing that the little boy he helped save is really a serial killer. I loved that twist! It really messes with Tenma's mind, and we have some great scenes with Tenma coming to terms with that.
Now with Tenma on the run and trying to solve the mystery on his own, all the while running for his own life, the series is starting to pick up the pace and becoming harder to put down! -
Dr. Tenma failed to stop the murder of Fortners and Journalist from the monster. Now he himself is training to be assassin , will be able to stop monster amidst of himself being the suspect of the various murders ?
In all a exciting volume to read. -
Doing marathon on this captivating thriler.
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I liked this one a lot more than the first one! Barely any of it took place in the hospital and I loved learning the backstory about the sister.
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compelling, thrilling and masterfully written as my curiosity grows every chapter!
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3/6/21-- idk if i just wasn't as emphatic about it before, or if i legitimately am enjoying it more this time, but i forgot how fantastic the setup for this series is, within the first volume of the perfect edition (the first 2 original volumes). I've honestly been very tempted to bump these 2 volumes up to 5/5, but have refrained. Regardless, I'm really excited to continue on, and hope my enjoyment carries through the rest of the series.
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Spoiler text below describes the plot of the volume so that I have a summary of each volume as a point of reference. -
Hmmm this one was okay. Kind of anti-climatic. Solid 3 stars.
Surprise Party is the sequel so like always I can't speak to much about this one in detail. This book takes place 9 years after the first book. The story focuses on a new person for most of the book. Dr. Kenzo Tenma is also in this volume, still searching for the killer Johan.
Does anyone else feel that the inspector is super creepy? It's sort of cliche, but I hate when there is the slimy cop who is just looking to pin the crime on an innocent because they just want the case closed or because they are too busy to find out all the information. Pride gets in the way I think. They won't back down. They have an idea, the figure they know the criminal and regardless of what they find out in their search they continue to bag the innocent one.
I can't believe this series has 18 volumes! I'm in it for the long haul.
Extra** Kenzo's ex-wife is such a douche lol. -
El número 1 me pareció bastante malo por la seguidilla de clichés y personajes acartonados que tenía, pero supuse que era consecuencia de ser un tomo demasiado "introductorio" y que una vez que el conflicto principal estuviera establecido, el relato se iba a poner progresivamente mejor. Por ahora, parece que tengo razón, porque este tomo supera por mucho a la primera parte, el ritmo y la narrativa cambian vertiginosamente y los personajes van perdiendo esa bidimensionalidad irritante y se vuelven un cachito menos predecibles. En cuanto a la edición argentina (que supongo que terminaré subiendo cuando tenga ejemplar propio) es bastante buena en cuanto a traducción, pese a las siempre presentes faltas ortográficas, a unas onomatopeyas horribles y unas tapas que se doblan con extrema facilidad.
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9 years ago Dr Tenma operated on boy and thus saved the child's life. OK. But why should the surgeon feel any responsibility for Johan's crimes? I don't understand why Tenma has made his mission to catch Johan. I would have understood if Tenma had felt some sort responsibility towards the Turkish man's family...*shrugs* It's not like Tenma believes that criminal's shouldn't get medical care and/or second chance- he was quite friendly with Junker.
While I'm confused with main character's actions I like the story and mystery :) -
May 30, 2016
It's been 9 years since the strange chain of murders around Dr. Tenma. The twins he was treating at the time are still missing, and life seems to have moved on. Meanwhile a bright young girl with no recollection of her childhood receives mysterious emails from a stranger, promising a fateful meeting. What she doesn't know is that her life is about to tragically and irrevocably change forever. Excellent volume. -
Urasawa does a great job in portraying the fragile and multiple layers of the souls of his characters. Be it the surgeon who did the ethical thing and brought a monster back to life or the soldier who did his job and holds on to his guilt.
An intense second chapter in the story with a bittersweet ending that brought a tear to my eye. -
I have no ides where the fuck we are going with this, but i want to see what the hype is about sepse everyone calls it a great manga.
U trishtova shume per ate gazetarin.
Burri me gocen ne fund, shume cute <3 -
i am FREAKING OUT
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Truly amazing manga. This, along with The drops of God, has got me into manga, hard. Borrowing this from the library like crazy.
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aşırı sürükleyici ve heyecanlı, okurken bir sonraki karede ne olacak diye düşünmeden duramıyorum. bayıldım bu hikayeye!
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4.5
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peguei o ritmo e tô gostando
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*chef's kiss* every single time
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Este tomo supera sin dudas al anterior. no sé cómo describir la ansiedad y desesperación que va generando. Las expresiones de los personajes son tan reales que te entristece por momentos. Este tomo es el punto de quiebre, acá empieza la verdadera historia de Monster.
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Synopsis
Dr. Tenma is from Japan but is working as a brain surgeon in Germany. He’s all set up for a promotion and to marry the head chairman of the hospital’s daughter. That is, everything seems to be going well until he decides to save the life of a young child instead of the right elite politician he’s supposed to be saving. Tenma’s career is already on a downhill spiral after disobeying orders and going against the underlying unfair politics of the hospital, but the consequences become far worse when Tenma realizes he’s created a (dun dun dun) Monster!
Monster, Volume 2: Surprise Party by Naoki Urasawa
★★★★★
Genre: Mystery/Crime/Suspense
Release Date: September 1995
Source: Library – Borrowed
On My Shelf: I Wish
Holy wow did this story really take off. I thought the first book was insane, but this story tripled in crazy. This volume jumps abruptly ahead 9 years. At first I didn’t know how I felt about that (although I’ve noticed that in manga drastic time jumps seem to happen nonchalantly), but the story immediately took off and had me hooked even more than the first one (if that’s possible).I thought the first cliffhanger had killed me, but it was nothing compared to the end of this second installment.
What I enjoyed most about this story was the introduction and development of a strong female character. Her character is so incredibly well-written, and she’s so much fun to root for! Honestly, I loved the way this story continued, and I love the direction the plot took.
Be wary, there seems to be murders around every corning in this one. IT’s on of those agonizing yet wonderful books that you have to watch who you invest your heart into. Will everyone be safe? Probably the main characters are safe, but you never really can be sure.
This is an excellent sequel that left me itching for more.
Review of
Volume 1: Herr Dr. Tenma
Review of
Volume 3: 511 Kinderheim
Review of
Volume 4: Ayse's Friend
Review of
Volume 5: After the Carnival
Review of
Volume 6: The Secret Woods
Review originally published on my Wordpress blog
Dreaming Through Literature. -
"And I will keep on doing what I am doing to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light." 2 Corinthians 12-14
"He never sleeps. He says that he will never die. He dances in light and in shadow and he is a great favorite. He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die.” - Blood Meridian
I tend to be a sucker for strong concepts. Give me a good hook for a story and I'll read it, even if it doesn't entirely grab me in the end. Much of the time, I'm disappointed when a concept is misused or the author/artist doesn't explore the concept's full potential, merely touching upon it to get the readers hooked and then going on about their own interests or in the worst-case scenario, destroying the momentum that's been built. But Monster is different, as it's the rare series that delivers on its concept, while also being a very fast paced, entertaining story.
I've tried to expand my horizons in the world of comics and read foreign comics, and manga has been on that list of foreign comics to read. I've read several manga such as Lone Wolf and Cub, Akira, Bastard, and Death Note which I've enjoyed to various degrees, but the name Naoki Urasawa has come up with almost religious reverence in the circles that I've come across in the manga fandom. I'm happy to say that Urasawa is a writer-artist combination who proves to be as skilled of a storyteller as he is a draughtsman.
Urasawa shows himself to be a master of pacing, a master of suspense, and a master storyteller. While Monster starts off slowly, Urasawa keeps the audience invested with deft plotting and intricate attention to character, before taking the audience on a wild ride from beginning to end. Much of his skill also comes from his sense of the mystique, giving us little niblets of a much grander mystery that keeps his audience coming back for more. It is this ability that kept me coming back for more. I was impressed with the psychological progression of the characters, how their beliefs change throughout the story, and how they grow from the experiences that they go through during the events of the story.
Urasawa's art is likewise skilled, it is cartoon-like, while also being filled with character and personality. All his characters have distinct designs, and a character rarely looks similar to the other. An issue I often find with manga art is that all the characters look like children, and at their oldest late teens to early 30s. I wouldn't be surprised if Urasawa was influenced by the artwork of Katsuhiro Otomo, as he shares his eye for detail and distinct characteristics of his characters. Though Urasawa's art often runs toward the gothic. My friend
Dave put it nicely when he said that this series has such an ominous and otherworldly feel that it sometimes feels fantastic.
Proof of this idea is with the main antagonist Johan, the titular monster, someone who is so detached from the rest of humanity that it seems that he is something otherworldly. Like Anton Chigurh or The Joker, Johan's evil is something that is so incomprehensible to the human psyche, that even when his motives are clear we are still unable to penetrate why he does what he does. What makes him so frightening isn't that he's particularly malicious or sadistic, it's that he is completely indifferent towards the lives around him, including his own. Urasawa plays his cards beautifully by never showing Johan too much or stooping to cliches where he taunts the heroes, he proves to be more of a force of nature than a cartoon bad guy.
Much of the series explores the relationship of protagonist Dr. Tenma and Johan and how both effect the world around them. They're not merely enemies, but existential opposites who are forced to collide. As Robert McGee pointed out, a protagonist's journey is only as good as the forces that antagonize him. Tenma's journey is ripe with struggle as he uncovers the mystery of who Johan is and all the forces that seek him for good or ill. Yet what allows Tenma to win is the fact that he chooses to hang on to being good, despite being in a world that is so transparently corrupt, becoming just as incomprehensible to the people who want to exploit or use him for their own ends.
I was also very surprised with the depth of the side characters that Urasawa introduced and how many stories he weaved into the story without losing the threads of the main plot. While they might seem frivolous at first glance, Urasawa always manages to find a way to weave them back into the main story somehow, where no detail is lost in the abyss. Much of the emotion that I felt through the series came from the side characters often, and Urasawa proves to be as gifted with characterization as Stephen King, creating characters with depth and nuance that gives the story its heart despite all the horrors that happen in it.
I continually stand in awe with how Urasawa manages to connect all these seemingly loose threads together to create one big story. It's rare that a story delivers on its core concept so adroitly, yet Urasawa does this and then some. He puts many comic creators around the world to shame, and he has fun doing it. His boundless imagination and his sense of set up and pay off will keep readers entertained as the story moves along as it does, culminating to an ending that is as oddly fitting as you could be with this story.
It's rare that a story explores evil with such nuance and creativity, we see all aspects of human evil be laid to bare through this series without reservation, rather it be the casual indifference of Johan, the selfish opportunism of the neo-Nazis, or the banal cruelty of the scientists from Kinderheim 511. One can also see the film Halloween being an influence on this series considering how Johan is much like Michael Myers, especially with the ending which I won't spoil here. Good might have triumphed today, Johan might be stopped, but he'll never truly be gone...
After all, evil never really dies, does it? -
In this volume: the police definitely think Dr. Tenma is a murderer, even though he is the one who is actively trying to stop "Johan." I was so sad that he wasn't able to save Nina's parents, but glad he was at least able to get to her first. I'm curious where she has run off to, but hope she is living a good life some where. The agent who is so relentless pursuing Dr. Tenma is so frustrating, because if he would just talk to anyone who actually knows Kenzo, he'd find out what a caring, kind-hearted person he is. We still don't find out why Johan started murdering people, but maybe he's just psychotic.
The second volume of this manga was more engaging to me than the first, but I think this is where I'm going to leave off. There are just too many books I want to read and not enough time to keep up with ones I'm don't feel invested in. -
A dark and intense, but not overwhelming second book. Clearly the work of a master. Held me captive from cover to cover.
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Intriguing. This in book 2 of an 18 volume series. It is an interesting story line, and I look forward to reading the rest of the series.
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Ok I’m into it.
