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Holistic Guidance - Naoki Urasawa's Monster, Vol. 1
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List Price: $9.99
Our Price: $9.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: VIZ Media LLC
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5952
EAN: 9781591166412
ISBN: 1591166411
Label: VIZ Media LLC
Manufacturer: VIZ Media LLC
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 224
Publication Date: 2006-02-21
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
Reading Level: Young Adult
Studio: VIZ Media LLC
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Editorial Reviews:
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Brilliant doctor Kenzo Tenma risks his reputation and promising career to save the life of a critically wounded young boy. Unbeknownst to him, this child is destined for a terrible fate. Conspiracies, serial murders, and a scathing depiction of the underbelly of hospital politics are all masterfully woven together in this compelling manga thriller.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A memorable manga!
Comment: The villain and driving force of the story was a gentleman named Johan. Soft-spoken. Perceptive. Charismatic. Admired by those who wanted him to further their end. He was highly sought after. He knew it and played along, if only because the world was a chaotic mess to him anyway. His disciple said to a psychoanalyst, "Johan is special - he toys people like ants, squishing them with his fingers, making them suffer cruel fates. Just for kicks." His teacher remarked, "Johan is Hitler reincarnated. No, he's greater than Hitler. He's a demon from Hell." He was once been taken down by his twin sister, who, loving and hating him much, decided to appease his disquiet soul with a bullet. Doomsday, however, was postponed when a kind and noble doctor Tenma, his antithesis, saved him in a surgery that brought down his own career. By operating on Johan, Tenma brought back the Monster in question.
Story aside, I like the manga for its zig-zag technique, delivering the story Urasawa Naoki's way.
He likes to shift focus to divert attention. First, you find yourself following storyline A. The moment it leads to a revelation, as you turn the page expecting a conclusion, you realize you're elsewhere entirely, reading storyline B with another circumstance and set of characters. You don't know how B connects to A, or A to B, and really, the abruption throws you off because you're still biting your nails anticipating A. However, you're patient and follow along. Soon storyline B becomes meaningful as you learn about the new characters and how B affects A. A and B melt & fuse, and you grasp more meaning in the story, only to turn the page and yes! his trick, another plot twist - storyline C. The closer you get to the climax, the more curves and twists, almost like Urasawa's playing ball with you, returning it at evermore odd angles and testing how long you can hold court. Your mind gets like a newspaper editing room, in a frenzy to straighten out facts and questions. This wouldn't be half as interesting if clues from the plot twists did not slowly demystify the character and enigma of Johan. When you're at book 13, 14, or one of the high numbers, and familiar with the countless faces and background settings, you look back at the seemingly random developments and bemuse how they actually work together. You then realize the planning involved, Urasawa's sensitivity to tension and momentum, along with character design and perspective in the story, and eventually *insert applause* the kind of storytelling magic at hand.
The journey to discover the evil within a suffering soul is exciting. Reading it doesn't burn your fingers, but it's nice to feel a little heat.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Brilliance, a Model for Story Crafting
Comment: I'm not going to go into too much detail about all the reasons I'm in love with this series (and trust me, I could), but I will say that when I started reading, I thought it was going to be--of all things--a medical drama. Like House, or something. Well, I couldn't have been farther from the truth. In no time I was drawn into the tale and drawn in so well that I couldn't put it down. At every turn was a new character, who added their own experiences, opinion and insight to the ever-growing and ever complicating plot. It came to a point where I sometimes had to walk away, or sit back in my chair and just gape in awe at how such a complicated, intricate and beautiful tale could be structured, and in manga form no less. The issues, themes, characters, everything was just spot on. One of my favorite stories of all time, quite easily.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Entertaining
Comment: Great Art, Superb story, I got hooked from the begining; and I will sure
read em all.
Customer Rating:
Summary: a brilliant thriller
Comment: I'll keep this one short - you need to buy this to see how easy it is for a master to pull you in without even introducing characters or a plot! It's an incredible page-turner, even backwards and in black and white. Reader beware: there are only 4 or 5 volumes of the 18 or so available right now! If you start this you will be in for the long haul. If you get really addicted you can always torrent some fan subs of the extremely faithful anime production.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Monster
Comment: Unbelievable! You will be engrossed in the world created by Naoki Urasawa. The story is superb and the character development couldn't be more detailed. The pychoanalysis of each player is unmatched in other manga. You can't get better than this. The content is intelligent and accurate. The author did his homework on psychology, neurology, surgical procedures and the history of Germany around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It's impressive. Not much on Japanese culture but that's also interesting. You have a Japanese protagonist and you have German culture. Morality and how far you can push someone until they loose their humanity is explored. The antagonist is facinating. In some novels he doesn't even make an appearance yet you feel his presence throght the elaborate descriptions of his character from the mouth of others. Nicely done. The action is non-stop, especially in volume four. The violence is very real and it will get to you. But you won't loose hope because the main character is so amazing.
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