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kristenbooks 's review for:
Naoki Urasawa's Monster, Volume 1: Herr Dr. Tenma
by Naoki Urasawa
3/4/21-- I remembered really enjoying the first volume of the perfect edition, but the first "regular" volume is truly such a fascinating setup for the series. It's been a bit over 4 years since I first started this series, and I didn't have strong feelings on it overall and ended up never returning to it after vol 5 (of the regular version). However, for a couple of years now, I've been of the belief that I would enjoy this more upon a re-read. If this first volume is an indication of what's to come, I think I was correct.
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Spoiler text is a summary of the volume as a point of reference to look back to so that I know what happened in each volume.
1995: Tenma is still head surgeon at the hospital. Murders of couples continue to happen and the same detective/investigator suspects Tenma. A patient, suspect in some of these events, begins talking about a monster coming. Tenma comes to visit him while off duty, but discovers him running away. He follows him to discover him being held by a man at gunpoint. Tenma realizes that this man is the boy he treated 10 years before, who went by the name Johan back then. Johan kills the man and lets Tenma go.
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Spoiler text is a summary of the volume as a point of reference to look back to so that I know what happened in each volume.
Spoiler
1985: Dr. Tenma is an extremely talented surgeon, working his way up the success ladder. He's dating the daughter of the hospital's director. However, this director is rather corrupt and favors important people such as politicians. One day, fed up with the director's politics, Tenma decides to treat a young boy (who came in with his sister) instead of an important politician. The other doctors fail to save the politician, but Tenma saves the boy. He loses favor with the director and Eva no longer wants to be with him. The boy goes missing. The director of the hospital is killed(along with other important men), and a series of murders happen. A creepy detective begins investigating. With the corrupt leaders out of the way, Tenma is promoted to head surgeon.1995: Tenma is still head surgeon at the hospital. Murders of couples continue to happen and the same detective/investigator suspects Tenma. A patient, suspect in some of these events, begins talking about a monster coming. Tenma comes to visit him while off duty, but discovers him running away. He follows him to discover him being held by a man at gunpoint. Tenma realizes that this man is the boy he treated 10 years before, who went by the name Johan back then. Johan kills the man and lets Tenma go.