Monster Vol 15 by Naoki Urasawa

It’s hard to talk about a book this good.

Monster is an 18 volume manga created by Naoki Urasawa. With its sales of over 25 million copies, multiple awards, and a successful anime adaptation, the book obviously achieved great success in Japan. It is constantly nominated for awards in the United States as its translations are released, and there are currently plans for an English-language motion picture version.

So why haven’t you heard of it?

Monster tells the story of a Japanese brain surgeon named Kenzo Tenma who lives and works in Germany. Hospital politics continually to grate on his nerves, and his superiors constantly ask him to set aside his moral concerns and follow orders. One day he is ready to operate on a young peasant boy when an important, wealthy figure is brought to him. He is ordered to switch patients and refuses, operating on the boy instead.

The wealthy patient dies. Tenma is removed from his position. His license is revoked. His fiancé breaks up with him. Later he is framed for murder. And as it turns out, the young boy he operated on is absolutely and without question evil.

By doing the right thing, he has unleashed every manner of wrong.

The book, from the first volume on, asks all kinds of interesting, difficult questions. What is right and wrong? Do the ends justify the means? Can an evil action be justified? And all the time it does so through a chilling, edge-of-your-seat thrill ride from one part of Europe to the next. The slow change that overcomes Dr. Tenma is crushing to watch, as he goes from enthusiastic young surgeon to…whatever he has become by this point in time.

Obviously volume 15 would be a horrible place to start reading, which makes it difficult to review. If you’ve read this far into the series then you, like myself, are hooked. You’re going to want this volume, and it’s going to fit like the next piece of a very rewarding puzzle.

But here’s the skinny: This volume is great. The art seems to get better with each chapter, and the characters are really hitting their peaks. The farther into the book we get, the more motives everyone seems to have. And it’s fascinating that in three more volumes the whole thing will be finished.

You should read Monster. If you like comics, if you like fiction, if you like tightly woven narratives with existential questions and complicated motives, if you like complex storytelling and characterization, if you like guns and chase scenes, or if you just like a good thriller, this book is for you. In case it hasn’t become abundantly clear by now, this book gets my highest recommendation; if you read comics, you should be reading Monster. Even if you don’t ordinarily like manga, this book will probably scratch an itch you didn’t even know you had.



My favorite part this volume:
“It’s amazing. A single necktie will get you anywhere… Just a single, stupid little necktie…”