Forum - View topicREVIEW: Monster GN 17-18
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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Um... I think you're reading too much into it... I don't think he meant to redeem the person in question at all, just make him all the more confusing and once again refuse to give the simple answer of why he is the way he is, which is one of the things I liked the best about this series. |
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FeralKat
Posts: 402 |
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spoiler[Yes, it was confusing, but IMHO, Johan's motives and past were intentionally left vague to drive the point that evil sometimes can't be explained, it just exists to exist. Of course, Johan was turned into a monster purposely, so I don't know how much that holds.]
It was good series, and the ending disappointed me slightly, but I can't imagine it ending any other way. EDIT: I put spoiler tags just to be safe. |
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Ragebot
Posts: 42 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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Mentioning Sophie's Choice in this review is more than a bit questionable. Monster is a psychological thriller, not a introspective character drama. (It has strong characterization, but its tied to a thriller-centric style.)
Also, and this is what particularly bothers me, but even hinting at the psychological motivations at some of the characters like you did in the opening paragraph almost spoils the sheer dramatic power of the revelation. |
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Ian K
 Posts: 250 |
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I don't object to Casey's ideas or her criticisms, but the review is completely unbalanced.
Let's break this down. We get four paragraphs telling us that Monster is not great literature, and expounding on how it fails in detail. Then we get a paragraph telling us that the art is good. Then the conclusion tells us that flaws aside, these volumes are actually pretty good. And then the final score is an A-. I'm sorry, but I think that's crap. Again, I don't object to Casey's points (I haven't read the titles in question so I have no idea how accurate they are or are not), but this an editorial, not a review. A review should be balanced across the whole spectrum of things to criticize, and not get stuck on one hang up for more than 2/3 of it's length, unless that hang up destroys the item's quality - and judging from the final score, in this case it does not. It's possible that the reviewer assumed that since these were the final volumes of the series, it was okay to skip the stuff that "everybody knows by now" and focus on the issues raised by these volumes. The problem is that some people will read the review of the final volumes before starting the series to make sure that the ending doesn't suck - and anyone who failed to see the score at the bottom would probably get dissuaded by the critic's ranting, and miss out on the experience of "clinging to the edge of the proverbial seat". Last edited by Ian K on Thu Dec 18, 2008 6:54 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Labbes
 Posts: 890 |
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That's great. With Nanoha and Death Note, people complain that the review is bad because it doesn't take the show for what it wants to be and thus the show gets a bad "score", and now, people complain that someone points out the flaws, but takes it for what it wants to be, resulting in a good score.
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Ian K
Posts: 250 |
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I don't think that the review does "take it for what it wants to be" at all. The review focuses on showing that Monster fails as a piece of literature - there's nothing wrong with that, but when all we get on the volumes' strengths is a few sentences at the very end, while the reviewer still sees fit to give them an A-, something is wrong. If Casey felt that those problems were so great that they knocked the piece down to a C or something, giving the review such a focus would be understandable (of course, then she'd have a whole 'nother set of problems from Monster's fans, but that's neither here nor there).
Still, you have a point. I may have going overboard saying "This is a bad review". Perhaps I would have been better off saying it is unbalanced and needs to be tweaked. |
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Ian K
Posts: 250 |
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I guess my point is, I want to know if this is the sort of thing I will like. Tell me what the flaws are, definitely, but take some time to expound upon what it does right (if anything).
So, the review tells me, it's a page turner. That doesn't really give me very much. Why did the reviewer find it engrossing? I don't know. After reading this review, I doubt most people would feel any desire to check out Monster if they haven't already been exposed to it - even if, as the title's popularity would suggest, many of them would like it. |
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MrAnimeSpecialist
 Posts: 124 |
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Now that the manga series is done, Viz (or someone more worthy) should think about licensing the anime.
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Labbes
Posts: 890 |
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As far as I know, they did and reportedly already started dubbing - not sure whether it's VIZ or Funimation, though. |
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vashfanatic
Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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For me the ending was less unsatisfying and more... unsettling. spoiler[One of the major elements of the series is the "puzzle" of Johan, only he leaves it unsolved. We never exactly know why he's the way he is; even his mother's abandonment of him doesn't explain it, because how many children would decide to start killing everyone they met from something as simple as that? It happens all the time, but not with this kind of result. The message to me, with the series taken as a whole, is that we all have terrible evil inside of us, Johan was only a more hideous example of it. And our hope lies that every once in a while there will come along someone like Dr. Tenma who can't bring himself to pull the trigger.] I'm not going to argue that he does have a bit of Sophie's Choice in this, and that some of Ms. Brienza's criticisms are valid; there's no such thing as a perfect manga. I do agree that the review itself seems a bit at odds with the final score, but I think that's the perogative of the reviewer. Most of us who'd been following the manga were going to buy these anyway. Also, I don't know why the chronology here is confusing, although I've heard other people say that. Maybe it comes from me re-reading all previous volumes before reading the new one that comes out? (Yeah, I kinda love this series)
ANN only lists "Salami Studios" for the English release version. Never heard of 'em. Anyhoo... now that Monster's over, we can look forward to "20th Century Boys" and "Pluto." I think the former goes a little bit over the top with the twists and the sprawling cast, which is maybe why I like the latter so much; from what I read online before it was licensed, it's a lot more compact, and shorter, with really amazing art. I really love Urasawa Naoki; I wish they'd go back and license "Yawara!" too (manga, not that anime). |
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Labbes
Posts: 890 |
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animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=601179&highlight= <--- this thread for more info on the anime release for Monster.
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babbo
Posts: 274 |
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These are exactly my sentiments. Taking a book and using it to thoroughly color your review of another leads to constant comparison between the two that all to often leads to the reviewer wishing that the reviewed piece was like the one being used for comparison. Let's not judge it for what it isn't. I'm kind of wondering why 17 and 18 were reviewed together as well. |
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vashfanatic
Posts: 3495 Location: Back stateside |
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I'm guessing she was sent two copies at once. |
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driverstart
 Posts: 214 Location: America |
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Hmm... I liked the ending... it felt good and it left me with a good question that was left unanswer. I knew there would be an unanswer question in the end (This series felt like it was going to give me one from the first volume) so it doesn't disappoint me, I kind of perfer it that way.
This review seems a little weird to me. The whole review felt like the reviewer didn't like the story and was constantly saying it wasn't good at all, so I was rather surprised that the story actually got an A. It felt like a mixed signal to me. Either you like it or you don't, what is it? I don't dislike the reviewer mind you, but it just felt that the review was a bit off. |
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Mumei5
Posts: 5 |
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Well, now I know why the story received only a B+. spoiler[Johan was put in Kinderheim 511 when he and his sister were discovered on the border of Czechoslovakia and East Germany by General Wolf. This was after the incidents at the Red Rose Mansion - this can be discerned from the fact that the incidents at the Mansion happened when Nina was taken from their mother, the fact that the Mansion is located in the Czech Republic, or any number of cues. This was after the twins meet Tenma for the first time. They met Tenma after their parents were killed after reaching West Germany. They were adopted in East Germany.] None of that was Byzantine. Judging by the description of what happens in Volume 18 as "Johan's long-cherished, long-concealed desire," when it wasn't his desire until Chapter 142, and it certainly wasn't something that was cherished, and your own admission that it was difficult for you to figure out what was going on, I have to wonder how well you actually understood the story. |
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