Bloody Monday Volume 3
Story: Ryou Ryumon
Art : Kouji Megumi
Translator: Mari Morimoto
Publisher: Kodansha Comics, $10.99, Rated 13+
At the end of volume 2, Fujimaru had hidden himself in Maya's apartment to look for evidence that she was involved in the "Bloody Monday" conspiracy. He's able to find her laptop, but it will take 10 minutes to steal the data off it. Problem is, Maya is on her way back, and the data is not going to be downloaded before she gets back. What's a genius hacker to do? Stop the transfer and possibly miss his only shot to see if Maya is involved, or figure out a way to explain why he is in her apartment? Fujimaru decides to take the risk and stay. What ensues is a cat and mouse intellectual game between Fuji and Maya that takes us into Death Note territory. It's a pretty exciting way to open the third volume.
In the meantime, Ryunosuke, Fuji's dad, has been framed for another murder, this time, the police detective that was helping Fuji. The killing was done by one of the cop's own men, so who knows how many terrorists have infiltrated positions of power. It's generally assumed that there is even a spy in Third-I. Fuji's friends on the school newspaper are also in danger. Hide's stepmom is revealed pretty early on in this third volume as an enemy agent involved in the plot.
The element I like the most in this series is that you don't know who to trust. Can you trust this cop, can you trust your friends, even your family? For a while there I thought that maybe Kujou Otoya might be "K", the leader of the bad guys. I still don't trust him. He just gives this odd vibe with the way he looks in some panels AND the fact that he seems pretty up on Russian. There's something there but I just can't put my finger on it. Even if he's not a spy, I think he's involved. I'm also suspecting that the head of Third-I is also a terrorist agent. Again, just a vibe I get. And I love that! That this book gives me a vibe. It makes me guess, conjecture, and want to find out the truth of it all.
Ryou Ryumon was obviously influenced by Death Note in the writing of Bloody Monday. Along with the constant mindgames, he even names the leaders of the virus plan "J" and "K". J is the second in command and reminds me a lot of L from Death Note. I think that in Death Note, even though Light and L were trying to stop each other, in a weird way they were having fun. Exhilirated because they were having use their brains to the utmost limits. I think they saw each other as equals. Almost like a pyschotic school rival dichotomy. In volume 3 of Bloody Monday, J even says that Fujimaru, somewhere deep down, is enjoying all this. You can tell in future volumes that these two guys are going to try to outwit each other in some high stakes mental poker much like L and Light in Death Note. Excited to see where this series goes.
My Grade: A-
No comments:
Post a Comment