A review of the manga : Museum

Museum

by Kagiso Kwenda

Dreaming and reality

A museum is a space were the public or individuals goes to indulge themselves with ornaments or concepts which have embedded themseves in times-arrow they remain there still,fixed -never changing -one could say this that time changes around them, What's the fixation on these ornaments(or ornaments of abstraction) one could ask? what do we get from these objects or concepts? These are the thing the manga tries to answer or shed light on.

The author -Ryousuke Tomoe-explores the museum of the mind or how our mind function on its primitive level and in dealing either with our frustration,societal conditions and the violence we inflict on each other and that also encapsulate also the ongoing war between man and nature.The later part has always been a aesthetic facade of Japanese art. The point is in reference to the serial killers health condition,which is sparked by the sun.

The manga begins with a definition of Vigilantism and we see a man with his family been told that he never spends time with them and the man firmly abstains that it's his job and suddenly,we realize this was just a dream. We are then thrusted in a world of Sergeant Hisashi Sawamura who is a male living in a his apartment and by the looks of it he is lost in his seclusion from something and it's definitely taking a toll on him.As the novel goes we see that sergeant is a married man who loves his family but there is a weight on his shoulder.His a man dedicated to justice and his behavior of saving stranger while his family is always in need of his company is a result of a situation which happened years,when he was in his teens.

Gore

We then see Sawamura headed to a crime scene where his other colleagues are attending including his partner Nishino and he finds him vomiting-which Sawamura takes lightly only to be disgusted by a scene of a women who was mauled by dogs and thing starts to be serious for the team involved.This is exhibit A and the punishment is dog food

Ryousuke then takes us to a rude shut in kid who spends his entire day surfing the internet,playing games,drinking soda,and jerking off. And this is exhibit B and punishment is knowing his mothers pain.The demise of this kid is by breaking and entering; kidnapping the kid and slicing his flesh up into pieces to match his birth weight .This is a gore splattered manga and no one is sparred-from children to women the serial killer is relentless.

the author borrows so heavily from the serial killer genre movies but the one which keeps pooping up is Seven by director David Fincher starring Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt.The "art pieces" as the killer terms them are sort of a related in how the killer sees his murders as an art form and his craft is mending his victims lifes

The killer sees his victims as people not capable of doing the right things or suffering from some kind corruption within their action and these action or corruption should be shed light on or he must make a decision for them.Even immediate individual of a particular circle were the killer has made a declaration to kill are neither sparred to the banality of his intent.Take for instance were a man having an affair and his punishment is laid were his lifeless body is split into two and each piece is send to his wife and mistress.

The core of what the manga is anchored on is a case that happened years ago when a kid went missing and was found dead coated with resin -exhibit zero-then a man who is mentally incapacitated and works in a resin affiliated workplace is found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection by a jury The thread that binds the victims is that they are all involved somehow to the case of the murdered kid and that include also Sawamura wife who was a juror.

The characters are well thought out even their interaction among themselves is well build .One can differentiate their individuality. The author does an exquisite job were every conversation pushes the suspense and action forward there are no redundant points ;important points are stressed well .The manga is very realistic in scope and in depicting Japanese towns even its societal problems are highlighted things like poverty,homelessness,parse snatching.the art is bold,clean-no unnecessary ornamentation are used. The action scene are much realistic in their execution that other alternative would be not satisfactory.

Voidness in the existence

As deranged as the serial killer is,there is a voidness in the existence of the victims.In his mind as the manga implies;he is trying to help the victims by filling a void his victims have for eternity.The flow of time we mentioned from the beginning of this review is so contorted that the sergeant looses a sense of it,when he is in captivity.The timelessness that persist is just an echoing effect that embodies the serial killer and the author,they are both curator and we are just exploring their eternal museum filed with master pieces.In reference to the author,this is the contour of a mind we expect great works to come.

The review of the manga include all the manga from volume 1-3;all pages used are from the manga museum by Ryousuke Tomoe.