Monster ep.1

April 19, 2004 | 0 Comments

Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. So they worshipped the dragon who gave authority to the beast and they worshipped the beast, saying "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?"

Revelations 13: 1, 4

While I don't think the coming of 'The Beast' and the '666' mark will have anything to do with this particular show (titlehough I'm probably wrong about it since I haven't read the manga), it is never the less interesting to see this particular passage from the New Testament featured at the start of the first episode. I probably just read too much into it but I do wonder if it actually refers to the nature of humans, who sometimes have the ability to become a 'beast' (read: cruel-hearted bastards). At any rate, this series is quite different from the usual anime staples. To begin with, the character design is more realistic looking and not as flashy as other anime titles. I have to admit it takes a while to get used to it. I think if you have seen Master Keaton, you'll get an idea of what to expect here. Having said that, the unique storyline that the series offer was quite enough to at least make me want to see the next episode.

The first episode begins by introducing us to a successful surgeon called Dr. Kenzo Tenma. Dr. Tenma has just performed a successful surgery on a famous opera singer and is congratulated by his peers. But as we'll find out later, the success of one person can also mean the grief of others as the series zooms in on a middle-eastern family grieving for someone who presumably died in the hospital. The series then fast forward to the next day where Kenzo is awakened by his fianc�e, Eva Heinemann. As Eva congratulates him on yesterday's successful operation, we can hear the television in the background plays the news of the arrival of an ex Trade Office advisor from East Germany called Mr Liebert. Mr Liebert has arrived in Dusseldorf together with his wife and twin children. Eva, however, is more interested in showing the press conference that his father, the head of the hospital where Kenzo works at, has held in response to the successful operation of the famous opera singer.

Things, however, are not as rosy as it seems for Dr. Tenma. His colleague, Dr.Becker, soon warns him that he should be careful because the head of the hospital, Mr.Heinemann or Eva's father, is simply using Kenzo for his own benefit. Kenzo is at first puzzled by this warning but he soon understands what it means when he encounters the grieving woman and her child who were shown earlier in the episode. The woman demands Kenzo to give back her husband. She claimed that if Kenzo had operated on her husband first instead of the opera singer, her husband might still be alive right now. Kenzo quickly realises that the husband of the Turkish woman actually arrived first to the operating room. The problem was, he received an order from the director to give a priority to the famous opera singer. As a result, he had to relinquish the operation of the Turkish man to the hand of Dr.Becker, who is presumably not as skilled as Kenzo when it comes to dealing with the case.

However, when Kenzo mentions the incident to Eva, it becomes apparent that Eva couldn't care less about the grieving Turkish woman. She thinks that not all humans have equal status and therefore, some deserves preferential treatment. This revelation from Eva horrifies Kenzo. The series then shows a rather nice visual allegory of Eva's heartlessness as she cuts a bleeding steak and stuffs the meat into her mouth. At the same time, there is some kind of a crime happened at the residence of Mr Liebert, the trade officer who was shown earlier in the episode. When Police arrived at the Liebert's house, they find Mr and Mrs Liebert lying dead in their own pool of blood. They also find an unconscious young boy who seems to have got severe bleeding in the head and a traumatised young girl. Kenzo is immediately notified of this particular case and he proceeds to drive his car into the hospital in the middle of the night.

As Kenzo travels to the hospital, he remembers the earlier conversation that he had with Eva's father, Mr Heinemann. Mr.Heinemann basically tells Kenzo that it's not their fault that the Turkish man died on their hospital. He insisted that the opera singer arrived first in the operating room. And despite the fact that Kenzo knows otherwise, he never the less was pressured by the Director to agree with the Director's version of the story. On top of things, he was told to cancel his research on "Cerebral Vasospasm after Subarachnoid Haemorrhage" and to instead focus on a speech note that the Director has developed for a particular seminar. Fast forward back to the present, Kenzo finally arrives at the hospital and is ready to operate on the little boy. But as he's about to enter the operating room, he sees the traumatised little girl who whispers to him "please kill...".

Kenzo doesn't understand what the girl really means but I have a guess that the killer of Mr and Mrs Liebert is none other than the injured little boy. I think what happened was the sister attempted to defend herself from being killed and successfully injured her twin brother. Anyway, Kenzo then enters the operating room and is about to operate on the boy, however, he soon receives a call from the Director of the hospital who tells him to give surgery priority to the Major. Kenzo, who's still angry at the Director's attitude from the previous case, decides to rebel and operate on the kid never the less. I get the feeling though that this is the wrong case for him to become a rebel and it'll return to haunt him in the future. All in all, this is a very interesting series to watch. It's not as good-looking as other anime series but the story should keep mystery/thriller fans hooked. I also like the use of visual allegory that often pops up in this particular episode, and the fact that the only monsters that have appeared in the series thus far are the humans themselves.

© memento 2003