From the back cover:
More pieces of the puzzle to Johan’s past are uncovered in Prague! Everyone is after an old tape recording of an interview with Johan as a child, and Tenma learns more about Johan’s mother—a beautiful woman taken away by the secret police. And then Johan makes his presence known when a brilliant young detective of the Prague Police Department is accused of poisoning three of his superiors… with whiskey bonbons.
Review:
A timeline! Well, sort of. At least, there’s a chart with character descriptions and relationships, though it seems to indicate that the action in Prague is happening in 1996, which contradicts the letter Dr. Reichwein wrote a few volumes ago that was dated 1997. Maybe everyone is confused about the passage of time in this series! Anyway, on to the list.
Awesome Things:
1. The reveal about Grimmer’s background. I probably should’ve expected that, but I didn’t.
2. The truth behind the “Is Nina killing people?” subplot. I had considered this possibility, but the grand reveal was still nifty.
Super Awesome Things:
The tape! Any scene involving the tape is simply fabulous, the last chapter particularly.
Confusing Things:
1. Nina’s identity crisis. Nina returns to her childhood home and reawakens some memories, one of which involves welcoming herself home. Several times during this volume I had to remind myself that it’s confirmed that Nina and Johan are not the same person, because it kind of seemed that’s where the story was trying to go.
2. Johan’s agenda. It’s been stated previously that he enjoys playing with humans as if they were ants, just to mess things up. So, is he simply having fun making bad situations worse, or what? I still have no idea whether he has a grand goal or what it could possibly be. I also wonder how he always knows what’s going on, when shady organizations are making their move, etc.
I also have to wonder how exactly learning about Johan’s past is going to lead to some kind of resolution to the story. Granted, there are still seven volumes left, but as of right now, I have absolutely no clue how this will all end.
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