Museum

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Museum is a work of art, it is so perfect, only its name describes its interior. It is to put it in a museum. First of all, I can tell you that I read much manga (more than four volumes per month) and I consider myself more or less understood that part of the culture. And well. Does that museum that makes it so special? As its characters and its exceptional drawing. Never had the feeling of having the oppressed heart without being me which starred in this story. Museum is a very common theme in detective rasters, but curiously has a factor that is; ... a frantic development until it concludes the series. I recommend that you read museum.

Museum is a tightly structured thriller that follows a rather basic story template of a detective/cop who involves people precious to him in a crime and forces him to stray towards vigilante justice to save them.

Majority of thrillers lives and dies on their execution. The most important aspect of this work is not the story or complex themes but simply the ability to engage and excite the viewer which Museum excels at more than anything. There's a constant sense of tension throughout the three volumes that makes you want to keep turning page after page to find out what happens next.

Is this the ... next attack of the serial killer? Will cops arrive in time to protect the victim? Is this person sitting next to them is the criminal? What will happen to the next victim? Museum keeps you on the edge by trying to find the answer to all of these questions that will probably unravel before in just a few pages. While the main plot is steadily rising you get a whole lot of smaller arches along the well with their own rising action and climaxes and this rapid loop is what really gripped me to finish this in almost one sitting. That kind of set-up and payoff structure actually reminds me a bit of Urasawa and that's a bit complement cause I think there are few mangaka that can engage the reader as well as he does. The only gripe I had with it by the end is that the actual ending itself is vague and very much up to interpretation which doesn't add anything of value and feels like a copout.

The short length actually plays into the strengths of this manga cause when there aren't 20 more volumes left there's no sense of anybody being safe, not to say it's unpredictable but the author uses it to mess with the viewer more than once and it works.
Now despite the length, it also manages to give you a lot of info about the characters through occasional quick flashbacks that allow you to get a glimpse into the characters head and help contextualize their feelings.

When it comes to art Museum is solid but not great. I like the designs and the rare action felt weighty but otherwise, it doesn't stand out. The excellent pacing and paneling keeps you from staring at anything for too long but if you do there's not much for you to see.

Worth mentioning is that Museum also includes two unrelated bonus chapters. One about a professional killer meeting an abused girl and helping her out of sympathy and one about a group of friends running over a person while riding to a suicide mountain to see some dead people, that one is a bit more paranormal.

Museum is a rather exciting short read, I recommend you check it out, especially if you're a fan of thrillers.

I definitely wanted to enjoy this much more than what I did. When it comes to a good thriller, you should be kept at the edge of your seat wanting to know what happens next. Where Musuem 21 excels is its ability to make you NEED to turn the page. The strong points are the murders, but unfortunately, the weakest points are the actual investigations and characters.

The best way I can describe the main character is a Mary Stu detective who with minimal effort reaches into his butthole to come to a conclusion. He's meant to be a genius detective as far as the manga ... is concerned, but he stretches the suspension of disbelief to the point where it's aggravating rather than impressive. I had to actually knock off several points because of how infuriating it is to have a character who essentially takes out the detective work from an otherwise interesting detective mystery thriller and spoon feeds you the answers.

The art is also mediocre for the most part, but I'll give credit where it's due. The paneling and perspectives at times were noteworthy. The serial killer was also interesting and the killings always looked incredible and chilling. The creativity behind the murders was the major reason I stuck out the story till the end.

The other characters were pretty one-dimensional and flat, barely worth mention. This wouldn't be so bad, but in a manga where the mysteries aren't even being solved in a satisfying way, it became another bland factor that soured the manga for me. For the most part, I ignored the characters and the eye-rolling "detective-work" for the majority of the manga because of how thrilling everything else was. But for me, that becomes hard to do towards the end where the climax is coming soon and all you can think of is "are you freaking serious?"

TLDR; an almost excellent thriller that suffers from laughable spoonfed mysteries but excels at depicting terrifying murders and an interesting villain