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Shimizu Reiko: Himitsu ~ The Top Secret vol. 1
This is a good book. Good characters, good art, good original concept, good story. I'll never again read it, though. Nope, not me.
Himitsu is a collection of two short stories, not related to each other besides in basic concept: in the near future, scientists have found a way to interpret and project the visual impressions stored inside the brains of dead people. Of course, the police is using this technology to solve crimes that would otherwise have been impossible to solve.
The first story, titled Himitsu 1999 not for the year it's set but for the year it was written, features the murder of the president of the United States. He was found deal, alone on a balcony, and the president being the most important person in the country and all, it is decided that this new brain scan technology should be used on him. The president's brain reveals that he was murdered by a masket man who appears to just have been a random robber, but before he died, the precident took out a phothograph from his wallet and tore it up, which leads the police to think that a comspiracy was at work. The plot is simple, and the story isn't carried so much by it as by the concept, which isn't unusual for science fiction short stories. The resolution is sad in a melancholy way, and I liked it a lot.
The second story, Himitsu 2001, is more orthodox crime fiction about a police department investigating the mysterious deaths of a group of young men. The investigation leads them back to a serial killer who was executed for the murders of 27 boys and men. But the killer is already dead, so how can he have anything to do with the recent deaths, which are, too all appearances, suicides? Although not as good as the first, it's a well-constructed and intriguing short story. But I never, ever want to read it again.
The deals is that the gore in this second story is very real. It is (or at least, appears to be) anatomically correct. Seen as individual drawings, these pages of gore are actually quite beautiful -- before reading this book, I casually lifted through it and my eyes fell on the full page with a boy and his very open ripcage, and I was fascinated and stared at it for minutes. But in context, namely that 27 boys were murdered (probably raped and otherwise tortured before dying, though this isn't touched upon) and dissected in each his own way ... aw god, I think I'll barf. I am so not good at dealing with that sort of thing, especially when it's depicted so realistically. There was one scene where I realized I was imagining the feel of the cool, tender, and dead muscles, tendons, and veins on my hands, and while I have touched all those things like any other person who has ever cooked a meal, when a human head was attached to them it was just not good. As said, good book. But I'll never read it again.
Category: Shojo/ladies | Posted by Alicia at October 1, 2004 11:54 AM