Bloody Monday

Series: Bloody Monday
Media Type: Manga
Mangaka: RYUUMON Ryou (Author), MEGUMI Kouji (Artist)
Length: 11 Volumes (Season 1), Season 2 (Ongoing)
Genre(s): Action, Drama, Mature, Psychological, School Life, Sci-fi, Shounen

Introduction:
Ok so I read this just by chance like so many other manga I have read. Found it listed somewhere read the description sounded interesting so I read it. At it's core Bloody Monday I would consider to be a action and psychological manga. There is a lot of trying to outsmart the enemies and turn the tides. The beginning felt a bit like we were always getting played (a.k.a losing), but later we totally own the enemies. Now there is also a Bloody Monday Season 2, but not enough of it is out to talk about it yet, but so far it is similar to season 1.

One Sentence Summary:
Hacker saving Japan from a crazy cult trying to release a super virus in Tokyo.

Summary:
Ok so Bloody Monday is about Fujimaru Takagi, who is also known as "Falcon", his hacker name. Yes he is a wide known very good (Wizard Level) hacker, who hacks for "good". So his dad is a commander in a secret government police force (sort of like the CIA/FBI). Fujimaru Takagi of course helps decode and program things (defensive things mainly such as firewalls) for the agency. While doing this we stumble upon a massive incident that happened in Russia a few years ago. Through various things we find out that something similar is being planned for Tokyo, Japan. So from here obviously it is a save Tokyo and capture the cult members. However things can never go that easily. For starters Fujimaru Takagi's dad is wanted for murder through 90% of the series, and for about the 1st 30% or so we have no idea who were fighting. So without spoiling anything let's just say that the bad guys know about Falcon already, and knows him and his friends stumbled upon the incident. Almost every bad guy is someone we have already known or that we meet early on in the story, though the final bad guy you probably wouldn't be able to guess until much later on.

Closing Comments:
Bloody Monday is an interesting story with some good concepts behind it. It kept me reading (finished it in 2 days), but not always for the right reasons. For about half the story the good guys are one the losing side, every "battle" we lose, which gets very depressing/annoying. However the second half we begin to kick butt. Bloody Monday felt very one sided at almost all points, which is not necessarily bad, it just felt off to me. Season 2 so far is decent though I'm finding it to just be more of the same thing so far. However it's not very far along so I can't really judge it yet. Overall I enjoyed Bloody Monday, but didn't really find it to be anything special, it as interesting premises, but there just not executed as well as they could have been.

~dinoman411