We start with the full scan of front and back of the first book’s cover. There’s a guy and gal on the former part – I assume the man is Jin, and the girl is his love interest. The upper half of Jin’s face says “Holy shit!”, but the lower is smiling, so I honestly have no idea what he’s staring at. Maybe the girl in kimono has just kissed him? Also, Jin has green eyes in this picture. Keep that in mind, if you may.
The back cover, on the other hand, has a lot of text in Japanese I am not nearly proficient enough to understand and an image of some operating table. Okay. Let’s move on to the manga's first page, where we see Jin in his surgeon outfit… and his eyes are blue. Oh, come on.
Well, moving on. That was the title page and the story proper starts on the next one, still in color. There's a nice drawing of some city neighbourhood, with a note that states that we're in Tokyo and the year's 2000. Some ambulance is driving a sick man of unknown age and name to the hospital and on the next page, viva!, we're in the hospital. Doctors are preparing the room and oh dear, the very second sentence of this manga and there's already a word I don't know. Aniscoria. Thankfully, there's a note explaining that it's "Condition with unequal pupil size". And now you know.
We meet Jin, and he's one handsome bastard.
What? Say what you will, but one thing I'm not going to whine about in this manga is its artwork.
Anyway, Jin's busying himself with watching boxing match on TV before finding out that huh, there's actually an operation to be done! He goes to the room and narration kicks in, with him as the narrator. We find out that his surname is Minakata, he's 34 and apparently a neurosurgeon in some university hospital. He also tells us that he was "on call" this night. So why was he surprised that he's supposed to do something?
We cut to operation room and it turns out that our unknown patient has a tumor in his brain. Uh, oh... Also, Jin’s eyes are now brown. I... honestly don’t know. Anyway, he orders the surgery and decides to cut the tumor out of the patient’s brain himself. So he opens the patient’s skull and there hides...
GAAAAAAH
◊! What the hell why is there a baby in his skull why does this baby looks like it’s full made how did it even fit in the dude’s brain?!
Sorry, that's just kind of... a really creepy picture here. Moving on... Jin's just as freaked out as I am... for about one second. Then he starts slinging medical terms I don't know but which are probably medical way to describe a foetus in man's brain.
The manga switches to black-and-white, which I’m quite thankful for, as this way I don’t have to wonder about the eye color of Mr. Minakata. Jin has mustered enough bravery to look at this abomination again and just to make things worse, it starts screaming at him to leave it alone. Telepathically. Yep. Our Jin, however, is stone cold badass and doesn’t even flinch... No, wait. He’s not a stone cold badass. He’s a moron. He actually asks his fellow surgeon if it’s him who’s screaming. Jin, you idiot.
Time Skip! Now it’s "few months later" and Jin’s talking with some policemen - the crime rate in Tokyo must've been awfully high if it took them a "few months" to muster someone to go and ask - about the mysterious patient. Nothing interesting here, apart from the fact that the man's face is so badly bruised the hospital can't tell whether he's in his forties, fifties or older. The police is creeped out by the news about what shall now be called Evil Brain Foetus and Gaaah! We get another look at this monstrosity and now it's even worse
◊! Those misshapen hands and something protruding from its chest are not helping, as isn't the gratuitous lightning behind this abomination of nature. Uncanny Valley at its finest.
Next day! Jin's in a cafe and his fiancee has just returned the engagement ring to him. Well, sucks to be Jin. He doesn't seem very perturbed by this, though, and starts to smoke a joint (or a cigarette, whatever), when... gratuitous lightning! It's the Evil Brain Foetus Telepathy telling Jin to keep his distance!
Wait a moment... Mr Evil Brain Foetus, I think you're doing it wrong.
Oddly enough, Jin isn't perturbed by this turn of events at all and goes back to work. I'm torn between deciding whether he's a badass or a moron. Moving on... at the hospital we learn that the patient should regain consciousness soon. Can you say "Foreshadowing"? Jin, meanwhile, has some existentional musing about God leaving foetuses in people's brains, but this serene moment (and a nice shot of Tokyo skyline) is cut short by Evil Brain Foetus Telepathy sprouting ominous pieces of foreshadowing. Jin is annoyed (maybe because Evil Brain Foetus stopped him from drinking this can of Cola he has in his hands?) and goes to take a closer look at the Evil Brain Foetus, thus proving that he's a perfect horror movie victim. Thankfully, the Evil Brain Foetus doesn't kill him, because Jin gets a call. The patient has escaped his bed! Oh noes!
Jin rushes to the patient's bed to find it, predictably, empty (I think he really is a moron). Meanwhile, some black silhouette sneaks into Evil Brain Foetus' keeping room and takes it, thus proving that he's seriously mentally sick. However, the hospital staff doesn't know this and so we're treated to several shots of people searching for the man. He has apparently stolen a whole bunch of drugs from the medical cabinet - which, mind you, wasn't locked - but for what reason? Maybe he plans to drown the Evil Brain Foetus in drug cocktail. That's what I'd do. And then burn it, just to be sure.
Anyway, Jin stumbles upon one of the drugs the escaping patient has dropped and finds the man on a staircase above him. The patient, instead of GTFO, stops and starts giggling uncontrollably. Instead of keeping his distance and calling Japanese SWAT, as any sane person would, Jin, the moron/badass he is, approaches the patient, trying to calm him down. The man gets brutal and punches Jin, accidentally leaving some box called "medkit" in Minakata's hands - can you say "Chekhov's Gun"? However, the Evil Brain Foetus' jar is dropped in the fray and starts falling down the stairs. Instead of letting it go, Jin jumps after it to catch it and suddenly the staircase stretches into infinity. Jin starts falling and...
Yep, apparently the staircase atop which the two men were fighting has just turned into stairway into Hell. Huh. Jin, understanding about as much of it as I do, falls into darkness, then past (again, nicely drawn) Tokyo skyline, then past the moon (it's at this moment that he's starting to wonder what the hell is going on) and finally, into some trees and on the ground. Surprisingly enough, despite falling for what looks like about four hundred meters, he's not dead, broken or even bruised. Well, I guess an Evil Brain Foetus did it.
There's darkness all around, but don't worry! Jin has a penlight! It must be some powerful year 2000 technology, because the penlight (which, note, fits into a pen) is more powerful than some flashlights I've been using in my life. Our hero uses it to look around and hey, he finds this medkit the patient left in his hands earlier! Apparently, stairways into Hell suck in inanimate objects as well.
Having picked up the medkit (play an appropriate "Item Get!" sound here), Jin looks around. He finds a river and drinks from it (no, I don't know either), before seeing some lights. Despite being in an unfamiliar situation, unknown place and strange circumstances, his solution to this case is waving his penlight and screaming on top of his lungs for help. One more point for Team Moron. Thankfully, his idiocy results in big fat nothing, so he decides that if lights won't come to him, he'll come to the lights. Moving closer, he hears sounds of combat (I'll take his word for it - the sounds the readers see read "....!" ".....!") and smells blood. Unperturbed by this (badass? moron?), he comes closer, only to see...
Two dudes posing with katanas! Oh, wait. Two dudes fighting with katanas! Both have quite serious expressions and there's half of a body lying next to them (???), so Jin somehow concludes that they're filming historical drama, despite there being no cameras, no director and no lights.
He really is a moron, isn't he?
Thankfully for our sanity, some of those neurons in his brain fire up when one of the men is struck by another and blood sprays on Jin's face. This being Jin, however, he proceeds to scream loudly about it being real blood, which surprises the two fighters, who's expressions of shock are juxtaposed against gratuitous lightning!.
...and thus this chapter ends. Coming up next: samurai! Kimonos! Skull trepanation!
