Review: Moriarty the Patriot

 

A little disclaimer: I have read the manga up to volume 8, I know the series isn’t finished yet and certainly not for me. I’ve also not seen the anime and can’t say what might be different there. This is a review of the manga only and only of the volumes 1 through 8.

 

I’ve not been reading manga for quite a while - stopped going to the bookstore where I bought them for many years, stopped being very interested in them. I was slightly aware that there also were e-book versions of some manga (and I do have a mental list of manga I’d love to have in digital form, such as the complete Hellsing series). Then The Mary Sue, one of my go-to sites every day, posted an article about the anime series and a commenter mentioned the manga, so I checked them out and found that volume 1-5 were out in e-book format, too. I got the first one, devoured it basically in one go, and went back to buy the others. Then I found out that volume 6-8 were going to be released as e-books on the 22nd December and pre-ordered them. Then they came out and I spent another day devouring them. That’s how much I’ve enjoyed the series so far.

 

I do have a thing for villains, so I did enjoy looks into Professor Moriarty even while he was kept strictly villainous (as in Kim Newman’s “Moriarty - The Hound of the D’Urbervilles”) or made into an anti-hero (as in Michael Kurland’s Moriarty novels). Yet, if someone will play loose and wild with any kind of canon, it’s Japanese manga creators. Therefore, if someone could come up with a series that makes Moriarty a criminal mastermind and the hero at the same time, it would be one of them. And I was right - they did it.

Ryosuke Takeuchi did, to be more precise, releasing “Moriarty the Patriot” and starting it off not with the adult professor (who, in this series, is a true prodigy, being a professor at the tender age of 21), but with a young boy who is clearly too smart by far and does mathematics in his head for fun - so everyone knows he has to be evil (just kidding). Then things get a lot darker as we learn about his background (he and his younger brother are simply part of the Moriarty household, despised by the lady of the house and the younger son, although protected to the best of his possibilities by the older son). They finish off very dark before a time jump when things escalate, the older son of the family and the two boys killing basically everyone in the house in a fire and emerging as the only surviving family members (which is when the two boys take the Moriarty name for good).

Years later, Albert James Moriarty (the oldest and only Moriarty by blood) is in the military (explaining the Colonel James Moriarty turning up in another Sherlock Holmes story), William James Moriarty (now the middle son, replacing Albert’s real younger brother, and the professor) has just started teaching at a college, and Louis James Moriarty (the youngest and officially adopted) is taking care of the household. Having all three of them share the middle name ‘James’ is clever, because it means that ‘James Moriarty’ can be either of them, depending on the situation.

The three brothers have a plan: to boost crime in Britain and especially in London until the lower classes finally rebel and the class system which keeps everyone locked in the class they were born in, no matter how clever, resourceful, or despicable they are, is destroyed. For this, they find people with a grudge against nobles or other members of the Ton and assist them in taking revenge. In some cases, though, they also act on their own, killing people who deserve it themselves. In this endeavour, the brothers have help from several people within and without the canon. Within the canon are Fred Pollock, Sebastian Moran, or the engineer von Herder. Without the canon are newly-created or displaces characters like Jack Renfield (the original Jack the Ripper who doesn’t take well to that serial killer taking his nickname), Miss Moneypenny (who is attached to the MI6 here, too, but more further down), or even James Bond (okay, that one is kind of a cop-out).

No James Moriarty without Sherlock Holmes, though (and Mycroft has a bigger role to play in this series, too), so soon enough, in the middle of the second plan to see a nobleman with outrageous hobbies dead, William and Sherlock meet and a certain chemistry comes to the forefront (honestly, this is a ship which is clearly supported by the creator, as is Holmes/Watson). Yet, to make things a little more interesting, Sherlock can be a bit of a buffoon in this one. He’s clever enough, but he doesn’t take many things seriously.

 

The series isn’t much attached to the canon. Several characters (especially the victims of the Moriarty gang) are changed severely. Those who were not nobles or rich in the original stories are elevated to that rank. Quite some are given a new, disgusting hobby to put them on the list of the gang. Yet, that doesn’t matter much to me - I’m very much into the stories as a such and thus I don’t mind all the changes.

It’s also not attached much to actual history. An early volume of the series sees the proper birth of the MI6 and Albert manages to manoeuvre himself into the leading position there, leaving the army and becoming ‘M’. ‘Q’ is no other than the canon-mentioned blind engineer von Herder (who doesn’t seem very troubled by his blindness). Miss Moneypenny, however, is not only Albert’s secretary, she also goes on a mission with Moran at some point.

 

Which brings me to one story which I found especially interesting and well-done. Spoiler Warning! “A Scandal in Bohemia” is the only canon story featuring Irene Adler (she gets married during it and leaves for the US at the end). In the “Moriarty the Patriot” version of the scandal, it’s not just about a picture that could cause problems for the next king of Bohemia, here Irene stole damning documents from the Buckingham Palace and Mycroft Holmes (being Albert’s superior) wants the documents back and the thief dead.

Needless to say that Albert and his brothers have different plans. So does Irene, who tricks Sherlock into burning down her house so she can move into Baker Street for a while and be protected. She gets into contact with Albert (acting as the mastermind in this case) and he offers her protection for the information in the documents, not the documents themselves.

In the end, they fake Irene’s death and she, who has proven to be good at disguising herself as a man already, takes a new identity: James Bond (‘James’ after the brothers’ middle name and ‘Bond’ for the new bond she’s formed with the gang). Not only that, but she’s attached to the MI6 as agent number 7. Spoiler finished!

 

By volume 8, the last one I’ve read so far, the story is well on the way, but far from over (although Mycroft is now aware of the gang and Albert’s private use of the MI6). William and Sherlock have met several times and even solved a crime together (not one instigated by the gang). The gang has been fleshed out well, many people have been punished for their life choices, and things can still be surprising. Personally, I’m looking forward to more.

 

As far as the manga’s style goes, it is rather close to manga like “Black Butler” - a style I like very much. The style is clear, but the line work mostly fine. The characters aren’t overly bulky, unless it’s a plot point of sorts. The coloured pages (covers and some additional pages) are done very beautifully. The page setup is clean and easy to read (once you remember to read ‘the other way’). A warning, though: murders can be bloody and shown in detail, this is an adult story, not something for kids.

 

I’m very much in love with “Moriarty the Patriot” and am looking forward to the next volumes, no matter how long it takes until they are out in e-book form. I’d also be happy to get my hands on the anime one of these days. If you enjoy crime stories and stories about people who commit crimes without being caught, this is definitely a series to look into.