It takes a revolution (revolution) to make a solution
(Doo-doo-doo-doo)
Too much confusion (aaa-aaah), so much frustration, eh!
I don’t want to live in the park (live in the park)
Can’t trust no shadows after dark (shadows after dark), yeah-eh!
So, my friend, I wish that you could see
Like a bird in the tree, the prisoners must be free, yeah! (Free) – Revolution-Bob Marley

As Bob Marley eloquently shows in his lyrics that when one starts a revolution, it can be hard to see the truth for what it is and choosing your compatriots is an uneasy task. One starts revolutions because what is in place is not normally working in the eyes of the many. As anyone who has had a dissenting opinion has experienced, their unique voice is usually met knelt heads and sharp glances. As history typically favors these brave souls but their present tense normally doesn’t.

As those first steps can be trying, can be nerve wracking to say the least. As you never know when tomorrow will be your last. As it is easy to admire Samuel Adams now, but would anyone during that time, want to be in hi shoes, with the British Army looking for him? In the second chapter of Jose Rizal, we find out how it was for the titular hero, as he took those first steps before becoming a legend.

We find Rizal, as he departs for Paris, to study Philosophy and Letters, and later studying medicine in Madrid, and where he decides to write his first novel. As his book had many anti colonial sentiments, he gains an ally in Maximo Viola, another Filipino studying in Madrid who shared his hope for reform in the Philippines, who urged him to push on and find a publisher, which he did in Berlin. As his first book gets published, Noli Me Tangere, he finds himself in the midst of sudden fame, as the tome has made quite an impression on the populace who feel that they have not been heard or seen as the Spanish have taken a firmer hold in the Philippines since his youth. As the doubling of taxes makes Rizal’s return inevitable to PI from his travels in Europe, as his mother’s condition only worsened and his hometown was in dire need of an ophthalmologist, as his studies abroad equipped with the best knowledge, to best serve his people. As he soon finds out that the Church controlled the government, and the economy, making it difficult for the native Filipinos to make a living and as his anti-Church actions ramp, he quickly becomes a surveillance target of the colonial government.

Overall, an engrossing chapter in this already rapturous series which attributes this national hero with a fire not too many people possess. The story by Takahiro Matsui is dramatic, engaging and well told. The art by Ryo Konno is simply breath taking. Altogether, a story which tells this history as interesting as it really is.

Story: Takahiro Matsui Art: Ryo Konno
Story: 10 Art: 9.7 Overall: 9.8 Recommendation: Buy