MONSTER

To begin, I just want to say this is a SPOILER REVIEW and it spoils the entire series if you haven't seen it, so if you haven't watched it, either turn back now and just add it to your Plan To Watch list, or scroll to the bottom and read the number so you can know what I think about it.

Overall, I liked this series a lot, and while it has its shortcomings I think it will stick with me for a long time and I’m still thinking about it days after finishing it, rather than moving on straight away (this also means I have a lot to write about and I think this is going to be very long). I have a feeling that I’ll still remember it a long way down the line and I might rewatch/read it some day. It has also made me interested in other Urasawa works that I might read eventually and I’m sure I’ll enjoy them.

All I knew about the anime before I started it was the name of the killer, the fact that he escapes at the end, and that it’s very good. While I think it would have been better not to know that Johan was the killer going in, it was still done really well in the setup so knowing that didn’t spoil my enjoyment much at all. Knowing the ending was a bit annoying, but in the last few episodes I was very interested to see how it got to that point, and it ended up being perfect and led into a perfect ending.

For the majority of this review/write-up thing I’ll separate it into positives and negatives for the same sections and aspects. These aspects will be: Plot, Characters, Visuals, Audio and how the Impactful and Emotional moments are handled.

I want to start with positive so this is what I think was good about the Plot:

It’s an amazing plot, first of all. I was always interested in what would happen next and there was never an extended period of time in which I was uninterested in what was going on, which often happens in longer anime like this (this is actually the second longest anime I’ve ever watched after Attack on Titan). There was never a period of episodes in which I felt that nothing was happening, the plot was always moving forward in one way or another, whether by a climactic Johan encounter, a completely separate mini-arc giving a certain character some development, or some information about the past of Johan and Nina.

I like the story books written by Klaus Poppe a lot because they have a unique weirdness to them, something uneasy. They’re also strangely dark and I like how they tie into the story in different ways.

I felt that every new arc introduced key points, key characters, and new concepts. They never felt like a rehash of an earlier arc and were all very distinguished from each other. I consider the main story arcs to be The Beginnings Arc, The Baby Arc, The Munich Arc, The Grimmer Arc, Capture/Escape Arc, Martin Arc, Čapek Arc, and Ruhenheim Arc. I would personally rank them as follows, but they’re all good:

Ruhenheim > Grimmer > Beginnings > Munich > Martin > Čapek > The Baby > Capture/Escape

These all contributed significantly to the plot in different ways and naturally built up the story as it went on, creating a natural feeling of progression throughout the series and explored different parts of Germany and Czechoslovakia (at least I think it was Czechoslovakia at the time but I’m not sure when the Republic was formed), such as the Red Light districts, the rich and wealthy parts, and the police and how they worked. I also appreciated a lot that everything was connected.

EVERYTHING LEADS BACK TO JOHAN. That’s what I thought often while watching this, and it really was true. Almost every last thing has at least a small connection to Johan, whether directly or through someone else like Klaus Poppe.

All the other arcs slowly built up to the climax in Ruhenheim, which I thought was perfect in every way. It went from a large scale chase across countries to everything and everyone being contained in a small town. I thought this was an odd choice at first but in the second episode in the town I was completely sold on it and loved all of the different conflicts happening such as the bullying, the lottery, and Grimmer and Lunge interacting. Eventually the other main characters started pouring in and the true climax of the anime began, and it was perfect. We got 3 of the best episodes of the series in a row, starting with Grimmer’s death episode and then Lunge vs Roberto and then Tenma finally going up against Johan. I was trying to keep to 1 episode a day but I just couldn’t towards the end because I was on the edge of my seat and I couldn’t stop watching.

The fact that I knew that Johan escaped in the end meant nothing anymore because I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen next. If anything, that made me enjoy it more because I was trying to figure out how it would get to that point. I think the ending of Tenma saving Johan again was a bold choice but for me it paid off entirely and I think it was perfect. It expertly closed Tenma’s character arc and ended right back where we started, but it didn’t make everything feel like a waste because the entire thing was about testing Tenma’s strength and his resolve not to kill, even when his and other people’s lives were in danger, and rather finding other ways to save people. All of the characters’ arcs came to a satisfying close in the end and they didn’t miss out anything I wanted to see. Earlier in the anime, someone said that even if the world was burning Johan would stay standing, and that is exactly what the ending was.

On one hand, Grimmer has shown that it is possible to get your emotions back after Kinderheim, and Johan has been shown forgiveness from Nina and was saved by Tenma. However, Johan’s evil runs much deeper than just Kinderheim.

If he stayed evil, then the story is back where it began, but the characters have all undergone a character arc and have all changed a lot in the amount of time this series took place over. As it was said earlier, even if the world was burning, Johan would stay standing, but we don’t know what happens if he is forgiven and shown care. If he became good, then it shows that even the biggest monster the world has ever seen, with seven heads and the world playing into the palm of his hand, can become a human. Maybe after getting his real name back, he left Johan behind and carries on his life as a new person.

The ending elevated the story from a to a 9.5/10 because I’m a big fan of cyclical stories that end the same way they started.

Now onto the good things about the Characters:

To start, I’ll say that this anime has some of the best characters I’ve ever seen in anime. All of them are brilliantly written and have very satisfying character arcs.

Starting with Tenma, I think he’s a great protagonist. He struggles with picking between two ideals: every person is equal, or he should try to save as many people as he can. He saves Johan because he does not believe that he should choose one person’s life over another’s because of their status. He also isn’t a judge, he’s a doctor. He can’t save people based on whether he thinks they’re a good person or not, he must save whatever life lies before him, which is the message that the ending conveys. Even if less people would die if he shoots Johan, it’s not the job of a doctor to decide the value of another person’s life.

Johan is regarded as one of the best antagonists in anime, and I think it is deserved. The way that the first 20 or so episodes paint a picture of a ruthless and violent monster, his in-person appearance contrasts that entirely. He is a cool and calm monster that inflicts a deadly poison on those he wishes. Because of this, Johan always has a strong presence on screen and he makes every scene he appears in tense. Though it isn’t shown in the ending, maybe even Johan received his letter full of emotions a few years late and maybe even he could become human. Or maybe he stayed the way he is. We’ll never know.

Grimmer is my favourite character in the anime. From the moment he is introduced to his final moments, he is likeable and tragic. He shows the smile he worked so hard for as a trophy and looks for justice for the humanity that was stolen from him. The conclusion of his arc was completely perfect and I almost cried. He got his humanity back and finally felt sad for the death of his son.

I never found Lunge annoying like I know some people do. I found him a really interesting character and worked well as a secondary antagonist that pushed Tenma forwards on his journey. His apology to Tenma was one of the best moments, and I wish he got to drink that beer with Grimmer. He was so involved in Tenma’s case that it captured him and made him lose everything, so the case was all he has left and it held him captive, but after his vacation he learned that not everything can be solved objectively and he brought himself to believe in an impossible person that he thinks must be a fictional character. It takes a lot to admit you’re wrong, especially if you’ve been so sure that you’re right for 12 years, so I respect Lunge a lot.

I don’t have much to say about Nina but she’s very likeable and I like that once she knew the whole story by getting her memories back, she forgives Johan, which is a big part of why Tenma saved him.

The last character I want to focus on specifically is Eva. She starts as a spoilt alcoholic who relies on her father and Tenma for almost everything. When she loses both of them, she descends further into alcoholism and searches for easy “happiness” by going through many different partners and constantly drinking alcohol, all while trying to bring Tenma down. Eventually, by the help of people like Reichwein and Martin she switches to Tenma’s side and leaves her old life behind to live as a better person. Her development is one of the best examples of how a character can turn around completely over the anime’s runtime, while feeling completely natural and justified, so in my opinion she has one of the best redemption arcs in anime.

The other side characters like Reichwein, Richard, Dr Gillen, and even characters that only appear in a few episodes like Martin are very well-written and it’s great how they can make you sympathise for someone so quickly.

I think the characters are a 10/10 aspect of Monster.

Visuals:

Yeah the visuals are alright. I like the realistic anime art-style and it fits the series very well. I can’t imagine it looking any different. A little bit annoying that it’s only in 480p though. An upscaled version would look great.

8/10 for visuals.

Audio:

The soundtrack is good. I like the pieces played on strings, especially the one with the big rich chords, but I wish there were some more intense songs for the climactic scenes.

8.5/10 for audio.

Emotional and Impactful moments:

This series has a very strong emotional core behind all of the story. The powerful moments all hit very hard, like Martin’s death, Wolf’s death, Grimmer’s death, and important encounters between characters, such as Lunge’s apology to Tenma.

This is another 10/10 aspect.

Now onto the things I didn’t like

Story:

Some parts of the story felt a little repetitive and got frustrating after a while. For example, Tenma or Nina not shooting Johan happened so many times over the anime that I got a bit tired of Johan being able to just walk away so many times even though their entire goal was to kill Johan.

Another thing that happened often was Tenma leaving the people he was travelling with. This happens with Nina early on, Reichwein and Gillen after the Munich arc, and Eva when the guy told him where Johan was. It’s frustrating because characters like Eva would definitely shoot Johan and Reichwein could definitely help Tenma, and going alone just draws out the journey a bit more.

I also think there are too many flashbacks and recaps. First of all, the recaps are unnecessary and often there was a scene of recap for 2 minutes and then the OP for 2 minutes, which leads to the episode starting 4 minutes into the runtime. Next, the flashbacks are fine and are done well at points like Nina’s memories coming back in fragments, but some of the same flashbacks were shown several times such as the “Tadaima, Okaeri” flashback which must have been shown at least 5 different times.

Secondly, I think the time Tenma was captured and then escaped wasn’t that great but it wasn’t bad by any means either since it allowed for some of Eva’s development to happen.

Sometimes the intense moments at the end of arcs felt slow, which isn’t something that you want, but this was never too bad, it’s just a bit drawn out sometimes, for example the fire at the end of the Munich arc which lasted for 3 whole episodes.

I also don’t think Roberto should have come back. He should have either stayed dead or never been “killed”, especially since he survived being shot in a burning building and escaped with no real explanation at all.

This leads into the next thing.

The only thing I dislike about the Characters is Roberto. I found him a bit annoying and not that interesting, but I was sold on him a bit more when it was revealed that he was Grimmer’s old friend from Kinderheim 511 who lost his way and took a different path to Grimmer, but I feel like he was just a pawn for Johan who didn’t feel that interesting most of the time, until the last few episodes.

I already mentioned my problems with the Visuals and Audio, which aren’t really a big deal.

One more thing that doesn’t really fit into any of the categories is the fact that sometimes when a big reveal happens, there’s a dramatic thud and it zooms in on Tenma’s (or another character’s) face, which happened so often that it got a bit repetitive by the end.

Overall, I thought Monster was a very good series with some of the best characters in anime and a brilliant plot that handles the characters’ respective arcs very well. I think the climax in the final arc elevates the entire series to even higher heights and I completely respect the risky decision Urasawa made at the end, and it worked perfectly in my opinion, but I can definitely see why someone might dislike it.

I will recommend Monster to people from now on because even though it is fairly slow paced it has a very good plot and very good characters.

To close off my thoughts on this anime, my top 5 episodes were:

Episode 71 (The Magnificent Steiner’s Rage)

Episode 73 (The Landscape of the End)

Episode 29 (Execution)

Episode 49 (The Cruelest Thing)

Episode 2 (Downfall)

I think Monster is a 9/10. It’s not a 10/10 in my opinion but it’s very good and does a lot more right than wrong. It is my 9th favourite anime series now out of 28 completed series.