SPOILERS AHEAD

one of the first ever mangas i read, and boy was it a fucking ride, kept me at the edge of my seat the whole time and always wanting to know what is gonna happen next. amazing and complex masterfully written characters and probably one of the greatest antagonists in animanga, its not often you see a story where it revolves more around the villian rather than the main character, not saying dr tenma is a bad character, hes phenomenal and perfect as johans rival with both having their own philosophical ideals that they hold up to. i suggest the manga over the anime because the anime has some pacing issues but still overall amazing and a faithful adaptation, madhouse always delivers.

theres not many scenes where johan appears but thats what makes each one he does more memorable, even though we cant see him we know he plans everything from the start. he dosent shoot people with a gun more like give it to them and they shoot themselves because of his psychological terror. The more the story continues the more we learn about johan and his personality, why he kills. how he kills and his past self. they also gives us clues from the picture book "the nameless monster" It brought light the readers Johan's fears and personality even more and it progresses the story 10x more. A story inside a story to progress the story outside that story,cool right?

the ending of monster

tenma always tries to save lives and believe that every life is equal, one of my favourite quotes from monster was when johan says "for you, all lives are created equal. that's why i came back to life. but you've finally come to realize It now, haven't you? only one thing is equal for all, and that is death. johan says this straight to tenmas face in the final part of monster. and we all know that hes a neuro surgeon. his job is saving lives as best as he can for him every life is equal. but if the life he saved seeks to wreak harm(johan) . the question arises of how all life is truly deserved to be saved or not but in the end, he does save johan again when he gets shot at the end, theres also a continuation in light novel called another monster which tells us johan is now living a peaceful life since things did not go according to plan in the massacre at 511 kinderhelm where he plays the fate game its the game mentioned in the earlier chapters to see if hes truly chosen by fate. grimmer died. lunge died,roberto died.. etc hes going to see if everything goes according to plan like it always has and some miracle made him alive somehow or he would die.

the ending may feel vague and u might not understand it so you watch this.. actually the best option is re watching or rereading but if u dont have time for that you can see the vid

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johan dosent have any goal like Griffith or any other villian... He just doesn't value human life much

This shows that he dosen't care about anything like that, him killing people has no reason,it's insane how he made those kids suicide telling them that they are chosen by fate if they survive the fall from the building

lunge is also a very well written character he dosen't know johan as the killer, he thinks johan as an imaginary dude and he is too afraid to admit he is wrong and i enjoyed every scene he was in, it increases the suspense of wether tenma will be captured or not and in the end he realised his mistake and acknowledged the existence of johan.

another thing i like is how they make the readers think for themselves instead of throwing out answers for everything and it is very realistic too, no one explains the problems that they go through unless they wanna gain attention or they need to went out in real life That's how it is in monster in monster johan keeps his thoughts to himself. monster depicts the human physiology and some of the symbolism must be figured out by the reader itself.

overall, this was really satisfying from start to finish, through one sentence "Look at me, the monster inside of me is growing bigger" we get to ask ourselves : who is the real monster? Is it the loneliness and darkness that devours the heart of the abandoned kids? Is it the one who choose to brainwash them? Is it the mother who chooses to sacrifice one of her children? Is it the one who can't feel compassion but only emptiness?

And what makes a human 'exist'? Is it his ability to feel? Is it his memories? Or the name he was given that makes him part of the world and be remembered? In the end, Urasawa lets his readers decide what is the good answer: none and all of these.

the philosophy of monster and the question of life and death truly makes it a masterpiece still read/watched by people till this day..

Johan believes that there's no real meaning to life. This is how he is able to justify killing so many people, as well as routinely risking his own life. he points to his head everytime he is sure hes going to die it is a recognition that his life is in great danger.

if you liked this manga i suggest seeing more of urusawa greatness such as 20th century boys, billy bat, pluto etc