Preface

I would like to say that this review will be more of a Mon review than a TWiM review. I don't even need to say that this review is full of spoilers and that it is extremely necessary that you have read the manga. Hope you like it!

For a better understanding of the concept that I want to convey in the analysis, I will divide it into 3 parts that are 3 moments of the work

1 - Mon Ubermensch: __Toshi's Flashback
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2 - Mon in metamorphosis: From the moment Mon meets higumadon to Waltz for Maria

3 - Mon Homo Religiosus: In Waltz, Post Waltz and Finale

1 - MON UBERMENSCH:
This state of Mon is the easiest to explain and understand, not least because Arai brings explicit references to Nietzsche, such as the chapter whose title is literally "God is dead", an iconic phrase by Nietzsche
I myself came to think that The World is Mine was a Nietzschean message and that Mon ended the manga as an ubermensch, but in fact the work goes the opposite way with that. This Mon is the Mon from the iconic "I affirm myself" panel, a panel that is often used by fans to categorize Mon as an Ubermensch and there are people who use this panel to spread a message about TWiM that Arai actually wants to refute.
This Mon Ubermensch is very well characterized as a Nietzsch Ubermensch, a human without any morals, a human who only follows the rules created by himself, his own ethics, a human who does not mind killing or raping someone because nothing in this world manages to limit him, a human who is guaranteed in his own strength, an existence that transcends human morality, this is the Mon Ubermensch that represents a lot of postmodern society, a society that has abandoned its ties with the divine, a society that cannot understand the extrasensory field of the universe. This state of Mon extends to the moment he meets Higumadon, when he meets Higumadon everything changes.

2 - Mon in metamorphosis
From the moment Mon meets Higumadon he starts to change, the most impressive thing is that Arai changes MOn in an organic and well done way, soon I will talk a little more about Arai's skills. The Mon that until then was an imposing being, who feared nothing, but all that changed when he met the higumadon. The Higumadon means several things within the work, but at the moment it is convenient to assume him only as a greater force, someone who manages to subjugate the Mon. After meeting a being that has absolute power, Mon begins to be afraid, he loses the will to kill people, he begins to enter a state of confusion since the world he knew and that he had possession of, has changed. Mon's confusion is very well emphasized in the Maison Alice arc right after Mon witnesses Higumadon's strength again. This is where one of my favorite sequences in the media begins, where Mon has an amazing dialogue with Maria. Some of the dialog panels:

It is important to analyze Mon's relationship with Maria. Maria was the first human being that Mon really conceived, Mon sees Maria as the mother figure he didn't have, so much so that Arai uses his quadriniztion skills simultaneously and sequentially, showing Maria crying with the possibility of her mother dying and then showing Mon fearing the possibility of Maria dying. And in later chapters, Maria questions how Mon manages to kill people without feeling anything, characteristic of Mon's ethics, but then Mon starts crying when Maria asks if he would feel something if she died. Mon forms a relationship with Maria, and this affects him a lot when she dies at the end of Waltz.

3 - Mon Break
This is where everything changes. This is probably going to be the hardest part to explain because it's so full of detail. Maria's death is very important for Mon and for the work in several ways, Maria had been the first human being with whom Mon had connected, and she herself presented the idea of ​​connection to Mon, until then Mon was a perfect representation of the individualism present in today's society. What makes this moment so potent in the work is the presence of the Higumadon, but to connect everything I need to explain the idea of ​​Homo Religiosus.
I decided to explain the Homo Religiusus idea and not explain the Ubermensch because the Nietzschean content is much more accessible than the Mircea Eliade content. The Homo Religiosus is the primordial state of the human being, where all things and life itself make sense, but this sense is not found in the same way as the Ubermensch who has a very materialistic view of the world, the homo religiosus finds meaning within the relationship with the sacred/divine, it relates and connects with the divine, I understand life itself and connecting with the extrasensory world, which no longer fits with the Nietzschean philosophy that hammered against metaphysical ideas. So in reality the Mon is not an Ubermensch which surpassed human morality, in the end he is a homo religiosus which surpassed the Ubermensch. And the Higumadon represents the divine. A genius idea of ​​Arai was not to explain what the Higumadon is in fact, at first the characters think that the higumadon is a very big bear, but with the course of the work and with the revelation of the appearance of the higumadon we discover that he is a creature inexplicable, so much so that at a certain point when Higumadon "dies" it begins to expand exponentially until it becomes larger than countries. The Arai not actually explaining what the Higumadon is makes him better characterized as a divine being. With the death of Maria, Mon understands his impotence before the sagardo (Higumadon) and becomes a divinity that refers to homo religiosus. From that moment on, the Mon goes on a pilgrimage journey, and in different places around the world where he passes, he is considered a deity and begins to be venerated, something that goes against the principles of the Ubermensch.

It is worth mentioning a powerful foreshadowing of Mon asking Maria "What should I do" and she answering "Ask God", this same picture is shown again when Mon meets Higumadon at the end of Waltz, the Mon who was in a state of disequilibrium is now in a state of balance, which can even be noticed in a pan where he is stacking stones, a Buddhist practice that symbolizes balance.

Now talking a little more about the ending. The work ties in very well with the final chapter. Let's think, what happens at the end of TWiM? The world explodes because of nuclear bombs, human beings and everything that was on earth turn to dust and wander through space and at some point they reach some planet, and at some point this dust that arrived on the planet will become a kind of intelligent life, at that moment we will be gods. Analyzing we realize that everything is connected and we live in a cycle like gods, we are born, we live, we die and with our death a new life will be created, and all this will also happen with the intelligent species that we give life, it is an eternal pact with the divine.

The extra pages of TWiM that are not in the scan in English add a lot to the theme of the work and especially to Toshi.

It is noticed that in the extra pages of the last chapter, there is a panel that is very reminiscent of the first chapter in the Mon no Mar scene, this symbolizes the cycle that TWiM wants to show us, from the beginning to the end.

Unfortunately I lost the photos of Toshi's extra pages, it's very difficult to find on the internet and these pages are only present in the Japanese volumes.

TOSHI
Now talking a little about Toshi who is another amazing character. He represents very well what the work does not want us readers to become. Toshi saw in Mon a powerful figure and craved to be like him, Toshi craved "true strength". Toshi believes that strength is absolute since that's what Mon taught him, but upon his death he realizes he was wrong, and this is more evident in the extra pages where he calls out to God and his hair returns to its original color when he is in his last moments. I won't expand too much on Toshi because I didn't delve into it like I delved into Mon.

Finally, I would like to talk a little about the manga itself. The quadrinization is perfect, it works very well with the simultaneity with the sequentiality of the frames and Arai has an incredible trait, I love his aesthetics, both in kiichi and in TWiM. The plot is captivating and very well crafted with the message of the work. The cast has several good characters and has for me the best character of all, which is Mon. For those who have already read it, my recommendation is to read it again with a new optics and for those who read the analysis and took spoilers from free, read this shit RN!!!

My favorite panels