The majority of this opinion piece (not a review!) will comprise of me attempting to explain why I don't believe Monster is the 10/10 masterpiece many others do. There are plenty of other reviews that will talk about the excellent animation, background art, writing and voice acting. I believe all those things to be true, but here is why I think Monster falls short of perfection...

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In short, I believe my expectations were set too high by many people who call this an unequivocal masterpiece. That isn't to say those people are wrong, merely that I disagree, it's all opinions! The main thing that makes me more critical of Monster than I would be of many other shows is where it has placed itself. That is to say, this isn't a show with anime bells and whistles, it is a grounded, detective drama/psychological thriller. It being animated doesn't necessarily serve to benefit the show; it is grounded in realism and that opens itself up to a broader range of comparisons. After all, there are countless, fantastic live-action detective dramas and psychological thrillers. From The Wire, to Gone Girl, to Mindhunter. I think it's only fair to consider Monster among those, doing anything less would be doing the show a disservice.

For me, there were many logical inconsistencies and bits of confusion throughout Monster. Parts in which I was baffled by the decisions of characters or how they accomplished things. Spoilers for ep. 4 (I think) -

Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide

how was Johan able to poison the bag of candy and send it to the hospital, whilst in there? The convenience of the only three he wanted dead actually eating it too...

There's probably some sort of explanation for some of these, others are just plot conveniences that I understand have to be in there. But nevertheless occasionally feel cheap and pile on top of the unexplained aspects to frustrate the viewing experience of some episodes. Many MANY episodes avoid these though, so don't get me wrong, there's a ton of fantastic plot, writing and particularly characters to dig into.

One thing I will give Monster over any other show (even live-action), is the way it shifts focus between a massive cast throughout its 74 episodes. Some play bigger roles than others, but they all feel fleshed out and once I accepted this was the way the show wanted to go, rather than focusing on Tenma and his friends, I came to enjoy these vignettes. Some were definitely better than others.

My biggest problems come in the overall pacing of the show; many parts drag on far longer than they need to and end up indulging so much in these characters that by the time the plot gets moving again, the payoff doesn't hit in the way it should. The overall mystery of Monster is one that would be far more compelling if it was told more concisely in my opinion, things ended up coming together after I had already lost interest. Another dilemma of having such a realistic show with realistic designs is that it's pretty easy to mix up one overweight white guy with another, and when a character is reintroduced, it's not immediately the "ah-ha!" moment it should be.

By the time we reached the end of the show, what everything had been building towards felt as though it got very little payoff. I liked where it ended up in the last segment, but it didn't feel as though the entire story had actually been building towards it, which furthers the feeling that we could've got there faster. Character motivations, especially those of Johan, are so vague, they cease to be terrifying. I could go through some insane list of minor complaints I had whilst watching half of Monster, but many of them I can't remember and would have to rewatch the whole thing again (also it wouldn't be fun). You may think that means they don't mean anything, but they definitely impacted the way I felt about the show, they're frustrations I just don't find in the shows and films I consider masterpieces. Definitely not ones I expected to find here, after all the hype.

If you enjoyed Monster then I urge you to watch more outside of anime; there are a ton of excellent dramas out there and I admit that anime could do with more of them like Monster. Less high school angst, more real adult drama. Monster has a lot of what I want to see more of in anime, but unfortunately it didn't quite stick the landing, though I still consider it a great show. It just doesn't have the edge of your seat drama of Breaking Bad, or the truly terrifying psychological aspects of something like Black Swan. Not to suggest that the themes it tackles aren't frightening, just that they didn't impact me in the way I hoped. I think that was due to my lack of investment in many of the characters. Apart from Grimmer, Grimmer was the best.

I wouldn't compare a show like Hunter x Hunter or JoJo's to those works, but when you situate yourself in reality, you accept being compared to such things in my opinion. Which brings with it less suspension for disbelief and probably harsher criticism. Perhaps if it utilised the medium of animation to a greater degree then I would've sung its praises more. If you're someone who has seen a ton of live-action drama as well, and still believes Monster is a total masterpiece, I really want to hear what you believe puts it on that level.

I know I basically just shat on a beloved series for far too many paragraphs, but this is still well worth checking out, because there's a high chance you like it more than me. And even I still liked it a whole bunch; check out that 8/10! I just felt I had to get out my criticisms because I've seen nothing but blanket praise for this show and I didn't expect to have as many problems as I did. I know I may have not specifically gone through those problems, but I felt it was interesting to talk about why they were there in the first place. I also don't see much about anime compared to other live-action shows, which is fair for the most part, as many shows could not be done justice in live-action.

But here is a pretty unique case, and that's what Monster is. Especially in anime, Monster does stand out as a strong drama, with stronger dialogue and deeper themes than the majority of anime and should be praised for it. I wanted to love it so badly. Sadly, not everything is perfect.