Monster:
An anime which is constantly being referred to as "similar to Death Note" and is ranked among top #30... WHYYYY???!!?! OH GOD, WHY DO THEY GIVE FALSE INFORMATION?!!!!?!!
Story 5 :
The plot seems to be ok. You've all read the summary I presume so I won't repeat it. Tenma chose to save Johan, one of two blond twins, and later on he found out that the boy killed his superiors and is in fact a serial killer.
Years pass, more deaths occur, police gets involved, and Tenma is on the run and is searching for Johan to end the monsters life. He finds out
...
there was an experiment held at the foster home where Johan grew up.
Plot seems good enough and fairly interesting, but the execution however is horrible. It plays out like this:
Tenma is in this town, Johan is in another, you meet Nina (Johans' twin sister who can't remember her childhood), Deiter (a kid who's abused by a man involved with the main plot but not so involved that he has an actual purpose), a gangster called The Baby who's racist; the Turkish part of the town is set on fire, Tenma's former fiance Eva went from an upper class woman to a drunk, an inspector (who is either crazy or has a computer inside his head who is chasing after Tenma), Schuwald (who has a son but doesn't know where and who he is and many pose as his son just to get to his inheritance), letters are sent out from every part of Europe to another, Martin (a bodyguard who fell in love with Eva), Grimmer (a man who grew up in the same foster home as Johan), Tenma's childhood friend dr.Gillen (who wants to sell out Tenma to the police) and much much more..
Seems like a lot is happening and that it's interesting right? Well...IT ISN'T! Everything is dragged on and massacred with unimportant things, flashbacks, side characters and everything else you can think of. The important things are so butchered, dragged on forever as well as the unimportant things, that you pray for a good ending! And btw, DO NOT have high hopes for a good ending!
Art 7 :
Art is mostly good. On some parts it's horrible and it feels like someone else has drawn it, on others it's good. If you don't like it at first, you can get used to it so it's fine. All in all, nothing special.
Sound 3 :
The sound is pretty monotonic and manages to slow down the episodes even MORE if that's humanly possible!!!!
And now, for the Characters 3 :
Kenzo Tenma - a miracle surgeon of Japanese origin who's on the run and chasing after a man who made his life miserable and killed a lot of people. He is a positive figure. Sadly, there's nothing else to say about him, even though he IS the main character. (really producers, really??!)
Johan - he was described as "perfect" from people who met him and whom he didn't kill. A serial killer who was involved in an experiment when he was a young boy. He doesn't actually have a name, but one of his foster parents named him Johan.
Interesting right? Read on:
Johan has a "plan" throughout the anime... At the end, you'll find out what the plan is and see how retarded and meaningless everything up to that point actually was; therefore, the anime itself has no meaning at all.
Nina - Johan's twin sister. She doesn't have memories of her childhood. Johan killed her foster parents when she was 20 years old. She finds out about Johan from Tenma and starts to chase after her memories and him.
All she can say is basically: "I REMEMBERED!!" in one episode,"I wish I could remember..." in the next one. How does that even make any sense??!
It's such a sad closed circle and it doesn't allow for her character to develop. When she finally does remember something, it ends up being the same three things: "I'm scared...Welcome back...Three frogs".
Deiter - a kid that's saved from an abusive parent. His only purpose is to make the anime longer. Wouldn't mention him, but he appears in every episode after Tenma saves him.
Schuwald - same as Deiter, but he's an old, rich, blind man in search for his son (I'm surprised you don't hear about his childhood too).
Wolfgang Grimmer - though he has no purpose, he's the only character that's not actually boring! He was also a part of the experiment that took place when Johan was a kid. When he gets angry, scared or tense, he blacks out and wakes up covered in blood. "The Amazing Steiner" series are the only thing he can remember from his childhood.
He doesn't have any emotions; he learned how to smile, cry, express shock, pain, and everything else so he could fit in the society. When his son died, he didn't feel a thing; he wasn't sure if he should have cried or not. (This character is the sole reason I gave the Character section a 3, otherwise I'd give it a 1)
Roberto - an obnoxious lackey of Johan. He just refuses to die in the anime. No matter how many times he gets shot or beaten up, he just lives.
Eva - Tenma's former fiance who's bitter because Tenma wouldn't date her again after she dumped him (Seriously?! Just think about that for a second). She became a drunk and wants to put him behind bars, but ends up helping him. One of the few people that can prove Johans' existence, and is a target because of it.
Jan Suk - a young, eager detective. He was framed, like Tenma, by Johan. Other than the same circumstances, he has no significant part to play.
Would be meaningless to start naming the rest of the characters that showed up for 5 episodes straight because they're all unimportant. There are a few other "main" characters, but they're just too bland so I can't really write anything about them. It's like the writer put every ounce of focus he had to the insignificant parts of the anime along with the side characters, instead of improving the main characters and the plots' execution.
Enjoyment 3 :
I started to watch Monster because of the surprisingly positive reviews, and because everyone kept comparing it to Death Note. At around 10th episode, when I realized it's boring, long and exhausting to watch it, I kept going just for the sake of completing it.
Overall 3 :
Like I've said, the only reason I gave it a 3 was because of Wolfgang Grimmer, otherwise I would give it a 1.
I had high hopes for it, but I'm not judging the anime based on that. I read all the reviews, ratings and everyone gave it a 10?! I have no idea why...
I have no idea how this anime came to be associated with Death Note in the first place, nor how it got among top 30 because it's really pathetic, it drags on forever, and on top of that, after all the torment, you get an ending that is just plainly idiotic.
My advice is, if you plan on watching this anime and if "Monster" becomes boring for you at any point in time, shut it down and watch something else.
If you're not sure if "Monster" suits you or not, watch "Night Head Genesis" (it has fewer episodes and basically has the same quality of the plot) first, and then decide.
Hope you found this review helpful :) and that positive reviewers won't find it "not helpful" just because I disagree and say it is horrible and a waste of time.
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Feb 7, 2012
Monster:
An anime which is constantly being referred to as "similar to Death Note" and is ranked among top #30... WHYYYY???!!?! OH GOD, WHY DO THEY GIVE FALSE INFORMATION?!!!!?!! Story 5 : The plot seems to be ok. You've all read the summary I presume so I won't repeat it. Tenma chose to save Johan, one of two blond twins, and later on he found out that the boy killed his superiors and is in fact a serial killer. Years pass, more deaths occur, police gets involved, and Tenma is on the run and is searching for Johan to end the monsters life. He finds out ... 
Jun 11, 2011
Kuroshitsuji II
(Anime)
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To those lucky people out there who come across this review without watching Kuroshitsuji I:
Before you watch the first season, I strongly, STRONGLY recommend you watch the second season first, and then follow up with the first one and look at them as two different little stories, rather than being continuous. Look at them as two possible endings which might've occurred and you will have a choice of choosing the ending which best suits you and by doing so you won't have a chance of being disappointed and no ending is then "forced" upon you. (I will not compare it to the manga and how ... |
