Story: The story is incredibly intricate. There are plenty of twists, turns, and cliff-hangers to hold you through every episode. My biggest complaint however is that the story just became too convoluted. They just kept adding side story after side story, and character after character. While it was all very interesting, the resolutions to most of these side stories were unsatisfied and didn't truly progress the main story. And with big intricate stories as Monster, there's bound to be a few plot-holes here and there. However, it never took away from the experience and didn't bother me all that much. But it's something I had to address anyway.
Art: The artwork is incredible especially for being made in 2004. Character models, buildings, and Germany overall looked absolutely wonderful. No complaints here.
Sound: The sound work was also very well done. The guns, characters, etc... all sounded incredibly realistic. The voice acting was incredible, not one weak- link. The music score was haunting and beautiful, SHOUT OUT TO THE THEME SONG!!! Again, absolutely no complaints here.
Character: The characters were brilliant. I don't think there was one character who I found annoying or boring. Now, the problem I had was that some of these characters weren't really important to the overall story. They were interesting nonetheless but ultimately, they were pointless. With that said, there are a vast array of memorable characters that you will remember for ever. The main protagonist and antagonist are INCREDIBLE! The villain is probably one of the scariest villains I've ever seen in any form of fiction.
Enjoyment: I enjoyed this Anime a lot. Some episodes felt like it was dragging and the story wasn't really moving around much and it started to feel like a chore. But Monster was still enjoyable, regardless.
Overall: This anime is extremely good. The only reason it doesn't get a perfect mark from me is because it dragged around in many portions of the story and there were a lot of unnecessary characters and plot elements that were included in there. But even with those unnecessary characters, they were still all very interesting and you cared about what happened to them. The finale could have been better and it did leave you a little unsatisfied. But overall, this was still a very enjoyable experience and for this, I give it an 8. I recommend it!!!!
