Monster

Monster is an anime that has lofty aspirations and does not come close to fulfilling them. It starts out fairly exciting, but it turns into an endless menagerie of typical psychological anime bullshitting that pretends to be meaningful and significant, yet ultimately says patently obvious things and never imparts any meaning at all. I cannot stress strongly enough that from about episode 40 on this anime is horrendously slow (it is probably a 7-8 level for the first 24-26 episodes, which is why I kept watching, hoping it could somehow salvage itself).

The story is pretty interesting at first, and were this an anime that ended ... itself in 24-26 episodes, it would have been just fine. However, the story NEVER evolves after this despite going on for an entire fifty episodes more. I will say that the overarching theme of the orphanage is delightful, but other than that, nothing redeems any of the last 40 episodes. The ending is so terrible. I cannot stress this enough.

The characters are definitely the worst part of this anime. If you read 'it is an anime about a doctor it cannot possibly be interesting,' then you are sort of correct. Not to 'spoil' anything, but this storyline gets repeated ENDLESSLY: 1) Dr. Tenma is acting very solemn and some awful music will play to indicate just how psychologically tormented he is. 2) Tenma will get thrust into some situation in which someone else is dealing with their psychological issues. 3) Tenma will save their lives (usually a criminal), because he is the super best damn doctor in history. 4) Tenma will be pulled out of his dredge of despair slightly, having learned anew that there is some hope to be had after all..but then 5) He will remember that it is his and only his job to commit murder and lapse back into his solemn, oh so poignant solitude of desolate sobriety. His wife is the most annoyed I have been by a woman since Milly in an anime. Her entire role is to be a shrew who grapples with her hatred and love for Tenma and complains a lot. I mean A LOT. Except for Grimmer, every other 'good' character pretty much is a weak character who is 'strong in spirit' or whatever and despite their weakness show how powerful they can be despite being powerless! It is absolute tripe.

The art is pretty typically mediocre. I say this from the stance of judging anime against other anime, and this one is a lot worse than you can find in other animes. Good art is not a reason to watch this anime. It is not terrible either though.

This is not the worst anime ever, it is not something I hate, it is just something that I would advise not watching when you can watch three seasons of other better animes instead.

Just finished Monster!! 74 episodes in 2 days.
My first review.
An anime that I thought was going to become the best ever after I had completed like the first 10 episodes, went downhill so fast that by the time it ended I was surprised I had managed to finish.
When you think about 74 episodes and look at MAL rating of 8.5+ you imagine that the story will have the real steel to it and that everything will be tied together perfectly. Unfortunately monster is not at all that.
Its a story of 15 episodes max or probably 6 to 7 episodes that have been stretched to ... 74 episodes with unnecessary characters that add no real value, And because of that story or the characters and their intentions done even make sense.

I wasted my time watching unnecessary deviations hoping they will all add up together in the end but Nah! The protagonist Tenma is as confused as the writer and the main villain Johan is as boring as the story.

if you don't want to hear "Monster is coming... Monster is coming...and I have a very scary story to tell" for 70 episodes continuously and If you really want to watch monster at its finest.. Watch the first 5 episodes and then watch the last 2. Trust me you won't miss a thing! .. That's how empty the story is.

I would have rated it 7 or 8 had the series been 13 episodes but with 74 episodes, it was a lot of time wasted. Boring.

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.

I saw Monster ranked so highly on this site that when it appeared on Netflix, I knew I was going to get into it. I was completely drawn into the story, the mystery and the unraveling of missing pieces of information were delivered exceptionally well. Then I got halfway through the series and the same memories were expanded upon, delivering a sliver of new detail with the same images and lines per episode. No big deal, I can trudge through a few slow episodes, I'm not impatient after all. Never again did I feel the intrigue as I had at the start of the ... show, it dragged on introducing new characters that you knew existed from previous stories and memories. With each new character, a small bit of memory and story would be peeled off. Unraveling this story bit by bit was excruciating for me, I grew more and more anxious to get to the last episode of this anime, not because I wanted to know what happened but because I wanted the series to end, to know that it wouldn't keep dragging on. I had to take a two month break once I reached episode 65, I couldn't take the slow pace, the sentence of new memory per episode. Then finally I worked up my courage and lashed out to get to the end of this marathon that should have ended 30 episodes ago. I didn't feel the work of a master, yes, the characters interweave for 74 episodes, but I didn't care about any of them, I became completely apathetic to every aspect of this story. It had taken too long to reveal the chaos stored within the characters and I no longer cared to look for brilliant writing.

This was easily the most grating anime I've ever watched, I loved it to start and I couldn't wait for it to end.

Monster could really have been a good show, but like so many works it tried to put too much stuff in one packet to really deliver anything.

The premise was very interesting, and if compressed into 20-30 episodes could have made a great series. However, it went the another way, putting Tenma through many many sidequests that had nothing to do with the main plot, and the wangst resulting all his encounters had not much to do with his character's development. In classical terms, we would call these 'fillers'.

If these were quickly over their existence would not ruin the overall enjoyment. However, they are treated as ... equally important with the main story, and the pacing which is on par with The Bold and the Beautiful totally killed the enjoyment. It's just frustrating when you'd want to see where the story twists next and nothing happens in the time of 3-10 episodes.

1. Story (9/10)
Monster has one of the best stories ever. It has romance, violence, war, drama, betrayal. The plot really dragged me into marathoning this anime.

2. Art (5/10)
The art work is not the best, aside from the main characters, everyone else seems to look the same which does not matter to me at all.

3. Sound (7/10)
I usually don't pay much attention to soundtrack unless it is really good or really off. In this case, I didn't notice anything that was off. I also quite like the OP.

4. Character (1/10)
I feel this category is very important in creating a good anime, in the case of ... Monster, this category ruined the entire anime for me. To receive a good rating for this section from me, the characters need to be practical, show development, and have proper non-retarded dialogue.

The way the characters acted in this anime were far from practical, it was actually so retarded. More than half the things that came out of Johans mouth made no sense at all, if I heard someone speaking like Johan IRL, I would think that person has some kind of mental illness. Aside from Johan, every damn character talked like they were retarded with the conversations being very long and repetitive. Here’s some examples,

Character A: *while looking at the TV* “its, its... its.... its ...”
character B: *while starring at Character A“ its who? You gottta tell me, who is it? I need to know!!".
A: its, its , its... its HIM.
B: WHO? its WHO?? You have to TELL ME!!! Who is it?
A: its, its its its.. 3 second pause. The man who saved my life. if it was not for this man.... .... ... It is, its is ....
B: it IS WHO???.
A: it's DOCTOR TENMA!!.
B: *finally turns to the TV* "its him. it really is. It really is him. Its doctor teenma. It REALLY IS! DR TEENMA SAVED ME TOO.
ARE YOU FKING KIDDING ME.

Example of how this convo. would go IRL: Character A: shit its DR. Tenma.

There is absolutely no development in this anime. Although all the characters cling to their past, what I want to get at is how the same shit happens over and over again and the results are always the same AND they take forever to get there. Dieter must have been told 6 or 7 times to stay behind because he is too young for this type of life, yet every damn time, he back talks into tagging along. What i'm saying is, why is there so much screen time placed into these damn scenes (each time is like 3 minutes). There are many other ways to show his stubbornness.. Little things like this take up more than half of the 74 episode screen time. (totally irrelevant).

Another example, Tenmas most spoken phrases:
1:“only me, only I can do it, no, I must do it, I have to do it. Because I was the one. The one who saved ……a monster... I must kill him to prevent more deaths."
2: "NO I CANT DO IT, I JUST CANT, I cant shoot him"
3. ANNA, You mustn’t kill him!. Because I have to do it.
4. Repeat. (Anna does the exact same thing too. In the end, after all that screen time of retarded indecisiveness, nothing happened).

Retarded dialogue.. literally every chance the script writer had, he did the following:
A: It is ….it is…. HIM
B: WHO???
A: the man who… Who… he is… He is… he is… none other than…. A MONSTER (TERROR)
IRL (A): "He is Johan."
IRL (B): "OH" *shocked*


5. Enjoyment (2/10)
I honestly really enjoyed the first 20 episodes. Then I got fed up with how ridiculous the dialogue was and how extremely long this anime was. I don’t appreciate how the creators put in so much repeats and recaps when there were 74 fucking episodes (it's like how i use write my middle school essays). Every detective repeated the entire case every damn time they got a chance to and the story book was read from beginning to end like 5 TIMES. This anime would've been so much better with 24 episodes.


6. Overall (4/10)
Like all media, the negative always has a heavier impact than the positive. A great story just doesn’t cut it for me if the characters are not practical. I do not recommend this anime, I actually skimmed threw episodes 64-74 but really had no idea what went on since all i could read was Johan's retarded riddle-like words, repeated scenes and the words HIM and MONSTER.

I went into this show expecting great things. I did not get them. Monster is nothing more than a bloated uninteresting pile of drivel. The story was touted as a deep psychological thriller, but the individual episodes were incredibly repetitive and uninteresting and the overarching story felt cliched, even with how unorthodox it becomes. Around half of the show's episodes can be summarized as "Tenma goes somewhere, he broods over how awful his life is, he encounters someone with a troubled life, he helps them and leaves". The conflict between Johann and Tenma starts out somewhat interesting, but after 74 episodes of pure schlock it ... gets hard to be invested. The pacing is awful as well. Being drip fed pieces of a story can be interesting, but when it's done over 70 episodes only to put together a very unsatisfying conclusion it's terrible. The characters are all one-note caricatures. In every episode until the final one Tenma and Johann show no signs of character development and the meager development they get at the end is mediocre at best. No other character matters, as they either get killed off to show how evil Johann is or are completely unchanging and annoying. The one character who is even vaguely interesting is Grimmer. Johann's shtick of brainwashing people is also so incredibly stupid. It made me cringe whenever it happened and felt like something that would've been written by some edgy 14 year old in a Shadow the Hedgehog fanfiction. Despite being praised as some philosophical masterpiece, the themes given by the show are either incredibly boring, overused, or childish. The music/sound design are the only really good things about this show. I forced myself to watch through this whole series, only to get disappointed. The only way I can think of improving this show without a complete rewrite would be to cut it down to thirteen episodes.

Monster.

I once made my goal to watch the top 100 animes of myanimelist because I figured “Wow, the first three are so gud”.

However: one single anime made me realize that not all top 100 animes are equal; some are more equal than the others. This is the one who made me realize that some anime’s on top 100 are just pure trash.


Characters:

Kenzo Tenma is way too good, and I mean that in the evil/good sense. The biggest thing going about him is his supposed vengeance upon the main bad guy that makes you think would be the trigger for him to turn bad himself. ... There really is no development of his character which you desperately want to see in a psychological anime. He is just a good guy who does good for the sake of it. He also has no visibly personality except his outstanding manners which are a trademark of the Japanese people. He is probably one of those people that if it weren’t for the fact they had this one good skill (he is a really good surgeon) they would simply be going through life without anything special happening.

Anna Liebert: Mary Sue

Inspector Lunge: He is an ok character, but his memorization technique looks really out of place and not needed. I liked his theorizing about Tenma’s state of mind. Doesn’t do anything in the end despite being the most vigilant of all characters.

Dieter: I literally can’t find a reason why he would be in the series. He is really annoying and made me skip almost all of the scenes where he was doing something (usually nothing).
Werner Weber: Same with Lunge, his special power is just so weird. His overemphasized empathy is also annoying. He’s like if Dieter and Lunge had a son.

Other characters: Trash. They are the likes that you would expect to come from the immense knowledge an average manga artist has. Most of their characterization is made up by some forced up quality like that evil blonde girl being an alcoholic or that evil nazi guy being a dwarf.

Johan Liebeter: Honestly, he is the only good character in the anime (and I mean that in the sense of good & bad). He is mostly reserved but constantly does something in part of his keikaku. He is a good force of nature villain that moves the mostly stagnant plot. His monologues are mildly interesting but do sometimes sound like Jaden Smith wrote them. His biggest flaw has to do with the fact that his psychological manipulation doesn’t really make sense and seems forced. His motivations remain unclear and is mostly speculations but has some development by the end. He might be considered an “ubermensch” because he doesn’t’ really care about other people opinion and just does what he wants. Tbh, he is the only good thing in the show, but that’s like, an apple in a load of shit if you ask me.


Plot:

It’s kinda stupid and misleading. Let me elaborate. From the very first episode, one would deduce that perhaps the anime is about one becoming a monster (namely Kenzo Tenma). It does lead that way in the very first 30 episodes.

But, later one, it becomes clear that this isn’t about Kenzo Tenma becoming the monster because the constant killing/suffering/injustice going unpunished turns him into it (which would be interesting). Instead, we get this huge circlejerk of evil characters vs good ones and the constant and constant and constant delaying of the final confrontation between Tenma and Johan Liebert (the one who is closest to being a “monster”). Which lead me to the biggest and worst flaw in this entire anime.

THE PLOT PACING IS REALLY REALLY BAD AND I MEAN LIKE REALLY BAD (THE WORST I HAVE EVER SEEN IN ANY KIND OF MEDIA). I HAD TO WATCH THIS ANIME IN 2X SPEED BECAUSE IT JUST KEPT HAVING CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THINGS WE ALREADY KNEW AND HAD FILLER SCENES. THE REAL MONSTER IS NOT SOME BLONDE GUY BUT THE PLOT PACING.

As I said, the plot is mostly about good (the average German citizen) vs evil (literal psychos) characters in interconnected places that are being visited by our main character. He travels from place to place in order to find clues about the aryan main villain guy. He is like an RPG character but also has to constantly prove that he isn't tainted by evil, and trust me, the show SURE MAKES SURE THAT YOU DON'T EVER THINK THAT TENMA IS EVEN A LITTLE BIT EVIL. And as we move from place to place we realize that perhaps it isn't about finding the monster, but making friends along the way.

Now I will spoil the twist of the title. It’s kinda needlessly wholesome and out of place. The real monster is actually the mother of Johan Liebert and Anna Liebert who did the “grave” sin of choosing one over the other. That moment alone is possibly the reason why Johan became what he became. It was the final meh to the grave.


Sound: The opening is Gucci but it becomes boring after you listen to it for the 50th time… oh yeah, the opening is the same for all the 74 episodes… The rest of the soundtrack is not something you would listen to in your free time.



Art: It makes me depressed which would be expected from eastern Europe so i think it is good.


Conclusion: Please don’t watch this show. It’s a huge waste of time. If you ask anybody on /a/ they will tell you the same thing: It’s an overrated show that elitist like to brag about having watched it. And this is not like one of those “so bad it is good”. It’s just bad and boring. If you want real psychological stuff go read novels smh.

I've finally done it. I watched Monster. But my feelings are mixed, leaning more toward the negative side over the positive. Hear me out before you start bashing, getting angrily drawn to the dislike button. I can see where Monster is getting all its fame and prestige. However, are we going to ignore the inconsistencies and other glaring issues it has? I am not about to sugarcoat my feelings whatsoever. If you can't handle any criticism. Then, turn away at once before getting all negative for merely sharing my true opinion and wasting both of our time and mental capacity on unnecessaries. Where do ... I even begin? Everyone has probably heard that Monster is known for being criminally slow-paced. They were not lying, even for someone like me who can binge show easily. Monster was the first time I felt exhausted at times and honestly even bored. This was not a smooth sailing watch. I barely enjoyed parts of it but was mostly bored out of my mind. Why did I still watch it? I guess I got lost in the hype shared by many in the community. I decided to read manga alongside the anime. It went by much faster, but I still felt like I mostly wasted my time here. Monster usually has a slow part where it introduces characters. This can go on for a few episodes after that comes to the climax with the juicy and explosive bits. But for me, it didn't feel evenly lined and came off as inconsistent. When an exciting and climactic moment is about to go down, suddenly we cut to a new arc, character, or a completely new situation.

It just doesn't work for me and makes me lose my grasp of things. Author is jumping all over the place, trying to take pieces of the puzzle here and there, forcefully making them connect roundabout manner without being clear about the direction. It can come off as sloppy and not satisfying if you don't understand Uraswa's intention. This is not about having a high IQ. It's simple to put it into words. Moster is honestly messy. Whenever they are talking about some topics. It just starts out of nowhere and ends somewhere else. When it comes to character interactions, they meet and hit off like friends when this was their first conversation. But this is not the case all the time but enough to be a problem for me. Monster's biggest issue thus is the pacing in the form of character and story. It's not flawless, the closure was janky, made no sense, and most of the story was rehashed and repeated the same formula. Tenma runs away after being suspected of being involved in a murder. Comes across people he knows, fight starts, Tenma comes to a gunpoint against someone after his life. Tenma decides to be the good and merciful one, does not shoot, and runs away. And then we repeat that formula till we are at the last stages of Monster. This where the story picks up its pace and tries to conclude the jumbled mess it already is. I don't like it one bit.

All things considered, what is Monster? It's a psychological mystery horror-thriller about a serial killer who is charismatic enough to make others around him kill for him or even commit suicide. Johan's words are like poison that, like a virus, festers into your mind slowly over time. By uses of sweet-talking, Johan manipulates the victim's past or uses a significant weakness of theirs. He speaks to them in a way that instills negativity as they slowly drown in the darkness of the abyss. By doing so, Johan can now make the victim do all of his biddings - anything really. Johan is literally the embodiment of a monster. A manifestation of all the bitterness, darkness, all other disgusting shit that slowly plays around with the victim for his own benefit. Before, he ultimately devours them piece by piece to the point their name or identity gets stolen from them. Johan might use them in his game or perhaps become the victim and spread his venom and influence further. This convoluted story is about many characters and their own issues, insecurities, and stories to tell, dissect, and assess. But nothing is easy with Monster. It's left up to the viewers to interpret whatever the hell is happening on the screen or as a whole. Monster won't feed you the answers, but it will give you an idea of what it's trying to do. The rest is up to you to decipher as you see fit. This is why there are many ways to explain Monster's story and values, as there is no pure and right way.

Dr. Tenma is a world-known and one of the best surgeons in the world and a victim who gets thrown into Johan's game. All killings done by the real culprit are blamed on the doctor. Now he embarks on a journey to kill the frightening thing he saved as his good nature of doctor willed him to do. On the journey, he learns about humanity, the good and bad, what it means to have an identity, and much more. Monster tackles many themes, others such as racism and perseverance to do what must be done, the equality of human life, and how everyone weights the same regardless of the nation and ethnicity, and so forth. But Dr. Tenma could not know the nature of the person he saved would cause multiple tragedies in the future. Nina is the sister of Johan. She is also thrown into the looming carnage and tragedy that Johan creates and spreads. Nina has to deal with her own dark past as she tries to stop her brother by unveiling the grim, terrifying past hidden in multiple layers of thick cloth.

Monster tells you that human beings are fickle lifeforms that are easy to manipulate if you know which buttons to press. Someone who has only known carnage and blood, grief only needs this and that push. Or anyone who is an empty husk without identity. They don't know what's right or wrong since they didn't have the pleasure of being brought forth by their parents or good guardians. So inside the emptiness, you can fill it with your toxic waste and tell them the wrong things are right and so forth. To the point, they break and fall into total darkness. But those who did get brought up by their parents and have a solid guard protecting their mind from all the dark and nasty. And are only filled with good and had more or less a joyous life filled with love, and even during times of darkness, you had someone to lean on and get comforted by. These are the ones whose guard will be much tougher to pierce. Since they have a foundation for their identity, which will not be easy to devour and steal. No. You will need a much darker and drastic measure to crack them open and manipulate them to your own will.

I have to say it Dr. Tenma is such a dull lead who changed way too fast. We didn't get to see the process. He just became obsessed chasing after Johan after their first meeting for whatever reason. It felt wonky. I know he feels responsible since, as a doctor, if he hadn't saved him. None of the tragedy would be set in motion, but it just doesn't feel natural for me. As such as sad as it may be, I just don't like Dr. Tenma. He was so boring. The execution of his character needed more practical fleshing out. Johan got potential, but he's barely in the story. We only see him whenever the writer feels it's convenient to give him screentime. It felt like he was used as bait to keep the audience in check and to make them avoid dropping this tedious and torturous tale. One ridiculous way to describe Monster is that it was jumpy, never stayed in one place. It was glitchy, like it skipped over vital information or events to drive you into mad confusion before delicately explaining things by connecting them to breadcrumbs, which were hidden in plain sight but were always there. You just didn't realize it before the author - Urasawa wanted you to. Regardless, I felt the execution on that point didn't deliver either. Before the reveal, it was so tedious and dull. Take Higurashi as an example. It did a solid job of leaving hints for a bigger and grander picture. Monster didn't feel like that at all.

When it comes to Monster's production, despite being from the very early 2000s, it looks good. The animation and art-style are decent and conveys emotions and facial expressions well. It didn't feel cheap. Madhouse invested their time well and clearly was passionate. The way the facial expressions depict certain emotions is worthy of praise and very realistic. This is the first time I felt I was watching a live-action show instead of a pure anime. Monster shine is the stunning voice acting and the soundtrack, which complements the eerie, mystery, disturbing atmosphere of the show. After having read and watched Monster, can I recommend it? Honestly, there are far better stories out there that really nail their themes. Monster's anti-climatic and nonsensical conclusion felt so silly that I had to pause the episode for a moment. I was pondering, it's this how it ends? I was so disappointed. If you want to check out Monster, then go ahead, but I would recommend the manga, despite anime having good production for its time. Well, the anime was choring tho, and the pacing is incredibly slow either way, but the manga goes by faster. If you want me to be real with you, I don't recommend Monster at all.

A good story is the essence of the show and if the story is a failure then we won't enjoy the other aspects of the show. The problem with Monster is that it's simply meaningless and a drag. The show has a good and promising start but after episode 10 you see filler arcs. I think the story is just trying to twist the events to make them look mysterious while they're not. This is the feeling I have been getting when watching it. All the characters have disappointed me after a while.


If you have been watching Monster but got bored of it and are ... hesitating to continue it or not then my suggestion is that you drop it. Because there's nothing else to enjoy in it for you. If you haven't enjoyed it be sure that you won't enjoy the rest either because the pacing doesn't change. The ending isn't anything special either and all the mysteries remain unsolved (they get solved but they wouldn't satisfy you because there is so little reasoning into them)

— The rest of the review contains minor spoilers! —

before I start, Some people might come and say: you don't understand. Monster is not an anime "normal" people can understand. If you believe you are a special talented person, kindly note that this review is not for you


This show does not offer much in the aspect of mystery and thriller. I started this show mostly because of these two categories but got disappointed. The mysteries are just meant to keep you interested in the show but they're not ever answered properly. There isn't anything thrilling in this anime either, I probably don't have to mention that it's a really slow paced anime. So don't expect to be excited over it.
However there can be good experiences for the first time. I was really moved when that newspaper guy and Anna's parents were killed. But after that same cliche keeps happening and it becomes boring. After some time it just becomes like: ah this guy died too. Okay next


I will explore the characters a bit:

Tenma:
Through the whole story Tenma wanders around here and there doing absolutely nothing other than making a serious face and showing himself resolved. You could feel something is wrong if the "main" character does nothing other than being in minor and filler plots helping random characters. Can anyone recall Tenma doing something that affects the story other than saving Johan in the beginning?


Johan:
Johan doesn't do anything at all either. He is just the absolute evil with a mysterious past and he makes others do the things he wants by only existing. We have no idea what powers he has and how he managed to get so many lackeys. Throughout the series Johan's motives keep changing. One time he's trying to kill anyone who knows about his past, another time he's simply trying to cause chaos, one time he's trying to get revenge...
His actions don't have much reasoning behind them. Also he keeps pointing to his forehead and asking others to shoot him. If he has goals and motives why does he want to die? If he really just wants to die why doesn't he shoot himself? This is just meaningless to me, not deep


Anna:
Just like Tenma, Anna is another character that wanders around and does nothing. "I remember! Something important must have happened here. I want to remember but I'm scared" or something like that. She was the character that made me excited the most because I was curious to hear the backstories but she never explains anything since there's nothing to explain at all. It's all meaningless.

*Anna inspects the room for 5 minutes and then says: "I remember! I remember!" And then Dieter says: "no Anna don't remember it. Maybe it's better if you don't remember!"* I just wanted to smash the screen that time! Such a drag


Inspector Lunge:
This guy was the character I was expecting great things from and the only time that I was impressed was the time that he put himself in Johan's perspective and predicted that he will cause chaos in the library. But then he didn't appear in the library arc!!!! That's why this anime is so meaningless. Tries to make exciting moments for you but after a while you realize they're just meant to hype you up and nothing more


Grimmer:
Two things about this character were disappointing. Other than that he wasn't a bad character
First: his fights were never shown. We all wanna know how he managed to beat 4 armed people with only his fists. (well it's impossible right? that's why it wasn't shown)
Second: despite declaring that he has no emotions he is still affected by emotions! (before regaining them and crying for his child)
We can see shock and fear and anger in him even though he says he doesn't have any of them. I might be wrong about this as I'm not 100% sure but I think there was some paradox in this character regarding emotions


Let's not forget that there are many extra and annoying characters such as Dieter or that thief guy or Tenma's ex girlfriend. Also so many new characters keep showing up and dying 2 episodes after that which is a total failure to make us feel sympathy for them. If Tenma or Anna died we could've felt sad but why would we get sad over some side character which was introduced 2 episodes ago?

Monster was the most disappointing experience for me and I didn't enjoy it at all. The anime was all about trying to make you feel something deep and big is behind the scenes but in truth nothing like that had existed. Some broken background stories and broken reasoning and cliche is all this show is made of.

Never seen a show so highly regarded and begin with a solid premise only to waste at least 80% of its runtime on episodic BS, splitting up the characters for no reason, pointless external conflicts, red herrings and distractions that endlessly delay the actual plot. You had 74 episodes to weave a meaningful murder thriller story, and very few of these episodes are actually interested in anything of the sort.

If the plot isn't moving forward, are we developing the characters? No, like I said, arbitrary external conflicts or the characters just up and leaving instead of having conversations always leads the characters to being pawns ... of the plot. They never have clear motivations or goals in terms of how the story treats them--they just do things and react to Johan, Tenma's actions and movements. Emotions and feelings are never expressed that show deep character movement or progression. They just look sad, forlorn about 'oh no I have to kill Johan', humanity is bad, murder make me sadge, cri cri. The rest of the time is just filled with recap of prior events (that are also not meaningful).

Is it realistic? In some ways, yes, in many ways no--it has plenty of contrivances, conveniences or deus ex machinas that any story often has. It's realistic sometimes but actively obstructs its plot and mutes its character motivations when the writer hasn't decided what to do yet.

Mid at best, often worse than mediocre, waste of time.

I didn't like this series. I didn't like this series at all should be how I phrase it.
The first time it came on was on Sy-fy. Don't get me wrong.. I was glad that there was a new anime showing but I was not thrilled with it.

I decided to give it a try, and the moment the opening came on I dropped it. I couldn't watch. It was like trying to read a book that you strongly dislike but were trying to against your nature.. Of course I should be able to give you a good opinion on the anime by just the opening alone. ... No. I can't. I decided to watch one episode after nearly three months of it being on.. and I must say I regretted it.

The plot.. I had to read up on it but I can basically give you a discription.. It was boring... and un interesting. Sometimes I didn't even know why the anime was doing half the time.. and the unnecessary scenes.. Really.. this was painful. And I never thought I would hear myself say this but.. Twilight is better than this. Oh.. that was painful. The story took way to long to actually developed and dragged a great deal in places. It was like running the series in slow mo.

I couldn't get into it no matter how hard I tried.

The next set was the art. The art just pretty much sucked.. it had that dullish aura about it and that really pathetic display at it. People who know me, know that I usually pay more attention to the art and this time I could not because of how poorly it was. 'sighs' My time wasted.

The opening theme was what made me turn, not just the plot or how bad the art was. I melody chosen didn't go well with the series like most do. And the opening animation was something I swear I had seen before. Completely unimpressed.

The voice actors were descent.. as far as I can tell.. but I really don't want to go into them seeing as I couldn't pay much attention with how hard I was trying to keep my nerve to watch that episode.

The characters.. again I rather not go into this. I found them dull.. uninteresting.. and pathetic in development. But they deserve a three for keep the series a float for others.. as for me they sunk.. and I couldn't enjoy them.

Speaking of my enjoyment.. as I have said.. it was like trying to read a book you couldn't stand. And I still wince at the memory of this series. I just have to rate this a one because of how much I struggled to watch. I wanted to just bash my head against my dresser after it was done. Never again.. and the reason for why I dropped it.

Overall I rate this a two. Even though I hated it to the point of saying Twilight was better, I have to remember to give a fair rating for the series.. and that is a two. I didn't like the story.. it wasn't very well developed and dragged way to many times in places.. the characters were completely uninteresting and though they provided to keep the story a float I couldn't get into them either.. the sound was descent yet I couldn't stand it sometimes.. and the art just sucked.

I think it deserves a two.

***Warning There Are Spoilers***

You know what… I’m just going to say it… The show kind of sucks actually.

And you know what is really stupid?! Almost everyone on MyAnimeList thinks that it’s the greatest thing since canned bread. But it isn’t.

The biggest reason why it’s bad is because it gleefully abuses the mystery box approach. In other words, the show rather pointlessly withholds the villain’s backstory and motivation from the audience for as long as possible until the very end. This results in the audience having next to zero idea as to who the villain really is outside of his name. Furthermore, this causes his relationship ... to the other characters to be extremely underdeveloped. What’s particularly egregious is that the villain barely has any screen time whatsoever, electing to have his lackeys do his work for him. This would have been acceptable if we got any sort of development for him through these various henchmen… But that doesn’t happen. Even worse, the writers actually tried to redeem him towards the end of the story and my jaw dropped in disgust. This guy – to put it bluntly – does not deserve any sort of redemption. He is a sick sociopath that killed hundreds of people. He even killed his twin sister’s foster parents. And now the story wants to act like “he wasn’t so bad after all”?! What the actual [bleep]!

Another reason why the show is horrible is because of how convenient the plot is. Almost all of the important players bump into each other exactly when they need to! This makes the world feel very small. This wouldn’t be so bad if this only happens a couple times, but that’s not the case. This is a pervasive issue that I keep rolling my eyes until I legit lost the ability to see. There’s no introspection, no discussion, everyone is exactly where they need to be. This is made even more egregious when you realize that there were several points where the main character could’ve killed the villain. But then he just doesn’t…even though the whole purpose of the show is for the hero to kill the villain. And there’s no really convincing rational as to why. It just feels like the story artificially keeping the villain alive to pad out the series.

I also feel that the majority of the characters do not have a cohesive character arc. Almost everybody is exactly the same as they were at the start of the show. This is partially because the main character is a Gary Stu. Aside from saving the villain at the start of the story, he never does anything that would be considered a mistake that was a result of his actions. He is still as altruistic as he was at the start. He never makes a mistake which makes him experience sufficient introspection to come out as a fundamentally different character by the end.

Another point of annoyance is the twin sister character. She freaks out at everything constantly. Especially towards the midpoint of the series, there isn’t a single moment where her eyes are twitching constantly and she is not panicking. I almost wanted to go onto the TV and slap her so she would shut up. I don’t even think she does anything of importance aside from just giving the audience more useless exposition. I know that she was supposed to be the victim here… But the writers overplayed her trauma so much that I was laughing my ass off at several points.

And don’t get me started on the main character's wife (or ex-wife depending on what point of the story you’re at). I understand that she was supposed to be unlikable. That part I’m fine with. But her redemption arc was absolute bullshit. Her her sudden and inexplicable emergence of compassion came out of nowhere and was completely unearned. It was almost funny when she started crying because it felt so random to me. She was the picture perfect cold stone [bleep] for most of the story only for her to suddenly become it’s somewhat caring character. And there was no attempt to bridge this transition whatsoever.

So yeah the show is garbage. It’s literally just a bloated and pretentious mystery box with characters made of cardboard. I don’t know which is worse: the fact that I just wasted my time, or the fact that it took me this long to realize that it sucked.

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Monster manages to be predictable, cliché, uninspiring, and boring all at the same time.

So you see quite a few people rating this show called Monster highly but no one ever really talks about it. Eventually you figure you might as well give it a watch, heck you're in the mood for something different. The premise is unique, you reckon, especially for an anime. You prepare yourself for a 74 episode slog, thinking to yourself you're gonna have a good time.

Nope. I had a bad time. I was super disappointed by Monster.

What's the opposite of subverting tropes? Because Monster does exactly that at every opportunity. It ... felt like I knew what was going to happen at all times, because the plot and cast are so stereotypical. The moment I predicted a character's line word for word in episode 5, when he was introduced not 2 minutes ago, I had to turn it off there and then.

The stiff animation doesn't do it any favors. It makes the characters seem very one dimensional, which they are, but at least it could have been hidden a little bit with quality animation. No such luck. The soundtrack is nothing to write home about, either.

Overall, I can't recommend Monster with a straight face. I'm unable to recall a single redeemable moment in the 5 episodes that I managed to watch before giving up. It's storytelling at its worst.

Monster is touted as a masterpiece of the psychological thriller genre, boasting some of the greatest characters you'll find in an anime, and a story that is close to unrivaled in the medium. I think of Death Note as quite possibly the most genius story ever executed in television, film, or text, and no show is mentioned in the same breath as Ohba's masterwork more than Monster. While I wasn't going into this series expecting something quite of that caliber, I was expecting a great deal of suspense, top-notch dialogue, and, what I expect from every series I take the time to watch, a fulfilling ... ending. While there certainly were strong points in the show, enough to justify watching the entire run, I was let down largely on the first two counts, and entirely on the third.

I'll start with the characters. As you would expect of a show that runs for 74 episodes, the number of faces you'll become familiar with is significant. That said, no long-running show I can think of develops seemingly inconsequential characters like Monster. My favorite supporting characters include Rosso, Braun, Reichwein, Martin, Gillen, Müller, and the best character the show has to offer, Wolfgang Grimmer. My favorite characters tend to be the main protagonist or antagonist, Lelouch from Code Geass, Light from Death Note, Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist, but here I think Grimmer shined brighter than Dr. Tenma and Johan. I wish I could say that had everything to do with his appeal, but it was also a symptom of my disappointment with both of the primary characters.

I felt bad for Dr. Tenma, and wanted him to regain his freedom, but almost more on an intellectual level than an emotional one. This is a problem I had throughout the show. I got where characters were coming from, but the emotional attachment wasn't there. Most every character familiar with Johan described him as a 'monster', as 'pure evil', and there were even some expecting that he'd be the next Adolf Hitler. Psychopaths realized what he was at first glance. He had an uncanny ability to bend anyone to his will. His power and greatness were unquestioned. This was the case from the start, but I can't say I ever truly bought into it. Again, on an intellectual level, I can look at his resume and realize he's a threat to humanity that must be erased, but I never really felt it. And, given that the show revolves entirely around his life, my overall enjoyment of the show was handicapped by my relative apathy regarding it's title character. While he did have some of the most impressive lines, I found myself hating Lunge, the Baby, Roberto, and Eva more than 'the devil himself'.

Another inexpiable fault is the inability of certain characters with supposedly strong resolve to accomplish what they claim is their greatest goal. If you have a problem with individuals pointing guns at people whom they claim to want dead, letting at least 30 seconds go by, and ultimately not doing anything, then there are a few scenes you'll almost certainly take umbrage with. There is a point about midway into the show where the only logical ending would effectively end the show. Perhaps for that reason, that conclusion is dodged artlessly and everyone re-enters their respective roles.

It's a big story to have to tell, but around 40 episodes in I found myself dreading the time I'd have to spend to get to 74. And while that time is used to develop some characters rather nicely, the story moves at a pace that is gradual to a fault. For a supposed thriller, I only found a handful of moments that brought me anywhere near the edge of my seat, and they were too mild, scarce, and late into the show's run to tip the scale much in either direction. Real intrigue was drowned in minutia and storytelling that read more like a book report than a gripping tale. The oft attributed horror component was non-existent, as far as I could tell. I can't remembering feeling legitimate fear once during the show.

There were also some hypothesis and claims offered up, and dealt with in ways that left me wanting legitimate answers. Without spoiling anything, the question of split personalities, Nina's significant one-on-one with Gillen, and Johan's true plan and it's relation to Sievernich were all glossed over or dealt with poorly.

Regarding the art, Monster's animation quality is serviceable, when you take it's age into account. That said, the character designs always bugged me a bit. The way Naoki Urasawa draws faces, specifically noses and eyes, differs greatly from my preferred style. I don't believe any element of the art inhibited my enjoyment of the show in a significant way, but nonetheless I did find it to be burdensome.

The acting is fine (I watched the dub, for the record). I do feel that there were a few lines here and there that were underperformed, but I think Silverstein (Johan), Strassman (Nina), Seitz (Reichwein), and Platt (Eva) particularly did a fine job. The SFX were of a similar quality, a few questionable foley decisions, but generally solid. The music did it's job, as one would expect, not exceptionally impressive or poor.

Ultimately, I found myself wanting to see how everything ended up, but not needing to see the next episode like I would with Death Note, or Black Lagoon, for example. Within the last ten episodes the concept of urgency is introduced, far too late to make much of a difference. Some fantastic characters meet fitting conclusions, there's a level of redemption, and finality peeks it's head around the corner, but the way the ending is handled is tantamount to a cop-out. When a show is so wrapped up in finding answers, it's finale should provide more than Monster's did, especially considering the severity of what's left up in the air. Conceivably, the show could've gone on for another 70 episodes, or been wrapped up neatly. Ambiguity like that in a long-running mystery series seems to defeat the point entirely.

For the first 20 episodes or so my overall grade hovered around a 6.3, which dipped to a 5.5 a little over halfway in, then, with the ending, to a 4. I'm glad I watched Monster, if only because doing so eliminated all of the curiosity I had regarding it's purported quality. While Naoki Urasawa's opus had it's well-crafted moments, it's ambition outweighed it's intelligence, an unforgivable sin for a psychological thriller.

If Monster taught me one thing, it's that when you feel a show is bad and there are a lot more episodes left, just drop the damn thing and move onto something else.

Although that statement doesn't summarize my thoughts on this anime, it represents a relative sense of disgust that plagued the whole shows that went away at some parts but were amplified at others. What boggles my mind though is that this came from studio Madhouse only 2 years away from Death Note. The reason I bring this up is that if Monster used what made Death Note good, it would have been way, ... way better. And yes I know that studios don't equal quality and it's more often than not tied to directors, but it worth comparing regardless due to them both being psychological thrillers thematically tied to the meaning of human life with around the same technical limitations.

So what do I like about Death Note? Well for one, the soundtrack. It's probably one of the best anime soundtracks due to how the songs are able to set the tone of a specific scene almost perfectly, along with the chord progressions that are connected to each character. If you have the time, go look up the soundtrack on YouTube, it makes for great studying music because it captures the mind games present in that show. Monster in comparison is pathetic. There is not one good song in its OST and I can only remember one song off the top of my head (Edit: I was writing this review, the I had to leave to go do something, and I forgot the song I was referencing here, DO YOU GET IT!?!?!). Another thing Death Note does well is the editing and animation. Of course, I could reference the incredible sakuga moments that people cite over and over again, but even in the bland scenes, we are treated to the close ups of their calm faces during tight dialogue scenes between L and Light. The use of color is also great when Light and L are put under red and blue light respectively. Monster has nothing of this sort. Almost every single scene is as bland as the next, and the editing and sound design actually made me laugh at how forced it was at times. I could tell when they had to add a forced THUD or WOOSH whenever they were going to reveal a dead body. But The colors were so drab and the art too mediocre that every death all felt the same to me. Arguably this is the same as Death Note, but their death was most of the time something they never made you feel for. People just died, there was often no emotion. In Monster though, there are some people we are expected to care about, but it didn't sell me on any of them. Though the worst thing about Monster by far is the voice acting. I have seen the dub, by my god does the sub suck ass. I think all you need to hear any of the characters scream and you can tell it's the most forced thing ever. Johan has a pretty decent voice, being relatively high pitched for a male, but that is one in like, 50ish characters. Death Note in comparison has decent voice acting, but you have to give props to Light's laugh, which is maniacal, and sell him as this psychopathic killer 100%. So basically what we learned is that everything that makes a good anime does not exist in Monster. It's not insulting like Berserk 2016, but it is definitely missing the necessary components to bring people into the story, especially for 74 episodes. I have a theory as to why the manga is rated too high on MAL because it's basically the anime, but it's a manga. What I mean by that is that many of the scenes are often 1 to 1 counterpart, which is often celebrated, but here I actually wish the animators went a little more off-script to breathe more life into these dull characters. But with nothing to lose, does the story of Monster hold up, kind of.

I will admit that the first 4 episodes actually are really good, which can be enough to carry people 70 more episodes. I am not one of those people. The conflict between Johan and Tenma was something I wanted to be focused on, but it takes another 20ish more episodes before we even see Johan. At that point, I knew this wasn't going to be a fast-paced thrill ride where each line of dialogue is equally important like Death Note. So it's too slow to be a fast-paced cat and mouse chase spanning the country of Germany, but it's also too interconnected to be view as like an episodic journey with no direct pinpoint. I will be honest that I spaced out at many segments because I was just so damn bored, but when I tuned in I realized that they didn't have one main destination and sorta just picked where they wanted to go in the episode they go there, or occasionally one episode before. What makes SBR such an exhilarating ride is that we know where Johnny and Gyro need to go to win the race and/or collect the corpse parts. Here it almost feels like Urasawa had no idea what he was writing, which is fine if you are writing a slice of life series with no direct end, or a journey with no destination type story, but not when you are creating a murder mystery crime drama. It feels like it wants to play both lanes, but fails both. I should give credit where credit is due, there are some episodes that I really enjoyed, mainly anything with Grimmer, that one episode about Tenma learning to shoot a gun with the guy and the adopted girl, the one where Nina comes in contact with an ex-assassin where they talk about the taste of sugar, and a couple of others. But when you have to go through exposition fill episode after exposition filled episode with characters that try and fail to impress me, I have to wonder what my final verdict should be for the series as a whole.

Though I feel the main crux of what irks me is the characters, after all, I did mention how some fail to hit, but mostly it's the sheer number of them that I find odd. I guess you can focus more on Germany and the people that fill it, which could be interpreted as the main theme of showing Tenma how different everyone is, and how they are all equal in death, but I wished they gave up a couple to flesh out our main cast a little bit more. Tenma literally feels like a blank slate, altruistic, but mainly uninteresting. We literally get like 1 episode to explain why this JAPANESE MAN is in GERMANY, ONE. You could call him a complement to the supporting cast, but that's debatable. I found Eva to be somewhat intriguing, but mostly annoying and was only redeemed by the existence of Martin. Dieter was extremely missed potential in the second half of the story, where he is basically sidelined and spends the rest of his time with Reichwein and Nina. But by far the worst handled characters were Nina and Johan. I can say they have some merit, in that they play with the main theme in an interesting way, but the way it's delivered is just appalling. I literally had to watch a YouTube video to even get what Johan was doing. You see he is someone playing a game with fate, cause he like is a nihilistic guy with no aspiration in the world or something. But unlike the other in 511 kinderhiem, he never found purpose in hedonistic pleasure because he has none or something. The point is, the story never gives us Johan's character straight. It's all through interpretation and allusions to Franz Bonapart's literature. That's is the literal worst way to make a character, because it makes the viewer ask why. Not why what happens in the story happens, but why Johan is doing what he is doing. That is the opposite of compelling or interesting. What would have been more interesting would Johan's motives be stated outright at the end of episode 4, and then we are more interested in the how of Johan's actions. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, and we are left with an arguably uninteresting, but most definitely an uncompelling antagonist. Nina is tangentially similar in that she is focused on finding her past and figuring out who she is in comparison to Johan. This is again, the show in the laziest way possible with flashy editing and echoey sound effect that brings me out of the show completely. There are a couple of other characters I could mention, but I don't like the "Tenma can't be a murderer" line, it used way too often by way too many characters, who try to paint Tenma as the reincarnation of Jesus, which he kind of is in the narrative but that's not the point. In the end, the characters are a mixed, if not a negatively skewed bag.

Though if there is one thing that Monster actually does really well, it's fleshing out Germany in a believable fashion. I love every place they go being crafted somewhat differently, it's just a shame that all the buildings basically have the same color. The use of German foods and German traditions really makes it feel like a believable place, which most of the side characters fit into. It almost feels like Tenma is just going on a German tour across the country, meeting different people talking about what is important in their admittingly simple lives. It almost gears it towards a slice of life series on German cultures until Urasawa decides that Johan exists and either kills one of them, or the police arrive. Even with that point, you still can't say that much about it.

But the final nail in the coffin was the ending, which hinges on a plot point about Johan's mother established literally that episode that leaves it on a crappy cliffhanger that leaves no impressionable imprint. This especially hurts noting that the previous couple episodes were actually really good, even if Johan's reasoning for being there went against the way he was established in the 1st half of the series.

In conclusion, Monster is a slow, boring series that puts a lot of emphasis on broad concepts that have no thematic weight due to how they are delivered, or intrigue because it is coming from an already enigmatic figure. If the series cleaned up its act by playing its themes a little more straight, sticking either to a more chill or fast-paced script, and play to Madhouse's strengths, it could have been a 7, or even an 8/10 for me, but as it is, its a bad anime.

I don't usually write reviews, but watching this and looking at the inexplicable 8+rating this show has been given annoyed me so much, that I just had to.

Let's see what it's about. Monster aspires to be a philosophical suspense thriller, full of suspense and intrigue, but what it actually is a muddled soup of pseudo-intellectual mumbo-jumbo, paired with an unappetising, bland main course of a plot that doesn't really really go anywhere, and a side of one of the most poorly characterised protagonists that I've ever seen. Going with the food metaphors, we have Dr. Tenma, the blander-than-bread main protagonist, who keeps finding himself in ... hot water throughout the series. The main antagonist is Johan Liebert, also bland, but *gasp* evil bread, who does various evil things evilly and convinces everyone he meets to do various other evil things because he's evil. Why do they agree? Since they're not the main character, they obviously don't have any free-will, and are at the writer's mercy when it comes to agency, that's why. Beside how else would you show how dastardly Johan is?

Story (loosely speaking): Dear Dr. Good Bread, has a successful career as an over-powered surgeon, but is perpetually miserable because he is being forced to marry Eva, due to being indebted to her father. Because she's rich and beautiful, she is also insufferable, and somehow is in love/obsession with Dr. Tenma, despite his previously mentioned bland, miserable personality. Tenma, being who he is, decides to grow a backbone, to save a child's life, and suffers the consequences: the child turns out to be evil and frames him for murder! This could be considered a spoiler, but it really isn't. That is the problem with this story. Since they got the suspense out of the way early in the story, disgraced Tenma visits various places in Germany, on a kind of danger-tourism trip, in lukewarm pursuit of the evil boy, getting into trouble everywhere he goes, exchanging sappy stories with irrelevant characters, and constantly saving lives. He almost runs into Johan, but doesn't. Rinse and repeat for remaining episodes. There are 74 of them. The main tension of the plot is supposed to be Tenma being wracked with guilt for saving the supposed manifestation of true evil. Even the way it ends is stupid.

Characterisation: oh, I forgot to mention, Johan has a twin sister. She's the good twin. I cannot for the life of me remember anything about her. She's really spunky in the way only poorly developed female anime characters can be. Tenma is good, selfless, kind, and everything else nice, but is constantly dour and is a miserable character to accompany the viewer through this yawn-fest. Eva is rich, greedy, and beautiful, tempered by an awful personality. Johan is evil because everyone says so. He has almost supernatural abilities to convince people to kill themselves and other people because of his evilness and master manipulation. It's very unconvincing, because we don't much see any evidence of it. Apparently, he can bring down nations by making silly mean remarks and snide comments to people, which makes me question whether the actual mystery lies in why the background characters are so suggestible and malleable. I can only assume that the backdrop is set in an Idiocracy-like world where the rest of the characters are so dumb, that Tenma, the reptile inspector and Johan appear to be the sharpest tools in the story. They also really emphasize the fact that he's stunning. A handsome boy, but evil?! How tragic. He's got a tragic, tortured past too. But he seems to have been the one who did much of the torturing. Then there's Dt. Lunge, a reptile of man, who is in lukewarm pursuit of Tennis. There's a lot of lukewarm pursuit you'll be watching for 74 episodes. The other characters are filler and don't really matter. I found this show remarkable in how outlandish every character can be made by attributing random quirks to them, while still managing to make them as cliché and uninteresting as possible.

Animation is ok, I guess. Music, I didn't care about and don't remember much. The show was upsettingly boring, and also infuriating to watch, due to how smug and self-indulgent it was. I can see why a lot of people liked and enjoyed it, seeing how it is accessible and easy to follow. Hell, I could have slept through a dozen episodes, and the story would still be going nowhere. And overpowered main characters have always been popular in anime. The forced in philosophical rambling about the existence of absolute evil, ends up amounting to nothing but a repetitive refrain of how this bishounen is so evil.

Fatigue the anime.

It kicks off in a promising direction, with exciting characters. The entire premise and beginning are great, but as the episodes start to pile up, while it introduces a plethora of side characters and ventures into even more side storylines, it grows increasingly more evident that it has nothing to say. The story builds in the tempo of a snail, which would not be much of an issue, but the show after a certain event (library) starts to forcefully, but again very slowly, regress all its past choices.

I lost any remaining interest I had when I realized that every story progression circles back ... to the beginning. No character goes through an arc. A lame character that finally died twenty episodes ago actually didn't. Everyone remains in or goes back to their old status quo. If a larger half of the show was outright discarded, no one would notice (except for manga readers).

During the span of 40 episodes, we learn about the history of the main villain where we are being repeatedly told how bad he is and how everyone is monstrously scared of him, but he never really does anything that would justify such a fact. It is an illusion, he just has an assassin bodyguard that extremely conveniently teleports around and is always at the right time and place to cause trouble for the main character(s). So the show has to devote itself to another useless storyline to go around the caused damage.

Totally unfocused experience. Definitely not something that justifies the runtime of 70 episodes. Monster not only munched and gulped people around it but also my patience and time.

Ill keep this spoiler free.

Really overrated.
Main story is good, first 10 episodes are thrilling... The ending is interesting(dont want to go into any more details than that)... And that's it.

60 episodes of side stories that are barely interesting. Very little character progression IMO. Plot lines that start and never seem to resolve themselves(though some plot lines ended up converging quite nicely).

Honestly, I would not recommend it. It's just not worth the time investment. If you get bored after 15-20 episodes I suggest you quit, or watch the last two episodes to get closure(though of course you will have missed some parts.)

Monster is the story about Doctor Tenma. He risks his career and reputation to save a small boy rather than an official. Which leads to Tenma losing his promotion amongst other things. Afterwards a string of murders occur benefiting Tenma so he ends up as the primary suspect. So now he goes on a journey to clear his name and put a stop to the person making these murders.

I don't know how the author makes something with a premise this badass boring, but he did it. It has a very good and nice premise but by far one of the worst executions i have ever ... seen. It is a series that stumbles on the very first step. Its fucking boring. It isn't just a slow series. It makes the first half of clannad look like fucking sonic. I understand the appeal of a laid back slow paced series. But this shit is beyond excessive. It is like if one piece was all about Luffy using the boat and finding the one piece. Without any of the action, any of the banter, likability, and general entertainment. It literally is a walking simulator without any of the interesting parts. It established the premise and expected that to carry for the rest of the series. I don't understand why they author thought that was a good idea.

The main villain is this autistic dumbass who's entire thing is pointing its finger at its forehead. Thats pretty much all it does. It is insane and stupid. It is also really odd that this was the thing that the author decided to pick as a villain. There is the main lackey who is literally more charming that the main villain. But thats not really an achievement considering the absolute flat characters most of the cast already is.

Un-entertaining and uninteresting should be the description of this series. It is ridicolous how the author made a 6 episode mini series and decided to strech it to 74 fucking episodes. Really the only interesting part about the series is who the main villain convinces one of the characters to kill him and i think that is the only murder the main villian did on screen (kind of). The OST was also good but so incredibly wasted

here is an entire episode where the Tenma gets gas. The series is so blatant of wasting your time. The author could've have made a medicore 6 episode series instead he opted for making the most boring anime of all time. The series also has this philosophical nonsense like its the first thing to do that but it does so by sacrificing every single thing an entertaining is supposed to be. How am i supposed to question the characters view points when you made them the most flat and 1 dimensional as possible? Just cuz you make them say interesting things doesn't mean the characters themselves became interesting. Lack of varitey. Entertainment. Enjoyablility. All these parts were missing in this series.

This is a boring series and a bad series. However the author decides that he's actually biggest asshole on the planet and gives the audience a huge middle finger by giving the most bullshit open ended nonsense he could give. Its like the author decided to put spikes under you finger nails when he's already forcing you to sit on spikes.

TLDR: This is bad series and the ending isn't giving it any favours. This is what people should watch when you want to know how to not make an anime. This is the 101 on making a bad and boring anime. I was actually gonna give it a 2/10 originally but typing it all out. Wow this is a horribly written series. MAL scoring system does it perfectly. Appalling 1/10