Monster is about a Japanese Neurosurgeon, Kenzou Tenma, quest to find a psychopathic former patient. Tenma gets framed for murders all throughout Germany and tries to clear his name. This anime is a crime/psychological/drama based on the manga by Naoki Urasawa.
The story of Monster was interesting. Every character was attracted to the mystery of Johan and the mystery of Tenma and everything was connected to each other. The pacing was quite slow, the Mr Schwald and the parts involving Suk were drawn out, Monster could have had fewer episodes. The show was mostly serious with a dark and grey theme, death was very common and the general aura was that everyone had a job to do and everyone had a moral code. The main characters dictated what would happen to everyone, and sometimes changed their role and moral code. There were roughly three perspectives in the show, one was the perspective of the average/ignorant person. The average person believed what the police told them about Tenma and were not too concerned about Tenma's journey. Another was Tenma's and his allies' perspectives. Their lives had been severely affected by Johan and they wanted to put a stop to him. These people shared the trust of Tenma and tried to help him. The last was Johan's goal was incomprehensible to anyone. The people that trusted him were extremely loyal and feared him. They had faith that something good would happen. The writing and dialogue showed these perspectives clearly.
The animation was very crime show-like. Quite dull and sharp. The facial expressions of disgust and fear were used often. All the characters looked in place. Repetition of scenes was used through the end of Monster. The clothes they wore were plain and Mainland Europe like. I think this could have been a live-action show, instead of animated.
The most important characters are Tenma, Johan and Anna Liebert and Mr Lunge. Tenma was a determined introvert, who radiated positive energy. He had a good impression on everyone he met. As the main character, he was fantastic. Johan was a distraught young person that was extremely charismatic and extremely sadistic. He was in control of his fate and of others. Anna was Johan's twin sister and they had a lot of experiences together. Anna was often used to find out more about Johan and to see inside his head and because of this, Johan often overshadowed her. Mr Lunge was the police officer of the BKA that investigated the crimes related to Tenma and Johan. He has an extremely poor work-life balance and a calm demeanour.
I watched the Dub and I thought the voice acting was ok. Some of the voice acting was monotonous and flat. When they felt strong emotions, it felt like the voice actors were straining themselves. The OP was very boring and I skipped it, most of the time. The ED was worse and I wish more effort had been put into them. The soundtrack was pretty average.
Finally, I thought Monster was a pretty good anime that was drawn out too much. I am glad I watched it and I would recommend this to someone interested in Psychological Crime shows and for those that are interested in good anime.
