โ๐ ๐๐ง๐ค๐ช๐๐๐ฉ ๐๐๐ข...๐๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐ก๐๐๐. ๐๐๐๐ฉ ๐ข๐ค๐ฃ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ง, ๐ ๐๐ง๐ค๐ช๐๐๐ฉ ๐๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐ .โ
โ๐๐๐ฃ๐ฏ๐ค ๐๐๐ฃ๐ข๐
What do you do if you are a doctor who bet their fame, their promising future just to save a nameless child from death, and turns out that child that you trying hard to be saved is a monster? What if the Ideal "All lives are equal" that you believe to be true is the cause of the deaths of many innocent people?
Monster is considered one of the best psychological-mystery anime of all time. An almost flawless masterpiece that is perfect in every way, from writing, plot, character development,... Urasawa is a master at telling stories from different perspectives and intertwining the storyline together to create a solid, fancied plot.
STORY 10/10:
Synopsis (till ep 4): Monster takes place in Germany at the end of the Cold War. Kenzo Tenma is a young genius surgeon at Dusseldorf hospital, West Germany. He has a bright, promising future but decided to give up by against the orders of his boss to save a nameless child back from death because he believes in his ideal of life
9 years passed, Tenma's patient is killed by a young, blond man. That child he saved 9 years ago, the child he tried hard to save regardless the order of his superior, Johan, was the real Monster. The police always suspect that Tenma is the killer of the old case so Tenma had to find Johan, not only to prove his innocence but also to finish the monster he helped created.
Monster has one of the best stories I have ever seen. If you're already familiar with psychological-mystery stuff, the story is pretty simple, not so complex yet confusing, every character and plot point gets introduced slowly, brings up several questions then gradually revealed to answer all of them, and in the end, the storylines are perfectly connected. As stated at the beginning, another thing I like about Monster is the storytelling, the story is simple yet captivating, through Urasawa's engaging storytelling from different perspectives, I can't help but get hooked to it till the end. 74 episodes is a huge number, at first glance, I always end up dropping it for the first few episodes but after I finished it it was well worth the time, no episodes nor potential were wasted, every moment is significant to the plot.
ANIMATION 9/10:
a/Art style:
The style is not strongly good at background or realistic scenery but very unique at human portrait/anatomy, the character expression is well drawn and we can clearly see the change in Tenma's appearance through each arc of the story. One of the other things I like about the style, while most other Japanese animation has a pretty generic style (Big eyes, simplified nose,...) Monster is the other case, the style focuses on a more realistic and more "Japanese" style compared to real life, the character design also really fits the themes of Germany's Cold war.
b/Animation: The animation is pretty good, Madhouse maintains to keep the animation qualities through 74 episodes with no drop-down quality. The show also managed to capture the gloomy and miserable atmosphere from the manga, action scenes rarely happened but never disappointed me when it is. The cinematography is also great, I can clearly see what happens and the camera moving in some scenes is outstanding.
SOUND 9/10:
a/Music/SFX:
Not much to say, the opening and the ending sound slow and calm, pretty creepy, mysterious and fits the themes. Other than that, the SFX in the shows is good, especially the ambiance and the choice of OST when it's come to a serious scenes.
b/Voice acting:
The voice acting is beautiful, Monster has many unique characters that may hard to choose a perfect seiyuu for their personality but the staff still managed to pick a suitable cast. I like the voice of Johan and Anna, calm, soothing, and angelic.
CHARACTERS 10/10 :
The strongest aspect of the story, the way Urasawa creates such a strong, brilliantly constructed characters is phenomenal, here's my summary for the main characters:
Kenzo Tenma: The protagonist of the series. Talented, kind, charitable. But it was his kindness that made caused his career, his future to fall: The life he brought back from the dead was a monster that caused the death of many other innocent lives.
***I love the way Urasawa constructed the character of Tenma, how Tenma was enlightened when he saved Johan as a child, then tormented by guilt. If he doesn't kill Johan, there will be a lot of innocent people will be death, but if he did, wouldn't that go against his ideal of life, against the ethics of a doctor?***
Johan Liebert: The antagonist of the series. One of the best villains of all time considered by most people. The child underwent special education at Kinderheim 511 orphanage, deprived of identity and memory, Johan gradually become a cold-blooded, emotionless killer.
May not have a large amount of kill like Light Yagami, a supernatural strength like Saitama but still make others tremble in fear. Johan outside is smart, handsome like an angel but inside is a demonic monster with extreme and cruel dispositions.
***A child who grew up with an unhappy past became a villain, sound generic, right? But no, through Urasawa's excellent character building, Johan is portrayed very realistically. A cold-blooded killer who can kill without mercy, a heartless monster but still can have fun with children, sympathize with a sad story and died of a bullet, after all, he's still a human. Another side of Johan, a character to blame but also pitifully. A child that lacking in love then fell into the darkness. Johan just like the representative for us, if we lose faith in life, let hatred obscure the mind or leave the heart filled with resentment, we'll fall into the abyss. That's the scariest aspect of Johan, the realistic.***
ENJOYMENT 10/10:
Monster is the type of series that's hard to get into, but once you get used to the story, there's nothing to bother you again". I always felt hard to watch multiple episodes of one series a day and dropped the series multiple times in the beginning but after understanding the core, I can't stop watching till the end.
OVERALL 10/10:
I watched this on the school bus and it was a beautiful journey. Monster will always be my favourite of all time and I highly recommended to everyone who likes the genre.
โ๐๐๐ค ๐ฃ๐๐๐๐จ ๐ ๐ฃ๐๐ข๐? ๐'๐ข ๐ฅ๐๐ง๐๐๐๐ฉ๐ก๐ฎ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฎ ๐ฌ๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ช๐ฉ ๐ค๐ฃ๐. ๐ผ๐๐ฉ๐๐ง ๐๐ก๐ก, ๐ฉ๐๐๐ฉ'๐จ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ฉ ๐ฌ๐ ๐๐ง๐ - ๐ฃ๐๐ข๐๐ก๐๐จ๐จ ๐ข๐ค๐ฃ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ง๐จ."
