Monster

Series Overview

Monster (モンスター) is a psychological drama anime about the hunt to take down a serial killer. To give a better overview of the series, I’m going to need to spoil the first few episodes. But, don’t worry. The series is 74 episodes long, so it’s not like I’m spoiling a quarter of it.

The protagonist of the series is Dr. Tenma, a renowned brain surgeon. One day, a boy comes into the hospital with a gunshot wound to the head. Dr. Tenma chooses to save this boy’s life over the life of the local official his superior told him to operate on.

As a result, the official dies, and Dr. Tenma’s career at the hospital stalls. Still, Dr. Tenma believes he did the right thing by choosing to save the boy, who came into the hospital first. At least until he learns what the boy truly is — a monster.

The boy Dr. Tenma saved turns out to be a psychopathic serial killer. While recovering from his surgery, the boy kills other doctors at the hospital and flees. At first, there’s no reason to suspect the boy. And so, Dr. Tenma ends up being the prime suspect as the only one to benefit from the killings.

Everything I’ve said here is from the first 5 or so episodes of the series. The rest of the series takes place years later as Dr. Tenma hunts down the serial killer he once saved.

In his mind, he’s responsible for the killings because he saved the boy’s life. If only he performed the surgery on the politician as instructed. Then, countless lives would have been spared. Whether or not that rationale is good is up for debate. Is someone responsible for the lives they save?

Main Characters

As I’ve already mentioned, Dr. Kenzo Tenma is the protagonist of the series. He’s a Japanese doctor working in Germany as a brain surgeon before his life is turned upside-down. Tenma isn’t actually all that interesting of a character, though. He’s not as morally ambiguous as you might expect based on the setup of the series.

Johan Liebert is the serial killer Tenma saved as a child. As a serial killer, Johan has killed many people. But, his ability to kill actually isn’t what makes him most dangerous. It’s his ability to manipulate others into killing on his behalf.

Anna Liebert is Johan’s twin sister. She was the first one to recognize him as a psychopath and is actually the one who shot him. Like Tenma, she views taking down Johan as her mission in life. At times, she and Tenma work together. And at times they chase Johan individually.

Let’s get into some of my favorite characters now. Inspector Heinrich Lunge is a pretty good character. I didn’t like him much when he was first introduced. But, by the end of the series, I thought he was great. He’s kind of like a much more methodical version of Tenma and Anna, not swayed by emotion.

My absolute favorite character, though, is Eva Heinemann. She’s Tenma’s ex-fiance and she has the best character development in the series. I know a lot of people love Johan as a character. But, I’d argue Eva is way more complex than Johan.

And the last character I want to mention is Wolfgang Grimmer. He’s an independent journalist who’s trying to uncover the truth of his own past. As with all the other characters, Grimmer gets sucked into Tenma and Johan’s game of cat and mouse.

Who Is the Real Monster?

Let’s skip all the way to the end of the series now. Episode 74’s title is “The Real Monster.” So, who exactly is the real monster? Spoiler: It’s still Johan. But, the final episode does bring up an interesting perspective.

Throughout a lot of the series, there’s the implication that Johan is a made psychopath. But, by the end of the series, that doesn’t check out. We know he killed before ever being sent to 511 Kinderheim. And we know it was Anna who witnessed the mass murder at the Red Rose Mansion, not Johan.

And in the final episode, Johan gives us some insight into what actually caused him to snap. When they were children, Johan and Anna’s mother had to choose between them. Which of them would she give up to be part of the government’s experiments?

The trick here is that Johan and Anna looked the same when they were younger. Their mother dressed Johan up like a girl so she could pretend to only have 1 child. She did this to protect them. But, this came with the alleged consequence that she couldn’t tell them apart.

So, when their mother chose to give up Anna instead of Johan, this messed with Johan’s mind. He wasn’t sure why she made that choice. Did she choose to keep him over his sister? Or did she mistake his sister for him? Either way, in his mind it’s his fault that his sister — the only person he cares about — was torn away from their mother.

Does this mean Johan’s mother is the real monster of the story? I don’t think so. Johan never tries to get revenge on her. He doesn’t blame her — he blames himself. He’s his own monster.

Conclusion

In the end, I gave Monster an 8/10. It could have had a higher score if some of the content in the middle was a bit more relevant. There were some episodes in there that didn’t matter all that much. They weren’t filler but they were close.

I also think a good story could have been told in only 12 episodes. The first 8 episodes of the series set up the story well enough before the scale of the series came into play. We wouldn’t have had a lot of the characters. But, I don’t think it would have been any worse.

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