Just finished the 74 episode epic anime Monster ,based on Urasawa Naoki's manga. I think most people have heard about the time travel problem of if you could travel back in time, is it ok to kill baby Hitler? Monster asks a slightly different question, if you are a super surgeon Dr Tenma and you treat all life as equal, is it ok to save the life of evil named Johan and if you have helped this evil to survive, should you finish him?
The reason I started rewatching Monster was that I was wondering why Japan has not done an anime adaptation of Urasawa Naoki's 20th Century Boys? It is one of the greatest mangas and pieces of fiction ever and Japan can have 50 Isekai animes every season but not an anime of one of the greatest stories ever told. I know I have actually watched Monster before but I don't remember finishing it. I must have watched it long, long time ago when I was still burning anime onto DVDs.
Monster starts of off as a Fugitive clone with Dr. Tenma getting framed for Johan's murders with a cold, calculating detective in pursuit. The doctor of course does emergency surgeries and saves people he meets along the way while he tries to pursue the monster Johan.
THE GOOD
+ Amazing animation. Looks like Urasawa Naoki's manga come to life. You know how anime usually have good first two episodes before the animation goes bad? Doesn't happen for Monster. Quality is consistent throughout and I was thinking no anime that does not sell toys won't get this budget unless it is Netflix.
+ Urasawa Naoki is great at creating terror and delving into the psychology of the characters. A lot of scenes gave me the chills. This is the mangaka who created Tomodachi in 20th Century Boys and he has created another scary villain in Johan.
+ The episodes will often start off with a seemingly unrelated character or situation and bring it back to the main story.
+ Great supporting characters especially Eva, Grimmer and Suk. I would say one of my favourite things is that the supporting characters get treated like main characters. They don't exist just for the sake of the main character Dr Tenma and have their own wants and needs.
+ The world building is excellent. I say this not because the story is based on the real world but the world feels real because of all the little details and the characters behave like complicated people.
+ It is a philosophical discourse on identity. How much does having a name matter or even memories to establishing one's identity.
THE BAD
- The pacing is very slow and can be painfully so. I think the story could have been told more efficiently in 50 episodes. I started to fast forward during the second half of the show.
- Some of the cliffhanger tropes are overused, especially with the slow pace which make things a bit repetitive.
- How a Japanese man accussed of being a serial killer can travel so much across Germany and other parts of Europe without drawing attention everywhere is amazing. There is one episode where a cop said that he mistook Dr Tenma because of race.
THE MEH
= I don't know what to think of the ending. Not as satisfying with an ambiguous ending and we should have been shown that dinner.
SUMMARY
I think Monster is very worth watching because there are very few anime like this. Monster is the type of anime you can proudly show non-anime watchers. I don't think an anime like this can be made today. Very watchable with pacing issues. Please watch it on Netflix to support good anime!
I don't have a problem with Monster's pacing, though I can see it's not for everybody. A snappier Urasawa anime on Netflix is Pluto, his take on Tezuka's Astro Boy episode 'The Greatest Robot On Earth'. Structurally it's similar to Monster, and each episode is longer, but at 8 episodes it is a much easier watch.
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