All I can say is . . . wow. This anime is worth every one of its 74 episodes. Naoki Urasawa's Monster was thrilling, well-written, well-executed, well-paced, consistently good, and the story chilled me to the bone. It alternately made me smile and hide beneath my blankets. In either case, I was never bored, and never felt like an episode was there only as filler. I haven't been watching anime for very long, but this is the single best series that I have seen thus far.
STORY
Monster is excellent, first and foremost, because of its story or, rather, because of how well the story was executed. It's a simple premise that serves as the engine that drives the entire series: Dr. Kenzo Tenma, a brilliant neurosurgeon, chooses to operate on a boy that was brought into his hospital first instead of on an important mayor that his boss wants him to save. That single decision sets off a horrifying chain of events as Dr. Tenma discovers that the boy he saved was, in fact, the titular Monster - a mysterious and terrifying manifestation of evil in the form of a beautiful, blond boy called Johan. Dr. Tenma spends the entire series traversing across several countries in pursuit of Johan and finding out more about how the Monster came to be.
The concept itself is not particularly groundbreaking. The good-doctor-as-accused-murderer slant is reminiscent of Harrison Ford's turn in The Fugitive, down to and including the top-notch-detective-in-pursuit. The single-act-sets-of-chain-of-events conceit, too, seems familiar, although I cannot place the idea in any place other than that movie Sliding Doors. But the vague familiarity of the premise does not detract at all from the enjoyment of the story, because Monster executes the premise so damn well.
Like Hansel and Gretel dropping bread crumbs in the forest, Naoki Urasawa leaves something in every episode for the viewer to follow that ties in, somehow, to the main story. Even seemingly unrelated tangential story lines feed back into the search for Johan and the revelation of his origins. All of the details are unfolded at an appropriate pace - not so fast as to unveil dark secrets too quickly, and not so slow as to allow the audience to forget why we cared about the secrets in the first place. The result is a tightly woven narrative that keeps the audience keenly interested from beginning to end.
Of course, along the way, there are a few too-convenient plot turns and other ones that didn't seem as logically coherent as the rest of the story. (But what anime doesn't have some of those, I ask? This one had fewer than others.) And Naoki Urasawa treads a little too heavily on a few themes and tropes - for example, I think we see the Good Doctor Tenma treating the downtrodden and comforting crying children a few too many times. But these are faint complaints that pale in comparison to the deftness with which Monster relayed its story.
I will not spoil the details of the story, but suffice it to say that the search for the Monster, both in terms of geographic location and of origins, is immensely rewarding, and not something to be missed. I usually like to spoil myself on major plot points on Wikipedia and whatnot, but even a handful of episodes in, I could tell that Monster was going to be something special, so I resisted the urge to read spoilers. And boy, was it worth the wait.
ANIMATION
The animation was very nicely done, with dark, muted hues and beautifully rendered cityscapes and landscapes. The anime felt very much like a film in the way each shot was framed to emphasize certain shadows, or highlight certain angles. It all felt very cinematic. Although there was not very much straight-out action to show off technical animation skill, what scenes that did grace the screen were pleasant to the eye.
I'll also note that I greatly enjoyed the character design on this show, which featured realistic, generally plain-looking faces with normal body proportions (non-top-heavy busoms!) and appropriate clothing. What's more, the characters change and develop over the course of the show, as time elapses in the story. I loved that the primary antagonist, Johan, was a beautiful blond boy/man with porcelain skin and sky blue eyes, which up-ends the Ugly Character Must Be Evil trope that plagues anime -- nay, television.
SOUND
I loved the opening theme - the angel-like choir voices floating on top of the strong beat, combined with the dark, muted images of Dr. Tenma lookin' all shifty. It just worked in every way; I never skipped over the opening theme. The ending theme was haunting, but not as memorable in terms of the music, although the images - which were gibberish to begin with but later took on awesome meaning as the story unfolded - were interesting.
I also thought that the musical themes used during the show were quite effective - lots of use of foreboding suspense music and dramatic chorus music to highlight game-changing realizations (e.g., when a character was having a horrible flashback). Monster also used its fair share of horror sound effects during scary moments to perfectly complement the show's creepy images and occasionally terrifying cinematography.
Lastly, the voice acting was superb. Of course, I was lucky this time in that Netflix had the subbed version, so I finally got to hear Japanese actors, and boy, they were excellent. Johan was the standout - the actor managed to convey charisma, intelligence, and evil all in one silky smooth, never wavering voice. However, I also enjoyed Inspector Lunge's deep, methodical voice and Eva Heinemann's bitch-tastic, bitter voice - vulnerable and yet interspersed with explosive anger.
CHARACTERS
First, I will comment that this show has the lowest quotient of Annoying Characters of any show that I have encountered, which just goes to show anime makers that no, you don't need an squawking kid sidekick or a Simpering Anime Woman with Giant Breasts to carry the burden of the show.
Second, I note that Naoki Urasawa took extreme pains to develop almost every character that graces the screen. Even the minor characters got a delicious treatment. The show did more with one-episode or minor-arc characters like Dr. Schumann, ex-detective Richard Braun, and bodyguard Martin than other shows do with their main characters over the entire series run.
All of the main characters were fleshed out with exquisite care. From the initially-passive, later-determined, always-brilliant, and essentially-good-hearted Goody Two Shoes Dr. Tenma, to the bitter femme fatale, Eva Heinemann, to the combo Inspector-Javert-from-Les-Miserables/Tommy-Lee-Jones-from-The-Fugitive character, Inspector Lunge, each came off as a real, flawed character with human motivations and character growth.
However, as nearly every reviewer has commented, the crowning achievement of the show in terms of characterization was Johan Liebert, the antagonist, the "monster." In Monster, Naoki Urasawa gave a veritable workshop in how to effective build up a complex, multi-dimensional, and utterly terrifying villain. Urasawa used not just images, and not just Johan's words or actions but also the reactions of other characters to even the mere mention of his name to create this near-mythical, terrifying being. He combined fear of the character himself with the fear of the idea of the character. On screen, Johan himself pulls the trigger only a few times - he's not your average Tommy-gun-wielding villain. He works in far more subtle, insidious ways. The body count is just as high, but the terror factor is multiplied because you can't quite put your finger on how exactly he does it.
All I can say is . . . after watching Monster episodes, I not-infrequently went to sleep with my head tucked underneath the covers and clutching stuffed animals for the fear that anime Johan struck into my cowardly heart.
OVERALL
As should be obvious by my review, I have nothing but awesome respect for Monster. This show had compelling characters and a well-executed story. All the rest - the excellent voice acting, the haunting opening theme - was just icing on the cake. I didn't watch this anime for the longest time because I was deterred by the length (which, at 74 episodes, is not insubstantial). But I am so glad that I overcame that initial shyness, because Monster rewarded in every way.
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