Monster

[gia]

Grade to date: B

An extremely slow-paced mystery/drama piece, set mainly in Germany, Monster is a study in human morality and emotion in extreme situations-- but in slow motion which may be off-putting to some.


Kenzo Tenma is a Japanese medical doctor who studied and now works in Japan. He excels at his specialty, brain surgery, and is on the fast track to become the next manager of the hospital he works at-- he's even engaged to the current manager's daughter.      


But after the manager's orders require Tenma to save a local celebrity instead of an immigrant who arrived at the hospital earlier, the doctor begins waxing philosophic and, when a similar dilemma appears soon after, he elects to save a young boy with a bullet wound to the head instead of the town mayor, who came to the hospital later.

As a result of this decision, Tenma's fiance leaves him and he becomes a bit of a black sheep at the hospital-- until the hospital manager and two of his cronies are mysteriously murdered, and the boy disappears with his twin sister, who had also been at the hospital for severe trauma.

Tenma is made manager of the hospital and lives happily until ten years later more mysterious murders occur and he becomes a prime suspect. The doctor then comes to realize that the boy he saved so long ago has become-- you guessed it --a monster.

After that, the anime is a jigsaw puzzle as Tenma walks his path to justice, each episode providing a piece-- sometimes almost infinitesimally small --to the overarching puzzle that is the boy: Johann.

Probably the most impressive aspect of this anime is the level of detail that is poured into every character: even the most minor of background characters looks, sounds, and acts significantly different from all the rest. The character designs are spectacular in their lack of spectacle: this anime is intended to be realistic.

Which is probably why the pacing is so slow. I personally find enough to keep me fully interested in the show; even when the focus drifts away from Tenma and onto other minor plot arcs, the truthfulness of the characters kept me intrigued.

But eventually, we always get back to Tenma and his mission, Johann and his history-- and his sister's.

Now, I should point out that this is normally not my kind of story at all. I never even saw the movie The Fugitive,, this kind of crime-drama-mystery deal normally wouldn't interest me in the slightest. The fact that Monster pulls even me in makes me think pretty highly of it.

But I know a fair few people who find it entirely too slow to really interest them, so consider yourself warned: if you require a lot of fast-paced action, this is not the show for you.

[DB]

Finally watched the end of this in a two week 30 episode marathon. 74 eps total.

It was good, but could have been better.

Part of the problem is indeed that the plot meanders in many places in favor of individual character studies, many of these characters being one shot or very brief story arcs. While individually interesting, it made things drag too long. Likewise some of the story arcs go too long (the Vampire of Bayern, for instance, could have been trimmed by 4 eps or so).

But overall the puzzle pieces fit together in a reasonable way, though I would have worked some of the events leading to the end differently. Then again, I've always been one that, while I might have sympathy for the devil, I never allow it to excuse the actions of the devil. (Oh, did the poor bad guy have a terrible childhood? That sucks, but he did eat a school bus full of children. Kill him.) So the ending was too a touch too heavyhanded for my taste.

But with that being said, the overall scheme of things certianly worked very well and I found it intruiging. The ending wasn't bad so much as I didn't agree with the way the resolved the Johan matter. Especially given the... weak motive behind his actions. Despite that, I give the series a solid 6 out of 10. As with many mystery type pieces, it loses one since it has little rewatchability factor once you know how everything fits together. Still, if you're patient, I recommend this one for you.