Monster - Reviews

Monster is an incredible series. It weighs in at a long 74 episodes told at a slow and steady pace, with an extreme devotion to its characters and its story. Monster is the only anime of its length (that I've seen) that maintains a consistent quality for the duration of the series. There are no filler episodes; every episode is essential, each having its own relevance to the story. The plot maintains its focus and the characters' motivations are consistent from beginning to end. It's really quite a masterpiece.

Story

The storytelling and dialogue are exceptional. The themes it touches on are an interesting mixture: elitism, medical ethics, the value of life, and (most of all) redemption. Over the course of the series, every character's values and point of view are challenged in so many different situations. The execution here is perhaps the best of any anime I've seen, making no compromises for viewership or otherwise.

I took off half a point because the pacing is so lethargic, leaving an impatient person like myself a bit bored at times. This is a byproduct of the series' commitment to the complex storyline of the manga. Still though, Monster manages to incorporate some of the most gripping moments you can find in anime.

Animation

The animation is good. In particular, the character designs are fantastically varied. Eva's scrunched facial expressions are perfect for such a stuck up woman, and Grimmer exudes happiness with the smile drawn on his face. The artists were very good at showing the differing ages of characters in scenes that range over a time period of three decades. This is most apparent in Tenma, whose hair grows steadily throughout the series and whose attire changes periodically. Eva grows wrinkles on her face, and I want to say that Inspector Lunge becomes much paler in skin tone.

Other than the characters, I thought the rest of the animation - backgrounds and action scenes - was good but not great.

Sound

Not much to say here. The English voice acting is quite good, and I thought the opening and ending themes were interesting.

Characters

Monster's character development is unmatched. We see Lunge, a meticulous and methodical inspector with a perfect track record, have to confront the fact that he may actually be wrong for once. We see Eva transform from a greedy, spiteful, and stuck-up woman into a caring and thoughtful person. Even if you don't care much for the plot of the series (like me) you will remember the characters long after you watch this. Every main character (and most of the secondary characters) has a backstory, which is explored in detail to validate their motivations and their actions. This does a tremendous amount for the authenticity of the characters and the series as a whole.

Conclusion

Monster is a stellar anime, and everyone should watch it. It has very few flaws, and incredible production values. The only reason I don't give it five stars, and the only thing it's missing, is the rewatchability factor. Because Monster has a slow pace, coupled with its length (74 episodes), meant I frequently lost interest in the series while I was watching it. For instance, it took me 36 days to finish Monster which is about two episodes per day. Compare this to certain 25 episode animes which I've finished in just a couple days. I'm glad to finally move on to another series after an entire month.

Comparison to "similar" anime

Lots of people recommend Monster if you like Death Note, but I'm not sure I agree. The attraction I had to Death Note was (1) the novelty of the premise (write someone's name in this book to kill them? yes, please) and (2) the clever scenarios that are crafted and presented to the viewer as a puzzle to solve, much like a mystery book. Monster is not your traditional mystery series. Death Note focuses on a high-stakes game played between two characters, while Monster is an exploration of the nature of its characters. How did they come to be? How does a person become evil, or not? How does a person come to be happy and enjoy life? I think the attractive elements of Monster are missing from Death Note, and vice versa, so I'm not sure I'd recommend them in either direction.

It's hard to recommend something off of Monster... Paranoia Agent is not a bad choice for the themes it expands on and the complexity of the story, although it's psychologically crazier and stylistically less refined than Monster. I might suggest Wolf's Rain for its similar pacing and its focus on characters. Maybe Planetes for its quality, characters, and realism, although it lacks the thrill and the suspense of Monster.

Wow, what a great anime.  Every once in a while I still come across a gem that really changes my view of what good anime can be.  We get stuck with a lot of formulaic and often trite stories which go nowhere and do little more than make us smile, but with Moster, that's simply not the case.

Positives: Where to begin!  Monster is epic, and I don't mean that in the meme sense at all. There are 74 episodes in the story and there is little of what I would consider filler in there if anything.  So many interesting facets comprise the story which is just short of superb.  When the show begins you'll be drawn in and all the way up until it ends you'll be wondering just what is going on.  It's a great mystery and it unfolds in a very enjoyable manner.

The characters of Monster are also very well designed and while there are a great number of them, they are almost all very memorable and play important roles in making the story both exciting, but rooted in a sense of reality. The world of Monster feels very much authentic and while you may not want to visit, it's a great setting for the story.

So I can't really explain much about the show without starting to dig into things that would be considered spoilers and I really do my best to avoid those, so I'll just note that every time you think you've got things figured out you'll likely soon find that you really don't have a clue.  And in my books, that's a great thing.

The music of Monster is also really great.  I love the original closing theme...it was so fitting.

Negatives: Alas there are a *few* little things about Monster that keep it from being perfect.  For some the length has been an issue, but for me that was not one of them.  I don't mind watching 74 episodes of a great show.  I've watched a host of other animes which are filled with...well, filler episodes and with Monster you don't have to deal with that.  However, if you aren't watching the show regularly you're going to get lost.  There's a lot going on and as I noted there are quite a few characters, each with thier own developing motives and interesting features.  It's not much of a complaint, but I do remember having taken a small break and coming back and being sort of lost.

Another tiny complaint is the ending, which while good, seemed a tiny bit of a letdown.  I'd created several of my own theories long before the show had ended and some of them I think would have actually been better than what we got.  On the other hand, the ending is far from disappointing and it's not at all anything to really complain about.  I just have this feeling it could somehow have been a wee bit better.  Maybe I was just sad that my time with Monster was coming to a close.  It's hard to say.

Anyhow, a great show.  Really, if you want something beyond the standard one off episodes of drivel that we often call great then try Monster.  If you at all consider yourself one of those more "intellectual" types or enjoy the "slow-moving" genre (I can see why it's considered slow moving but trust me, it's anything but slow-moving) then give it a shot.  I have a hard time imagining anyone other than those with serious attention disorders not enjoying it.  (I hope I didn't offend anyone!  Hah!)

Monster is exactly what I love in anime. A brilliant story that's captivating from start to finish, charcaters that you grow attached to, and in an art style unique to its creator. Naoki Urasawa's psychological crime thriller stands as one of the best pieces of animated media ever to be released.

There's the saying "familiarity breeds contempt". So, here I am, seventy four episodes, well in contempt territory. Allow me to repeat that, seventy four episodes. Not that there's anything in particular that is bad about the show except the incredible length of it. So, after watching all seventy four episodes, one can honestly say that Monster is too ambitious for its own good. The story is magnificent in itself, but is let down by everything else. Had it been thirty episodes shorter, none of the faults would have the time to become so annoying, but as it is then you have to suffer through every small problem for seventy four frickin' episodes.

Anyways, I get why people like the show so much. It has a lot going for it. There is patience in storytelling here that goes a long way. There is no skimping out on character face time, so most of the cast gets the chance to develop and change. Actually, this is one of the things people should enjoy a lot if they're fed up with all the thirteen episode shorts. Still, seventy four frickin' episodes.

It is not that people haven't applied the lessons from Monster in things that have been written since, but still, Monster is still unique in that it cuts no corners in what it does. The main problem is that it doesn't pull it off flawlessly. People have been spoiled in recent years with a lot of high quality serialized content, and while the psychological aspects of the show are interesting, the philosophy of it is childish and overly simplistic. That is a blow for such a long winded series that it cannot really recover from. Especially when it is seventy four frickin' episodes.

Writing (Story and Characters):

As per usual, I'll try to keep this generalized and spoiler free. Not that it is particularly hard when the main arc spans nearly two decades, and Monster sticks to it for the most part. That's both a strength and a weakness in the writing. The fact that it is also a weakness is because some of the characters are just boring. That is not an issue with thirteen, or even twenty six episode long shows. But you know, seventy four frickin' episodes.

Some characters are great. They have their growth and develop for the better or worse. The main protagonist though, he is the most singularly dull person in the cast. Many books, movies, shows, and other forms of media play on this. But in this case, it is all but unforgivable. I could excuse a young kid being angsty and helpless (though I hate it), but in a fully grown man it is just irritating beyond belief. And the whole problem with this is that it lasts for seventy four frickin' episodes.

That being said, the fact that the story has the occasional straying of viewpoints and flashbacks keep things fresh and made me stop from dropping it mid-way. The plot in itself is a solid one, well written, subtle, and while character driven, there is a lot of things to discover that keep it going forward that are not particularly connected to a specific bit of character development. So while the characters may not be particularly awesome (even if they are well developed overall), the story itself should be praised for the breadth and ambition of it. But seventy four frickin' episodes.

Art (Animation and Sound):

Monster has not aged well. The voice acting is rather good, and the art is at the very least workable. The song in the ending is terribad, the one at the start while rather cool at first became annoying after the thirty-somethingth listen. Most character designs are decent enough, though there are the inevitable stock designs (rat faced thief, big muscular minion, Spock wihtout the ears, handsome asexual villain, et cetera). The small quibbles would be excusable if not for the fact that they are present in seventy four frickin' episodes.

The problem is that the scenery, despite changes in cities, remains largely the same. Another mark of a good piece of visual art is that if you freeze each frame you get a wonderful picture. Not the case here. Too many standard cliches are done (and not particularly well at times) like the inevitable tears falling on a wooden surface and so on. Perhaps it is too much to ask for continued excellence in something this massive. While not quite at the point where it reaches "epic" in scale, problems repeat themselves a lot as Monster is still seventy four frickin' episodes.

What I want with animation is to wow me; I want it to feel like art and not just a product. In some ways, this is a success in that. Monster manages some moments of brilliance (the narration of the picture book for instance), but they are drowned out in repetitive art. It is suffering from a lack of freshness that would not have been noticeable had this series been a lot short. Hey, seventy four frickin' episodes.

Overall:

I really wish I could recommend Monster. It is memorable, which in itself is a rare feat. But alas, this is seventy four episodes long. Let me repeat that again: seventy four episodes. That's right. Had this been fifty episodes, and everything would have been tightened up some, some of the supporting cast removed, and other small things, then the strength of the story would have managed to overcome all of the faults of the series. But that being said, seventy four frickin' episodes.

It is just not worth it.

Monster is the kind of anime which is really good, but never got the hype it desereved because horror as a genre is not really a favorite in the otaku world. 

Story:

really a story that develops through the anime, with a good pace so you don't get bored, because something unexpected happens.

The ending was not really to my liking, but i guess it should be said that if you read the manga, you would understand why it is made that way. 

Animation:

It's made in the early 00's and it's very realistic, at first i didn't like it, but when i got used to it, I though it was really amasing how well it's animated, also because the style replisense the animes plot.

Sound:

not much to be said really, great opening which I liked, but some better soundeffects could have been nice, but it's not what makes this anime so awesome.

Charecters:

The charecters is what makes this anime top class, the ultimate bad guy Johan Liebert is one of the baddest, most awesome motherfucker I have ever seen. He can litterly make people kill themselves without any weapons or magic, just by talking to them in his own way. The other charecters are also very unique in there own way, the Doc. is a really good person in every way you look at him, but gets into trouple, and madness awaits him, no more can be said without spoilers :) 

overall:

So much worth clearly a must see anime, even if you don't like the genre in particular (which i don't really do my self), it's just so well made, every great reviewer would agree when i say that this anime is top class!