Monster Forum

MONSTER is some black-on-gray intense drama with a bleak tone that gives me a better perspective on why I disliked such drab “serious” shows like REQUIEM FOR THE PHANTOM and GUNSLINGER GIRL. While one of you lunatics recommend this show to me in the now-legendary talkback thread a while back, I only zeroed-in on actually watching it after one of its trailers played in front of another Hulu-hosted anime show. On as basic level as you can get, the hook's just lot more interesting.  A doctor having to handle the horrors of a serial killer whom he saved as a boy, and all the paradoxical guilt that comes with that, is just more intriguing to me than any amount of emotionless child assassins searching for the truth of their past through any number of blown up heads. While it was hard not to laugh at show that finds nothing funny about a little girl beating up full-grown criminals, this has real emotional substance to befit its serious tone.

The only real problem with a show like this, however, is that you kind-of have to know a secret or two ahead of time before you go in. I know that little boy’s going to grow up to be the titular “monster,” and, thus, it’s patently obvious that he’s the one who murdered his family. Also, his catatonic sister’s obviously trying to tell everybody to kill him. There’s no ambiguity about that. However, I was impressed by how the proper dues were paid to explain Tenma’s motivations. You can just hear that voice in his head, blaming him from the Turkish father’s death and urging him to resist the temptations of hospital politics. We’re probably a few episodes away from the much-hyped twist hitting, but the developments in this episode still ratchet up the predetermined tragedy with the power of omens in tragedy.

Anyway, I’m definitely intrigued to watch more of this, but I’m daunted by the show’s 72-episode length. Sheesh… BROTHERHOOD was a fantasy with so many worlds and mythologies to explore, and even it wasn’t as long as that. Also, while I enjoyed the more realistic and restrained rendering style, I have to say it was morbidly amusing that Tenma’s fiancé looked like she’d had some baaaaaaad plastic surgery.

Watch this episode "Herr Dr. Tenma" below and decide for yourself.  

  

  Check out my thoughts on the other shows I've sampled below...

• SLAYERS 
• GUNSLINGER GIRL 
• RIDEBACK 
• FULL METAL PANIC! 
• SCHOOL DAYS 
• OTOME YOKAI ZAKURO    
• GIANT KILLING 
• CLANNAD 
• HIGH SCHOOL OF THE DEAD 
• PANTY & STOCKING 
• GUIN SAGA
• PRINCESS TUTU 
• TATAMI GALAXY   

 Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of  HYBRID BASTARDS!  &  UNIMAGINABLE . Order them on Amazon   here  &   here .  Follow him on Twitter:  @tompinchuk

That sounds intense, I must check it out.

Im surprised you're only now watching this, and a bit dissapointed that you don't like it.

I think Monster worked better as a manga. The dude who wrote/drew it had a great sense on how to lay out the panels. So even very basic reveals and scenes had awesome flow/suspense and it made it jst fun to turn the page. I know panel layout and planning should be basic in all comics but it seems this guy is one of the few mangaka that actually puts alot of thought into it or maybe he's just natrually good at it.

The manga is the same as the anime but I personally feel the story looses some gravitas in animated form. Especially when you come accross to occasional low budget episode.

Even if your not going to do the W&L feature on it I still recommend you watch it. It's still fantastic no matter what medium you experience it through.

I love both the manga and the anime. One of my all-time favourites. Amazing series.

@Halberdierv2 said:

" Im surprised you're only now watching this, and a bit dissapointed that you don't like it. "

Did you actually read the post? I gave it a positive review.

@Tom_Pinchuk: yea, I read it, its just that you found 72 episodes to be a bit daunting of a task. the way how things pick up rather quickly, the series' intensity makes up for it.

Yeah, this show could have been shorter. But I get the sense that it knew where it was going...we have the initial setup to get Tenma on the run, then we basically have this extended chase which is the bulk of the series, and then the finale. The chase could have gone on as long or as short as the author had wanted it--and I think he understood that. Sort of how like One Piece can be as long as the mangaka wants because he can keep sticking more islands between Luffy and the end of his journey, Tenma could always visit another European city and track down an old friend/enemy of his quarry.

What I really like about this show, incidentally, was the supporting cast. So Tenma being a little single-minded and boring for most of the middle of the show didn't hurt too much.

Anyway--I really did like this show a lot, and I hope Tom finishes it, but I don't know that it would make a good Watch-and-Learn. The moral issues here are probably too similar to Death Note's and Geass's, and sure the plotting is good, but how many times do we want Tom to write "wow, I am impressed that this show is managing to sustain the tension for all this time!"