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
If it weren't for the length of Monster I would say it was great for watch and learn but I am not so sure. I think many people following W&L would lose interest after a while if you followed this series. Honestly, I never finished it myself, but I am much more of an action fan.
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.
Yeah, this is seriously one of my favorite series.
Did you actually read the post? I gave it a positive review.
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!"