Monster

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: MONSTER

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 18

Chapters: 162

Status: Finished

Published: Dec 5, 1994 to Dec 20, 2001

Genres: Award Winning, Drama, Mystery

Themes: Adult Cast, Psychological

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Big Comic Original

Authors: Urasawa, Naoki (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 9.16¹ (scored by 117,227 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #6²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #27

Members: 290,090

Favorites: 23,774

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Wikipedia

9.16

Ranked #6Popularity #27Members 290,090

MangaBig Comic OriginalUrasawa, Naoki (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /18

Chapters: /162

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Synopsis

Kenzou Tenma, a renowned Japanese neurosurgeon working in post-war Germany, faces a difficult choice: to operate on Johan Liebert, an orphan boy on the verge of death, or on the mayor of Düsseldorf. In the end, Tenma decides to gamble his reputation by saving Johan, effectively leaving the mayor for dead.

As a consequence of his actions, hospital director Heinemann strips Tenma of his position, and Heinemann's daughter Eva breaks off their engagement. Disgraced and shunned by his colleagues, Tenma loses all hope of a successful career—that is, until the mysterious killing of Heinemann gives him another chance.

Nine years later, Tenma is the head of the surgical department and close to becoming the director himself. Although all seems well for him at first, he soon becomes entangled in a chain of gruesome murders that have taken place throughout Germany. The culprit is a monster—the same one that Tenma saved on that fateful day nine years ago.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Monster won the Grand Prize at the third Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 1999, as well as the 46th Shogakukan Manga Award in the General category in 2000.

The series was published in English by VIZ Media under its VIZ Signature imprint from February 21, 2006, to December 16, 2008, and again in 2-in-1 omnibuses under the subtitle The Perfect Edition. The manga was also published in Brazilian Portuguese by Panini Comics from June 2012 to April 2015; in Polish by Hanami from March 28, 2014, to February 1, 2017; in Spain by Planeta Cómic from June 16, 2009, to September 21, 2010; in Argentina by Editorial Ivrea and LARP Editores; and in Turkey by Marmara Çizgi.

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Related Entries

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Characters

Liebert, Johan

Main

Tenma, Kenzou

Main

Liebert, Anna

Main

Grimmer, Wolfgang

Supporting

Lunge, Heinrich

Supporting

Heinemann, Eva

Supporting

Dieter

Supporting

Reest, Martin

Supporting

Reichwein, Julius

Supporting

Roberto

Supporting

Reviews

Jan 24, 2009

BorisSoad

Recommended

I rarely give tens to mangas. But this one just deserves it! Why? I'm going to tell you:

Monster isn't a tradional manga. It isn't about fighting. I even dare to say it is a 'Love it or hate it'-manga. If you are the type of Naruto and Bleach and looking for that kind of manga, this isn't the manga for you. If you are looking for an intense, well-written manga, I would recommend this certainly for you.

The story is complex and long. Altough it's long, there isn't one single filler. It is all part of the same story. The story is about several characters, whom ...

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Apr 16, 2022

Greaseboy

Mixed Feelings

Funny

Informative

It is hard to review a manga like Monster, it's reputation proceeds it to the point it's hard to offer any substantial and unique criticism. It's the kind of reputation that causes people to either praise it for living up to its expectation or label it as overrated if it falls short. Despite it's reputation and popularity I will avoiding going into spoilers but I won't waste your time explaining the premise or giving you any background about the story because you most likely have already read enough to know whether you're interesting in it or maybe you have already finished. You might have just ... clicked on this review because you're interested in my score, it's rather low compared to many others. I can assure you that I'm not writing this to be bitter or a contrarian, I just think Monster has a massive issue that ruins the entire story, at least it ruins it's reading experience. I will keep my review as general as possible.

Monster's fundamental issue is the questions it raises are much more interesting than the actual story. Many will tell you about the philosophical aspects and they are right, the philosophical dilemmas that are presented are interesting but they are not presented in an interesting way. This is all to say Monster is boring, it is 162 chapters but the themes and morale of the story can be explained and explored in half an hour. While these themes are interesting and can be and will be discussed for generations, Monster doesn't explore these themes in a particular interesting or nuanced way. It isn't until the very end of the series that it properly delivers it's themes but by then it felt like too little too late.

The main reasons Monster doesn't live up to these themes are actually pretty simple. So simple in fact that I'll just list them:

1. The characters are basic. While they do represent interesting ideologies they are fairly shallow in terms of characterization. This gives us an uninspired Christ-like protagonist and a completely unbelievable protagonist. The characters feel very heavy handed as there's very little ambiguity to most of them.

2. Dialogue is very heavy handed and melodramatic. If you're anything like me, when you hear a story is meant to be very mature you assume that it will have a degree of subtly. This isn't the case for Monster, you are always told what characters are feeling and in turn always told by the author how to feel. Despite this there are moments where there is some interpretation left to the reader, particularly the ending which while great, doesn't make up for all that comes before it.

3. The plot is predictable and can border on absurd. As I mentioned with the dialogue, this isn't a subtle story and is often very predictable because of it. This means that the story loses a lot of suspense the more I correctly predicted a twist or revelation. When I was proven wrong it was usually due to the story breaching my suspension of disbelief.

4. The story attempts to be grounded in reality but ultimately fails due to the points I've listed above. A lot of this story's issues would be alleviated if it didn't take itself so seriously and attempt to be a serious thriller. It borders on becoming pretentious as it just doesn't have the writing to support the tone it's going for. It's the biggest factor in what makes the entire manga feel boring as the characters, dialogue and plot directly undermined its tone.

Despite all my criticism I still think there's positives. The art is well done and I do appreciate that the story is trying to say more than what most manga attempt. That has to count for something, thousands of manga have been published only for mass appeal or are so unambitious that they are distinguishable for the rest. Monster's themes and slow pace do stand out and there's a reason so many are drawn to it but I'd be lying if I said that reading the whole manga was worth it. The literal story ultimately detracts from its themes. It's a manga that's more interesting to talk about than to read, I'd actually recommend people to read the first two or 3 volumes and then just look up people explaining the ending on YouTube. That way you actually get to the core philosophy without having to slog through the entire manga. In fact it felt like my reward for reading the manga was to experience it's ending and then watch a video called "Explaining The Ending" on YouTube. I didn't need to have the ending explained to me, it was just satisfying to hear the story broken down in a concise way that properly explained the manga's themes and I feel it ultimately relayed those themes better than the manga itself.

Overall I don't regret reading Monster but I did find it disappointing. I enjoyed the ending as it lets the reader come to their own conclusions, this is in direct opposition to the rest of the series. I think it's very telling that I enjoyed reading and watching reviews of Monster more than actually reading it myself. I feel a bit jealous that I didn't enjoy this as much as others and it's a shame to call Monster mediocre but I can't change how I feel.

5/10

Thank you very much for reading this. It's likely no one will but if you are reading this I really appreciate you reading all I had to say, even if you disagree or think less of me for it. I hope you found this review insightful or interesting.

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May 22, 2023

tragedyhero

Not Recommended

Funny

I've read and seen a lot of critically acclaimed fiction in my life. Some became my favourites, while others were so-so. Monster, however, is the first instance of me coming across a critically acclaimed fiction that turned out to be truly, truly terrible. And I'll be honest, even though I have tried to be as objective as possible, my intense hatred for its completely undeserved reputation is what motivated me to publish this review.

It's ironic that my single biggest issue with Monster is what its fans claim to be its greatest asset, the villain Johan Liebert. It's very clear what Naoki Urasawa's motivation was behind ... creating him. Johan was supposed to be the embodiment of evil, someone who could commit crimes without the least bit of guilt and remorse. That's all very scary and stuff, but I ask you this, my dear reader. If I raise a person to be a terrorist, and the person turns out to be a terrorist, does that make the person evil? Because without spoiling anything, that is who Johann Liebert is. A person designed to be evil, and therefore not evil at all. Naoki Urasawa failed to comprehend this simple fact that what makes a villain interesting are their own convictions and emotions, born out of an intensely personal birth; not some contrived backstory where every Tom, Dick and Harry would influence the character.

But Urasawa's amateurism doesn't stop there. Not only did he make his villain essentially meaningless, he genuinely doesn't believe it's possible for people to turn out to be evil unless someone conditioned them to become as such. We come across many bad guys in his manga, but time and again, we see that the only ones capable of committing crimes in cold-blood are the ones who have been conditioned to be like that; everyone else, be it alcoholics, robbers, murderers or whoever, end up feeling guilty or remorseful. Hell, even the people who made Liebert who he is have become kind and empathetic with age. I’m sorry, but this is an unbelievably juvenile understanding of human psychology. People don’t need to be conditioned into becoming terrible, and more often than not they aren’t. And as far as fiction is concerned, the greatest villains are always the ones who became who they are by their own convictions and ideals; Bondrewd, Griffith, Makishima, just to name a few.

Talking about Liebert is incomplete without talking about Tenma. Tenma is the single most archetypal “good guy” that you can imagine. He is very kind and friendly, he always helps everyone out and he thinks all lives are equal. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with all that, but there’s nothing interesting either. On one side, you have a villain who isn’t evil or frankly even interesting, and on the other side, you have the most naïve do-gooder in the history of popular fiction. The result? One hundred and sixty-two chapters of mind-numbing slog, filled to the brim with filler which only serves to show you how much of a good guy the good guy is. I hope this doesn’t count as a spoiler, but the good guy is vindicated in the end. So yeah, the message of Monster is, everyone is equal, everyone is inherently a nice human being, and the only way you can become terrible is if someone turns you into one. Even if you believe in such a comically simple worldview, I’m sure you didn’t need Urasawa to realize it.

Thank you for reading.

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