Review of Monster

"And slowly I've come to realize It's all as it should be That hiding space, a lonely place How can the right thing be so wrong? I've found mistakes where they don't belong" Alongside Perfect Blue Monster might be the most influencial among the anime titles heralded as elite, especially when it comes to psychological thriller and anti-kawai contents on the scene, but it's not pointed out enough that it might be praised too much for it's merits, but not the shortcomings you can stumble upon when wathcing it. I will start with some positives before stating why i don't resonate with the show as much and consider it overrated. Firstly, "Forthe love of life" is one of the most mesmerizing music themes of any TV series. It's is performed by David Sylvian (Japan's frontman) and captures the moral struggle of Tenma without commas to add. It also undeniable that the psychological thriller aspect of Monster is spot on. For one, the side plot with an ex-cop is one of the most authentic PTSD showcases in cinema. I also appreciate how it doesn't try to be nihilistic, delving so much with an underbelly of human condition, framing even some of the most repulsive characters like Tenma's wife as lost souls with later to be discovered redeeming qualities. That's great, it adds layers to them, makes them more human. Lars von Trier, as much as i like him, should have learnt that instead of succumbing to misanthropy dirges at any given opportunity, making his later movies a crude caricature of a cynical, hopelessly downtrodden mind.
You might also think that making such a grounded story in a non-live action format isn't ideal, but that's where the acute nuance of Monster's art style comes into play. A lot of the characters have weird distinct facial features overexaggerated their human nature, telegraphing you their psycho type. Tenma's wife has this stretched out jaws and pointy gaze which brilliantly pin-points how hypocritical cowardly, dastardly, egoistically vile she is most of the times. And the supposed antagonist of Johan is probably my favorite portrayal of devil-like character in all the medium. He bears likeness of Lucifer himself, not the demonized version of his, but the uncharacteristically human one - an alluring, composed, inhumanely pristine version of a human being, which, in turn, is a striking symbolism for his background - both a tale of innocence and a downfall, much like the fallen angel, the morning star he is based upon.

However, even with a great deal of glowing positives i simply can't ignore the absolute rake of Monster being the poor pacing with a cumbersome narrative structure. There are so many times i thought to myself that 75 episodes for such story is overtly bloated. It feels 8 seasons long! And once something crucial is set it's often awkwardly gets sidetracked, almost leading to a dead end. I can't even say that all the side characters establish Tenma that much. Some of the most mundane episodes with them could have used montage achieving the same effect, because i absolutely didn't need to know about some odd fraud couple who helped Tenma escape the prison convoy/what kind of cooking habits Tenma wants to share/the drama of the lawyer not being able to legally defend Tenma anyways/the struggles of some german hinterland, so on - so forth, especially once the plot hinted at a more crucial event at the horizon to then drag it for another couple of episodes which in any other show would have ended on a cutting room floor for a reason. As if Monster views itself as anime version of The Wire (in a way of being largely about the people and how they are formed by their enviroment), yet it's clearly isn't as complex to handle such a broad scope. In fact, there are too many side characters to the point that they also halt the plot, leaving the mainline conflict dead in the tracks. Johan is a fascinating antagonist, bordering on an anti-hero, yet i feel like he is no less of a background character due to the over-abundance of these side stories even if taken into the account that he can be a red herring when it comes to the actual villainy in the show.

On the side note, i also think that japanese mannerisms are not that suited for european characters a lot of times and it lacks a proper nuance in dialogue to cement it's themes - they are too idealistically anime and surface level writing-wise.

Monster is deeply flawed for my liking to reach the high heavens of animation top picks so many people elevate it to. It has it's undeniable cultural effect on the anime - mostly, as a layered study in psychoanalysis, i can see how someone can get a kick out of it for that reason alone, but the subject matter isn't the only component to form a coherent story, because outside of this it made me feel like some people have blinded themselves to be oblivious to it's critical pacing issues, lack of narrative focus, attempts to seem smarter than it is and other crayfish sticking to fingers on feet ala more sideplots than brenches of a bonsai tree.