Review of Monster

For yet another time, another compelling jewel exhibited itself upon my eyes. The anime series ‘Monster’, adapted from the famous Naoki Urasawa’s manga of the same title offers a rather peculiar experience. It was such a lengthy show with 74 episodes, rich with complexities, to the point that writing a fully objective review seems improbable. The show had its flaws, quite many of them to be honest, but those are shrouded nicely under its charm. Evidently, I’m being ambiguous and subjective here, but Oscar Wilde once said ‘It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors’, thereby, I think, it’s justifiable. The plot takesplace in Germany; some years after the Berlin Wall went down, not long after the World War II. Based on that timeline, the series tried its best to mimic the real world, the lifestyle and the landscape, the pub, the red light district, the underworld syndicate and the politics; all of the components form a frighteningly realistic duplicate of our world. Subtly and gently, we’re immersed into that artificial world that’s not so difference from ours, in which the chain of events began.

To the best of my knowledge, there’re not many series that thoroughly explore the every tiny bit of humanity; Monster happened to be one that vividly presented it in a rather shady theme with quite gloomy tone. It questions morals, ethics and conscience and plays with psychology. The fear, terror, love, hatred, happiness, anger, sorrow, and despair; it gives you chills every time you realize how realistic those emotions are expressed as you subconsciously blend into the characters.

Ironically, although being extremely realistic, the story tends to be nonsensical and rather illogical. This seemingly contradictory fact is surprisingly what makes monster really amusing; after all, we humans, the most logical creature are quite illogical, aren’t we? It was such commendable feat on how Monster cleverly obfuscates the boundaries of conventional mind through the intense emotional exposure. Will one play along with the hypnosis? The decision might drastically affect one’s enjoyment toward the series.

For some last words, curious minds who are interested into criminological psychology and for those who love to put some thought into philosophical view of humanity would likely find great enjoyment. Be warned though, it was such an emotion driven show, thus skeptical thinking is best put off board to best enjoy the show.