Review of Monster

I am still trying to figure out how this is such a top ranked anime with basically an average of 8.9/10. If this anime weren't 74 episodes, I would actually re-watch it to see if maybe my opinion would change - but honestly it's so boring I won't. I decided to give Monster a 5/10 because the first 25-30 episodes were actually decent and I was thoroughly watching - after that it went downhill. The next 40 episodes drag so much, I literally kept watching to finish what I had started. I began having the show on while I worked or as background noise at certainpoints. This show could have been amazing if it were condensed to 24-40 episodes and they focused on the actual STORY.

If I had a dollar for how many times the characters said 511 Kinderhim, Monster, The Devil, or "I need to end this" without anything actually happening, I would be rich.

Character Breakdown -

Tenma - The MC is so bland after the first 10 episodes I honestly wouldn't have cared if he died. That's how bland he was. He was a surgeon who saved a little boy, the little boy then becomes a serial killer years later and then some of the murders get blamed on Tenma, so he becomes a fugitive and begins researching this boy Johan. I think for about 40 episodes he is just running around aimlessly with a gun, chasing Johan, not actually doing anything but saying "I need to end this" and bumping into random side characters with story lines I did not care about AT ALL.

Johan - his story line is what kept me interested, but his character is literally a ghost and not in a good way. You hear about him being this "monster", being so sick and evil (people are deathly scared of him) - but never actually see him do anything? He is rarely in episodes. It's always others doing it for him. And yeah, I guess he is a master manipulator - there were a few scenes that he creeped me out in, like when he convinced that one detective (can't remember his name, there's like 1,000 unmemorable characters) to kill himself. But other than that, the story became so dragged that I started to forget Johan was the bad guy - they introduce so many other irrelevant thugs and gang members that when they repeatedly murmur Monster I had to remind myself that this story was about Johan being the villain. He just wasn't THAT scary or creepy to me.

Ava - she is so irrelevant, her character should have been written off after episode 20. ALL she does is drink and whine about getting revenge on her ex Tenma.

Nina - she honestly could have had more impact to the story but all she does is pass out, have visions and walk around with the little boy who Tenma saved.

The main detective Lunge - he starts off so annoying - he has this weird obsession that Tenma is the main murderer and even when placed with facts against his way of thinking he doesn't stop thinking the killer is Tenma. He actually has good character development in terms that he starts researching Johan and slightly becomes less closed minded.

There are several other random irrelevant characters that I literally cannot even remember most of their names. There's this red head boy that Tenma saves, but he really isn't that important. The story drags and drags and drags, I honestly can't believe I didn't drop it. Like I said in the beginning this could have been amazing if it were 24-40 episodes.

If you want to see a doctor chase around someone who is barely seen for 74 episodes, random plot devices and characters, the name Monster repeated 24/7, people who get the chance to do something but never take it, and random dialogue to make this seem scary and interesting - this is your show. I still give it a 50%. If you do watch, watch to episode 30 and then skip to episode 71 and watch the last 3 episodes, haha.