Review of Monster

74 episodes long. I looked at those little words on the left hand column of MAL's page dedicated to Monster, and I said to myself "74 episodes?" *cower* "I've heard this anime is really good...bu...but...that is a lot of episodes". So it took me a few months to finally get up the motivation to actually sit down and watch the first episode of this series. And once I did, there was no turning back. Deciding that this anime was too long to be worth my time was totally futile, I had been drawn in by one of the greatest series (anime or not) evercreated.
I. Was. Hooked.

Story
Forgive the pun… but you must know this: Monster is one monster of a story. It will have you sitting and pondering and digesting every little piece of the story in order to piece everything together and make sense of it all. It’s frustrating in a way. Some people don't get it because they don't put in the time to.You have to analyze it and look at it at different angles to get it. But in the end, it is so worth it. Monster has so many layers and nuances and themes and twists and arcs that you can’t really sum it up in a review. I’ll try to give you the gist (spoiler free fear not). Basic premise: Doctor saves a kid…BUT oops. This kid is a monster (pretty much a living, breathing, embodiment of all things monstrous and evil). Doctor says to himself “oh shoot. I let this monster live when I could have let him die. I need to make this right” *Sets off on epic journey to fix things*. And that’s just the tippy tippity top of the iceberg. The story progresses from there, the characters develop and morph , the mystery builds, and the twists reveal little by little the true nature and origins of the “monster” that is the central piece of this series. But despite my best efforts, I can't even think up the words to adequately describe how great of a story Monster is. It is so well written. So well developed. So original. So DEEP. I can’t remember the last time I’ve witnessed writing this good.

Art
The art of Monster is really good and reflects the kind of eerie unsettling tone of the series. It’s quite muted and VERY realistic in its portrayal of settings and in its character designs. This is one of the only series I’ve seen that has characters that actually look like REAL PEOPLE!!! The detail of the art is absolutely breathtaking. The backgrounds of the settings are so realistic and so accurately portrayed. The animation itself is pretty consistently good too. The animators definitely could have slacked more on such a long series. Overall, the art is top notch.

Sound
The music of this series, like the art, goes well with the tone. Although this was probably the only area of the anime that didn't absolutely blow my mind, it wasn't half bad. I really liked the OP. It got stuck in my head a lot but it was awesome and edgy :D the ED was so dissettling and disturbing and crazy...it really added to the series. The VAs did an incredible job. Goodness. I wish they had anime Oscars. The voices fit the characters perfectly...it's creepy...especially Johan *shivers*. So yeah. Though my mind wasn't blown, I was not disappointed with sound at all.

Characters
Monster is intricately woven with a relatively large cast of characters to carry out the complex series of events. But each character has a role. A purpose. A distinct personality. You see every supporting character develop and change as the story progresses. And the character development of the leads…Dr. Tenma, Nina, Eva and even the third person perspective we’re given of the development of Johan are all spectacular. SO THOROUGH. These characters are so complex and fleshed out… they seem real. We see their strengths, their flaws, their beliefs all play out. Every character is multi dimensional….we’re given views of each little facet of their personalities as the story goes on. Ah. Monster is a rare example of characterization done perfectly.

Enjoyment/ Overall
In the end, all I can really say is "..........w..o..w"

It will remain to this day the best damn anime I have ever seen.