Review of Monster

There are many main reasons why Naoki Urasawa's Monster is an anime worth watching, but here are the key aspects: story, atmosphere and characters. Each of these will be discussed below. I won't be spoiling anything here, as Monster is a series everyone has to experience on their own. The series is set in Europe during the years just following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Our hero is Kenzo Tenma, a promising young medical doctor who has recently emigrated to Germany from his native country of Japan. Without giving too much away, something happens early on in thestory that alters the course of Tenma's life and the series follows what happens to him from that point onwards.

The pacing of the anime is really good. The first major plot event occurs in the first episode and the story continues to be interesting all the way to the end, with essentially no filler content. And even though the anime is 74 episodes long, it very rarely gets boring. I'd say never, but that would be dishonest, as there were parts that were less interesting than others for me. For the most part, there's always something happening to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Additionally, the plot is incredibly multi-layered. Although the main storyline involves Dr. Tenma and another character, there's a lot more to it than that. The story is revealed very gradually in bits and pieces, like any good mystery. Many key events occurred years before the main plot, so there are a great deal of flashbacks and a lot of retrospective storytelling.

The atmosphere to the show is terrific. It truly is a psychological thriller in every sense of the phrase. Although Monster isn't really a horror anime, it does tend to border on that genre at certain points. At this time after the Cold War, in Germany and the surrounding areas, there was still a lot of bitterness and hostility between various different groups and political factions. This setting is, understandably, supposed to be quite bleak and Urasawa does an excellent job of exploring this environment in both the German and former Czechoslovakian storylines.

When it comes to characters, there are many of them on this show. Most of these characters are secondary characters. In fact, there are really only two main characters and only one of them (Dr. Tenma) is seen regularly on-screen. Nevertheless, almost all of the characters, no matter how insignificant, are used to push the plot forward (or add some type of backstory). There are a handful of characters that do have larger roles though, and all of them are quite well-developed in terms of personality. However, if you're looking for an anime with characters that are over-the-top in some way, you won't find that on this show. There are some characters who have notable quirks, but the overall tone of this show is one of seriousness and realism and the characters reflect that.

After that, I'll give a quick picture about certain aspects of the show:
Story: 10
Art: 8
Sound: 8
Characters: 10
Enjoyment: 10

Overall, Monster was the big thing when it came out back in 2004. And because of it's great story, realistic presentation and believable characters, is Monster still a great Anime. Even if the art style seems unattractive for you, you should still give it a shot.