Review of Monster
Monster is an anime that has lofty aspirations and does not come close to fulfilling them. It starts out fairly exciting, but it turns into an endless menagerie of typical psychological anime bullshitting that pretends to be meaningful and significant, yet ultimately says patently obvious things and never imparts any meaning at all. I cannot stress strongly enough that from about episode 40 on this anime is horrendously slow (it is probably a 7-8 level for the first 24-26 episodes, which is why I kept watching, hoping it could somehow salvage itself). The story is pretty interesting at first, and were this an anime that endeditself in 24-26 episodes, it would have been just fine. However, the story NEVER evolves after this despite going on for an entire fifty episodes more. I will say that the overarching theme of the orphanage is delightful, but other than that, nothing redeems any of the last 40 episodes. The ending is so terrible. I cannot stress this enough.
The characters are definitely the worst part of this anime. If you read 'it is an anime about a doctor it cannot possibly be interesting,' then you are sort of correct. Not to 'spoil' anything, but this storyline gets repeated ENDLESSLY: 1) Dr. Tenma is acting very solemn and some awful music will play to indicate just how psychologically tormented he is. 2) Tenma will get thrust into some situation in which someone else is dealing with their psychological issues. 3) Tenma will save their lives (usually a criminal), because he is the super best damn doctor in history. 4) Tenma will be pulled out of his dredge of despair slightly, having learned anew that there is some hope to be had after all..but then 5) He will remember that it is his and only his job to commit murder and lapse back into his solemn, oh so poignant solitude of desolate sobriety. His wife is the most annoyed I have been by a woman since Milly in an anime. Her entire role is to be a shrew who grapples with her hatred and love for Tenma and complains a lot. I mean A LOT. Except for Grimmer, every other 'good' character pretty much is a weak character who is 'strong in spirit' or whatever and despite their weakness show how powerful they can be despite being powerless! It is absolute tripe.
The art is pretty typically mediocre. I say this from the stance of judging anime against other anime, and this one is a lot worse than you can find in other animes. Good art is not a reason to watch this anime. It is not terrible either though.
This is not the worst anime ever, it is not something I hate, it is just something that I would advise not watching when you can watch three seasons of other better animes instead.