Review of Monster

Ah, Monster... The beloved, critically acclaimed, outright revered masterpiece thriller that I've known about and been recommended for years and years. I finally got around to watching it and it was good. Yes, good. Not amazing, not an all time masterpiece, just good. This anime is overrated. Overrated does not mean BAD. Rather, it means exactly what the word sounds like it should mean- rated too highly. Here's why- For starters, the fact that the anime extremely faithfully follows the source material should be absolutely irrelevant when judging the anime itself. I did not read the manga, I do not care about the manga and weshould never be required to read/view a separate product in order to fully appreciate the product we're viewing now. The anime should be judged solely on its own merits, so whatever the deal was with the manga means absolutely nothing to me.

For me the single biggest shortcoming of the anime was that Johan underwhelms me as an antagonist. He's presented in a very "tell, don't show" way in that we're often TOLD about the terrible things he does and TOLD how he's a charismatic, manipulative mastermind but it's very, very rare that we actually see any of it. The fear, the respect, the inherent sense of unease when they're around... All the things you're supposed to feel when there's a really good villain just didn't hit for me with Johan.

Furthermore, I thought his voice in the English dub didn't fit the character at all and was outright miscast. He has a serious case of "bad guy voice" where the voice actor is trying really hard to sound creepy and villainous, which misses, and then furthermore he MAJORLY lacks the charismatic, suave voice he's supposed to have in order to manipulate people to do his bidding. He talks in a way where if he approached a woman at a bar they would think he's an absolute weirdo and creep and feel uncomfortable, which is the complete opposite of what he's supposed to be. He's supposed to be suave, charismatic, charming... A handsome guy with a silver tongue who can talk you into doing anything. The voice actor definitely did not convey that for me.

I thought the overall pacing of the anime was quite slow and it most definitely didn't need to be a whopping 74 episodes. Yes, it followed the source material faithfully, but if we're disregarding that I'd tell you there were definitely parts of the anime that could have been cut without meaningfully affecting the plot and there were multiple long stretches where we did not see either Tenma or Johan, the main protagonist and antagonist respectively, for many episodes. It often felt like we were jumping all over the place and introducing sub plots and loose ends that were not all properly resolved or tied off in this anime's lackluster ending. The final episode in particular did not, at all, live up to 73 prior episodes worth of hope and expectations.

Other things that annoyed me in this anime, though minor, are worth bringing up briefly. Every detective in this anime seems either completely corrupt or completely incompetent. Especially irksome is the detective who goes to a bar, meets a random woman (who he and his multiple other trained detective friends are not able to recognize is, in fact, a MAN in disguise) and begins telling her, with names and extreme detail, confidential information relating to a case he's actively investigating. Is this realistic? How awful of a detective do you have to be and how wildly stupid and against the rules is this? There's also a scene late in the anime where a recently killed corpse is lying on its back in the pouring rain with a small trail of blood seeping out from its mouth. Did I mention it was POURING RAIN? That blood, absolutely, would not be there. It would be washed away in a blink.

This anime is also very guilty of one of my biggest anime pet peeves- "what if you just shoot him?". Basically, the entire anime falls apart if at any point any of the characters with opportunities to do so simply grow a pair and pull the trigger. Anime over, credits roll. They don't because they can't because it would ruin the plot, but it's awfully convenient and obnoxious.

My final negative, I disagree with this anime being classified as horror. I understand why it is, but I don't agree with it.

Things I DID like about this anime include the music, which I thought was very fitting for the tone of the scenes and enhanced the thriller vibes they were going for, the voice acting for Tenma that I thought was very fitting and well-acted and a few of the plot twists and revelations that genuinely caught me off guard without feeling stupid or non-believable as so many reveals in anime often do.

I understand I spent the good majority of this review on the negative side and it may come off like I didn't like this anime and I assure you that isn't the case. Like I said in the opening paragraph, I thought it was good. I do not, however, think this is a 10/10 and an all time masterpiece as so many others seem to and I will absolutely die on the hill that Johan Liebert is NOT an all time top ten anime villain or the greatest bad guy of all time or any of that nonsense. He, more than any other aspect of this anime, is overrated.

I'll pass on whether or not I'd recommend this. It's very lengthy and it's not for everyone. Do some research beforehand and decide for yourself whether or not this is for you. For myself, I'm glad I watched it once but I can't see myself any time remotely soon, or possibly ever, going back to watch it again as it was quite a slog and I wasn't blown away by it enough to put myself through 74 episodes again, especially when I already know what happens. Overall- a good, overrated anime.

OBJECTIVE RATING- 7.5-8.5
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 7.5