Review of Monster

Monster is an anime that actually manages to be appealing for older audience or people who what to make a break from all those cheerful anime (or anime that is supposed to be serious and dramatic but still has pantyshots, characters with big boobs). Many anime or manga fail in doing a story that keeps it's serious tone without throwing weak comedy or fan service. Sometimes it's just a show that is supposed to be psychological or dark but ends up as shounen action adventure series. This anime doesn't have that problem and consistently keeps its atmosphere throughout the entire series. Story: (8/10) The storyrally catches your attention from the very first episodes setting that huge mystery behind Johan Liebert and series of murders that happen around main character, Kenzo Tenma. Plot focuses on main character's journey to discover the truth we as a viewers follow him trying to put all the pieces of this puzzles together. Other than that it's just your typical thriller movie constantly keeping you in tension and gives you the feeling that danger awaits on every corner. The setting is really realistic both in characters and environment. Anime contains 74 episodes and i have to admit that it's perfect amount to show everything important. It doesn't rush through anything neither it slows down on showing nothing relevant. I have only 2 complaints about the story. First would be that some of the episodes in first half seemed a bit unnecessary as it's just about Tenma going from town to town helping some random people and contributing very little to the overall story. Second is open ending. After few episodes in and knowing that anime adapts the whole manga you would expect it to have actual ending. Well, it does come to an end but final scenes live you with some questions and make you tell yourself the rest. I'm not fan of such endings and I feel it was unnecessary to leave viewers with such conclusion.

Characters: (9/10)
They did very good job in presenting all the main cast. Their motives are clear, we know exactly why they do it and what makes them who they are. Maybe I'm just overexerting but i saw lots of anime marked as psychological that had really weak character development and characters acting against their will just for the sake of plot. They don't try to sell you any cliche cast, instead there's a cast of realistic characters who just seem natural.
They made a really good job in creating a villain. He has little screen time what adds up to his mysterious persona. He mainly sits outside of stage pulling the strings and is always few steps ahead of main protagonist.
Other interesting character is inspector Lunge who adds another perspective to the plot. He's a person who knows very little about events happening he still manages to get closer and closer to solving the case.

Art: (8/10)
Art is important aspect of this anime. It really give you feeling like you're watching movie rather than anime making it more realistic what makes it a really good thriller.

Sound: (7/10)
It's nothing special, all soundtracks were so forgettable. It fits to the story but they haven't done anything above that, most of the soundtracks sound familiar to something you heard already hundreds of times.

Summary:
I would highly recommend this anime for those who what a serious story, or you are just tired of anime with school setting.