Review of Monster

This is a masterpiece. Every single bit of it. Easily my favorite anime of all time and the first one I recommend to people. They are always hooked when I explain the beginning of the plot, which I feel like isn't explained well enough in the summary page (but for good reason, as it does give away the first few episodes). You really need to make it in about six episodes to fully understand what's going on and get hooked. The characters are so beautifully drawn and complex. There are no two characters that look alike. You can gleam a lot about a character's personalityjust by their face, eyes, stance, and expression. How many other animes can you say that about? Very careful and precise care was taken designing these characters. You can even tell what beautiful characters have ugly or cold souls just by looking at the way their eyes are drawn. The attention to detail is the best I've ever seen in any anime. None of that "every character looks the same except for the hair."

The plot is complex and compelling. The mystery gets darker and more complex the further it goes. The protagonist gets more and more jaded as the story goes on. His appearance changes subtly. The clothes he wears, his facial hair, his eyes, his hair, everything. He starts out so innocent and nice and he slowly changes to the point where if you put the picture of before and after next to each other, they look like different people. It is subtle, but incredible that the creator managed to do that.

If you're a fan of dark, serious animes, this is for you. It uses no cheap tricks to terrify you. Gore is pretty minimal. It's mostly psychological and I think that is so much scarier.