Review of Monster
Monster is something of an experience and one that I decided to run through concurrently alternating between reading the manga and watching the anime. This is primarily a review of the manga but given that the story is basically identical in both versions (which is to say the anime is a very faithful and complete adaptation) all of what I outline here around the story and plot also applies to the anime. Right away I can say that this story does not live up to it's acclaim as one of the highest rated manga of all time. This isn't because it's necessarily bad or poorly puttogether but because it's not all that remarkable or groundbreaking. This is a mostly rudimentary action mystery thriller with elements of a detective story. That's not a bad thing but this is not what the general reception to this work would have you imagine this story would be or how the manga presents itself at the beginning.
The opening chapters of this story were extremely promising and fooled me for a moment into thinking this was the start of some masterpiece of storytelling where a kind hearted, well meaning Japanese doctor in Germany becomes traumatized and tortured by the trolley problem-esque dilemmas of emergency medicine. Being broken after having to save one life over another and so haunted by that to the point of being driven mad. Perhaps mad enough to be motivated to directly confront the inequities inherent in our modern world, leading to extreme, highly immoral courses of action in service to some kind of rationalized greater good and in doing so slowly becoming the titular "monster" himself. Going in blind and reading the first few chapters this is honestly the general direction I thought the story would take and I was prepared to watch the deconstruction of this man Tenma through a complex and tragic story of philosophical and psychological unravelling.
But this isn't the story that unfolds and after the first two volumes or so it became clear this was mostly a mystery suspense thriller. It is entertaining though. The art style on display is signature Urasawa and while it isn't my personal favorite it is very polished and realized and seems to complement the setting and story well. The plot is mostly running around Europe always being a step or two behind the main villain. The series likes to dangle the carrot in front of the reader a lot. It definitely starts to get to the point where you begin to doubt there will be any kind of resolution to the story at all but after 162 chapters there finally is... sort of.
The ending is largely unsatisfying and disappointing in my view which is perhaps all the more egregious given how the story is artificially stretched and padded out in increasingly less plausible ways. There are also all kinds of contrivances employed to keep Tenma's hands clean just when you think he is about to be forced by circumstances to make decisions that go against his sense of morality. The story tries to be deep and while I am sure some readers got the impression that it is, I wonder if they are not mistaking a high degree of polish for depth. To me the overall presentation felt highly polished but the characters, themes and plot came across as largely shallow.
On the characters there is honestly not that much to say. Tenma is an impossibly good guy to the point of frustration. There was so much potential with his character to develop him in so many different and believable ways but he is largely the same character he was at the start of the manga as he is at the end. The villain is easily the worst aspect of the story overall as he comes across totally unbelievable, comically evil and confusingly cruel and the lack of character development is a problem here as well. Some of the other characters have interesting personalities like Tenma's ex, the detective obsessed with Tenma and "the amazing Steiner" and the presence of these more interesting characters is mostly what keeps the story moving.
What this manga admittedly does fairly well is gradually build up the sense of journey and adventure by regularly changing the setting, introducing different characters with different backgrounds and perspectives, Tenma constantly getting caught up in all kinds of unenviable predicaments, and stopping every so often for more exposition and long conversations revealing more behind the various mysteries and conspiracies central to the story. Each segment or sub arc of the manga has a very distinct setting, its own distinct tone and particular group of supporting characters and you can't help but get a bit nostalgic for the various phases in the story once you get to the end. To put it another way I would say that if you layer enough shallow elements together and stack one on top of another then you will ultimately come away with some sort of pseudo or false depth and that's what I think you get here with Monster.
To that end it's a competent story that works both as a manga and anime experience however I think most who come in expecting to be blown away as I did will be left wanting more. A lot more.