The face of evil

// Synopsis: A brilliant brain surgeon who has become disallusioned with hospital politics chooses to operate on a boy instead of the mayor. He loses everything as a consequence when the mayor dies. But soon after mysterious deaths occur that benefit his career. To his chilling conclusion, he didn’t bring a boy back to life, but a monster.

// Review: Most anime is either campy or drowning in teenage angst. Monster though, is the first of it’s kind I’ve seen in anime. There is nothing about it that sci-fi or supernatural. It’s just a straight up psychological thriller.

/ When Dr. Tenma realizes that the boy he saved has become a truly evil force he attempts to put an end to it, but in the process becomes framed for murder. The rest of the 74 episodes plays out like The Fugitive tv show. Tenma goes from town to town chasing after clues about the sinister Johan, while he meets people along the way and helps them.

/ Even though Tenma is the main character, a considerable focus is placed on characters that he encounters and their own plot threads. Often Tenma will be absent for 4-5 episodes at a time. This is necessary because Monster is very much a character driven anime with little action, and because Tenma is a pretty plain character.

/ The animation is average and the colors are intentionally drab, which paint a very bleak atmosphere of Germany and Czechloslovakia. But the audio is outstanding. Every creepy moment is heightened by it.

/ A few issues I had with it is that it seemed to move pretty slowly. 74 episodes felt very long. When Tenma and another main character become trained marksmen, you think there is going to be some intense action. But you quickly figure out that neither have the conviction to actually fire their weapons and they just meaninglessly waive them around. Also if I was more emotionally invested in this series, I would’ve been pretty ticked at the ending.

// Wrap up: If you are put off by conventional anime fare but are still interested in the genre, then this very mature critically acclaimed thriller could be for you.

Entertainment rating: 3.5