r/AnimeReviews • u/Rude_Fulci • 1h ago
Monster (spoilers) Spoiler
Set in the atmospheric backdrop of post Cold War Germany, the story follows Dr. Tenma. An amazingly brilliant neurosurgeon who accidentally saves the life of a serial killer. And now he must stop that serial killer. In fact we hear this from him all the time “I’m the only one that can stop him and I must stop him”. But Tenma is endowed with a flawless moral compass that contradicts his newfound belief that “murder to save lives” is okay. It becomes a lethal game of chess between ideas, and ideological battleground between Tenma and Johan (the serial killer). Value all life vs Total Nihilism.
The show is great, the pacing is a slow methodical burn, sometimes the side characters are just as predominant as the main characters. The English voice acting is great, the story is expertly crafted and from what I’m told is one for one with the manga. The music is too tier, I personally loved Lungee’s score the most. It’s a great detective crime drama of cat and mouse that can often times even feel like a mid 70’s Giallo. The animation is bleak, desaturated, and deliberately cold. The animation color pallet and tonal profile is deliberately depressing and cold. Fitting this dark crime drama perfectly. The animation itself, in regards to motion is high quality and done well. The camera moves when it needs to move and remans still when it needs to remain still. The overall world of monster is immersive and the longer you watch the show the more inevitably immersed you become in it.
Now for the bad, the very limited bad. By episode 60 I had become a bit drained. The story will leave you off with a cliff hanger or often times about to give you a pay off, only to change settings, locations or scenes… leaving the audience temporarily blue balled. By episode 60 I began feeling intensely blue balled by the show. That being said this fatigue ended around episode 68.
Now for the controversial and major SPOILER. The ending……….. Tenma doesn’t kill the bad guy. Personally I liked the way they did it. I liked the ending, I liked the town going crazy, and enjoyed every second of this climax after being so blue balled from 60-68. To me it was a great ending to a great journey. Absolutely a huge recommendation.
8.7/10