The story of this anime and manga was written by Naoki Urasawa. The anime was originally aired from April 27, 2004 to September 28, 2005. I got myself a copy of the whole TV series simply out of curiosity. I hear the title get mentioned a lot whenever someone’s asking for some recommendations for an anime series that has great story in anime forums. I like good stories so I was intrigued as to what Monster was all about. And the title is also quite intriguing, isn’t it?

The Monster anime, which was derived from a manga which serialized starting from 1994 to late 2001, is a psychological drama and mystery consisting of 74 episodes. The story is continuous in nature yet most episodes have one stand-alone story that is still dependent with the whole plot. The locations in the story can be found in Germany and Czech Republic and the time it was supposed to happened was somewhat similar to the present time.

The main character in the story, Dr. Kenzo Tenma is a neurosurgeon who works for a prestigious hospital in Düsseldorf Germany. He used to have a very good status with the company because of his skill in medicine and surgery. But his life changed when a pair of twins, one boy and one girl, was rushed to the hospital after they’re parents were brutally murdered. The boy was shot to the head and the girl was in a state of shock. Dr. Tenma was first assigned to operate the boy but when the mayor was also rushed to the hospital, he was instructed by the Director to take charge of the Mayor’s operation. He refused to follow the orders and went on with the boy’s operation. Due to this incident, he was demoted and his girlfriend, Eva Heinemann who was the daughter of the Director broke up with him. Later on, the Director along with two other doctors were mysteriously murdered. This raised Dr. Tenma’s status in the hospital but eventually he became the prime suspect for this murder along with other murders that occurred in the city. His life was completely messed up and was on the run while an inspector from BKA became obsessed about his case and was out to capture him. Meanwhile, Dr. Tenma claims that he is innocent and that the murders were committed by his once patient who is now a grown-up kid by the name of Johan. Johan was one of the twins Dr. Tenma operated.

The opening theme is a musical while there are two ending themes that I heard from the whole series. For episodes 1 to 32, the ending theme is entitled “For the Love of Life” by David Sylvian and for episodes 33 to 74, the theme is entitled “Make it Home” by Fujiko Heming. Both sounded somewhat creepy but I thought they fit the series well.

I love this series. I was forced to finish it in two weeks and it kept me up until 2am in the morning for each night I watched it. It’s just that every time I finish an episode, I get a sudden urge and excitement to watch the next. Well, I must say it got me hooked pretty well. The story is indeed great as stated by the recommendations that I came across. The cast of characters is pretty good too. But one thing I hate about the series is whenever Dr. Tenma is pointing a gun to someone. Don’t get me wrong, though. I like the character of Dr. Tenma but whenever he’s pointing his gun to someone, he just couldn’t fire it. Imagine, he traveled all over Germany and Czech Republic in search of Johan who he’s out to kill but whenever his target is right in front of him, all he needed to do is pull the trigger but he couldn’t do it.

I give this anime series an A+ and would definitely recommend to anyone especially those who are into psychological stuff and great story.

Tags: anime, kenzo tenma, monster, review, series

Category: Series Reviews

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