A "Monster" Page-turner

'SUP, NERDS?!

For once in my life, I think I've caught up reading my manga and I'm seeking new stories to purchase and fill my shelves. But one particular series that recently blew me away is Naoki Urasawa's epic, Monster. A few years ago, VIZ re-released the series in an economical 2-in-1 "perfect" edition that I collected only read in recent months. I've always wanted to take a stab at an Urasawa manga and eyed Monster when it was originally published. I couldn't have picked a better place to start.

Monster earned itself a coveted place on my "fancy" bookshelf.

What is Monster?

Monster is a crime-thriller revolving around a Japanese surgeon (Kenzo Tenma) working in Germany who makes the mistake to save a child rushed to the ER. A mistake saving a small boy's life?? Amidst messy politics, Dr. Tenma resolves to save every person he can, in order to respect all walks of life. The board running the hospital frowns upon Tenma's decision to operate on a no-name kid over the mayor of Duesseldorf. Just a few murders later (ones that point towards our protagonist), Tenma's chances to advance his career are put to a halt.

Tenma before he becomes a hardened criminal.

Tenma continues to work for years to come until stronger evidence arises to convict him for the accusations of killing his fellow surgeons while other similar murders happen in the present time. Actually innocent of crime, Tenma sets out to find the person orchestrating these murders and becomes wanted across Germany. Everything begins and continues with the child he saved years ago, Johan Liebert and his twin sister.

This is how to write characters

The series is quite long and I don't want to spoil anything critical, but I would rather go into what makes Monster awesome. I wouldn't consider myself a huge fan of long manga serializations and often scoff at the shounen & seinen genres. However, Urasawa intricately weaves tons of characters and allows them to shine.

With Tenma as the protagonist, there will be times where you won't see him for chapters and the focus adjusts. An aspect of BIG shounen/seinen manga I dislike is the continuous circle-jerk of a lame protagonist. Tenma is sought by the authorities and antagonists alike, but the side characters have more problems to worry about that aren't necessarily all about Tenma (the exception to this being Eva Heineman, his insane ex-fiance).

Inspector Lunge never loses focus on his target.

I don't have any reasons to be annoyed to a point of disliking Tenma, but I felt more charmed by allies and investigators. Richard Braun is one of my favorite characters who has an entire arc dedicated to him working on a private investigation, which of course links with Johan. He has no relation to Tenma but some acquaintances. His arc reveals a great deal of information about Johan's motivations and Tenma's innocence. I felt incredibly gripped to Braun's personal struggles and he added purpose to the story, despite his eventual, sad death.

Eva Heineman is a wonderful example of how a character should grow and change. She was engaged to Tenma and holds a grudge against him once her father (a hospital chairman) is murdered early in the series. Subsequently her and Tenma's relationship ends. During the unseen years of the story, Eva marries & divorces multiple times, falling into a spiral where alcohol and money control, or rather ruin, her life.

Being the closest person to Tenma during the initial murders, Eva has large amounts of evidence and information about him that authorities and antagonists want. She uses this bygone relationship as a way to manipulate men around her while she harbors back-and-forth feelings of both missing and hating her relationship with Tenma.

Eva is absolutely wicked from the start.

As she holds proof of Tenma’s innocence and eventually comes to the realization that they can’t return to the good ole days, Eva learns how to respect herself and other men. Eva starts to see the good in a man who (like most characters) has an unfortunate fate to die. Her obsession with Tenma does come to a bittersweet end.

A commonality between characters is that most of them have an obsession or addiction. I appreciate the reality that many characters have a good cause (primarily the goal to solve and end the murders) but their lives catastrophically suffer in all other respects. Aside from Tenma becoming a convict and forced to run an hide for years, BKA Inspector Lunge is one of the most captivating players because of his obsession to investigate and hunt Tenma.

Lunge goes as far to compromise his health, marriage, ties with his daughter & grandbaby and even his career with the BKA to arrest Tenma. I even chucked at his disparate attempt to "take a break" from the investigation when he "vacations" to Prague in order to keep up with the mystery. Poor fella thinks ordering a beer while not-so-subtly discovering information about Johan outside of Germany is considered to be time off of work.

Style

A complaint I hear from the average person is that every Japanimation is about Japanese high schoolers. Yet, we see masterpieces like Monster that shake up the stereotypical anime/manga setting and focus on Westerners. I think Urasawa's choice to make the protagonist Japanese makes the series more relateable to the target demographic being the Japanese market at the time of serialization. Aside from a few smol chapters with single-use characters, the entire narrative is focused on Europeans.

Johan exemplifying the darkness of the Monster inside him.

Urasawa did an excellent job creating uniquely Western, non-hyper-anime looking people. The rare and few Asian characters looked sensibly different. I'm deeply in love with Germany and had a chance to go on a month-long exchange trip to South Germany when I was in high school. Urasawa and his team did an excellent job researching and recreating cities, suburbs and the countryside. I squeed a bit whenever there were scenes in Heidelberg and the University because that's where I spent most of my time. I can't attest to how similar the Czech Republic & Prague looks to real life, but I trust they did a proper portrayal of the country.

Writing constant suspense, Urasawa made me feel like I was watching an old fashion detective movie. His use of darkness & black pages combined with framing the panels much like a video camera would record a shot tickled my inner film noir part of my soul. There were parts where I couldn't flip to the next page fast enough to having to set the book down and take an emotional break because of the intensity.

Conclusionary Thoughts

Although Monster is a bit of a long series and deals with heavy subjects, I think it is a very friendly series for people who aren't into anime or manga to get into. Given the chapters are designed similarly to the beats of a high quality murder mystery television program and takes place in a more  familiar Western setting, I would suggest this to anyone who is looking for good drama and a little bit of eustress in their reading. I'm seriously not joking when I said I had to put the book down sometimes.

For those who actually read or watched Monster, who are your favorite characters and why? Do you also think the way the series ended was very fair? It certainly left me uncomfortable... and the unease and suspense begins again!

As I said at the start, I've caught up reading sooooo much manga. I would deeply appreciate recommendations to read and discuss. I'm also selling a lot of manga I feel I've outgrown or dislike more than others, so feel free to contact me if you're interested in seeing my wares.

Hopefully I'll be hitting everyone with a cosplay blog again soon. I'm working on a few outfits I began LAST March and have means to finally finish them. Here's to another epic convention and cosplay season!

LATER, DWEEBS!

Loverly Liz