Dr. Kenzou Tenma saves a little boy's life against orders, and that boy turns out to be a murderous psychopath. Tenma's the suspect for his murders and is chased around by the unstoppable Inspector Runge, helping people along the way.

What seems at first like a ripoff of The Fugitive became gripping as hell once I realized that every episode had meaning to the show's mythology, and I snapped up the whole 74 episode series in just a week online. Anyone else checked it out?

Oh yeah. For those not familiar with it, it's a completely non-supernatural psychological horror and suspense drama. As Eegah mentioned, it starts out looking like The Fugitive, but becomes something very different, more like an extended Hitchcock movie. Dr. Tenma's persuit of pretty-boy Johann involves uncovering his appallingly awful past while avoiding the police, and meanwhile Johann is still practicing his unique brand of psychopathy. There's a really big cast of supporting characters, and I can practically guarantee you that somebody that you get attached to will end up dead in this show. Yeah, it gets pretty brutal in places.

Other stuff:
1) Keep an eye on the pictures in the end credits. They evolve every few episodes, and the story that they tell is relevant to the plot.
2) This show is pure Eastern Europe architecture porn, and some of the locations depicted (landmarks and so on) are exceptionally detailed recreations of the Real Life places. I did a couple of comparisons between screencaps of the show and photos on the web back when I first watched it, and they got my obsessive seal of approval.
3) One of the characters who gets introduced later on is a bit of a shout-out to yet another story that was partly inspired by The Fugitive.

Any chance that we can get this thread title fixed so that the show's title comes first? It makes for easier alphabetical searching.

Same here.

This is not one of the best animes I've ever seen. It's one of the best TV shows I've ever seen. Minor secondary characters who get significant character development? Almost unheard of.

When is this show getting dubbed into English? Seriously. I already have a couple of the VAs cast in my head. Liam O'Brien for Tenma, and Steven Blum (yes, Steven Blum) for Johan. Blum only has to modify his Orochimaru voice just a little, and he'll be pretty close to the original. Spoiler tagged because the voice gives a lot away about the character.

Updating this from way back to say I'm doing an analysis of this series (technically the original manga, but it's pretty much identical to the show) on the TV Tropes forums. And it's being English dubbed at last, with Batou from Ghost in the Shell playing Runge, and thus being the unfortunate guy who has to try and make us not snicker at the line "Those calculations don't add up in the computer inside my mind."

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discu...xzyy&page=1

Okay, I am about halfway through the manga and I have to say, I am riveted (and creeped out!). So good.

So, the anime is filler-free, right? Becuase filler has put me off almost every non-26 episode anime lately.

I never read the manga, but the anime wasn't made until a couple of years after the manga ended, so I doubt that there was any filler. If it did have any, I wasn't able to spot it.

Bumping this because it looks like SyFy will be adding Monster to their Ani-Monday block in October. I keep thinking that this is a mistake and it's actually some other show called Monster since it's too good to be true.

Oh, blank stare, you don't know how happy that makes me!

But, wow, SyFy? Doesn't seem like a match, but I'll take what I can get!

Oh, and MrBananaGrabber, if you're out there: here's an anime with no mystical sci-fi woowooness!

I don't understand why SyFy has it either but I'm with you, I'll take what I can get. I didn't think there'd ever be a chance to see the dub aside from getting the dvds so I'm pretty happy about this. I wonder when we'll get the rest of the VA cast list.

At 74 episodes Monster seems like an awfully long series for Ani-Mondays. Just sayin'.

A few early episodes have some scenes added; the typical approach was to make one anime episode out of two manga chapters, but there were some chapters that just couldn't work that way so they were expanded on to fill the whole half hour, the first with flashbacks and the others with extra scenes.

Other than that, there's no filler except in the sense that the manga itself has filler, like the British couple seeing their son in prison or the doctor who saves the woman he loves with Tenma's help. That's the major reason I consider it a (slightly) inferior work to IMO the author's true masterpiece, 20th Century Boys.

I am pretty pissed off about the dub, as I've heard they're going with Lunge rather than Runge, which is not only the way it's pronounced in the original version but is a real German surname, while Lunge is not.

Official press release. Re-broadcasts!

The show starts airing in the US this Monday, and I can't wait to see how it's received. I already urged people to see it in the Syfy Channel thread.

I can't wait to see the reaction to it as well. Manga Entertainment has a few clips of the dub on their site. Beware of spoilers though. I like the dub although I expected Lunge to sound older or to have a deeper voice. I can't tell it's Richard Epcar at all.

The voice for Johan is awesome; it really sounds exactly like the Japanese actor.

I loved Epcar's work in Ghost in the Shell, and was surprised at how different he sounded here. But it still works for me; the real problem is the use of Lunge as his name rather than Runge, which is total bullshit as I said above.

It was a great surprise to hear GitS's English voice for Aramaki as the old blind soldier; given the huge number of characters in the series I'd guess English dub fans will hear quite a few familiar voices.

Liam O'Brien's voicing Tenma. Ain't sayin' I called that one...

Eva's a bit girlie for me. We'll see how that goes.

Only the first clip worked for me.

I got the others to work by switching to them during the first few seconds of the first clip. Not sure why that is.

To my mind, the best manga adaptations are those which are most faithful to the source material (FMA Brotherhood vs. the BONESified version, just sayin'), and the source material in this case is pretty darn good, so MONSTER is pretty much guaranteed to be a superior anime.

This isn't Urasawa's best work--20th Century Boys will take that honour, I'm afraid--but it's my favourite. I read the entire manga in one go--no mean feat, given it's 18 volumes or so--and I really, really enjoyed the anime adaptation (which is basically the manga, animated). On reread/rewatch, I took issue from a critical perspective with certain things, namely, certain plot detours, but I think it's great storytelling nonetheless. There is so much going on that a superficial comparison to The Fugitive really does it no justice.

I wonder if 20th Century Boys will ever get adapted into an anime form. They're making a trilogy of live-action films from the manga, but with several changes to the plot. Funny, of the two works--20th Century Boys and MONSTER--I would have thought the latter would be better suited for live-action. The Wikipedia page for MONSTER indicates that New Line has the rights for a film adaptation, but I have trouble believing that the plot could be telescoped into three hours, even if you cut out some of the subplots and eliminate half the characters.

There's really only two flaws I can think of: the story meanders a bit too much in the first 20 or so episodes, and the character Otto Heckel is an annoying and pointless piece of comic relief that I suspect the publisher forced Urasawa to include. The man's even drawn in a far more traditional cartoony style than Urasawa's usual realistic work.

Urasawa is easily one of my favorite writers of all time, and it really blows my mind that such insanely complex stories as Monster, 20th Century Boys, and Billy Bat were written from beginning to end by just one person. How many writers did it take to bring us the similarly complex and well-constructed The Wire? The one other writer I think can really be compared to him is James Ellroy, who has the rather unfair advantage of being completely insane.

The first episode is already up at manga.com, and the episodes will be repeated on Chiller if you get that.

That was really great stuff; up there with the Cowboy Bebop dub. The only voice that felt a bit off was Becker, but he's such a minor character that it shouldn't be much of a problem.

I'd forgotten how much I like the OP. It's so perfect for the series. I felt that Becker was a bit off too but not a problem when everything else is so good. It's great to go in with high expectations and not be disappointed.

They'll likely strip it of everything but the basic plot which is why I'm not too excited about seeing a film version of it.

I read the manga a while ago and I'm so pleased to have a chance to see this on my big flat-screen. The English dub is slightly unsettling, though, I don't know what it is--the voices seem a little disembodied or something, somehow the dub feels less organic, more flat, than the voiceacting usually does? I don't know. It may be the more "naturalistic" style of this story, and the art looks great, exactly like the manga, also naturalistic. The character designs are interesting in their variety and attempt to capture more realistic facial features and expressions than the usual anime too--maybe the closest I've seen in naturalistic style quality to "Death Note" which I hold in highest regard art-wise. The architecture in "Monster" looks great too.

I know where the story is going but it still is an experience to watch it unfold, they are generating the tension and dread pretty well so far.

Four episodes in, and we've only just begun to get a grasp of what the show's overall story is. I love how Urasawa tells his stories; everything's so precisely laid out and he's not afraid of momemtarily distancing the audience for a big payoff later on, with his frequent introductions of new characters without it being clear at all for a while how they're related to the rest of the story.

Johan's voice was spot on. As for Runge, it's a pretty thankless role at this point as the character's whole schtick is being completely deadpan. I loved the actor's work in Ghost in the Shell, so I trust he'll do great things in later episodes. Can't wait to hear his delivery of "Those calculations don't add up in the computer inside my mind!"

I hate Lunge's dub voice. He needs a sonorous baritone and Viz ends up with a voice I expect to ask Dr Tenma if he knows how much he could be saving with Geico. I also am kinda pissed the put commercials over the ending as the pictures tell a creepy little story throughout the series.

That aside I already have it on pre-order simply because it is one of the best animes to be made in the last 15 years.

Yes, I'm very confused that they went in this direction. I think I kinda get why they did it--they're portraying Runge as a quietly threatening force. He bares his fangs, but he doesn't necessarily bite. However, all of the intimidation and danger of Runge's personality is lost. He needs to come across as a dude you don't mess with. And while it's obvious from the dub that Runge is persistent, he's simply not threatening enough.

Still not digging Eva's VA, either, but we'll see how Platt plays the embittered alcoholic. Laura Bailey's heard all over the place, but I think she would have been a better fit.

Episode 5 gives us the first sign of Urasawa's prediliction to introduce characters a while before revealing how they're connected to the rest of the story. And Nina's one of the easier ones to guess, but I know I didn't catch on for a while the first time I watched the show. I'm really interested in what the newbies make of this one.

I figured Nina was the missing twin in the first five minutes. And I suppose Lunge will have another reason to haul in Tenma when his tie is found on the murdered gardener.

Oh, and I find it weird that the dub used the name Maurer rather than Mauler for the newspaper editor, given that they've gone for Lunge rather than the correct Runge.

The mention of the gardener reminds me: I have no idea why Urasawa gave him those creepy dead eyes. Doesn't quite fit with him just being a guy Johan paid off.

I figured he'd seen the "monster" in Johan; it wasn't just the money he was seeking. There was an unexpressed (perhaps even unconscious) fear that he would be in danger if he didn't complete his task.

Yes, he looked terrified and panicky.

Me, too. Not that it wasn’t interesting, but who else could she have been? Her amnesia, and her parents’ nervousness anytime the past was brought up gave it away for me. Plus, she was a girl of the right age. I had to laugh (and I think we were supposed to) when her parents dragged out the picture that was supposedly Nina as a young child (young enough that it was before she was adopted by her parents). With the costume and the mask, it could have been anyone, but her parents held it out as proof.

Things I’ve learned from watching TV: always, always tell your children as soon as possible that they’re adopted. Don’t wait until they’re twenty, and then change your mind at the last minute anyway.

I seen the episodes that have aired on so far on Sci-Fi, and it's interesting so far. There are definitely things getting set up, and I have lots of questions which I hope get answered. (And I've got theories, too.) But I know some of you have said there is payoff. I saw Eegah's recommendation, and read the thread beforehand, but maybe I shouldn't have, since the Johan is a serial killer reveal is a few episodes in, so that kind of tainted my view of the episodes before that.

I'm used to psychological thrillers in a movie format, so I'll see if I can handle this.

One thing that's bugging me (and I know it's an "anime thing" and not specific to this series) is the non-blinking eyes, and the whole "nothing is moving except the mouth" thing. I think it's especially bothering me in this series because there are a lot of shots of people's faces because there's so much dialogue. (But the dialogue is NOT the problem!)


I was going to, but Sci-Fi's squeezing the credits, so there goes that.


Yeah--I'm not sure that I'll stick out the whole series, but I'm skeptical that they'll air all of them.


I'll put in a request.

The first ending is here. Unfortunately, it's all of the images from the first ending without the slow reveal. It's still enigmatic, but the viewers really are getting cheated. I remember the first time I realized the "story" had changed and how freaky that was.

Pretty much every question the series brings up is answered. In particular, by the end of the series the entire opening credit sequence will make perfect sense.

I had my doubts about Eva's actress, who seemed way too girly girly compared to the husky voiced Japanese actress, but I was impressed with her work as the washed up, alcoholic Eva. It'll be pretty fun seeing her continue that arc.

Episode 8 has lots of awkward flashbacks thanks to only adapting one chapter of the manga, unlike two as in most of the episodes. There's a few others that also do it, but they actually went to the trouble of writing more material for them so it's not nearly as obvious.

I’m really enjoying this show. I’ve been wanting to watch it forever but was holding out for the English dub.

I did miss episodes 3 and 4, so I didn’t get the benefit of seeing Johan and Dr. Tenma’s little reunion (other than what’s been shown so far in flashbacks) so I don’t know exactly how Johan acted towards Dr. Tenma during it, but I have a question- what’s with the tie?

I’m assuming from the person-outlined-in-backlighting we saw the last time the gardener was alive, that Johan killed the guy personally. Which means Johan was probably the one who took Dr. Tenma’s tie off of his body. When I first heard that the tie had been taken, I thought Johan was actually protecting Dr. Tenma. Seeing as Tenma’s forensic evidence is probably all over that tie, I figured Johan took it with him so they couldn’t connect the Dr. with the murdered guy. Then, of course, Lunge finds the tie in the bushes.

So I’m curious as to whether that means Johan is actually trying to frame Dr. Tenma instead. While it would look extremely suspicious for a dead guy to have been tied up with Tenma’s tie, there might have been reasonable doubt created by explaining the circumstances under which the Dr. left the man tied up but alive (with Nina as a witness, of course) However, without knowing everything we know about Johan, there’s really no way to explain to the police why any killer except Dr. Tenma would have tried to hide evidence that connects Tenma to the body.

Of course, it could be that Johan is trying to protect Dr. Tenma and just never figured someone would be able to connect the tie with him. However, I’m so used to the Big Bads in, say, Bleach and Death Note being able to make everything go “JUST AS PLANNED!”, it seems a little weird to have an evil mastermind who could make a mistake like that.

Also- seriously, how hardcore is little!Johan? A ten year old who tells his sister to shoot him in the head and then how to get rid of the gun? Damn.

Lastly, is it normal to feel sorry for Eva a little bit? Even after she was so horrible to Dr. Tenma?

I know, right? WTH?? Why is a little boy going on a killing spree? (No, don't tell me.) But I had figured that the sister shot the brother.

I was also a little confused on the tie thing; seems uncharacteristically sloppy--if it was Johan.

Eva continues to be a stone cold bitch. And Javere, I mean Lunge, is one of those types of cops who doesn't let facts mess up the story they think they see. Didn't Tenma lay out the whole story of the twins?

That's a bold choice, to have Anna be the one who shot Johan when they were children. Sounds like Uncle and Auntie were the ones everyone thought were actually the parents when they defected. Johan must have left behind a string of dead bodies in the GDR, including their real mother and father. I'm thinking Johan took off the tie because it wasn't any fun to kill someone who was tied up.

I don't usually assume anything in Japanese manga is automatically better than American comics, but I can't help thinking that if an American had come up with the idea of a surgeon saving a little boy who turns out to be a psychopath that he'd have to hunt down later in life it would just turn into a bad slasher movie.

Great to see new viewers' reactions here, usually I'm on the other side of this kind of thing. And trust me, everything will make perfect sense in time, especially Johan's motivations.

You ain't seen nothing yet. Hard to comment on this without spoiling anything, but he's just getting started.

And to add one more non-spoilery note, episode 8 is the first time we see Urasawa's incredible ability to draw great-looking food. Stuff like those ham and cheese sandwiches always leaves me wanting to raid the pantry.

I figured out Anna shot Johan too (during this episode, like, right before she admitted it. So I got in just barely under the now-I-feel-smart-for-figuring-it-out-before-the-reveal wire) I’m also really curious to see the show reveal exactly what little!Johan’s “plan” was (I’m pretty much completely unspoiled for this show, which is a rarity for me) So far we know it involves killing anyone who was nice to him and his sister. I’m interested in whether Johan’s plan actually involved him dying or if he figured out he was going to survive being shot *bounces* I can’t wait for next Monday.



I honestly don’t even see that premise working at all in an American genre. The Japanese and Americans have too different of a notion of responsibility and culpability. I can’t see an American thinking it was his responsibility to track someone like that down, especially if the one he saved was a little kid. Even now, watching Monster, I occasionally have to stop myself from wondering “Dr. Tenma, WHY THE HELL DO YOU FEEL SO GUILTY?!?! He was TEN and you were doing your job! Of course it’s not your fault, you idiot!”

Or maybe that’s just my personal opinion. Though I do think that premise is worth giving serious consideration to. Over the summer I donated a kidney to a stranger and, for a second, while watching this show, I did think- If the person who got my kidney had their life saved by it, and they turned out to be a serial killer or something, would I feel responsible? (answer’s “no”, if anyone’s curious)



*bounces more* So excited. And keeping far, far away from my as-yet-unwatched Monster subs… which is getting harder and harder, each episode that airs.



*snickers* I was yelling at Tenma that the cheese had been in the sun all day and that, as a doctor, he should know better than to eat it.

Every time I watched the series before, I completely disliked Heckel. He strikes me as the result of a demand from Urasawa's publisher to put some kind of comic relief in the story, and sticks out horribly right down to being drawn in a more conventional anime style compared to Urasawa's usual detailed, realistic work. It also doesn't help that his introductory episode is one of the show's more awkward meldings of two manga chapters. However, I didn't mind him as much here; the Jack Nicholson voice really helped the character a lot, as the Japanese actor just came off as whiny much of the time.

In nice contrast, episode 9 is one of my personal favorites. Like 8, it's based on just one chapter of the manga, but fills out the story much more naturally without shoving in flashbacks every few minutes. The way it shows some great development for Tenma while also leading in to that unexpectedly sweet and touching ending gets me every time.

Awwwww, loved the little girl and the ending with her and her adopted father (yeah, I know he said that wasn't his daughter but that's stupid- he's so her dad)

It's fun to see the contrast of how Dr. Tenma affects people (positively) and how Johan affects people *glances at Suicide Guy*

Also, I found it interesting how Dr. Tenma took Johan’s little note behind the picture frame. The whole “Look at me. The monster inside me is getting bigger” or however they put it seemed almost like a cry for help to me, not just acting like it was a game.

Even more interesting is the part they decided not to have Dr Tenma say out loud, the first line of the freaky writing- "Meine Lieber Tenma" (or maybe it said Dr. Tenma, I forget) According to what little I remember from German class, that translates into “My dear/beloved/darling Tenma” (depending on how fucked up you want to view their relationship as being) I guess Johan’s not mad at him for taking Nina away...

(Anyone here with better German skills than I (which wouldn’t be hard) feel free to confirm or correct that at will… it’s been a while since high school)

I’m iffy about the new sidekick guy. He’s funny enough but something about Heckel just makes me want to root for Johan to murder him in some absolutely horrible fashion.

Girl and the Seasoned Soldier: Well that was a nice change of pace, to have a quiet episode. But it still moved the story along. On most other shows, this might have ended up as mostly filler that wouldn't have contributed to the overall arc. So training, eh? Tenma is really serious about stopping Johan (by any means?).


Oh good, because I was going to ask if this character had a name; If they mentioned it, I must have missed it. I didn't dislike him that much, but indeed, with his comedic tone, it was like he was from a completely different show.


Heh yeah, how does Johan find these people to do his dirty work? Speaking of Johan, what happened in his past that he wants to "erase" everything? Gah, More clues, more questions!


I don't know German, but I'm thinking it's similar to the traditional greeting in English ("Dear John Doe", for example) where the word "dear" is used even if the correspondents are not that close.

---
Oh and the other thing: If anyone gets the Chiller network, they air repeats of Monster (a week behind Sci-Fi) without the credits squashing, so you can see the end art work better.

I was wondering about that. I may have a skewed viewpoint on greetings as I was always taught to address letters with the proper amount of formality (ie- don't use "Dear John Doe" if you're not close to the person you're writing to) That's one unfortunate part of trying to figure out if/what we’re supposed to be reading into something in this show- it’s Japanese created, set in Germany (and in this case, wording is in German), and (mostly) translated to English. Even though this is a good dub, there’s just so many places for something to get lost in translation.

After some searching on the internet, I found that you can open a letter with “Lieber” if it’s “to someone you have established a good relationship with… or to someone you know well”. Johan’s usage still peaks my interest because I can’t find anything that talks about opening with “Meine Lieber”. As far as I remember, that’s not just “Dear John Doe” (as is acceptable when writing a friend in English or, apparently, German), it’s “My dear John Doe” Which seems so much more intimate and just... fucked up (and thus, very Johan)

It should also be pointed out that the dub mistranslated the actual message a bit: it should be "The monster inside me has already grown this large." A subtle difference, but kind of an important one later on.

I recently finished watching the show and I must say, it is good, but very very confusing. I am not sure that a second watch-through will help unless I am taking notes, and even then there will need to be frequent revisions.

Yes, I found his appearance very jarring as well. It took me out of the story. The character himself and the voice wasn’t as bad, but he looked like a caricature.

We watchers of The Wire are used to that, though, right? I think understand what has happened thus far, but I don’t have any real idea of where the story is going, and it’s really early days yet. There are 73 episodes, right? Presumably Tenma and Anna will meet up again as they both track Johan, but other than that, I haven’t a clue. Seeing Eva sinking into alcoholism makes me think that we’ll see more of her, too.

I liked seeing that Tenma has wised up to the reality of his situation, and that he sought out the soldier guy to help train him. It makes him less of a passive character. The business with the little girl was very sweet.

The episodes are popping up on iTunes, too, after they’ve aired on Syfy. I missed the episodes which aired the Monday before last, and I was depressed because I couldn’t find them anywhere, and I don’t get Chiller, so I was thankful to find them.

Sort of, but it is a little different. The Wire had many storylines that sometimes intersected, sometimes mirrored each other, and sometimes provided symbolic backstory for each other. Still they seemed fairly linear in terms of plot. Other than enjoyment, one may watch episodes again to follow threads to their conclusions or pick up some things that one missed; there are only a couple of actual plot twists that require going back and watching scenes with new knowledge.

In Monster, there is a lot of backstory. A lot. Sometimes the backstory sneaks up at the end of an episode, sometimes it clobbers the viewer on the head at the start. What it does not do is come in a linear fashion. Sometimes it fills in blanks that the viewer did not even know existed and, thus, provides even more blanks that need filling. Many of the characters are part of the major backstory, and what role they played explained maybe once, twice if it needs expansion or revision. Almost none of this happens in The Wire and, when it does, it is either relatively unimportant, inferred, or simply open to interpretation.