MONSTER | Full Story, Analysis, and Review 

Detailed Timecodes: Introduction 0:00:00 Introduction 0:02:16 Video Layout 0:04:08 The Basics of MONSTER 0:07:55 Interpreting Interpretation 0:12:16 Biases and Bases Full Story 0:17:11 Introduction Arc 0:17:47 Opening Bible Quote, Expectations, and Johan as an Antichrist 0:27:49 Tenma’s Response to Guilt 0:32:42 CandyGate 0:40:32 Johan’s Introduction 0:46:12 MidCouple Mistake 0:51:37 Greater Frankfurt Arc 1:05:04 General Wolf and The Mess at the Mansion 1:14:44 The Kempf Letters 1:22:39 Roberto’s Introduction 1:28:39 Munich Arc 1:34:36 Richard’s Death 1:40:03 Johan, The Book, and The Original Plan 1:46:48 The Nameless Monster 1:54:12 Prague Arc 2:07:09 The Three Frogs Experiment 2:17:58 Grimmer and his Family 2:24:49 Escape Arc 2:28:31 The Sudetenland 2:34:23 The Bonaparta Books 2:43:09 His name better not be Johan 2:46:50 Čapek Arc 2:55:12 Peter Čapek 3:03:48 Bonaparta’s Past 3:10:23 Ruhenheim Arc 3:10:57 Ruhenheim as a location 3:19:29 Twists! Bigger Topics: 3:25:42 The Ending 3:26:39 The empty bed 3:28:30 Was Tenma dreaming? 3:29:31 Viera’s Choice 3:31:05 Saving Johan Again 3:33:58 The Landscape of the End 3:37:58 Nina and Forgiveness (All for Nina) 3:42:44 A Cohesive Johan 3:47:01 Building Johan 4:02:24 Disparate Johan 4:16:08 Synthesis Johan 4:24:25 Ending Johan 4:26:58 The Side Character Special 4:27:28 Maurer 4:29:53 Hugo Bernhardt 4:31:33 Dr Schumann 4:33:09 Forrest 4:34:43 Docteen 4:35:51 Milan Kolas 4:37:41 Missed Story Bits 4:38:00 Tone 4:38:54 Fanservice 4:40:33 Rosso 4:41:38 Detective Muller’s Deal 4:42:58 Lotte’s crush on Karl 4:43:43 Karl’s Mother, Margot Langer, or Helenka Novakova 4:46:23 The loose idea of a “main character” 4:47:58 The other thing people get wrong about Johan’s past 4:49:15 Reuniting the Children 4:51:26 Who is the Monster of MONSTER? Misc and Personal Takes 4:54:11 On the manga 5:01:49 On Johan 5:05:29 On some common reviews 5:09:32 Let’s get Literate! 5:20:04 Lightning Round 5:22:22 Outro Also apologies for the typos around the 5 hour mark. Enjoy!

Man… The one who keeps him in the basement, please don’t let him leave. You’re a legend. 5+ hours of the best anime ever…

I didn't think finding out Roberto was Grimmer's old friend was suppose to be some grand plot twist. It's nice knowing that Roberto wasn't some random guy that happened to come across Johan with no connection to anyone else.

I love how Johan getting shot in the head the 2nd time was coz of a parent who was indeed horrible but chose to protect their child, unlike Johan's mother and Nina. Kinda makes me think its a last stand of contradicting Johan's beliefs

I think you're wrong about the scene where Anna asks Johan to call her name. She didn't say "Johan", she said "Oniichan" or "Brother". Johan still hadn't adopted the name Johan then, and Wolf was indeed the one who first gave it to him.

5+ hour Video on Monster, Am I in heaven? WE WILL BE WATCHING!!

Chemist here. Nitrous oxide (but I think you meant NO, nitric oxide which is a more common relaxant exploited by medication such as Viagra) gets metabolized in our bodies as nitrates. The manga says they detected Nitric acid, not that they used it. If a person has elevated levels of nitric acid in their body, it could be either from ingesting the acid or something that gets converted to the acid in our bodies. It’s still difficult to imagine how a candy delivers a much more poisonous gas, but it at least explains why the doctors didn’t notice eating dice loads of acid

I personally think that the mother favorited Nina and that is because when she dresses up the children as identical she choses to dress them as girls instead of boys. I feel like on some subconscious level that caused Johans deep insecurity of his mother and worship of Nina. And why he is truly troubled by the mom's hesitancy. Because she could only ask, which one of these is Nina? Johan is stripped of all versions of his identity in this sense.

As a German, I have to give some insight into the Ruhenheim name meaning. ruhen in German is equal to "resting". It is pretty much used in the same way as it's english equivalent. Personally, I would interpret it in the way that the dead are resting there or something like that.

What about Dieter? He is interesting. Never gives up after Tenma rescues him. Follows faithfully whomever he is attached to at the time. Tends to think for himself. A very different child than the ones that choose to follow Johan. Dieter is much like several other children that are good. The children that lived with the people from all over the world. The boy at the very end whose father was the alcoholic. The orphans that were in the experiment that were shown love. I guess all of these children had love and were ok to happy. It showed me a contrast between those that did have love and those that didn't. A lesson to be learned here that what is done to a child has a big affect for a life time, good or bad. It's hard to fix when only bad is given to a child. But to have some good, seems to allow the child to have resilience through rough times.

As for Eva Heinemann being a bad person... she certainly behaves like one. I realize you don't like Eva, and I can appreciate that. But she reminds me so much of people in my own family, it is equally difficult for me not to see through her appearance at something deeper... Here's the thing for me, a little inspired by how distressed she was at her father's funeral: she apparently did love him. And, as another fan pointed out to me, her father was not a good person, and in a much more obvious way. So--if you think of Eva growing up loving him and wanting to emulate him, I often get glimpses in her of someone who is, all in all, a good person, but had her goodness corrputed by her love for a father who did not deserve the admiration she gave him. Trying to please him, to deserve and earn his love, she behaved like him; but that was not what she was truly inside. When she began to realize Tenma may have been the only man who had loved her up to then. Her reaction to this shows her 'good side', and the fact she ends up hating herself so much ('Tenma will not come back to save me', she says at some point) shows the conflict between her inner self and the 'morals' she had gotten from her father. In the end, the good person inside wins... and she lives on. You talk about how she throws stuff back at the gardner, and plays with him. But then again, notice this is at the time when she thought nobody would/could possibly love her--of COURSE this gardner had to be as crooked and corrupt as she thought she herself was. So throwing stuff at him is what he deserved, right? Until her heart breaks a little, she begins to believe in the possibility of something, and takes that little toy to the Christmas party... just to see the gardner's wife come back. Of course, she sees that as a confirmation that everything is as corrupt as she thought, and lets her pain and hate loose. I say this because Eva's arc fits well in a work that is so concerned with the question of whether who we are is or is not the result of our circumstances. Is Johann a monster because of Bonaparte's ideas and plan, or had there always been something wrong with him (cf. Nina, his sister, who also went through the same trauma). Eva strikes me as a bad person because of influence, not nature; her deeper self is perhaps more similar to Nina's than would seem at first. Whether her conditioning wins or doesn't -- whether her redemption is true or not -- seems to me to resonnate pretty well with the main themes of Monster -- which is why I think it is a great, perhaps the intended, interpretation of her character.

I think grimmer and roberto was not meant to be a twist but a huge tragedy for grimmer, the only person he remembered became like that and they would never meet again. One died trying to make things right while the other died too and also working on the wrong side. In the end every one got fucked up by this experiment there was no hope for these people, not even for the one who wanted to be good. If Grimmer friend survived and grew up to be a nice person it would not be a total tragedy.

Comment in support of the author! This masterpiece deserves more attention!

I was rereading Monster today and came to the section in chapter 119 where General Wolfe recounts the story of finding the children on the border. In the version I read, "Anna" doesn't call her brother by any name, just asking him to "say her name". Perhaps this is just a mistranslation on the Perfect edition editors part? (Unless she's explicitly calling him Johan in the Japanese version.) Also, I feel like there is something for comparison where Grimmer & Tenma sneak over the German-Czech border where the landscape is beautiful, a place for a picnic, a place for hope. In contrast to the section German-Czech border that Johan & Nina sneak over where things feel barren, empty, endless.

An impressive work putting this together. Definitely a lot of topics that could be discussed after a 5h30' video! Some random thoughts: - I actually find rather impressive that, thanks to the great job done by Urasawa with characters, setting and themes, it is quite easy for the readers to overlook the many plot-holes or dead ends: I must say that upon first reading I was so engaged in the story that I did not pay much attention to those. - especially as someone who has studied in Duesseldorf and has been living for many years in Prague, the attention that Urasawa put in researching the modern history of the countries and capturing the look and feel of the places I find remarkable. - great to hear someone finally stressing how much of a monster was Franz Bonaparta: while Johan is regularly listed as one of manga's greatest villain, hardly any mention is ever made of the man behind his conception, despite him committing horrifying crimes. - I don't think that Roberto being revealed as the old friend of Grimmer from Kinderheim 511 was a plot-twist for the sake of a twist, but had instead a significant thematic relevance: just as Nina did not become a monster like Johan despite sharing much of the same traumas, Grimmer was able to become a decent man in spite of the KH511 programme, unlike Roberto that turned out to be the desired result of the experiment. "Humans can become anything" is an important sentence in the story, and Roberto and Grimmer becoming extremely different individuals despite coming from the same place was yet another proof of that.

Just a quick PSA for all Netflix users: All episodes of Monster are on the streaming service. Not sure when this happened, or what countries are available outside US, but if you want to experience the story without spoilers now’s a good of time as any!

I just realized something: Johan couldn't've read the nameless monster book at the 3 frogs since he probably couldn't read at that age and in that situation. Which is probably why he had such an impact cause he actually read the book the first time in the library. He ACTUALLY understood that he was exactly doing like the nameless monster

Man I've been thinking that a live action of monster would be one of the most feasible because of the lack of flashy powers and how grounded the story is! It's a shame that HBO passed it up but I'm sure one day someone will try to bring this to life!

I JUST finished monster and wow what an anime, what a manga. The story is just so sexy and the writers understanding of the Era of the time is just so spot on. I love it.

I agree. If this manga were adapted into a live action it would definitely be easier than most. Usually the problem is there’s just things you can’t do in live action that you can draw out. However monster doesn’t really have any fantastical elements or supernatural abilities. Almost everything in the story could plausibly happen. They would just need skilled actors to drive the story. Even the budget probably wouldn’t be that much tbh.

I personally believe that Bonaparta manufactured the twins' and their mother's escape to the Three Frogs in an indirect way, pushing them to go and do the things he wished through seemingly external circumstances. For example, he might have made their way out of the city completely inaccessible through bureaucracy, or by placing a few key members of the organisation known to the mother in places she would need to visit before leaving. He also might have made her believe she wasn't safe, thus forcing her to make the twins behave the same, at least externally, to avoid suspicion. He would have left the books, under a pseudonym, inside the house, subtly indoctrinating the children. He could allow her to have others come visit her, as long as they didn't interfere with his plans, but she could never leave. That way, she'd do most of his work for him and be constantly on edge, suspecting her life was more controlled than it seemed, constantly small and afraid. Waiting, and not knowing who to trust, constantly doubting wether she was safe or not. Him showing up for one of the children at the end would just confirm her worst suspicions and break her completely. This would explain all the inconsistencies with the Three Frogs experiment theory, and I believe it's what makes the most sense. Having her constantly locked up would break her too fast, deprive her of hope too quickly. Her scaping completely is unlikely, and as you said very narratively inconsistent. I can completely believe that Bonaparta would push someone to the limit by blurring the lines between hope and despair until complete and utter mental exhaustion, making her unable to ever rest fully. This theory also has possible ramifications and problems, but it's my personal head cannon for those events

Id consider monster, 20thcb, and billy bat to be a thematic trilogy. Each one covers a different aspect of identity and authenticity. The end portions of each introduce new themes the succesor will focus on. Monster covers how one can be manipulated through a destruction of ones identity. 20th century boys takes that idea and adds the idea of authenticity and imitation, which billy bat fully explores and concludes. The broad message is about being authentic to yourself and using that uplift and inspire people. Yohan friend and Timmy are all people driven into imorality by playing a role for the sake of their own or other's ambition because of their percieved lack of identity. Yohans identity was destroyed when he was groomed to be a leader , katsumatas identity was damaged by bullying and saught out to imitate fukubei who imitated kenji, Timmys identity was destroyed when he wanted to draw billy bat for the sake of being the worlds savior and avenge Tv Chuck. They all became unsatisfied with their acomplishments and never acheived true happyness. Yohan lacked a name, friend a face, and Timmy in faith in his own work. They all deal with the idea of the third death, when everyone forgets who you are. Urasawa answers this idea by saying that those who try to be remembered through tryanny, manipulation, and imitation will fail in their desire to be remembered and loved. Those that stick to their principles, overcome their vices, and be true to themselves will succeed in the end. People will not forget them through their works, whether its Tenma with his medical practices, Kenji through rock, or Kevin through his comics.

Just watched Monster for the first time and this video came the day after I finished it. I've watched this TWICE now. Thank you for your hard work!

How perfect, I just finished this series right as you uploaded this. Excited to see your work!

I absolutely love dieter. He’s so adorable. “I don’t need a dad. I have tenma.” They’re relationship is great. Even tho tenma tried to be a hard ass and ditch him he just couldn’t cuz he’s so true to his nature.

Finally finished the video. I quite honestly cannot understand how you aren't already at 500k+ subscribers, unbelievably high quality content. Amazing video!

Absolutely insane how good this video is. We are blessed to revisit this absolute gem of serirs through the lens of your analysis

Finally finished watching the whole video, thanks for clearing most of the things up!

Imo the best way to explain the poisoned candy at the begining is that the candies were ment to be an assassination attempt on johan from the enemies of his family. He may have discovered the lethal candies and set them up for the doctors to eat

This is one of my favourite videos on the internet. Time well spent 😌. I will continously return it 💙

YESS!! A much awaited video in succession of the 20CB review. Thanks for all your hard work

There is almost nothing but praise I have for this video, the thorough deepdive into each arc and chapter allowed me to explore thoughts and ideas about various elements of the series that I hadn't thought of before. The sheer amount of work it must have taken to create something of this scale is genuinely inspiring, and I have nothing but the utmost respect. I appreciate the attempts to clearly state your biases and, when it comes to the interpretive points, to present alternative opinions. Personally, I would have to say that the literature section was the weakest, there is so much more to say about the influences of all 4 texts you mentioned, as well as many more, and as someone who has spent many years exploring the work of Sartre and Nietzsche I found your particular readings rather lacklustre, that being said I can see that effort still went in, and that a cross-literary analysis was not the primary focus of this video. The thing that astounded me most about this video is simply how much was left undiscussed about the work in general: The artwork, the framing, the nuances of the dialogue, and all the variations of these caused by the anime adaptation etc. I won't say they should have been discussed, this would have been immeasurably larger, it is simply astounding how complex this work can be when its broken down into all its pieces.

Been watching this for the past week or two, I absolutely loved watching this video, I do think that this helped deepen my appreciation for the manga, as well as pointing out plot holes that I entirely missed. My favorite moment has to be in the library, every time I see it I just get chills.

This is the kind of videos I love and look for. Thanks made my day.

This is a really well put together video. The dedication itself is fascinating.

I love morally ambiguous, thought provoking series like Monster. Thank you for covering this story so indepth :›

Thank you so much for promoting my video and saying such great things about it, I really appreciate it :) And here I thought the 2 hour video I made was big but MAN 5 HOURS?! Crazy lol I won't lie, I've yet to sink into this ENTIRE video yet, but so far I'm a fan of your explanations and perceptions but one of these days I'll sit down and tackle this entire video haha Great work, its great to find someone so passionate about the series

Three more points: In the opening arc, the part where Tenma has an outburst in front of Johan, I wonder if that moment, if handled correctly, could have changed Johan. I mean, the man has been shot, so perhaps he is open to new ideas. Of course, this goes against the whole point of the story, but what if... It also fits nicely with the ending, with Tenma sitting bedside with Johan and talking. When he finishes talking this time, instead of a monster being born again, the monster is no longer there. Regarding the poisoned candy, have you ever considered that Urasawa was going for a supernatural element but then decided to abandon that idea? That could explain the earlier parts. False expectations. Many characters in this story had false expectations about Johan. Isn't it fitting that we also had false expectations about him?"

I am so glad you are back to uploading

When it comes to the case of DID I feel like it is made very clear that it was never a thing and Johan was just fucking with Tenma, just like real serial killers. I would also disagree that every plot point is abandoned after Johan's change, because some of the things you listed were never part of a greater plan, but more points to illustrate Johan's character and his view of the world, like the rooftop games. (Which he took himself a part in because he doesn't care that much at what moment he dies at this point) You have to remember that Johan likes toying with people so some things he does do not serve a greater purpose but to confuse others or just making a point

what an incredible review, hope you will continue =)

Yeeeeeees finally!! Thanks a lot for these extensive reviews and analysis

This has been absolutely fantastic! Thank you so much for giving me such a deep insight into my favourite manga and anime. I enjoyed every minute

Awesome video! Never thought I would watch a 5 hr video essay, but it was well worth the time!

this is my second fav anime behind ghost in the shell. No one ever talks about this masterpiece. Thanks

Wow! This was in-depth. Very much appreciated

I simply love your work,putting all of the together is a piece of art!!!!

The fact that a video like this exists at all speaks (literal) volumes of this shows quality. 10/10 masterpiece, will not hunt you down for showing me all this information.

Such a nice presentation.. I look forward to see more such content from this channel.. great work buddy

I enjoy massively long form content, tyvm.

this video just deserves so much appreciation❤

I've been waiting for this it must have taken so long to make

Wow I subbed after having finished read 20CB in like January and watching your long review, I had already known you did Monster content too so why not. Perfect timing apparently

This is the best Monster video on youtube. Hope it blows up dude

My jaw is on the floor. Can't wait to watch this!

This was so good keep putting in the effort love your vids man🔥

I’m sure you know this by now, but Wolf’s flashback about naming Johan features a mistranslation where Anna calls Johan by name. In Japanese, she calls him “Niichan” a casual phrase that means “brother.” I think it was just Viz being dumb as usual🤷🏻‍♂️

I love you for making this 🥺

This is the only video that i need. Thank you!

Yess your back I love your Urasawa videos 🙌🏻

Thank you so much for making this!!

this was really helpful i read till chapter 64 few months ago and i am continuing now i had forgotten many details and places this video helped me cover that up , this is just the best monster explanation out there..... keep up the good work my guy u earned a sub....

I love this. Thank so much for this deep analysis. You did wonderfully with 20th C. Boys and I watched it in chunks. We need more videos like this! Instant sub.

I am so sad that i have discovered your channel just now. Youre great. Keep it up buddy.

Aaaa, this has been waiting for 🤯

Great work, really clear. Agree almost with everything you said in the end! Thank you

It's funny this came up because I started this series like 2 months ago and yet to have time to binge it. Truly a show worthy of being praised and to be recognized more.

Thank you so much for this, u made my day!

I've been waiting for this one

Your content is pure gold ❤

Thank you for making this!

Man, you deserved so much more. That's incredible jod!

Very well done video, congratulations!

I have a bad attention span but this was so good that I couldn't stop watching , so well done really !

i am so happy that this video exist because I watched Monster like 3 years ago and then continue to the other Urasawa's stories and now I am going to make presentation at con about urasawa work and this video save time with recapitulation! Thank you!

Thanks for making this video!

Bro I just watched your 20CB review and you upload a day after, blessing.

I finished the manga 20 mins ago and have been itching to watch this video since I saw it in a search for “Monster” while reading volume 3 of the 9 volume Perfect Edition. Im 30 minutes in and I’m loving this amazingly written and produced video sooo much. I can’t imagine how long it took to complete. Thank you!! 😊

this was fire, took me three days to watch BUT worth every second and if I could I would've watched it in a day, this is amazing

Phenomenal video. I quite literally just finished Monster a day ago & really struggled with some of the ideas and plot points. I watched a couple of other analysis videos but sadly those left me even more dissatisfied. I think it was really an issue of me coming fresh off Monster & not being able to fully articulate my thoughts. However, you perfectly articulated many of the ideas that were forming in my mind. I’m going to come back to Monster again some day, but your analysis really helped to build my appreciation and understanding of the story.

thank you for your work man, amazing vid

I want to start by saying that this is a fantastic video. I will be rewatching it dozens of times over just because it's entertaining, informative, and well structured while covering most bases the fans or even new viewers would understand. Next, I noticed that we follow a lot of characters' perspectives besides Johan's, one of the exceptions being flashbacks. Based on the ending being completely up to the individual, maybe that's the point. Without knowing what exactly he's thinking and feeling at a given moment, what would drive us, as the viewer/reader, to do these things? What course of actions would we take after having been through this trauma? What thoughts or motivations would drive us to how the series is wrapped up? What would make us the monsters of a story? This story seems to try to push us, or at least make it easier, to understand Johan and sympathize with what he went through. By deciding the ending, we become someone like Johan. Or at least we can determine why someone sees themselves as a monster through our own perspective.

Pharmacist here to offer some context on the candy. Let me preface this by saying that a lot of the medical aspects of this show fall into the category of artistic license, the poison candy included. If you're planning to axe someone in this way, 1) it probably won't work, and 2) please reach out and seek help. In the English dub of the anime, I seem to remember that Lunge states that traces of *nitrates* were found in the bodies, not nitric acid. I lean towards this being a more accurate translation or, if not, a good change. While still in the realm of fiction, using a nitrate as a poison is a lot more grounded in reality than the idea of using nitric acid. As you were good enough to tackle nitric acid, I'll take the nitrate. For a little chemistry lesson, a nitrate is an ester form of nitric acid. Nitric acid is a very strong, corrosive, relatively unstable compound. A nitrate is the acid without the hydrogen atom and is a much more stable, less dangerous animal. Less dangerous, as in not likely to dissolve your mucus membranes, not necessarily as in less poisonous. More significantly, "nitrate" is a term for a class of medications used to treat blood pressure or chest pain. They work by being converted to nitric oxide in the body, which causes blood vessels to dilate and blood pressure to drop. Drugs in this class are relatively common inside and outside of the hospital. Nitroglycerin is an old, very common example. Theoretically, if a large enough dose of a nitrate was ingested, it could produce profound hypotension (i.e. low blood pressure) and/or methemoglobinemia (which would reduce the blood's ability to carry oxygen), which, after a prolonged enough period of time, could cause end-organ damage. If you don't have enough blood pressure, your heart, kidneys, and brain get starved for oxygen and start dying. Granted, the effects as seen here are entirely fictitious. Nitrate toxicity would not produce the Death Note-esque effects that are seen in the story. Methemoglobinemia onset would likely be gradual and would be very unlikely to kill a doctor while he was still working at the hospital, while severe hypotension would almost certainly be noticed early, as it would not have taken long after exposure before the victim became lightheaded or fainted. Either way, Urasawa is taking some liberties here, but the idea that a preternaturally gifted boy laced some candies with a relatively common drug such as nitroglycerin--or coerced someone into doing it for him--is still on the windy side of realistic. Other than this, great video, man! I rewatch Monster every fall and always enjoy it. I've always considered it a great but flawed show, and I'm glad to see someone give it a similar (but much more thorough) analysis. Also, I really appreciate the legwork on figuring out the toxic potential of nitric acid. Talk about going above and beyond the call of duty!

Really love the video man! Would love it if you could compile the background tracks you used, they were so great for the atmosphere.

Young Nina didn't call her brother "Johann" at the border. She simply called her "brother." It was a mistranslation from Japanese to English.

Hey man just finished watching the show and when through your video. Great work! really interesting interpretation and incredible analysis, this being my first watch there was a lot i missed and brought me to have very different views of the show. You really sold me on the Manga and i cant wait to get my hands on it to read it. Thanks again for the video and great work keep it up!

One theory which balances between the 'all for Anna' and 'Poppe is the original monster' idea is the 'Anna' keyword connotates identity driven by ghosts or ghostly ideas. Anna was an allusion to Vera's unborn twin sister and whose name ended up being the cloak for Vera, Johan, Nina when likely all 3 lost their names and memory. As much of this series' plot was about Johan extracting and personifying the monster to purify Nina, Another Monster draws enough parallels with Vera and Poppe that suggest they themselves weren't the starting generation of human experimentation or twin eugenics programs. That suggests a pretty different meaning to the Monster's Love Letter than first interpretation as well. I also think the narration overstated Johan's perspective on Vera's selected kid for Bonaparta's experiments. Vera may have had a gender bias or picked at random. All the Kinderheim kids were male, and Vera probably felt imprisoned by the kids in the plot after impregnated.

I really appreciate your dedication and hard work on this video. It's a very well constructed video and I like how you included many different theories, but I think some of the moments didn't really bear fruit. One moment would be when Eve sets fire to the gardener's house (I hope I didn't leave that detail out if you said it), but I think that scene is a metaphor representing Eve's desire for vengeance fire, but also Eve's new beginning in the world, the fire representing Eve's purification from her vices and starting a path to virtues. Even though she wants revenge on Tenma let's not forget that from her perspective, she thinks Tenma is the murderer, but along the way we see how Eve's new virtuous character allows her to see Tenma for what he is. Another moment is Tenma's discussion with Gillen at the festival (I mean the scene where Gillen helps Tenma escape the police trap) , which I think you were too harsh on. Urasawa gave that diagnosis through Gillen to outline the human aspect of the character showing his morality that leans towards truth and goodness that comes out of the reason he helps Tenma, but giving him the most powerful characteristic of the man which is mistake. Everything Gillen tells us cannot be true because the diagnosis is rushed and lacking in all the important information that neither of us had at the time. But even this diagnosis which I assume they both knew was invalid offers a path to Johan's history and a better understanding of it, thus adding to the mystery .

thats one of the my favorite anime so thank you for making the video.

So powerful work. Thank you!

2:43:09 i think it’s a translation mistake since the Japanese dub Nina said “big brother” or “brother”

And here i were thought the video about 20 Century Boys was long and detailed :D You sure do love Urasawa, as do I :)

One of the best videos ever

Well crafted work of art. Well done.

my heart jumped when i saw this, sea gee you are the biggest G

This was amazing to watch!

Wow just wow. I can honestly say this has forever changed my opinion on monster and made me see it for the masterpiece it is. I finished Monster when I was around 17(22 now) and was really invested in the mystery behind Johan and what made him a monster. What really kept me hooked was the mystery and the theme that I derived from the manga of ultimate good vs ultimate evil in the sense of Tenma's conviction that every life is equal and my understanding of Johan as an extreme nihilist who was challenging Tenma's beliefs by showing him how easily a person can be corrupted and that monsters do exist and should not be valued the same. where things went south for me was the ending which I am still sour about. when it comes to mystery I love speculating and getting that payoff of being right or having your mind blown by things you might have been completely blind to, the mystery of why Johan was a monster was so compelling and there were so many revelations and possible answers with great storylines and characters I loved every second of it, especially the section with Grimmer and Milosh just that whole section cemented how great Urasawa was at making these complex characters, I literally remember getting chills when Johan asks the kid "why are you alive? who wanted you?", but then he ends it with one final possibility for why Johan is a monster (the whole giving up Nina instead of him and I say its a possibility just in the way that I was understanding it as a mystery story) and then he essentially tells you to come to your own conclusion. I was disappointed by that and to this day would have loved a more concrete ending but can still see how much of a powerful statement that ending is when looking at the story with the character driven and more so human drama aspect of it. Going through the entire plot like this and actually considering all of the different interpretations for why these things are happening has made this a completely different story to me and I can definitely say this is a masterpiece. One of the most shocking yet simple revelations I had from this was literally that the story was being serialized and ideas about where the plot would go were being developed as it went( I genuinely don't know why I never thought of this) and that explains all of the loose ends and plot points that would just be thrown out after a while like the DID stuff, which I just thought of as different pieces for the different answers to the overarching question of "what makes someone a monster?". Even Johan's character being all over the place I just attributed to him being a nihilist and him having no real care for anything making him unpredictable and capable of any deed to amuse himself or challenge Tenma. This video was amazing and thank you for making it, I genuinely feel like such a dumbass for not seeing the true beauty of this series and Urasawa's genius but your in-depth explanations have truly opened my eyes, this was great.

OH MY GOSH, i cant wait to get into this!!!!!! thank you!!!b

A masterpiece video on a masterpiece

Thank you SeaGee! Monster is a masterpiece.