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Oh-Sama
I'm not really an artist. I find it hard to make art. So I Fake ART, and I FART. I guess I'm a Fartist.

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Anyone felt this?

Posted by Oh-Sama - April 27th, 2014


3126715_139860357032_187931.jpg

I don't get it :(
The story goes great at the very beginning but with each new chapter I lost track of characters and events.

What was the true identity of the monster?
Was it m*r*d*r/v*ng*nc*/l*n*l*n*ss?.. I just don't get it!

Perhaps I should watch the anime again to understand the whole thing but with 74 episodes and finals coming in few weeks, I guess I have no chance...
I have a doubt that the anime has a different story from the manga. After all, it was made by a "MAD" house, so who knows what crazy things could have happened during animating "Monster"
Or may be it's my brain that was overclocked wrongly...
Perhaps I'll get a clear image of the story if I read the manga...
Overall it was a great story with crazy twists and touching moments even if I didn't understand its true meaning.
I'm so confused and sad about it :(


Comments

Did you really want me to explain it? because i can, but it will be long and it may include links to the pages of the manga.

The story is great, so i do recommend reading the manga they are always better than their adaptations, and while you are at it, give 20th century boys a look, and the sequel too, and Pluto, and Billy Bat, and pretty much everything by the author.

I was thinking after posting on this blog: the monster had no name in the first place so I guess his identity shouldn't matter. Whether it's hate or lack of morality, vengeance, racism, loneliness or whatever is it, it's always a monster. Humans can't live along with monsters...
Do you agree?!!

Also, any recommendations for "Monster" like animes?
I have watched "Death Note", though I guess "Monster" has a better story line.
I was looking for Naoki Urasawa' works and some people have recommended "20th Century Boys"
Sure thing I'll watch that :)

Johan had a name, 2 actually... well if we count his alias then the list of names grows.
He has a lack of morality? maybe not really, remember that when Johan kills the ones that wronged the doctor, he does this out of gratitude to him for saving his life, his actions don't follow our morals, nor our current mind set of what is ethical and right, however his actions do follow a "twisted" form morality an ideal or way of thinking that was implanted on him as a child.

His loneliness by the point he became an adult is not relevant enough to fuel his actions, and vengeance doesn't really correlates with what he does on his present, at best he seems to follows shattered parts of what they inculcated on him as a child, well and this can be debated because dem nazis are fucked up, so he very well may be just a perfect example of the thing going well.

But Johan, the Monster is a case too particular for him to become a metaphor of the human condition, thus i can't agree with you, however in the grand scale of things Johan was not the only monster, and he was even part of an organisation, not only that but we get various smaller monster in the whole series, and they all have something in common, they all are human... if you tell me that humans can't live along with monsters, i will have to answer that humans are monsters themselves, and thus what you say is that we can live with ourselves XD.

BTW all those that i mentioned in my 1st message are mangas, with 20th Century Boys having a live action adaptation, that is actually good, but that leaves a lot, and i mean a lot (almost in excess) out of the movie, so i recommend watching it, only after finishing the manga.

Recommendations:
Master Keaton, this one is excellent and it works in arcs, each one with something to make you think, is from the same author of Monster, i don't know why i forgot to mention it 1st since this one is so damn good, also watch the OVAs and read the manga.

Texhnolyze this one is one of my favs.

Now and Then, Here and There, is my all time favorite, and is quite straightforward.

Paranoia Agent, this one is also great, and of course this demands watching "Serial Experiment Lain", which is actually good but also overrated XD. These 2 can be a little bit troublesome to understand at first.

Speed Grapher, while this one is more action oriented it also has it deepness.

BARI-BARI GUSHA-GUSHA BAKI-BAKI GOKUN!
By monster I wasn't meaning Johan (and by Johan I mean Nina's brother not the monster) as he wasn't the only monster around. Certainly, Johan had the main focus and so he was a main character but counting the list of crimes and the people involved within I guess it's too complex to say he was the number one killer.
Now back to the monster, and this time let's refer to him with the "Monster" like I should have referred to him earlier!
Remember that in one of the chapters, the one with a reference to Franz Bonaparta's book, in the animated short there was that goofy green thing. That was the "Monster" and Nina reads: it created a clone and they went onto different paths.
My first serious interpretation of this is that the "Monster" (since it is nameless) could be anything. Anything that leads you to act wrongly (in the common sense of wrong) like committing murders...
The "Monster" has the ability to make clones and so to control more people, it spreads like the T-virus. It takes one zombie (and some raccoon city citizens) to create more zombies. The only thing wrong here is that zombies are slow beings but here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE9qPRIt1vU watch how the "Monster" travels XD
However the "Monsters" can't have a total control of every person they inhabit, that's why they went on different paths. I think Urasawa made this scene to show that there are people who could control the "Monster". The one who went to West either had eaten all of his hosts or had no effect on them at all. Not sure if the East/West has to do with the actual world, this leaves some questions unanswered?

And yeah humans can't live with what they consider a monster. Imagine yourself eating your everyday meals with "Luffy"...
But everyone's monster is not the "Monster". For example an outlaw criminal would consider "True Justice" (if it has ever existed) a monster (but if not, he's also on drugs and hallucinating)

Thanks for your time DoomRoar, I'll check them later :)
BTW do you have a download link for the Manga "Monster"?
I gave up on the french version (too early) since I have a busy time and I couldn't find any. So instead I would love to try an english release :)

I have watched "Paranoia Agent" once. It was great at some parts but same case here I didn't get the full message of the author and sadly this is all I remember from the anime. I remember few of the scenes and lost track of most of them :(
Probably I should watch it again...

Continuation:
Planetes, this one is almost perfect, i said almost because i personally didn't like the ending, but if you do like the ending then, this thing is perfect.

Sanctuary, i actually remember more the manga, but i think that the anime is also quite good.

Then we have last Legend of the Galactic Heroes, i havent watched this one, because i want more experience to judge it accordingly, because everyone labels it as the best thing ever animated, and the thing is that the ones that said it are not your average chumps, but people that actually know their stuff, so i want to be as critical and prepared while i get to watch it.

From here only have seemingly related recommendations (that are still quite good):
Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor
Rainbow
Metropolis
Psychopass
Golgo 13
The Animatrix
The Twelve Kingdoms(starts slow gets better later, doesn't has what you could call an "end")
Kaiba (welcome to surreal anime, congratulations into making it this far!)
Tekkonkinkreet (one of my favs)
Votoms (the whole thing)
Zipang (needs a second season that probably will never happen, like with "Blade of the immortal" a pity really)
Kuuchuu Buranko (probably the only real psychological anime, because it actually has psychology in it, it takes place at an hospital after all!)
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (not really meant to be taken seriously, but you can do it, and it actually works!)
Ghost In the Shell (probably should have put it higher on the list...)
Ichi The Killer
Paprika
Bokurano (just because yes, it has its moments)
A Spirit of the Sun (it actually lacks an end, and the manga stopped getting translated...)

So yeah the main list that has things directly related to Monster in the same line is not really that long about 8 animes, the one that follows is larger but is also farly short, why? because seinen things don't really get animated, and when they do they end badly done most of the time, plus most are adaptations, the manga world has way, way more, indeed Monster is just an adaptation and even the majority of the works from the author ever got animated, but maybe is better this way.

Wow combined with the previous one they both make one long list.
I should seriously thank you for your time man... do_Omo arigatO_o

Have you tried Elfin Lied or UN-GO!
Level E is from the creator of Hunter x Hunter, it's short and funny to watch :)

I had a typo there near the end when i said "and thus what you say is that we can live with ourselves" that is actually a cant.

Oh so you mean the Monster of the mini story, not Johan the main antagonist? then is even simpler, the author of that book is Franz Bonaparta, the mastermind/creator behind Johan (the human), Franz was a psychologist/psychiatrist/Neurologist and a writer, his main field of study was personality, and thus everything he does is within the dynamic of identity, and this is a key part of his whole character, we can't really separate the author and who he is from his work, the nameless monster is not a virus that spreads and controls people making them do wrong things, neither it is a mysterious entity behind their evil, the nameless monster is someone without a self of its own that goes around and replaces people doing their roles perfectly even better, however this new lives not being his own don't manage to fulfill his search for a self, so he grows "hungry" destroys that persona and moves on onto another version of himself. He eventually finds a version he likes but that is not enough so he also absorbs the roles of those around him, by the time he fills himself there's no one to acknowledge him, when he finds someone that knows him, that other Monster in the same circumstances tells him that it doesn't matter what you are, because we can be anything we want, disappointed with this he proceeds to erase that other self too, the irony with this is that now he ends without any verifiable background, so his new self ends being something constructed which confirms what the other monster said.

Based on this Franz proceed to make his story and research into a reality, so he makes the project which involves Johan and his sister, in essence it consist of creating a perfect human capable to do anything and adapt anywhere, to do that he needs an empty vessel, and that vessel becomes Johan.

You may be disappointed now, but that's it, is not an allegory on evil, but on identity, and not the identity of a concept that makes us act wrong, but the identity of a person, creating the perfect human, Franz ideology followed the Nazi's ideology after all, and creating a monster was equal to creating something that goes beyond humans.

This attention to detail, is a rare find and is part of what makes Urasawa such a great author.

I didn't say the "Monster" was a virus I was talking about the way it spreads among people :/
Great now with this review I should definitely plan to re-watch the full series >:3
I'm not disappointed. I'm just amazed how deep is your interpretation of the manga. It seems like you're detective Lunge's descendent, wow I bet you have inherited that crazy typing technique...
But as for me -_- I guess I should have a brain surgery at this right moment, so...
Dr Tenma... tasukete kure :'(
Though, my interpretation is not all way wrong.
I'm just out of words and expressions so may be we should discuss this later :)

There you go http://bakabt.me/141259-monster.html this is of the manga.
Yeah Paranoia Agent is one of those things that you have to watch twice to understand it,the same happens with Lain.

Thanks I will download this too :)

Man i am so sorry to generate these messages before you can even answer to the others XD.

Anyways, Elfin Lied was too moe for me (yeah this is not a typo) but i finished it, mostly fan service and the moe ruined the gore for me, probably Genocyber is the only anime that gets girls in gore like it is supposed to be done, and i skipped UN-GO for the same reason too much moe

I am currently on hiatus of watching anime, i am only watching the ones currently on air, but i will make a return with Ergo Proxi, if is good then i will recommend that one too (however the moe gives me doubts, but i want to believe!), ah i forgot add Blame to the main list http://myanimelist.net/anime/1055/Blame! with this one i guess the main list has 9 animes.

Man I am so sorry for not answering these messages before you can even generate any others XD.

Anyways, I guess I can't match your current level of philo-manga-tism or whatever it's called :P
At least I was very entertained reading your replies here so again thank you so much :3
But...

I am currently going off so please add this on top of your list :P

Haha na it really is simple you just have to pay attention to the guy behind the whole thing, and what motivates him, what makes his character, what he is about, in this case Dr Franz Bonaparta was a man that has a fixation with identity and human enhancement, he explored all the fields related to this, and stopped to almost nothing experimenting on family, strangers, friends, young and old, even on himself to attain his interest. If we take this in mind it all fits in place.

Lol philo-manga-tism, i guess Cyberdevil would agree with you on that one, i actually can match his level of philo-movie-tism XD.