Doomroar 2014-04-27 09:49:42

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.

Doomroar 2014-04-27 11:12:16

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.

Doomroar 2014-04-27 11:40:06

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.

Doomroar 2014-04-27 15:05:08

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.

Doomroar 2014-04-27 15:05:28

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.

Doomroar 2014-04-27 16:02:38

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.

Doomroar 2014-04-27 18:10:37

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.