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Monster
Anime Review
Monster has been running on the Sci-Fi (SyFy) channel for some time now, but somehow I'd always seemed to miss it. That was my error, and now I'm working to correct it. While it's a bit talky and sometimes slow-moving, this is a deep, big, long, drama/suspense thriller that has amassed an enormous cast of characters and, kind of like the recently ended cult-TV series LOST, once you're drawn into the characters and the world around them, you're not going to let up as there's a lot of pieces of the puzzle to put together.
Taking place in Germany (is it my imagination or have there been a bunch of demon/supernatural manga/anime that takes place in Germany — has Japan become passé for the Japanese?), the story centers on Doctor Kenzo Tenma, who is on the trail of a murderous psychopath named Johan, whose life Tenma once saved (at great cost to his own standing in society, as he decides to operate on Johan while a prominent politician dies awaiting surgery).
While Tenma is the main character of Monster, the story also focuses heavily on those surrounding his search for Johan, such as Inspector Runge (who is investigating Johan's various murders but pins them all on Tenma), Eva Heinemann, Nina Fortner (aka Anna Liebert, Johan's twin sister), and a host of other characters, minor and major, whose lives have been shaped by the deeds of the monster named 'Johan'.
The animation style, while pedantic, is lavish in detail, with richly defined character designs, lots of interesting fashion, amazing background artwork, which probably is why there aren't a lot of action scenes — with this much drawn detail on a TV budget a significant portion of what's going has to be implied rather than explicitly shown. Ironically, this is more interesting as the director has to make a concerted effort to make you, the audience, more involved in taking the 'before' and 'after' and filling in what's missing. It's like what Dr. Who used to do before it had an unlimited FX budget.
And these days with anime being so in-your-face, this is kind of a refreshing change. Sure, it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but rest assured that there's an audience for this although it is an acquired taste, like decaffeinated coffee.
Reviewed by Brian Cirulnick, August 2010
Below: Scenes from the anime series Monster.
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