Monster
"After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box." It's not a quote from the anime, but it came to mind as I was watching it.
Monster is an interesting anime. A lot of emphasis is placed on equality of human life, which can be a touchy subject, but Monster does an outstanding job allowing the audience to formulate their own opinions through the perspectives of the characters. Is every person inherently equal? Should we value the life of one person over another? When there's no surefire indication of the potential each person holds, is it fair to value someone with immense power over a commoner? These are a few of the questions Monster addresses, some of which eventually become the crux of the anime. It spends no time sugarcoating the horrific psychological scars many characters acquire as they ruminate over questions of similar caliber.
What made this anime fascinating wasn't the plot but its nonlinear narrative and characters. A sense of foreboding is developed immediately, and pieces of the storyline come together as backstories are dropped left and right. While the purpose of certain characters seem clear at some point, their motives become increasingly blurred as the anime progresses and more is revealed about their past. This is undoubtedly one of its strong suits and why Monster is so captivating. The intricacies of each character truly makes for a brilliant story.
Another thing I want to point out is how open-ended the anime is. A lot of what happens is up to interpretation and speculation, which may or may not be to everyone's liking.
A solid anime overall, but it isn't without flaws.
For starters, it can get pretty predictable. This isn't necessarily the fault of the plot in itself but how it's conveyed. There are certain instances when the anime attempts to create tension but ends up falling flat. It's easy to see through quite a few of these "twists" though it's not a glaring issue.
The main protagonist is also far too glorified in the anime. On a similar note, it's understandable that the purpose of the filler was to solidify Tenma's reputation, but it came off as repetitive, and adding so many throwaway characters for the sake of this is overkill.
Because Monster is labeled as a psychological thriller, you'd think that the audience would get front row seats to how these massive scandals and manipulations occurred. Nope, the audience is left to grasp at straws wondering how any of this took place. It's a shame, really. With so many holes to be filled, the anime isn't nearly as realistic as it could've been. As a result, much of what happens behind the scenes (or even what the anime blatantly shows you) just comes off as hard to believe and leaves a lot to be desired.
And revolving the story around a wild goose chase can get rather stale as well.
Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed Monster, and it honestly blows my mind how all of these events were woven together so intricately. However, that aspect is a double edged sword because it can be somewhat difficult to follow this labyrinthine of a timeline if you're not giving it your utmost attention. That being said, I appreciate what Monster tries to do, but its flaws impeded my enjoyment a bit too much for me to just brush off.
** would recommend Monster to anyone who wants to question their morals, or anyone remotely interested in the history of eugenics
Tenma also reminds me of Kiritsugu.