Student Review: Monster

[Zelkiiro]

Title: Monster
Genre: Drama
Company: Studio Madhouse
Format: 74 episodes
Dates: 4/7/04 - 9/28/05

Summary: Dr. Kenzou Tenma has it good. He's got a high position as a cranial neurosurgeon at Eisler Memorial Hospital, his fiancé is the daughter of the Director, and his in-progress medical thesis could earn him fame and prestige. However, after he's told to operate on a singer rather than a Turkish man, Dr. Tenma is confronted with the man's wife, and he begins to question the Director's judgment. Later, a boy with a bullet wound in his head is brought in with his traumatized twin sister. Before Dr. Tenma can get to work on the boy, the Director urges him to operate on the Mayor instead. Frustrated by the earlier incident, he rebels and operates successfully on the boy. It doesn't take long for Dr. Tenma to realize that he has made a very grave mistake...

Grade: 89%
Highs: Fluid animation and very atmospheric, creepy artwork; involving characters; twisting story; pleasing to the ears
Lows: Unsatisfying ending; some events go unexplored

Review: I'm not a huge fan of detective tales. Point A always leads so cleanly to Point B, and there's hardly any disruption to any findings unless the story cannot progress without them. Good thing Monster manages to break this mold, not only because the lead's a doctor rather than a detective, but because it's interesting.

First, let's get the audio department out of the way. The music in this series, even considering its great length, is fantastic. There are tracks that make you feel like walking outside and taking in the sun, while other tracks make you feel like sleeping with the lights on. The tone is wide and varied, and this kind of story benefits from it. Some may complain about the 2nd ending theme, Make It Home due to its unique vocals, but to me, it fits like a glove; just like the voice actors! Not much to say, except the voices are very distinct and the acting is superb (quite a task to maintain for a series of this size).

The visuals are no slouch, either. The animation is fluid throughout and the artwork is beautiful, if not haunting. However, when they want to achieve creepy, they can deliver; never before has the simple sight of a doorknob been such a chilling sight. It may take a while to get used to the character designs, mostly because the manga-ka was more inclined to make his characters realistic rather than stylized. And, I can't say I've ever been to Dusseldorf, Munich, or Frankfurt, but the scenery sure looks authentic and beautiful.

Of course, while the technical aspects are important, no series would amount to anything if it was empty in plot and characters. Another trap successfully avoided. The main characters get lots of love in this series, and even one-shot side characters get their spot in the sun. This factors nicely into the main storyline, which enjoys shifting focus from Tenma to Eva to Grimmer back to Tenma to Karl and so on and so forth. Getting your character development with a heaping side of plot exposition is just icing on the cake when you consider the very complex storyline, which twists and turns more often than a water slide at a sadistic amusement park, guaranteed to make that next episode that much more tempting to see.

And now, every great series must have their faults, yes? First off, some events occurred with great implications to the story, but were never followed up on. For example, without giving too much away, a certain docile character undergoes hypnosis to figure out things in their childhood they didn't know; however, they begin acting very aggressive and violent (the person was choking the hypnotist) before being awoken. I was on the edge of my chair, waiting to find out what it all meant, but it was never revisited. To put it bluntly, I was bummed. The ending left me bummed, too. It's not quite as bad as Berserk, but I still wore my best "That's it?!" face.

When it all comes down to it, I'd recommend this show. The ending leaves you a bit high and dry, but the journey is well worth the disappointing destination.

[animanic_critic]

It's funny.

Not your review though, but the coincidence that I wrote and created a thread for my own review on Monster around two years ago. It got shot down in flames by Niner though, but that was in the past anyway. Now about your review, it is nice and I can understand from your descriptions about how you feel when you watch the episodes.

My gripe about the review are two things.

1) There are too much focus on the terms in Monster (character names and places of interest). I think it's better to focus on the series itself rather than what's in the series.

2) There are too many colloquial terms, which rendered the review sounding more like a blog rather than a review.

However, a good attempt though. Continue to write more reviews if you please.

[Zelkiiro]

2) There is too many colloquial terms, which rendered the review sounding more like a blog rather than a review.
My writing style is pretty dependent on colloquial terms. If I don't include them, I have no other means at my disposal to keep interest. :/

[Enoah Ballard]

I remember the animation in monster being consistently modest, even static at times. Also often when they animated characters moving faster than a certain speed, either during running or grappling or kicking the result would look unnatural.

[Shadowmage]

Sorry if I sound a bit harsh, I just woke up after getting my sleep interrupted.

The main problem I have with this review is that it essentially uses the Music/Animation/Characters/Story format without the following descriptors above each paragraph. I know you are trying to give the anime a comprehensive review, but that's wholly unnecessary. Simply put, get to the point. This is not an anime like FLCL where the animation and music play a huge roll in the overall experience. I admit, Monster did have solid art and haunting music, but they did not drive the overall anime to the point that they deserved their own paragraphs.

My second problem is the location of your descriptions of the music and animation. You have a limited number of words to explain exactly why a person should watch an anime, so first impressions are important. Yes, you covered how interesting the show is but then you jumped into the animation and music which gives the impression that these are the critical elements of the show as opposed to the characters and story. I suggest you start out with what is most important, then work down the details. (You can talk about the animation and music early on if the description is short and it feeds into the larger narrative of what makes the anime tick.)

AC also mentioned this (actually, he mentioned the above too... in a different way), but there are few too many colloquial terms in the review. As a person who uses a great deal of colloquial expressions, I know where you're coming from when you say that you have few other techniques at your disposal to keep interest, but I suggest you try to cut them out unless they are absolutely necessary. If you can retool sentences without using such devices, then do it.