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MONSTER
Monster is a seinen manga by Naoki Urasawa, serialized in Big Comic Original, published by Shogakukan, between 1994 and 2001, and reprinted in 18 tankōbon. Naoki Urasawa would later release Another Monster, a supplement book detailing the events from the manga as from an investigative reporter's point of view, published by Shogakukan in 2002. A 74 episode anime tv adaptation by Madhouse aired on NTV from April 07, 2004 to September 28, 2005.
The manga is licensed in English by Viz Communications, with the release of the first volume scheduled for February 2006. New Line Cinema has also recently acquired rights to create an English language film version. Josh Olson, whose best-known work has been adapting A History of Violence in 2005, has agreed to write a screenplay adaptation for the movie, and also script a second Monster movie for the studio.
Story
The series follows Dr. Kenzo Tenma (天馬賢三) as he pursues a young psychopath known as Johan, whose life Tenma once saved. The story rapidly progresses through a number of locations: it starts in Düsseldorf, Germany, passes through Berlin, Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Polish cities, Budapest, cities in the Czech Republic such as Prague and other cities or villages.
The text on the cover of the first volume reads as follows:
"Dusseldorf, West Germany in 1986. One day, Dr. Kenzo Tenma ignored his boss's order and executed humanitarian rescue of a man's child. That's how this horrible story begins!!"
Dr. Kenzo Tenma is a young Japanese doctor working at the Eisler Memorial Hospital in Düsseldorf during the 80s. A highly accomplished surgeon, he appears to have everything on his plate: a promotion in the offing and the favor of the director of the hospital, Heinemann, and his daughter Eva as his fiancée. However, Tenma grows increasingly dissatisfied with the political bias of the hospital for treating patients, and seizes his chance to change things after a strange massacre brings the twins Johan and Anna Liebert into his hospital. Johan has a gunshot wound to the head and Anna keeps muttering about killing, and Tenma decides to operate on Johan instead of a prominent politician. Johan is saved, but the politician dies. Tenma loses all his social standing and Eva as a consequence. However, Heinemann and other doctors in Tenma's way are mysteriously murdered, and both children disappear from the hospital soon after. The police suspect Tenma, as he benefits greatly from this turn of events, but have no evidence, and so can do no more than question him.
At this point, the story advances to nine years later. Tenma has been recently promoted to Chief of Surgery. However, he is about to come face to face with a sociopath - a sociopath that he helped save.
A known criminal is found on the street, hit by a car. He comes under the care of Dr. Tenma, who observes him muttering about a "Monster". Then one evening when Dr. Tenma comes back with a clock as a gift for the criminal, he finds the guard in front of the criminal's room dead, and the criminal himself gone.
Following his trail to the construction site of a half finished building near the hospital, he finds the man. The man, who has developed a sort of doctor-patient friendship with Dr. Tenma, warns him against coming closer, and pleads with him to run away. Tenma refuses, however, and the identity of the man holding a gun pointed at the criminal in the abandoned parking garage is revealed to be the boy whose life Tenma had saved nine years ago, Johan. Despite Dr. Tenma's attempt to reason with him, Johan shoots the criminal, tells Tenma that he could never kill the man who had saved his life, then walks off into the night while Tenma is still too shocked to stop him. After this incident, Tenma is again suspected by the police, particularly Inspector Lunge, and he tries to find more information about this 'Johan'. He soon discovers that the boy's sister, Nina, happily living the life of an adopted daughter to two caring parents, the only trace of her terrible past a few dreams she's had. He discovers her on her birthday, and manages to prevent her from meeting her brother, but comes too late to prevent Johan from murdering her foster parents. As the show progresses, the scope of the atrocities this 'Monster' has committed become evident to Tenma, and he vows to fix the mistake he made when he saved Johan's life.
While Tenma is the main character of Monster, the story also focuses heavily on those surrounding his search for Johan, such as Inspector Lunge (who is investigating Johan's various murders but pins them all on Tenma) and Nina Fortner (a young woman with a horrifying forgotten past), and a host of other characters, minor and major, whose lives have been shaped by the deeds of the monster named 'Johan'.
Character List
Main characters
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Dr. Kenzo Tenma
Doctor Kenzo Tenma, is a Japanese neurosurgeon working in Düsseldorf. At the beginning of Monster he is favored by the Director of the hospital for his prodigal skill in surgery. After a crisis of conscience, he chooses to save a life of boy instead of the city's mayor. Through a series of unfortuate events Tenma is pegged as the lead suspect of the hospital murders. Years later, he comes to the revelation that the boy he saved, Johan Liebert, is the very same serial murderer that killed the Director and many others. Doctor Tenma becomes a fugitive who seeks the man named Johan, determined to end the life of the monster that he saved so many years ago. Doctor Tenma, is despite his mission, a humanitarian who genuinely cares for the lives of those he treats.
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Johan Liebert
Johan Liebert is the namesake "monster" of the story and the mystery of his past is the focus of the plot. He has been called a monster, the next Hitler and even the devil himself. Johan Liebert was shot at a young age in the head but had his life saved by Dr. Tenma the very same night. Because of this, he regards Dr. Tenma, almost as though he were a father. He has spent portions of his life in different places under different aliases and is possessed of an extraordinary level of charisma and intelligence. He uses his gifts to cruelly manipulate and corrupt others, often with no apparent end other than to to cause suffering and destruction. Many people often respond well to his wishes, making Johan very resourceful. His goal, as he stated when he was young, is to be the last one standing at the end of the world. One of the themes of Monster is how individuals can transform into monsters themselves. In this respect, Johan often acts as a catalyst for this transformation, both directly or indirectly.
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Nina Fortner / Anna Liebert
Johan's twin sister and the only unharmed survivor of the night both her parents and her brother were shot in what appeared to be a botched burglary. At first she showed signs of autism from the psychological trauma from the incident. After she and her brother disappeared, she appears to have been adopted by the Fortner family as their own. She doesn't remember anything about her childhood, including Johan, so like her brother, her past is a mystery. Before Doctor Tenma's visit, she was unaware of her previous identity as Anna Liebert. As Nina Fortner, she was a hardworking law student at Heidelberg University before she started seeking out Johan. She is also quite adept in Aikido which often serves her well during the course of the plot.
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Inspector Runge
Inpsector Runge is a BKA detective assigned to the murder case of the hospital, and holds Doctor Kenzo Tenma as a main suspect. He believes that Doctor Tenma invented Johan; and even believes later that Johan, in fact, is an alternate personality of Tenma. Inspector Lunge is utterly devoted to his work, causing him to neglect his personal life. He also possesses an excellent memory and has a habit of "entering data" into his memory by making typing gestures with his hands.
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Dieter
An orphan that Tenma encountered during his search for Johan. Hartmann was trying to make Dieter into another Johan, a kind of leader that had not been produced from Kinderheim 511 before. Deiter later becomes more optimistic after being saved by Doctor Tenma from Hartmann's physical and mental abuse. He follows Doctor Tenma in his search for Johan, partially to prevent Tenma from becoming a murderer, but also because he is fond of Tenma. He later teams up with Nina, to give her moral support whenever her traumatic memories resurfaces (as he was also subjected to similar abuse).
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Eva Heinemann
Eva Heinemann is Doctor Tenma's fiancee and the daughter Director Heinemann. She leaves Doctor Tenma after he is demoted by the Director for disobeying his orders. After Director Heinemann is murdered by Johan, she tries to return to Doctor Tenma, then recently promoted Chief of Surgery due to holes created in the staff by the murder. After being rejected by Doctor Tenma, she later becomes an extremely enbittered alcoholic, who only married to get money from divorce settlements. She blames Doctor Tenma for murdering her father after Inspector Lunge reveals that Doctor Tenma is a murder suspect.
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Rudy Gillen
A criminologist, and one of Tenma's fomer classmate, he helped Tenma by acquiring informations of Johan from all the criminals (usually murderers) that Johan had met. He also helped Nina to recall her past (to the point of endangering his life)
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Wolfgang Grimmer
A freelance journalist who is researching Kinderheim 511, he is also soon drawn into the search for Johan, as he decides to help Tenma. As a former subject in Kinderheim 511, he had developed another personality: an aggressive fighter that comes out and protects him whenever he is under dire stress. He also received training as a spy after his time in Kinderheim 511.
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Franz Bonaparte
Real name: Klaus Poppe. Despite the fact he does not show up until near the end of Monster, he is still very important to the story. He is the one responsible for the eugenic mating experiment that led to the birth of the Liebert twins and is also attibuted as author of the storybooks used to indoctrinate the children of Rose Mansion. His storybooks deal very heavily in metaphor and symbolism, often with monsters as important characters in them. He is currently an innkeeper in the town of Ruhenheim.
Other main characters will be added soon.
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Other Characters
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Director Heinemann
Dr Tenma's boss. He was the director of the hospital which Doctor Tenma was working at. He was murdered shortly after Johan recovered from brain surgery. Johan probably killed the Director as "favor" to Doctor Tenma, who would have otherwise suffered a stagnant career.
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Roberto
A big, burly man and one of the many people from the orphanage 511 Kinderheim that Johan can control. He often acts as Johan's bodyguard. He is also known as Adolf Reinhart, another person who survived the orphanage. Wolfgang Grimmer considered him as a friend in the past, when they both were still in the orphanage.
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"Baby"
The "Baby" is a short, elderly man and an infamous Neo-nazi leader. He worships Johan as an ideal Aryan leader who would be able to become the next Hitler to lead Germany into prominence. He is one of the four individuals who would gladly back Johan as a political leader. To this end, he hoped to use Nina as bait and coerce Johan, but also as a precautionary measure to protect him (and the other group members) from Johan. In the end, however, he is isolated and killed by Johan - a common modus operendi for the blonde man. The characteristics of the "Baby" is heavily influenced by another character from Twin Peaks, named "Man from another place." His first appearance is also nearly identical, appearing to Nina Fortner from behind a red curtain (akin to Black Lodge's waiting room) while dancing to the tune "Be My Baby".
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Professor
Not much is known about this person, except that he is one of the four individuals who would make Johan a political leader.
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General Helmut Wolf
A very old soldier who was the first one to found the twins, he is another one of the four individuals behind the organisation. He gave Johan his name, the name from the boy in the picture book called "The Monster without a Name". General Wolf is actually the only one who did not want to change Johan to a leader.
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Christoph Sievernich
Johan's disciple and another survivor of 511 Kinderheim. He and Johan decided to meet each other again in 10 years after they escaped the orphanage, and in the end they did, at a party where Eva Heinemann was as well. He also intimidated Martin by reminding him of what happened to his mother and wife. Nothing else is known about Christoph, other than that either Johan or the organisation of the four individuals tried to change him into the second monster.
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Peter Čapek
The last individual of the organisation is the mysterious man with glasses who is responsible for a large amount of incidents during Monster. He is the highest in the organisation, and tried to control the devil by letting him meet with Christoph Sievernich. Peter thinks that everything is going the right way according to his plan, but Johan tells him clearly later that everything is going the right way according to his own plan.
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Herbert Knaup
A man from Ruhenheim obsessed with alcohol, he is the one who stopped the massacre from growing larger in Ruhenheim, by saving his son from a terrifying monster.
Other important characters will be added soon.
There are many more other characters found in the story, but most of them are only important in 1 or 2 episodes, or not important enough for the whole story happening in Monster.
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Important Trivia
- The anime begins with a passage from The Revelation of St. John the Divine, Chapter 13: Verses 1 & 4
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- And I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads, the names of blasphemy. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?
- Origin of the Twins: they are actually part of the experiments even before they are conceived, based upon eugenic mating, conducted by the Communist government. Their father is a career officer groomed to be leader, while their mother is an intelligent geneticist.
- Nameless Monster: One of the children's books written by Bonaparte (excerpt at the bottom). It mirrors Johan and Nina questioning what their names were. In an episode, it was revealed that Bonaparte chose not to give them the name their mother gave them.
- The Red Rose Mansion: The Red Rose mansion, run by Franz Bonaparte, acted as a kind of lab for his psychological experiments. Government agents forcibly drag children away from their parents to the mansion, where Bonaparte would read his stories for the "special" children. The overall theme of the storybooks deals with the unveiling of "monsters" hidden inside of man, with the "Nameless Monster" being the most notable. For example, one such story is about how a man chased after a monster, only to become a monster himself. By subjecting the children to extreme anger, grief or some other kind of heavy stress, they develop a different personality without any sense of good or evil; a kind of brainwashing that places the children in the grasp of the communist regime. In conjunction with the Eastern block's facilities, the children could be molded to suit the need of the Communist regime in Berlin. However, Bonaparte killed the forty-two staff members at the mansion by poisoning the wine with nitric acid during the celebration of Anna, the "fruit" of their experiment.
- Kinderheim 511: A seemingly normal orphanage, it is actually a place where the Communist East Germany convert its children into perfect soldiers. Johan and Grimmer both spent a considerable amount of their childhood there, while Dieter was often forced to visit that place by Hartmann. During the children's stay there, they are forcibly stripped of their memories, names, and anything related to their past before they entered the orphanage; they are also conditioned to see the world as an abyss filled with conflict and hatred. Some of the children become "executioners" for the communist regime, while others received spy training. Other methods are employed, including psychological conditioning, brainwashing, and divide-and-conquer politics. The orphanage intentionally encouraged hatred between the children and monitored them to see if they could create a cold-hearted and compassionless individual.
- Unfortunately, it worked too well: Johan, one of the subjects of Kinderheim 511, caused an incident. It first started off with the unnatural death of 511's director, which led to fights among the instructors who will be the next directors. In the end forty-eight people (both staff and children), save for Johan and Hartmann, killed each other. Johan himself watched this unfold from the top of a staircase on an ornate chair. Most importantly, Johan didn't need to do anything other than say precisely the right things to make the violent conflict ignite within the already divisive group.
- Ruhenheim: A mountain town in Southern germany, where Bonaparte stayed in after the collapse of the iron curtain. This is also where Johan goes to kill Bonaparte, as well as to recreate the Kinderheim massacre on a larger scale. The events caused by Johan in Ruhenheim acts as the climax to Monster.
Spoilers end here.
External links
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