Monster Chapter 162 Discussion

That was just beautiful!



Brilliant development, very real characters and for such a sophisticated story to have no inconsistencies, this manga is a true masterpiece.



10/10

JOHAN, YOU SCARED MY LITTLE HEART WHEN YOU WOKE UP. That ending, though. Did his mother mistake him for his sister or she really wanted to get rid of Nina? And Johan was probably out again to kill his mother (?)



This is one of the, if not the best, seinen manga I have ever read. I was never bored and managed to complete the series in three days. I liked how everything and everyone was connected and a part of Johan's keikaku. I thought this would be some overrated lame shit, but I was wrong. DAMN WRONG.



And I don't usually like goody-goody protagonists, but I find Tenma interesting. As for Johan, I have to agree with most people that he is hands down the best antagonist ever. Oh, he also scared me when he pretended to be Nina to get closer to Jan Suk. That moment when he removed that wig, damn.



My favorite chapter was "I am Tenma". And my least favorite chapter, nah, can't think of any though I had a hard time differentiating some characters.



Oh and also, Monster makes me want to collect story books.

nadasho said:
JOHAN, YOU SCARED MY LITTLE HEART WHEN YOU WOKE UP. That ending, though. Did his mother mistake him for his sister or she really wanted to get rid of Nina? And Johan was probably out again to kill his mother (?)



This is one of the, if not the best, seinen manga I have ever read. I was never bored and managed to complete the series in three days. I liked how everything and everyone was connected and a part of Johan's keikaku. I thought this would be some overrated lame shit, but I was wrong. DAMN WRONG.



And I don't usually like goody-goody protagonists, but I find Tenma interesting. As for Johan, I have to agree with most people that he is hands down the best antagonist ever. Oh, he also scared me when he pretended to be Nina to get closer to Jan Suk. That moment when he removed that wig, damn.



My favorite chapter was "I am Tenma". And my least favorite chapter, nah, can't think of any though I had a hard time differentiating some characters.



Oh and also, Monster makes me want to collect story books.



These were exactly my thoughts. Absolutely love it.

Is Johan alive? Is he dead? Maybe the last scene was just a memory lapse of Tenma, but maybe Johan was really there and Tenma saved his life again... But, if he's alive, what he will do on the future? The evil is still inside him?



Damn, this ending made me have a lot of questions... Which is great.

... that's it? well, i was hoping for a stronger feeling of closure

I'm not a fan of open-ended ending



Anyway, that was a fucking great manga. There was so much mystery, suspense, some epic scenes and conversations



I loved how everything is so "real world", like, it's our world, it could happen in our lives, to the people we know

And there was "real life" consequences as well, totally different from most of animes and mangas that have tendency to follow a stereotype



Despite expecting more from the ending, since i prefer endings that have more closure and doesn't leave to your imagination(mostly because mine sucks), i will give it 10/10 because it really is a FANTASTIC read and i'll probably read 20th century boys or some other work from Urasawa

Well that was a ride.



There are actually two things I really liked about monster

- the lifelike expressions, interactions and events,  as if it's taking place in the real world itself. The art itself does a wonderful job of serving that purpose.



- how the events seemingly interconnect with each other like a spider's web,  starting from the demolition of the Turkish community  itself.



Now,  Urasawa's narration was brilliant, it flowed freely through the whole manga. The characters are developed well,  and some memorable ones too in the form of Tenma and Johan.  But one thing I felt could have been improved was the pacing in the initial parts of the manga, quite a few minor characters got backstories/focus who doesn't appear for 100 chapters or so(like that village doctor)  or die(like Richard).  For a thriller manga that takes the foot off the pedal and the feeling of suspense gets lost in the way.



Contrary to what people think,  I feel the ending serves really well for this kind of manga.  After all,  the main question that Monster tries to convey is who is the real monster(the title of last chap),  and it can be interpreted in three different ways.  So the open ending also works as what the readers want to believe in, did he die,  commit suicide or was let free? Or the whole thing was Tenma's imagination after that conversation?



Overall a really brilliant manga and I would give the same rating as punpun,  9.4/10. Maybe some mangakas nowadays can take a cue from this how to create a compelling thriller since I haven't seen many of that quality in this medium.

Very intriguing manga, the last few volumes were like rollercoasters, everytime they uncover a mystery another one emerged. And the ending is really something, very thought-provoking, make me question about what's make a "monster" as the characters in the manga had been chasing. The art is delicate, nice angle to enlight and emphasize the object, theme. I really like the characters, though there're many of them but the author managed to care to the detail, realistically portrayed. Everytime a minor arc is done i got some "feel", like when the old couple visit their son after helping Tenma (not remember which chapter).  9/10.

After reading 20CB and Pluto, I really had to read Urasawa's most famed work and I'm glad I did. This truly is a near masterpiece of a manga. It felt thrilling throughout the series and almost always had the momentum going. It's themes are really complex and are so well handled. "Are all human lives equal?", "Does every person deserve the right to live?", "Are the hands of a person used for saving lives be used for ending lives?". And I'm glad that the series doesn't give you a black-and-white answer to these questions and leaves them to interpretation.



But it's not just the themes, but it's also the writing that's super impressive. When I first started the series, I had no clue how this story can go on for 18 volumes. I mean, it's all about a man hunting down a serial killer, right? But Monster isn't a story about Johan. It isn't a story about Tenma (well, not mainly at least). It's a story about everyone that's connected to Johan, not Johan itself. I like how you barely get to see the titular character himself. That being said, the cast of characters is insanely huge and more and more of them just got added to the series. However, they all played a role to the story and I love how Urasawa ties them all together. Every character has a story to tell and I'm glad that they all get the spotlight. Monster didn't give me any particular "favorite" character, but the large cast of characters feels more appealing as a whole then them being judged separately. But yeah, Johan was a really good depiction of what a serial killer would be. It's almost frightening to imagine someone like him in the real world.



I would say my only tiny gripe with the series is that it was probably a bit too long. But when I mean that, I mean that it was probably a volume too long. Honestly, that's not much of a complain. Also, a lot of the character designs felt too similar with each other. Like, there's a lot of guys with fat noses and black curly hair in the series, lol.



Anyways, this series is probably a 9.4/10 for me, which is basically the same as my score for 20th Century Boys. But if I have to pick, like if someone pointed a gun at me and I have to pick between the two, I'd choose 20th Century Boys. For those of you who really liked Monster, give 20CB a read! There's actually a lot of similarities between the two, just 20CB is more absurd and lighthearted. Also, Pluto's a great alternative, and it's shorter too.