the thing about Monster is it really depends what you care about in a storytenma doesn’t really change that much and yeah most of his development is in the beginning and the end, but that’s kinda the point. he’s not there to completely evolve, he’s there to be tested. his belief that every life matters stays solid and we just watch him struggle to hold onto it while everything around him tries to break it johan is where the actual change and focus is. what makes him interesting is that he’s not supernatural at all. everything he does comes from manipulation and how he understands people. that makes it more grounded and forces the writing to actually be smart instead of just making up powers. his ideology completely clashes with tenma. tenma believes in saving people and giving them value, johan pushes people into death and makes them believe they’re worthless. and when you learn about his past and his mother, it gives a reason for why he thinks like that. if he had powers, that whole part would feel way less meaningfulbut at the same time that’s also where the show loses peopleafter the strong start it kinda drags. instead of staying focused on tenma and johan, it goes into a ton of side stories with random characters that barely matter to the main plot. it starts to feel like it’s wasting time instead of building somethingand johan himself can feel overhyped. the show treats him like this unstoppable force but he barely shows up, and most of what he does happens off screen. so instead of feeling scary, it can feel like the story is just telling you he’s important without really showing it enoughthe tone also doesn’t help for some people. everything is super serious all the time, long pauses, dramatic reactions, people acting like every line is the deepest thing ever. if you’re not into that style it just gets annoying fastso yeah it’s one of those shows where if you care about themes and slow buildup, it works really well. but if you want tight pacing and constant payoff, it just feels dragged out and unfocusedbasically it’s either a really deep story about ideology and human nature or it’s a long stretched out series that doesn’t deliver enough for how long it is
the thing about Monster is it really depends what you care about in a storytenma doesn’t really change that much and yeah most of his development is in the beginning and the end, but that’s kinda the point. he’s not there to completely evolve, he’s there to be tested. his belief that every life matters stays solid and we just watch him struggle to hold onto it while everything around him tries to break it johan is where the actual change and focus is. what makes him interesting is that he’s not supernatural at all. everything he does comes from manipulation and how he understands people. that makes it more grounded and forces the writing to actually be smart instead of just making up powers. his ideology completely clashes with tenma. tenma believes in saving people and giving them value, johan pushes people into death and makes them believe they’re worthless. and when you learn about his past and his mother, it gives a reason for why he thinks like that. if he had powers, that whole part would feel way less meaningfulbut at the same time that’s also where the show loses peopleafter the strong start it kinda drags. instead of staying focused on tenma and johan, it goes into a ton of side stories with random characters that barely matter to the main plot. it starts to feel like it’s wasting time instead of building somethingand johan himself can feel overhyped. the show treats him like this unstoppable force but he barely shows up, and most of what he does happens off screen. so instead of feeling scary, it can feel like the story is just telling you he’s important without really showing it enoughthe tone also doesn’t help for some people. everything is super serious all the time, long pauses, dramatic reactions, people acting like every line is the deepest thing ever. if you’re not into that style it just gets annoying fastso yeah it’s one of those shows where if you care about themes and slow buildup, it works really well. but if you want tight pacing and constant payoff, it just feels dragged out and unfocusedbasically it’s either a really deep story about ideology and human nature or it’s a long stretched out series that doesn’t deliver enough for how long it is
