Monster: A Study of Identity

“Hatred is created when people gather. I just poured a little oil on it.”

A slow, methodical, multi-faceted psychological thriller, Naoki Urasawa's Monster is a true storytelling achievement.

Dr Kenzo Tenma

Monster follows Dr Kenzo Tenma, a young and brilliant Japanese doctor living in Germany in the 1980s. He is the star surgeon of the hospital, but his boss the hospital director sees an opportunity to use Tenma's skills to further his own career. Engaged to the director's daughter and next in line to become Head of Neurosurgery a position he desperately wants, Tenma does as he's bid. However, one night he's faced with the choice to save a boy with a gunshot wound to the head or the mayor of Berlin. His boss orders him to save the mayor as it would benefit the hospital financially, but Tenma's compassion wins and he chooses to save the boy instead, leaving the mayor in the hands of a sub-par surgeon. The boy lives and the mayor dies. Tenma's life is ripped apart. The director's daughter, his fiancee breaks off their engagement, the director decides to shun Tenma and instead promote another surgeon who is as corrupt as he is to Head of Neurosurgery. On a drunken escapade through the hospital, Tenma goes to the room of the boy he saved. The boy is still in a coma, but Tenma lets his frustration out. He wishes that the director and the other surgeon drop dead. The next morning, they do. They both had eaten a piece of candy each. A piece of candy from the boy's room. I'll stop here. Hopefully, this is enough to wet your beak.

Nina Fortner

Monster unpacks so much in the 74 episodes that I can't give it the credit it's due without spoiling it. Rest assured this will be spoiler-free.

Monster is a series that explores several characters that all demonstrate several traits of fear and identity. It's like a multitude of character studies all intertwined in this web of over-arching storylines. To truly encapsulate it would be to say, it's like the greatest mystery of all time, but not by our LACK of knowledge. The mystery expands every time the audience gets a piece of information. This continues right up till the end.

Johan Liebert

Identity. If I had to pick, the main theme for Monster it would be Identity. The pursuit of it. The lack of it. It's an age-old question that has become the cornerstone for a hit anime. It's like social studies but with suspense on a Hitchcockian level. The worldbuilding in this series is truly breathtaking as it builds outwards from its characters and not the other way around. Identity is a very invasive and personal concept in its nature, making it the perfect driving force behind this story. Every character in Monster at some point questions their identity and the validity of their actions. Which s something that many of us do in our lives today.

Inspector Lunge

If you lost your ability to feel emotion, what would you become? Losing one's identity is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Monster. Feelings. Emotion the ability to empathise with another. These things are taken away from several characters in an intentionally obvious and torturous way. It's excruciating to see when a person loses the ability to see right from wrong, good from evil. Not through actions of their own, but the actions of others.

Wolfgang Grimer

There is a thematic tone to Monster that utilizes hate as a side note. A supporting character in a play with no true protagonist. Hate is the spark that lights ablaze the pile of dried leaves that have been begging to turn to dust. They crackle and spark. The characters, through hate, become either more themselves or a version of themselves that they taught themselves to be. This is especially true for Wolfgang Grimer. His struggles throughout the series truly make anyone relate and emote with his pain and struggle, but at the same time, his compassion and kindness leave us to question if the anger he holds is his true self and the smiles and laughter he shows is the act.

I know that I've been fairly cryptic, but it's only because I so strongly feel that watching Monster with as little specific information as possible, is the key to the best possible experience. I cannot recommend this series enough. 74 episodes is a lot, but they are all worth it. This is not to say Monster is without its flaws, but instead, that Monster is a show that embraces its flaws unlike any other. It lives in its ideology unapologetically. Without compromising the core values of its storytelling. A true masterpiece in storytelling and social experiments. Anime, what a gift to the world.

What do you think about the concept of identity? Is Monster something you feel like you'd watch?