Liberal Arts Major
Yes, I liked it quite a bit, but I didn't find it scary (even though I watched it almost exclusively at absurd hours of the night). I thought it was really sad instead. Damn Japanese and their depressing cartoons!
Anyway, I've gotten through 23 episodes of Monster. Only 51 more to go! Yeah!
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Advanced
You are about to encounter, or have just encountered, the worst character in all of anime history.
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"Guide, my inner shadow, light and dark above...TRANSCEND THE STARS!" ~Golbez, Dissidia: Final Fantasy
Liberal Arts Major
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
Communism really put that country on the map!
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
Liberal Arts Major
Regardless, I've finished Monster. What follows is a bunch of spoilers containing my impressions, organized by character (though obviously not every character is covered - the series is a character soup) and concluded with a few general impressions.
Kenzo Tenma: Until his hair got long and he became all disgruntled and gritty, he reminded me a lot of Jackie Chan from Jackie Chan Adventures. Early on I noticed that whenever he bought somebody a gift the intended receiver would be so dead and hoped this scheme would continue, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. There isn't much to say about this guy; he's the main character (even though his screentime is undermined by the vast armada of supporting characters) and he's a badass. Interesting that he essentially attained all his goals - assuming Johan's disappearance at the end doesn't mean more heads are set to roll - without actually attaining them, i.e. without shooting Johan.
Johan Liebert: This fellow is responsible for a large number of legitimately terrifying scenes, although that could just be a consequence of my having watched the series almost exclusively at night. In particular, the scene where he sees That Book the first time and goes nuts and the scene where you learn he was cross-dressing got me. That crossdressing story arc got me in the "surprise!" sense as well: initially I figured if it really was Nina, it would be lame, but if it was a new character it would be equally lame, so I expected failure. The bon-bon murder should have tipped me off but I'm pretty stupid.
Nina Fortner: My favorite character I think, remarkable for her ineffectiveness. She ultimately didn't end up doing anything other than angst a lot about how she was kidnapped and brainwashed and this and that. She did however manage to get a bunch of people killed. I guess that's one way of being effective. Anyway, she was the likable counterpart to Johan, although I guess if we include the whole "she got people killed" thing she could be his mirror. But Tenma already does that job better. Maybe I like her because she reminds me of Johan.
Heinrich Runge: I went from thinking "wow this guy's messed up" to "wow this guy sucks" to "THE COMPUTER IN MY HEAD SAYS FUCK YOU, BITCH!" Unfortunately he was ridiculously one-dimensional up until the point where he becomes a real boy, without any canonical psychological disturbance to justify it, which made him sort of blegh.
That Karl Guy and That Lotte Chick: The story arc with these guys and Johan as the main characters constitutes the absolute low point of the series. Fuck these guys.
Wolfgang Grimmer: I don't really have anything to say about this guy. Interesting fellow, neat death.
There are others, but for the most part my comments would resemble what I have to say about Grimmer. Dieter might warrant a section all to himself but he was too great a lamer.
As for general impressions, I really liked the animation style in all but the first episode, although since the first episode was in the same style it could just have grown on me. A few characters and story arcs seem like they could and should be excised without any trouble or with tangible benefit. Not Schumann and Petra, though. I liked those guys.
The last episode/epilogue was a letdown. I would have liked it more if it had ended with the Operationsaal light turning on at the end of episode 73. As it is, I liked the scenes with Johan in episode 74, but the rest struck me as unnecessary. I do however like that Tenma saved Johan again - it really serves to bring the primary moral question of the series home.
The ending themes were impossible to listen to.
As far as comparison to other anime I've seen goes, it was scarier than Serial Experiments Lain, but not usually as disturbing, and the distance between the thriller-esque moments made it feel less tense overall. I'm not sure I liked this more than NGE. It was certainly longer, but with such an enormous cast of character that it's hard to say they were better-developed. Like NGE, the plot was simple yet confusing or incomplete at times. I don't know if the two really should be compared though - the genres are rather different.
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~ Ogordemir ~
"The sciences have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." ~ H.P Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu