At 7/12/11 11:46 PM, Gobblemeister wrote:
Monster was on Netflix so I started watching that to see what the big deal is. Is it really 74 episodes?
Yes.
because that's gonna take a while to get through and so far it's only okay.
Here's my full Monster review, WITHOUT any real spoilers for your personal convenience.
The first 14 or so episodes are kind of rushed, have a few plotholes and are overall not as absorbing as they could've been. But at the same time, the episodes are necessary: episode 9 specifically is probably the most boring episode of the series, but it's so important because it explains how the protagonist gets ahold of and learns how to use a gun... a detail that most animes actually leave out.
After that, so around episode 15 or 16, the series is pretty much amazing all the way up to the end.
The ending of Monster pissed me off though, I wish they ended it a different way. It was way too convenient of an ending for... well, everyone who survived. It was like a fairytale ending... but then again, that kind of fits some of the themes of the show so maybe that's what they were trying to do.
The only REAL problem with the show as a whole is characters:
Firstly, the show introduces three new characters for every one character they kill. It works relatively well from episode 15(when the show starts REALLY picking up) and to episode 50 or so, but by episodes 60+ there were so many characters doing so many different things that it was honestly quite hard to keep track of them all. Some of the main characters I had the impression were totally forgotten about by the author until the last episodes, like detector Suk, the psychologist who kept making me think "DIABETUS" and the lawyer guy.
Secondly, some characters were REALLY under or over used.
overused:
Roberto - "YEAH IMMA BASICALLY JOHAN'S RIGHT HAND MAN FOR THE ENTIRE SERIES, DESPITE ALMOST BEING KILLED COUNTLESS TIMES"
Ava - "I really didn't deserve to even be mentioned after episode 2, but let me keep popping up every 5 or 6 episodes just to piss the audience off!"
underused:
Diter or whatever the kid's name - "LOL I DIDN'T DO A SINGLE THING DESPITE BEING A CHARACTER FOR THE WHOLE SERIES, MY ONLY PURPOSE AT ALL IS TO BE A SYMBOLISM OF PURITY AND INNOCENCE."
Woolf - "I'm one of the most interesting characters in the series, here let me only be in three episodes towards the beginning and one episode towards the end and that's it!"
Lunge - "Hey there, i'm supposedly a main character who throughout the entire series seems like he's going to either fuck everything up for everyone else OR solve the johan mystery. Nope, all the other characters solved the mystery without me and I don't actually do much of relevance after the first twenty episodes"
Those two flaws with characters aside, Monster has some of the most amazing characters i've ever seen in an anime and the author has an intriguing way of making you love or hate a character by the end of the episode they're introduced in.
As for the plot, symbolism, etc. the show was great. I watched the dub, I plan on rewatching the show in jap one day. As for the dub's voices, all the major or semi-major characters are done greatly - the only characters whom's voices really suck are the extra characters... but that's to be expected in almost every anime. :P
Anyone else here whose seen monster should post their opinions as well, I want to know what other people thought of this show.