Monster [Manga]

[Ral]

I heard that this had a really good story. Can someone give me a summary of what it's about? If it's not licensed, where can I get scans for it?

[stpehen]

Dr. Tenma is a Japanese man working in Germany. He has it all, incredible medical skill, a great job, a beautiful fiancee. He becomes disillusioned with the hospital politics though, when one day he's ordered to forgo operating on a critically injured man in favor of someone who was more famous. After this point, he decides he will do what he thinks is right, regardless of politics.

One day, a young boy and his younger sister were brought in. The boy had a bullet in his head, an operation that the doctor knows only he is capable of completing successfully. But soon after a politician was brought to the hospital and the high ups in the hospital want Dr. Tenma to leave the boy to operate on the politician. Dr. Tenma decides that he'll do what's right and save the young boy's life.

The young boy's operation was a success, but the surgeons operating on the politician fail, prompting his life to fall apart. Dr. Tenma is passed over for a promotion and his fiancee becomes cold to him and eventually leaves him.

But soon after, strange murders begin to occur, ones that benefit Dr. Tenma greatly and though he becomes the #1 suspect, they have no evidence against him. But it seems that the boy whose life he saved has a hand in things, and that he is much more than he seems...

______________

You can get Monster in @mangascreener on irc.mircx.com

[eLstar]

I've got one word to say for the recent chapters of Monster that have been released by Manga Screener.

Damn.

Spoiler for Volume 17 of Monster:

Actually, I got more to say. This is freaking crazy. Johan is planning "The Perfect Suicide" and nobody seems to be able to stop them. My god, all the characters (that are alive) have come back and are now trying to either to help Johan's cause...or to stop it. For me, it's really cool to see Lunge on the same side of Tenma now instead of against him. And I really hope he doesn't die, I just want him to be reconciled with his family.

Now the one thing thing I don't like is how they keep showing the one thing I hate most in Monster...seeing old ugly and disgusting Roberto having sex. Look, it's retarded and sickening. I can't stand looking at him. If this is Urasawa's intention, then it's working big time on me.

*shudder*

And the best aand most coolest part of this Volume was the revealment of Franz

Holy crap...

[TronDD]

I started reading the manga last night so I can watch the anime afterwords. I'm up to volume 11 and will be caught up to the scanlations by tomorrow, maybe by the end of tonight.

It is a really well written story. Reminds me of "The Fugitive" and "Pretender" with it's own genius mixed in. It's a murder mystery, suspense, drama so if you like that sort of thing, it's well worth reading. Even if you don't (I'm not exactly a big fan of that type of story) it's still a very good read.

PS: Mangascreener has a torrent for the first 15 volumes so it's super easy to get, too. No waiting in queues on IRC one chapter at a time.

PS: Monster torrent seems to be dead. But you can still get it direct download pretty easily.

EDIT: I just finished volume 17. It's all comming together now.

[Vicious]

Originally Posted by Dranz

I've got one word to say for the recent chapters of Monster that have been released by Manga Screener.

Damn.

Spoiler for Volume 17 of Monster:

Actually, I got more to say. This is freaking crazy. Johan is planning "The Perfect Suicide" and nobody seems to be able to stop them. My god, all the characters (that are alive) have come back and are now trying to either to help Johan's cause...or to stop it. For me, it's really cool to see Lunge on the same side of Tenma now instead of against him. And I really hope he doesn't die, I just want him to be reconciled with his family.

Now the one thing thing I don't like is how they keep showing the one thing I hate most in Monster...seeing old ugly and disgusting Roberto having sex. Look, it's retarded and sickening. I can't stand looking at him. If this is Urasawa's intention, then it's working big time on me.

*shudder*

And the best aand most coolest part of this Volume was the revealment of Franz

Holy crap...

I agree with it all.

Spoiler:

Who would have thought the old kind man is in fact Franz Bonaparta? Even at the end, Urasawa never cease to surprise us. He's really one of the best mangaka who ever lived.

Now I can't wait for volume 18, the end of Monster... without a doubt, one of the best manga I've ever read.

[eLstar]

Spoiler:

That was just so unexpected, it's a shame though that he became good all of a sudden. i actually liked his "fairy-tales".

[whatever123]

ok i've reached the begining of chapter 18 and i've got some questions

Spoiler:

1-what the hell was the experiment about?
2-why only johan and nina succeeded?
3- who the hell killed all the guest in the red mansion and how? (i understand nina was there but what the hell happened)
4- what did jihan remember that nina couldn't?
5- why cant they find a better villian than roberto?
6-why is urusawa trying to make me mentaly unstable?

[Vicious]

Originally Posted by whatever123

ok i've reached the begining of chapter 18 and i've got some questions

Spoiler:

1-what the hell was the experiment about?
2-why only johan and nina succeeded?
3- who the hell killed all the guest in the red mansion and how? (i understand nina was there but what the hell happened)
4- what did jihan remember that nina couldn't?
5- why cant they find a better villian than roberto?
6-why is urusawa trying to make me mentaly unstable?

You meant volume 18, don't you, wahetever-san? Well, if you did, here are your answers. If you didn't, don't read below, because there are major spoilers that aren't revealed before volume 17.

Spoiler:

1- Creating the "superior humans". By the reading seminar project and later the Kinderheim 511, they eliminated all emition in a child to make him a superior human being (or so they thought so).
2- Johan didn't participate the experiment. It was Nina. Johan took her memories as his, since the bond between them was very strong. Johan is indirectly the "succession" of the experiment.
3- It looks like they were all poisoned by Franz Bonaparta, who killed them to eliminate every evidence of the superior human project.
4- You mean the deepest memory Nina doesn't want to remember, but Johan already recalled it? Well, that wasn't revealed yet. But by what we've seen, it looks like someone died at the "vampire's house" (the painter's house). Or Johan will kill himself there, performing the "perfect suicide".
5- Franz Bonaparta is the true villain of Monster. He's the true Monster, after all.
6- He did that to me too. Dunno why. Because he's the true monster who wants us to lose our emotions and become higher human beings, maybe. Or maybe it's just because he kicks ass

[whatever123]

thanx vicious-san

actually my fifth question was ranting

edit: yes i did mean vol 18 but i was very messed up after reading it that i had many typos when writting the post

[fenrihr]

just read the first few of vol 18 myself.... damn urasawa is good.
the one w/ tenma 'n' lunge..... i had to read those about 5 times, tried to get the mood of it right..... awesome...

and the end of the latest chapter too. dam.

i have to say this is probably the best manga i've read, storywise. i'd rate it up there with King books in terms of mess-with-your-head - ness. though this has had less of a defnitive villain until this point.

[WabukiSensei]

I've been able to download the bittorent up until volume 15 of the manga, but I can't seem to get it on IRC since MIRCX is down....any other options?

[eLstar]

Yeah. Try this link

Also....

Spoiler for Volume 18:

Sad sad day. Looks like Grimmer died, and he was such a likable character too. I like the touch how he finally found his emotions and finally felt sadness for his son.

Very touching.

Also, Roberto annoys the crap out of me. You better not die Lunge!

[duskphoenix]

Originally Posted by Dranz

Spoiler for Volume 18:

Also, Roberto annoys the crap out of me. You better not die Lunge!

Spoiler:

But don't you feel all compassionate for him now that you know he's Adolf Reinhart? I really hope Lunge doesn't die.

[WabukiSensei]

Spoiler for About volume 11, hehehe..still reading the rest:

Oh my GOD! Reading Volume 11 Chapter 87 really showed how messed up this entire thingi is......no wonder it seemed like Nina was the one who killed all those people...it was actually her twin brother in disguise!!! Urasawa really had me fooled there....

EDIT: Thanks for the link, Dranz!!! Now all that's left is volume 18

[brightman]

Originally Posted by duskphoenix

Spoiler:

But don't you feel all compassionate for him now that you know he's Adolf Reinhart? I really hope Lunge doesn't die.

Spoiler for Vol18:

Yup, that was one nice big twist that I didn't expect. Though I still hate him... Then again I hated Lunge too, but now he's cool.

Anyway, it's incredible how Urasawa just knits everyone and everything in this manga up into one huge web so that it seems like everyone's intricately connected, with the plot and everything else... Definitely very good storytelling.

[emessen]

has anyone read the latest 2 chapters of volume 18?

Spoiler:

YOU HAVE TO BE SHITTING ME!!!!

tenma's gonna save johans life AGN after all the crap he's done?!?!!?

WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THAT STORY THEN!!!! ARGH... that pisses me off

oh well.. have to wait for the final 2 chapters to see what really goes down

[Yebyosh]

Originally Posted by emessen

has anyone read the latest 2 chapters of volume 18?

Spoiler:

YOU HAVE TO BE SHITTING ME!!!!

tenma's gonna save johans life AGN after all the crap he's done?!?!!?

WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THAT STORY THEN!!!! ARGH... that pisses me off

oh well.. have to wait for the final 2 chapters to see what really goes down

If you are that irritated by what you say, it would better if you do not read the conclusion (i.e. the final chapter).

Spoiler for Final Chapter:

Tenma goes into Johan's ward and hallucinate. Events on Johan's past during the abduction from his mother is relived with Johan questioning Tenma (not going to reveal what his question is here ). Tenma realizes he's hallucinating then leaves Johan to his coma/sleep. Cue to window, Tenma walking away outside. Cue to bed. Empty Bed. Did Tenma really hallucinate?

[GreyArea]

For those unaware, Mangascreener have finished the last chapter which is now available on bittorrent (irchighway is being DDoS'ed at the moment so they ahve to use BT for now).

You can get it here

[WabukiSensei]

I hafta agree with emessen.

Spoiler for Chapter 18 spoiler:

I didn't really enjoy the ending to MONSTER and ain't really pleased with the fact that Tenma saved Johan's life despite all that he's been through. Besides in the end, we see that


Johan escapes once again. Will he wreak havoc and murder countless innocent people again? I guess we'll never find out unless that novel that follows MONSTER says anything about it. Doubtful though....

[mirichan]

Originally Posted by WabukiSensei

Spoiler for Chapter 18 spoiler:

Besides in the end, we see that Johan escapes once again. Will he wreak havoc and murder countless innocent people again? I guess we'll never find out unless that novel that follows MONSTER says anything about it. Doubtful though....

Mmm... I disagree but I'm not sure of my interpretation so here goes:

Spoiler:

The way I see it, the twins' mother had to make a terrible decision 15-16 years ago (I'm a bit confused on the date, right now) and chose which child would stay, and which would go. That was part of the experiment the "Monster" had set up... but at the same time, the mom felt monstruous too because she DID chose one of the twin over the other (reminding me of that book/movie "Sophie's choice").

Then she told the name of the twins to Tenma. Our good doctor went to Johan's room (he's been comatose and probably for a while in light of all the things that were done since the operation) and either told him his name or not... then...

Either he starts hallucinating OR NOT... but the point is Johan asks Dr. Tenma WHO his mother tried to protect... HIM for keeping him with her OR did she thought Johan was his sister (since the twins were both dressed as girls and obviously Johan had a wig) and therefore pushed Anna to be brought at the mansion.

His last question about WHO was the child unwanted reminded me of that time when he sent the abandoned child of a prostitute to whore town and if I remember right... his message was something like "if you were UNWANTED, you should die"...

And then Tenma snaps out of his hallucination, Johan is still asleep, Tenma leaves and we see the bed is empty...

Either Johan died right there and volatilized or he had died in surgery and Tenma allucinated the whole thing...

Very confusing... Anybody got the meaning better?

But one thing I'm sure of... Johan is gone. Either he died in surgery or he died after Tenma left but he's gone... he won't create more havoc around the world.