Monster モンスター

Animenfo’s blurb on this anime

I don’t think I have ever been as hooked on a series–anime, tv drama, regular television, everything included–as I am when watching an episode of Monster. Despite many other excellent anime I have seen, with the possible exception of Hajime no Ippo, none have been able to capture my attention almost very second of the series as well as Monster has. Exactly what is it about this anime that makes every episode so exciting and thrilling? Perhaps its the fact that it’s about a “renegade” doctor. Or maybe because it’s about a frustrated good versus an oh-so-plausible yet almost supernatural evil. There’s plenty of action, and plenty of suspense. And each episode makes you feel like you’ve learned a new secret... or you’re uncovering a new part of the “conspiracy.” And there’s plenty of intrigue in the inevitable way that different characters end up crossing paths and sharing their pieces of puzzles.

Take for example the last episode I watched. Two characters who were briefly introduced (separately) earlier in the series, a detective and a criminal psychologist/psychoanalyst are interviewing serial killers. Even though they had different roles and information about the monster loose in society, they end up teaming together and discovering that these seemingly unconnected cases all had one deadly link in common: the three serial killers had all killed one person out of their many victims because they were told to by a message consisting of the respective victim’s name in a sandbox in a certain park in Germany. The way its done almost gives you chills. And you have to realize–these people aren’t even the main characters! Those people are busy solving their own mysteries.