GET BACK IN THAT GODDAMN BED, JOHAN! - Monster #74

Been away from the Goosh a moment and I come back to MONSTER!? Christ Curtis you might have the best line-up of shows I've ever seen from a reactor.

cool in detail description. though I don't think nihilsm is necessarily a bad thing itself, in my opinion fatalism, a subset of nihilism, that's where the trouble is.

Florian Krause

Thanks Curtis, for giving me the motivation to finish this series. :) It was a really good trip.

Florian Krause

It was an amazing and disturbing ride!

Spaz Boys Comedy

This was amazing!! I’m so glad you guys turned me on to it!!

Spaz Boys Comedy

I’m in agreement with you on that first scenario. He’s proven he has the skills to just disappear.

Spaz Boys Comedy

It was great to experience all your reactions. I love how even the final episode had some mysteries and revelations. Now that I understand the ending better due to some comments and quotes here, I like it even more whereas during my initial viewing, I was really underwhelmed by the ending.

Rogue Agent

Personally I see one of two things after Johan escapes. He gets away Scot-free and lives out the rest of his life in peace. Given that the people who had every right to hate and kill him, forgave him and instead saved his life. If another Monster like Klaus Poppe or Franz Bonaparte can live a life in a quiet mountain town and become a mild-mannered upstanding citizen of his community. Why can't Johan? He's demonstrated before that he's capable of it. Either that or whenever the Hospital staff discover he's missing, they put out an APB on him. And he winds up in Prison.

Phillip Ribbink

I don’t think it’s one of the best anime and it might be a bit overrated but I’d give it a solid 8.5/10, especially with the two conflicting characters of principles and ideals.

Wishmaker007

So glad to have been able to rewatch this show with you and all who commented every time! Easily my favorite thriller of all time, and get chills every time I watch it! NOW ITS TIME FOR ODDTAXI

Mosh

One of the greatest anime series ever made, and also one of the most realistic ones, because it could have absolutely have happened in real life, in fact, many of the individual stories in it did happen to people in real life. It shows how people can be saints or monsters (even the same person) depending on the circumstances they find themselves combined with the choices they make that shape them. It's a shame that many anime fans today have never heard of this since it's an older series and doesn't have the flare that really draws most people.

J Johnson

You have to feel bad for some of the people in this show who have been through a lot to get them to who they are. Such as grimmer, roberto, and even johan. johan went through countless things that ruined who he was as a person.

I saw this video that helped enhance this ending for me so I’ll link it but you don’t have to watch it: https://youtu.be/dU2uy4oyq2w And this comment under that video is just the cherry on top for me: "This is an incredible video by the way, but I disagree with one thing. I don’t think that Johan stopped being a killer because of the fact that he was "chosen by fate" since he survived his perfect suicide, I think it’s a lot deeper than that. Tenma saved Johan the first time not knowing what kind of person he was. In addition, the first thing that Johan heard when he woke up was "they’re better off dead!" The second time Tenma saved him was a huge surprise. Johan knew that Tenma was going to try to kill him since the beginning. Tenma saved him a second time after knowing the kind of person Johan was, but saved him anyway. This is the ultimate act of love, and it destroyed nihilism for Johan. In addition, I think Johan was listening to every word Tenma was saying to him, so he heard that his mother still loves him very much, and that he has a name! In addition, Franz Bonaparte was dead, and every other evil person in his life. TL;DR: The first time Tenma saved Johan, Tenma saved his life. But the second time Tenma saved Johan, he saved his soul."

Wishmaker007

Amazing show! I’m really glad you reacted to it. It’s one the best shows of all time! And from what I read of the authors other work called “another monster” Johan is supposedly living a quiet life.

The first time Tenma saved Johan’s life The second time Tenma saved Johan’s soul Thanks Curtis for enjoying one of my all time favorite series, I am glad you really enjoyed it as well as anyone else who watched along for the first time! Now....GO WATCH THE DUB

Okay now that we reached the end, I can finally say my piece. I am sure people were watching along for the first time so I am going to try and explain how I view the ending as best as I could. This will be a long post, so bare with me guys lol Who Is The Real Monster? Franz Bonaparta? The Mother? Johan Liebert? 511 Kinderheim? It’s not any of the above. The Real Monster is actually the concept of Nihilism. Monster represents the darkness inside of every character in the story. Throughout the story we've seen people like (Eva, The Baby, Richard Braun, etc.) bounce between good and evil, whenever someone would accept the monster they'll temporarily reap benefits, however inevitably end up worse than before. That is also exemplified through one of Bonaparta's books "Person with Big Eyes and Person with Big Mouth". Giving into the Monster personifies into shifting morale ideals towards Nihilism. The main plot point of the story is a dichotomy of Nihilism vs. Love, where Johan is meant to represent that darkness of the world, meanwhile Dr. Tenma is meant to represent the qualities of morality, light, and justice, basically anything related back to love and hedonism. These contradicting ideologies also tie back to their debate of “All Lives Are Equal vs. All Deaths Are Equal”. Throughout the story Johan embodies the perfect form of nihilism with no real name, no real memories, or any relationships. The Landscape of the End is Johan’s perfect world of nihilism, there’s nothingness to it and everyone who sees this landscape has metaphorically lost all ties to the rest of the world. THIS also represents Franz Bonaparta’s story “The Monster Without A Name” where the monster stands alone in the world for no one to call him Johan. The Rooftop Game How Johan proceeded to reach this conclusion of “PERFECTED” Nihilism was through playing his luck against fate in a game called The Rooftop Game. If you guys don’t remember it’s the one Dieter was on the roof with the other boy named Martin. Essentially throughout Johan’s life he would “climb” the rooftop and challenge fate by being put in near death experiences and each time Johan would be the victor it would strengthen his affirmations on Nihilism being the answer to the world. So every time Johan points for someone to shoot his forehead he’s going back to playing the rooftop game with them because those moments are when he feels closest to death since he knows that’s when he hopes to die, figuratively living out the nihilistic lifestyle. Johan chooses to test fate and see why he is worthy of living, his entire motive was to find someone or something that would proof Johan’s nihilistic views wrong and undoubtedly end his life. All of this stems back to Johan’s childhood with his mother. The Mother The mother’s decision was the final straw in destroying his sense of self this is where the Nihilistic aspects began to develop because he lacked an identity. All that time Johan was dressed as Anna but he had no name. He clearly couldn’t grasp a distinction between himself and his sister. That is why Johan questions if his mother mistakenly saved him instead of Anna. She dressed up Johan and Anna as the same so she has less of an emotional investment if Bonaparta were to take one of the twins. BUT what distinguishes the mother for making her choice is what each of the twins say to her; Johan pleads “Please Don’t Let Go”, But Anna says “Please Don’t Let Go Of My Hand!”. The mother grants both of their requests because as Anna is thrust towards Bonaparta, the mother never lets go of Anna’s hand.