How long can you be true to yourself even though things didn’t turn out the way you had hoped?
This anime series “Monster” is a masterpiece written by Naoki Urasawa and was broadcast in 2004. That means you don’t get to see any fantastic animation like Spy x Family or Demon Slayer; instead, it’s all about the unique narrative, which is still lauded to this day.
Monster Plot
The anime is about a doctor who is the protagonist of the series and who is the wisest doctor you’ve ever witnessed. A model of what a doctor should be: pure of heart and always standing up for humanity, no matter what. But has “a doctor ever regretted saving someone who later became humanity’s crime focus?” is what the story is about.
The series is structured by introducing side characters first, then aligning them with the main character. Of course, the show’s protagonist will steal your heart because such character development is rare to see. Also, we’re not going to talk much about the main antagonist today, who is a very vicious and cunning (not to mention attractive) young man who is actually the monster around whom the title revolves. The series is chock-full of intriguing characters, psychological phenomena, crime, and everything in between.
Today we’ll be talking about the side characters in Monster who play a vital role in building up the narrative and are also decent at heart, which is spread throughout the 74 episodes. There are some characters that are hard to forget, and you will remember them long after the series is over. They play a minor but significant role in the story. So let’s get started.
Disclaimer: If you haven’t watched the series yet, it will contain a bunch of spoilers, so read at your own risk.
Frank Lotte and Karl Neumann
Frank Lotte is a cultural anthropology student at the University of Munich who is attempting to win the heart of Karl Neumann, a business student at the same university, in an effort to assist his father and late mother’s investigation. She was deeply hurt when Karl declined her request for a dance. Later, Nina (Johan’s twin sister) was there to console her. Nina and Frank quickly became friends at that time. Frank is interested in learning more about Schuwald as well as the mystery surrounding Johan Liebert, the main antagonist.
Karl is the unaware son of Hans Georg Schuwald, who runs Germany’s economy; hence, everything that happened was a result of his background. Karl knows he is far from perfect and wants to open up to his old father, but Johan, who is posing as a law student at the same university, is the ideal example of a son gaining Schuwald’s respect. Karl stayed with Schuwald until he figured out how to deal with the situation and spoke up once he and Frank learned the truth about Johan.
Dr. Schumann
The German physician Dr. Schumann worked in a remote village. He had previously worked as a doctor in a big hospital in a posh German city, but after realizing that he was not the kind of doctor he wanted to be, he took the decision to relocate to the countryside and work in a community where there is no clinic.
Tenma’s future was anticipated to be pretty similar to Schumann’s when he moved to the area before their encounter. Tenma (the main protagonist) was well liked by the director, lived in a big city, a well-known surgeon, and even became engaged to the director’s daughter. However, In Schumann’s case, he lost sight of the fact that his wife’s liver was deteriorating because he was so preoccupied with elevating his position. He later chose to leave the big metropolis after she died and move somewhere remote so he could directly interact with all of his patients, which made him aware of the importance of human life.
Martin Reest
Martin Reest works as a hitman for “The Baby.” He is a calm man who is an excellent bodyguard. He can do any kind of work, unless it involves women.
His childhood was pretty rough, since his mother died. She was an alcoholic, and he would drag her home from the bar. Despite his mother’s repeated requests for him to leave due to his concern for her, he was unable to do so until one day when she became too intoxicated to do so. Martin made several attempts to wake her up since she shouldn’t be left out here in the cold. However, he soon gave up after becoming furious with her actions, left her alone, and ran away.
His mother had frozen to death, according to the people who spotted her on the ground the following day. Because he believed his mother had asked him to leave her there, Martin, being a young boy, was in denial that her death wasn’t his fault.
Hugo Bernhardt and the Burmese Girl
He was a former military veteran and a skilled sniper. He and the Burmese child he adopted from Myanmar only appear in Episode 9 of the anime. The little girl hasn’t smiled since he killed his mother, who was pointing an AK-47 at him. When Dr. Tenma went to see him at his mountain home, he begged him to teach him how to shoot. Bernhardt trains to master combat, not how to hold a gun, but here is Tenma, who is totally inexperienced with fighting with guns.
So they start off with jumpe rope as part of the stamina-building training. He is joined in the training by the Burmese girl, who initially avoids Tenma during the training but ultimately warms up to him, and we get to see her smile for the first time.
Wolfgang Grimmer
The story of Monster is about revealing the mysterious characters, and if you look at this man’s face, it seems like he has all the happiness given by the world, but the actual story is much deeper than that.
As a freelance journalist who previously served as a member of the Czech secret police, Wolfgang Grimmer is currently looking into incidents of child experimentation in order to expose these heinous crimes. He is, in fact, one of the 511 Kinderheim survivors and is frantically seeking to learn the truth about it and other similar events in order to better understand himself and the world in general.
In a series of unusual experiments, doctors tried to instill a kind of dual personality in Grimmer. After a series of successful experiments, Grimmer adopted the persona “The Magnificent Steiner,” with a monster-like mentality full of restless anger and a desire for killing. In a way, this was permanently ingrained in his mind.
Grimmer’s capacity for feeling strong positive emotions was limited as a result. Additionally, he had a family, but when his son passed away later, he was unable to feel anything and was unable to express his grief appropriately, which is why his wife left. However, he was able to discuss these incidents without any regret or discomfort while keeping a steady, happy smile. But in the end, he was able to sense things through his connections, and his good nature also had an effect on other people.
“Everyone in this world carries around their own sins, and they never go away, but that doesn’t change the fact that we do what we must.”
Wolfgang Grimmer
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