Monster ep.31

December 11, 2004 | 1 Comments

What is wrong with this episode's animation? The character design and the animation are all over the place here. One minute Dieter looks like his normal self, the next minute, he looks like a scary-looking teenager. At first I thought he's meant to look older now but then a couple of minutes later, they showed Dieter with his usual character design. The same thing can be said about Johan. The animators can't seem to decide if they'd go with the white ghost look or the suave psycho persona. Oh well, at least the storyline is still solid despite its attempt to combine two different stories. And since both stories are still focused on both Tenma and Johan, the transition between the two seems to be rather smooth.

Anyway, the first half of the episode concerns with Tenma informing Dr.Reichwen about his findings. He tells Reichwen that he came over to Munich as soon as he found out that the teenager that Richard accidentally killed used to be a 511 Kinderheim resident along with Johan. The two then spy on Schuwald, Karl and Johan. However, when Tenma sees Johan, it's obvious that his brain quickly turns into 'mission' mode. This hasn't gone unnoticed by Reichwen, who suspects that Tenma is not that interested in proving his innocence. Not long after this, Dr.Reichwen finds Dieter standing all alone in front of his house. Apparently Tenma has gone on his own to kill Johan and since he doesn't want to drag Dieter into it, he decides to leave the boy in the care of Dr.Reichwen.

In the second half of the episode, Dr.Rudi Gillen gets an unexpected visit from Psycho Detective Runge. Runge starts doing his know-it-all interrogating mode on Rudi but eventually gets to be on the receiving end of Rudi's psychoanalysis. Rudi thinks that Runge is incapable of being obejctive because he always believes that his conviction is the correct one. Rudi then produces a picture of Johan to prove Tenma's innocence to Runge. Upon seeing the picture, Runge tells Rudi that he may have committed a grave error and wants to find Johan himself. However, as soon as he is away from Rudi, Runge makes a phone call to his underlings to contact Munich police because he suspects Tenma is still within Munich's city limit. Meanwhile, Tenma is seen trying to purchase a sniper rifle from a guy who seems to be an associate of Mr.Heitmeyer.

Impression:

I'm not surprised that Tenma ends up leaving Dieter in the care of Dr.Reichwen. I knew that it was impossible for Tenma to focus on his 'mission' if he always has his 'conscience' right by his side. And now that Tenma finally manages to find Johan, it becomes important to him that he protects those that know him. By keeping them at arms' length Tenma tries to ensure that they don't get entangled in the mess he's about to put himself into. This episode also confirms once and for all that Runge is a nutcase and a psycho at best. Even when the truth is lied down in front of him, he still refuses to admit his mistake and readjust his way of thinking. In a way, he's one of the 'monsters' the series try to depict. He's one of those people who refuses to see that they're wrong despite all of the evidence that is mounted against them.

© memento 2003