Monster ep.56-60

March 22, 2006 | 7 Comments

I realised that it's been a while since I reviewed this series and I'm sorry that I've neglected it. It's always been on the back of my mind but due to the amount of new series that have arrived, sometimes it's hard to go back and finish off old series like this one. I am trying to do my best though because I know that my backlogs will just grow exponentially if I don't do something about it as soon as possible. I have tried and failed in the past to complete this series before a new season arrived. That has mostly to do with the fact that I only reviewed the episodes 2-3 episodes at a time. So right now I'm trying to up the episode numbers that I reviewed in one time in the hope that it'll get me closer to the completion. If I remember correctly, this is supposed to be 74 episodes series so that means I'm not too far from the end of the series.

Episode 56: The never-ending journey

While Tenma makes his way towards the Red Rose mansion, Dieter and Nina already arrive there. However, upon opening the door to the secret room, Nina gets a flashback of seeing many people dead inside the room and ends up falling unconscious. 3 months later, Nina and Dieter are temporarily taken care of by a man named Lipsky. Lipsky is a doll carpenter whose work is influenced by Franz Bonaparta's storybooks (1, 2). At one point, Lipsky shows Nina some of Bonaporat works which includes a story about a God who was too busy to look into a mirror. When the God did so, however, he saw a reflection of a demon in it and becomes horrified. Lipsky asks Nina if she understands what the God ended up doing to the Monster. At the same time, Johan is seen torching the Red Rose mansion to eliminate evidence of his existence. While this happens, Nina realises that the God in the storybook ended up pointing a gun at the Monster in the mirror.

Episode 57: That night

A flashback to Johan and Nina's childhood during their time with the Lieberts reveals that on the night Johan killed the Liebert, an unknown man had come to the Liebert's house. Johan claimed that he killed the Lieberts because a 'Monster' had come to take him and Anna away. In the present day, police arrives on the burnt down Red Rose mansion and uncovers skeleton remains buried in the garden. At the same time, Tenma finds out from a dying General Wolf that in 1981, 46 people went missing from the Red Rose mansion. He also revealed that the name 'Johan' was taken from Franz Bonaparta's book. Wolf then died after telling Tenma that Eva is with two of his ex-comrade, asking the doctor to stop them. Meanwhile, Nina, Dieter and Lipsky decide to enjoy their time together before Nina and Dieter leave to continue their journey. After Nina and Dieter left, however, Runge arrives at Lipsky's apartment and reveals that Lipsky is actually Franz Bonaparta's son.

Episode 58: An unpleasant job

A hitman named Martin is hired by General Wolf's ex-associates to guard over Eva Heinemann. It appears that Eva manages to evade Roberto by getting 'protection' through these ex-associates of General Wolf. Martin is not happy with the job of guarding Eva since he's had bad experiences of falling for the wrong woman. It doesn't help that Eva is still acts as if the world belongs to her. Eva eventually tells Martin her story with Tenma and in return, Martin tells her that he once killed his girlfriend for cheating with another guy. Eva eventually agrees to strike a deal with General wolf's associate in exchange of protection and wealth. Despite the deal, however, she knows that she will eventually be killed by her 'employer'. Upon seeing Eva's vulnerability, Martin's protective instinct resurfaces. He ends up going against his employer and now tries to give Tenma some information despite being severely wounded.

Episode 59: The man who saw the Devil

A flashback reveals that Martin at one point met Tenma inside a cafe and ended up beating the good doctor up instead. The next time the two met, however, Tenma was prepared and pointed a gun at Martin, demanding explanation about Eva's job. Martin claimed that Eva is simply hired to go to parties. Having said that, he noticed that in tonight's party, Eva was pointing at a blonde-haired man, Johan. Upon hearing from Tenma that Eva's job is over, Martin ran back to find Eva. Instead, he found his boss waiting for him with an order to kill Eva. Martin decided to disobey the order and ran away with Eva. He then decided to investigate Johan by following a Johan-wannabe guy. The guy, however, managed to get into Martin's psyche, revealing the fact that when he was young, Martin left his drunk mother in the street, causing her to die the next day. The episode ends with Martin leaving a hotel room, trying not to look at Johan as they pass each other.

Episode 60: The man who knew too much

Martin refused to be manipulated by Johan's imitator he met at the hotel and decided to help Eva escape when several men came to kill her. Martin asked Eva to go to Tenma's hotel but Eva refused and told him that she'll wait for him at the Frankfurt Central station so they can run away together. Martin eventually got shot by a man simply because he ran out of bullet. In the present time, a dying Martin manages to tell Tenma that the Red Rose mansion experiment still continues. Moreover, Johan has now got himself a disciple, a man who was selected by Martin's be-spectacled boss, a survivor of Red Rose Mansion, Peter Chapek. Tenma manages to find Eva and tells her that Martin dies in his attempt to convey information to him. Eva is saddened by this and the experience seems to change her. She also realises now that Tenma intends on killing Johan. Because of this, while Tenma is looking for Johan's disciple, Eva made a decision to kill Johan herself.

Impression:

As usual, Monster manages to deliver a story that moves from one emotional state to another quite easily. The children's stories featured in episode 56 was a creepy part of the story. Just like any Hans Christian Anderson stories, these tales are dark and disturbing. The story seems to contain a recurring theme involving human chasing after Monster only to become a Monster in the process. There is also an emphasis on looking into the mirror/being introspective with oneself as often as possible so one can recognise the Monster within before the monster becomes uncontrollable. This is the reason why Nina does not want someone as good natured as Tenma to become a Monster by killing Johan. However, because she feels that she is a part of the monster herself, she has no qualm of dragging herself down into the mud in order to kill the Monster. Despite this, it's hard to not feel sorry for Johan after finding out what happened to him and Nina when they were kids.

The scene where the two passed out from hunger while remain nameless turned out to be one of the most diffcult scenes to watch in the series. A name is something that gives someone an identity, a proof that the person exists. It's hard to imagine what it feels like to be nameless, to not have anyone acknowledging your existence. It also unfortunate that this actually happened to children as young as Johan and Anna. Moving on to other characters, I was kind of disappointed that nothing seem to come out of Nina's investigation. Halfway through episode 57, I thought she will figure out her past connection with the Red Rose mansion but in the end, nothing seems to come out of this particular storyline. Well, at least she actually remember the reason behind Johan's murder of the Lieberts. I suspect that back then Franz Bonaparta arrived and in order to ensure that their adoptive parents do not send them back to Bonaparta, Johan decided to kill the Lieberts.

Episode 58-60 turned out to be a minor arc involving Eva and a new character called Martin. I have to say that this part of the story felt a little bit slow. I think this should have happened in 2 episodes instead of 3 but I supposed they wanted the viewers to sympathise with Martin. The thing is, I fail to see why Martin wanted to save Eva. But I supposed one can assume that Martin saw a reflection of his dead mother and girlfriend in Eva. Both of whom died because he abandoned them. But Eva posesses such an ugly personality that I can't help but wonder how anyone can bear being near her longer than 5 minutes. It's a good thing that her meeting with Martin ended up changing her for the better. It was actually kind of touching when she refused to drink Alcohol because Martin hated it. I think if Martin didn't die, Eva will probably end up going away with him instead of going back with Tenma. This is why she waited for him at the train station.

Having said that, her plan to kill Johan is just silly and dangerous. Johan is surrounded by a bunch of people who are willing to do his bidding. If someone who has trained himself in weapon handling and sniping like Tenma still has difficulty getting close to Johan, the likelihood of someone like Eva to be able to do the same is even smaller. Moreoever, if one of Johan's henchmen finds out about her plan, they will most likely use her as a hostage against Tenma. In fact, I've been wondering why Eva or for that matter, anyone else who has seen Johan is still alive lately. I believe there are at least 2-3 people apart from Tenma and Nina who now have seen Johan's face. Speaking of Johan, I am surprised that he's willing to take on a disciple because I thought he doesn't want to associate himself with the extreme group like the one that is controlled by The Baby and others. But he probably agrees to do it because it helps him to achieve his plan.

© memento 2003