Monster ep.61-65

September 25, 2006 | 23 Comments

Long before Death Note, Madhouse adapted an excellent drama series called Monster. This is why I'm confident that Madhouse will be able to make Death Note interesting even though the majority of the story only consists of dialogues. If anything, I think the animation adaptation could be a lot more interesting because Madhouse will be able to add in soundtrack to increase the tension of the story. Looking back at Monster, I realise that it's one of the best adaptation of a manga series I've ever seen. Although it's hard to get into in the first place, once you're caught up with the story, it is hard not to get addicted and want to watch the next episode. Unfortunately I'm a slowpoke when it comes to finishing a series and as a result I'm still 14 episodes down to the last one. Well, now I can at least scratch 5 episodes off my list.

Episode 61: The Door of Memory

Nina continues her investigation into the Three Frog motel and the Red Rose mansion despite Dieter's objection. As she delves further into her memory, however, Nina strangely remembers events which Johan supposed to remember. When she remembers waiting for her mother and Johan to return while reading The Nameless Monster, Nina suddenly regains her memory and starts screaming around. Thankfully before she goes further, Dieter manages to tell her that she doesn't have to remember anymore because they can create new memories together just as Tenma suggested. Because of this, he asks Nina to go back with him to Munich. Meanwhile, Verderman has been granted access to listen to a Q&A session with five people who used to attend the book reading session held by Franz Bonaparta. Verderman, however, ends up in a conflict with Detective Suk when he starts asking his own question without Suk's permission.

However, thanks to Verderman's questioning, the two of them get to see that each of these people are unable to show proper emotions. At the same time, Verderman becomes angry when one of the witness starts talking about his father's involvement with the Red Rose mansion. Later on, however, Verderman finds out that his father actually told these witness to get away from the mansion instead of doing anything sinister. Meanwhile, Nina and Dieter are back in Munich and are reunited with Dr.Reichwen, Lotte, and Karl. Dr.Reichwen reveals that he receives a mail from Tenma saying that soon everything will be over. This worries Nina so she asks Dr.Gillen to use hypnotism to help her regain her memory. When she regains her memory, however, Nina behaves violently, trying to strangle Dr.Gillen. Thankfully the doctor manages to stop her and ends the session. Now that Nina remembers everything, she decides to go to Frankfurt to save Tenma.

Episode 62: A fun dining table

In Frankfurt, Tenma remembers Martin's dying words which informs him that Johan has a disciple who tries to continue the Red Rose mansion experiments. While attempting to follow Baby and Peter Capek using a taxi, however, Tenma is spotted by the Police so he has no choice but to run away. Unfortunately, Tenma fails to notice the traffic and ends up getting hit by a car. Thankfully, a local dentist called Milan Kolasch ends up saving him. He explains that the place was a Turkish neighbourhood but new development forced most of the people out of the area. Through the guy's help, Tenma also ends up meeting the rest of the people in the area and experiences a fun dining time. When Tenma returns to his room, however, he realises that there are pictures of Peter Capek plastered on the wall. Inside the drawer, he finds reports about the guy as well as a handgun. Milan admits that he wants to kill Capek because Capek is dangerous to children.

He claims that children who attended Capek's book reading committed suicide one by one. One day, a group of kids tried to kill each other and the ring leader of the kids, who's Milan's son, also committed suicide not long after this. Capek also caused the death of the immediate family of everyone who lives in the house. Later on Tenma finds out that Milan and Capek used to be childhood friends. In fact, it was Milan who took Capek into the country. However, Capek changed when he met a mysterious character. Because of this, Milan feels responsible for Capek's action and wants to kill Capek to stop it all. He believes that Tenma feels the same way about his own mission. Despite Tenma's attempt to stop him, Milan executes a plan to kill Capek inside a convention centre. He, however, fails to do so and ends up getting killed by the security guards. Nina, who sees the incident from TV recognises Capek as the man from Red Rose mansion.

Episode 63: An Unrelated Murder

An almost retired detective called Weissbach arrives in Frankfurt Police Station to pick up a serial killer called Reinhard Dinger. While inside the train, the killer reveals that all of the people that he killed are so far the ones who either offended him or looked down on him. Upon hearing this Weissbach wonders about a particular victim who is completely different from Dinger's other murder victims. In order to explains this, Dinger tells a story about how he once beat up a guy who kicked his dog. When the police restrained him, a little boy told the police that the guy attacked Dinger first. As a thank to the boy, Dinger took the boy and his twin sister to his apartment. Strangely when they undress, the twins were already wearing pyjamas, looking as if they just escaped from Hospital. That night, when Dinger randomly muttered to himself that 'trash' should just die, the boy told him that he was right and they don't need that kind of people.

Later on Weissbach realises that the twins that Dinger talked about are the Liebert twins, the vital key to Dr.Tenma's case. At the same time, Dr.Gillen is in the middle of interviewing several serial killers and their motif. One admits to be a vampire who feasts on young virgin. However, Dr.Gillen finds out that there is one victim who is completely different from this killer's usual victims. The killer admits that someone asked him to kill that particular person. Dr.Gillen also finds a similar admission from an alien-obsessed serial killer. Just like the other killer, he tells the doctor that someone in Griesheim asked him to do it by writing on a sandbox in a park. Eventually, Dr.Gillen ends up interviewing Dinger as well and because of his collaboration with Weissbach, they realise that all of these times, Johan has been using these criminals to do his dirty deeds. By doing this, Johan made it hard for the police to trace the murder back to him.

Episode 64: The Melancholy of Baby

Baby hires a stripper to accompany him because he feels lonely. He is also afraid because Johan has killed a man without informing him and Capek. Capek denies that he knows more than Baby and thinks they should continue looking for Nina. Baby informs Capek that Nina is currently in Frankfurt but he's afraid of approaching her again after what happened when he last met her. Baby also gets into an argument with Johan's new disciple when he tells the disciple that he knows that 3 people were killed to cover up his scandal. Johan's new disciple warns Baby that something usually happens to those who knows too much. Baby is depressed about this but finds a relief in his newfound 'relationship' with the stripper. It seems the stripper genuinely likes him and becomes offended when Baby wants to pay her for spending time with him. Eventually, the stripper accepts Baby's apology and wonders if she can come up to his room and asks for his real name.

A few hours later, Baby's bodyguard finds his boss' dead body inside the bathroom. Capek becomes afraid after hearing this and asks a bodyguard to move him back to his house in Idstein. While inside his car, Capek remembers how he first met Franz Bonaparta, who introduced him to baby Johan and Nina. Capek suddenly becomes paranoid and ends up killing his own bodyguard, who refuses to turn the car around. In the end, he heads back towards his house and finds a wine and an empty glass on top of a table. Thinking that it was provided by the bodyguard, Capek drinks the wine right away and becomes shocked when Johan appears in front of him. Johan reveals that many people in Red Rose mansion drank that wine but Capek should be okay since Johan is also drinking the wine now. Capek tells Johan that his man will kill Nina if Johan kills him but Johan ignores the threat. Instead, he asks Capek if Franz Bonaparta is still alive.

Episode 65: Johan's footprints

Nina surprises Capek's bodyguards when they barge into her room but agrees to come with them when she finds out that Capek was the one who sent them. At the same time, police raids Milan's home to find the motive behind his action. Thankfully Tenma has left the place after asking those in the house not to revenge Milan's death. Tenma is then seen following Johan's disciple to his home. The disciple is surprised when he hears a footstep behind him and realises that it's not Johan but Eva, who wants to know Johan's whereabouts. Meanwhile, Nina arrives at Capek's place and finds the guy telling her that Johan has left him alive because Johan wants Nina to kill him. At first Nina can't contain her anger but she eventually calms down and asks Capek to take her to Johan. Back to Eva, Johan's disciple tries to evade Eva's question but he is in shock when Eva shoots his ear. Eva also knows that his name is Christoph Sievernich.

In return, Christoph reveals to Eva that he and Johan are actually best friends who met each other in Kinderheim 511 and became the only survivors of the accident. He reveals how back then when everyone was killing each other inside the orphanage, he was hiding with 2 friends. He then encouraged his friends to see if the fight is over but the two never returned. In the end, it was Johan who found him hiding inside the cupboard. Eva asks Christoph what Johan is planning but Christoph throws a book to Eva and tries to kill her. Before he can do this, Tenma appears and a gun shot is heard inside the house. Meanwhile, Capek and Nina are on their way to Johan's place. Capek, however, wonders why Nina doesn't kill him even though she has regained her memory. In an attempt to restrain her anger, Nina decides to ask Capek if he knows what she and Johan really are. Capek admits that he's heard about it. About how she and Johan were created.

Impression:

The little bit of hints shown in episode 61 was quite interesting. It looks like Nina was the one who was taken from the three frogs motel. But if that's the case then does it mean she's the one who poisoned those people in Red Rose Mansion? It also appears that she has a streak of dark personality within her as exemplified when she became violent during the therapy session. I was also surprised to know that Verderman's father turned out to be a decent fellow who probably had no choice but to follow the order of his superior. It's nice to see a series that offers complex personality in a very minor character like Verderman's father. Another thing that I like from the episode was the 'family' get together scene between Nina, Dieter, Dr.Reichwen, Karl and Lotte. It's nice to see them becoming good friends with each other because of their relation with Tenma. Without Tenma, these people probably won't see each other in the first place.

This is once again demonstrated in episode 62. Tenma seems capable of making friends easily with other people just by being himself. There is also interesting parallel between Tenma and Milan. They both have created a 'Monster' and now try to fix their mistake. Unfortunately for Milan, he fails in his mission. It makes me wonder if Tenma will end up like him if he continues his intention to pursue Johan. Interestingly enough, Peter Capek was revealed to be more than just a typical one dimensional villain. He was actually a normal kid just like Milan but the harshness of life changed his personality. His meeting with Franz Bonaparta is simply the additional nudge that he needs to become twisted. The scary part about this is that this is how it happens in reality. In most cases, people do not become twisted out of nowhere. As a social creature, humans can't helped but being influenced by its surrounding, by the way his life turns out.

Episode 63 demonstrates this series' ability to turn from heart-warming moment in one minute and horrifying the next. Dinger's story was scary because I could see the point behind his argument. All humans have their own pride and does not like it when their pride is being stepped on by others. Dinger, however, takes that pride one step further and resort to aggression to those who offends him. Having said that, I have to admit that the guy who kicked the dog had it coming to him. I can't remember where I heard this from but there was a saying that the merit of a man lies not on his treatment towards those who are above him but those who are below him. A person who has no compassion for a defenseless animal is certainly not the kind of man that I'd like to sympathise. Anyway, this episode finally reveals that all of these times, Johan has been using these criminals to ensure that he can't be traced by the police.

If there is a criticism one can level towards the series, I'd probably put it on the lack of background for Baby. He remains as 2D villain hellbent on becoming the next dictator down to his death. I guess I can just assume that he's one of those types who allow greed and ambition to take over their life. It's ironic how in the end his life ends in the hand of a person he least expected to kill him. Having said that, he clearly knows that he is out of his depth in dealing with Johan. For someone who is dictactorial, there is nothing worse than having to endure an element of unpredictability. Johan was that element. Someone who has his own plan and refuses to follow Baby's own grand plan. Speaking of Johan, was that girl supposed to be him or just a hired assassin that he asks to off Baby? I'm inclined to think that she's just an assassin since her profession is a stripper after all. Johan is many things but I assume he's a lot more modest than that. ^_^

Christoph, on the other hand, is anything but modest. If there is one kind of villain that annoys me the most, he will be it. Johan is enigmatic because he doesn't look as if he knows it all even though he really does know a lot. However, Christophe is low-level manipulator who thinks he knows it all even though he's clueless. Halfway through his scene with Eva, I kept hoping that Eva will lose her patience and shoot his knee just to wipe that smug grin off his face. It was a pleasant surprise to see Eva shoots his ear. I think Eva knows that a manipulative person like him will only tell the truth when he's confronted with pain. True enough, he starts to reveal everything when he realises that Eva is not the kind of person that he should mess with. Last but not least, I'm impressed with the kind of restraint that Nina shows in episode 65. I really thought she'd loses it and shoots Capek but that doesn't seem to be the case.

© memento 2003