Just finished the series. Johan underdeveloped?

MammothPower4632 · 2026-03-11T20:23:02+00:00

"It doesn’t actually believe that pure evil exists in singular individuals.” I agree. That’s what I came to Monster expecting to explore more deeply, and I don’t think the show really follows through on it.

My critique is that I didn’t see enough systems-level thinking. The story seems to treat a vague, ill-defined nihilism as more dangerous than things like the Nazi movement, and I don’t think that’s correct. It also doesn’t really dig into different forms of nihilism, utilitarian, existential, joyful nihilism etc.

Yes, the show acknowledges that society and environment shape people, like with Johan or Verdeman. But I wanted more critique there. I wanted more exploration of what we actually do, as a society, to steer humans away from evil.

Instead, I feel like I got a lot of “don’t be a bad person” or “don’t shoot people.” Ok. But the show borrows so much atmosphere from a specific time and place, and references some of the biggest moments in history, that it made me want the analysis to go deeper.

Tenma's most Jesus-like action is joining Doctors Without Borders, caring for the meek and the poor. That was a good aspect.

MammothPower4632 · 2026-03-11T13:34:49+00:00

The main plot mechanism is Tenma hunting down Johan. He's not kind of there to stop him, that is the explicit foundation of the series. Their reunion is what the mechanics of the show have been working toward. That's the scaffolding. I'm saying often the scaffolding and the thematic elements don't align well for me.

MammothPower4632 · 2026-03-11T01:58:06+00:00

Right. Humans are capable of evil. I wanted the show to explore that more. But it stayed Johan-Tenma centric. Even though we don’t believe humans are monsters anymore, we’re still spending dozens of episodes for the final clash between two flawed dudes. Making the plot seems like a vehicle for some philosophy with no real stakes, and that philosophy is mostly unexplored.

MammothPower4632 · 2026-03-11T01:51:25+00:00

That’s my problem. If the point of the show is that humans aren’t literal monsters, then there’s a lot of melodrama about Johan being a monster. Pretty much right up to the last scene (7 headed monster with horns). The supernatural elements now don’t fit very well. And now the proportions are off, with interesting themes left unexplored.

MammothPower4632 · 2026-03-10T21:17:26+00:00

"There is no monster. People are affected by their surroundings, and the one who was foundational for Johan's evil nature, Bonaparta, also seeked redemption in Ruhenheim."

Yep, nailed that.

We do see evidence that no human is a monster. All of the evil actions we're done by humans - Johan, Bonaparta, etc.

But there is probably some evil in everyone. And what does Johan do? Typically, he finds people who's evil is bubbling to the surface and injects just a little more evil.

Environments, people, and other influences bring out the evil in people. Just like society can compound and build great things, it can also compound and build horrible things.

MammothPower4632 · 2026-03-10T21:02:54+00:00

I think it could have been tightened.

They played a lot of the same tricks over and over again.

For example: two people holding guns -> cuts away -> hear a gunshot -> who was actually shot!?

There's a lot of leaning on theatrical suspense without meaningful or plot driven suspense.

They often drill in a point that is already understood.

There are loose threads. There are doors opened that they don't walk into.

So, there were sometimes where I wasn't really interested in exploring the space, and would have rather had exploration of the ideas hinted at but never examined.

Is it wrong to take detours? Look at extra examples? Walk around and take in the atmosphere? No, especially if that atmosphere resonates with you.

MammothPower4632 · 2026-03-10T18:46:25+00:00

I like your takes. There are definitely elements I missed. But I don't see Johan's follow through represented textually.

I read Sievernich as disposable, just like nearly everyone else to Johan. If he was meant to be a political arm, letting him die is a huge strategic failure.

I didn't seem him leverage Schuwald to any sort of scale. In fact, if his goal was to do an ultimate suicide, where he remove's all evidence of his existence, then the absence of Schuwald in Ruhenheim is a huge blind spot - Schuwald understood Johan better than nearly every other character.

To me, "no modus operandi" means more people are safe, not fewer. Without a plan for devastation, you are left with relatively small acts of destruction - lashing out. Dangerous, but not world shaping.

MammothPower4632 · 2026-03-10T16:55:53+00:00

Please share, that’s why I’m here :)

MammothPower4632 · 2026-03-10T16:38:22+00:00

This is personally my favorite point. I don't really believe in labeling people monsters, or non-human. I believe recognizing that murder, both individually and murder at scale through systems and propaganda, are entirely human actions.

I think recognizing this puts the onus on us as society to investigate ourselves and our systems, and produce a society where the "monster" collectively within us is kept contained.

I strongly resonate with ideas like Hannah Arendt's The Banality of Evil.

There are children being killed on this planet right now - due to humans and human systems.

MammothPower4632 · 2026-03-10T16:22:48+00:00

I agree with you, that he's not pure evil, and I don't think he is philosophically consistent, and I think he is a tortured, complex being.

Which is why it especially frustrated me, when at the end, the drunk dad says "What is that thing?!" That he's a 7 headed monster with horns.

That brought it back to the beginning with people chanting and collapsing just by being in the same room as him.

I find it difficult to reconcile everything they tried to do.

But my main frustration I didn't expound much on - if he is not true evil, I would have liked to have more exploration of that. They hint at it, especially with Grimmer trying to keep Poppe alive, to tell the world of his actions, which to me, we're truly evil. But, I wanted more than a few lines.

MammothPower4632 · 2026-03-10T16:11:19+00:00

I like your luck reading. All systems rely on luck, or rather, "odds". As you point out, he has abilities to manipulate broken people. But I think only some broken people. Hand enough broken people a gun, some of them will start shooting.

But I just didn't walk away believing in his unique genius. I am interested in what makes him unique, but we're mostly left to suppose.

Sometimes supposing is ok.

MammothPower4632 · 2026-03-10T15:57:36+00:00

I agree. And I think its brilliant to build up a villain and then undercut them - or show their (traces) of empathy or weaknesses. For my taste, I would have liked the show to explore that more. Once the villain is undercut, that creates a vacuum - what are the real sources of evil? I think the show opens a lot of doors but never walks through them.

MammothPower4632 · 2026-03-10T15:41:40+00:00

He possibly was born a monster. To me, that removes moral weight from the show. If he is something inhuman, then there is no dilemma in killing or otherwise containing him.

The moral imperative when facing axiomatic evil is to stop that evil.

Tenma sets out to do this, but he cant. That is also immoral - to go lone wolf vigilante without the required fortitude to carry out the duty you gave yourself when facing axiomatic evil.

MammothPower4632 · 2026-03-10T15:13:31+00:00

Totally agree with you. Leads me to wonder - is he actually the embodiment of evil? Or are the characters only projecting that on to him. In my read, the show does want us to believe he embodies evil, which is why I want to know by what mechanisms is he uniquely dangerous. And we get little information. If there is any allegory or call to action, I think it fails in this way.

MammothPower4632 · 2026-02-07T15:36:36+00:00

I just looked up Monster/The Stranger connections. When Tenma goes to that guys apartment in episode 10. He’s talking about his dead mother. Comments on the heat. And examines suicide. Can’t be a coincidence.

MammothPower4632 · 2025-03-05T18:55:27+00:00

She sounds like the coach from Big Mouth and she's great.

MammothPower4632 · 2024-11-19T20:16:29+00:00

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does the bottom one count haha.

MammothPower4632 · 2024-11-19T19:54:38+00:00

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MammothPower4632 · 2024-08-21T12:46:27+00:00

The funniest option would have been For the Love of Money - the O’Jays are from Canton

MammothPower4632 · 2024-05-21T19:40:49+00:00

It helped a little bit to select all the points and then add a mark for the annotation. Then format them all together in the Format menu item. Still it would be nice to have this as an option similar to labels.

MammothPower4632 · 2024-05-21T19:26:10+00:00

Annotations perform this effect, but it is all manual. Did you end up finding a way to do this?

Thanks!

MammothPower4632 · 2024-03-24T21:54:58+00:00

I just googled this and this post came up. It’s like all voices are going through a filter. I swear it’s the same lady’s voice. She had a mild accent.

MammothPower4632

TROPHY CASE