The ending of monster is perfect.
(My thoughts on the finale, the series, Johan’s character; and why I think it fits so well)
Before watching the last episode I thought “oh it’s the finale they’re only gonna wrap things up and tie some loose ends” but it’s done beautifully.
I know that everyone says that monster is a show about humans and their inner monster and how society creates monsters, and I agree.
But when they show you that, it’s not a way to excuse people of their bad actions, it’s to show that even in their “villainous” acts, they’re still pretty much human, you never think “oh this is something that couldn’t happen in real life”.
Eva, Roberto, Rosso, Bonaparta and so many more, they’re so different from each other, but at the core they’re still painted in the same way. They’ve done despicable acts, some more than others, but in the end they’re just people who made their choices based on their beliefs.
All presented as human except for Johan.
While the writer tries and succeeds to humanize all the other characters, giving them many layers, he dehumanizes Johan from the very early episodes. Not only he attaches to him a very “supernatural” evil presence;
«you mustn’t look at him doctor, you’ll die» / «we were hired by a monster» (in the very early episodes)
«he said that he shot something with seven heads and many horns» (in the penultimate episode).
But also the way Johan is shown doing terrible things, is very “simplified”. In his scenes they don’t really dwell a lot on the why he does what he does. Sure, they give you enough insight to keep you interested in the character and to not make him bland. It’s the viewer that with the very few lines and appearances that he has, tries to decipher his personality and his motivations. And yeah, one of the reasons for the lack of his physical presence is to add to the sense of dread that fills the viewer when he really appears. However, during the journey that Tenma has, even if Johan is not physically there, his presence is. We feel it in the tales that fall from people’s mouths and the dead bodies that Tenma encounters and the hundreds of people he corrupted. And while Tenma meets these people the show always gives a glimpse of their humanity; but with Johan it’s the opposite, it seems that every tale about him it’s evil and eviler.
You keep asking yourself why? Why? Why?
Does this kid really feel nothing?
Is it because what happened at the orphanage? But in its destruction we see him smiling, delighted by the events that unfold in front of him. Why does he keep killing the people that show him the good in humanity, the people that treat him and his sister well? What kind of kid (that is already capable of orchestrating human feelings) kills people that helped him and tells his sister to shoot him in the head, with the calm of someone that’s asking the most trivial thing?
The most beautiful thing about Johan is the complete juxtaposition of his character. Yeah he doesn’t have any morals or ethicality, whether it is to accomplish something or just to mess with the psyche of a child,
(«you can’t kill a human being!» — tenma
but at the same time he feels emotions. He feels sadness, he feels rage, gratification, fear, guilt
(«I wonder if I had forgiven him from the beginning what would have happened» — Nina
«Johan are you crying for me?» — Karl
«While he was seeing the drawings of us as happy kids, he was crying just like me.» — Nina
«the thing I’m most afraid of is...forgetting Anna» — Johan
«Did she try to save me or did she confuse me for my sister?» — Johan)
For the whole series, Tenma’s ideology and Johan’s are (as we all know) in contrast. I won’t make a long post about Johan’s nihilistic view of the world, because there are already tons of them. But I’d like to say this: in one episode there is a scene that involves two characters that are neither Johan or Tenma; but it sums up Johan’s character very well. This guy says something along these lines to Lunge:
«you won’t believe that Tenma is not guilty, because all your life you have been an investigator that’s never been wrong, not once, and besides that you have nothing; no hobbies or family. If you’re wrong about this case, then you won’t know who you really are, and that would break you.»
That’s why johan kills people and wants Tenma to kill him.
If someone tries to give him a name he kills them, (he believes that his mother never gave him a name.) if someone is kind to him he kills them, (he has a nihilist view of the world), if someone tries to separate him from Anna, his other half, he kills them. («it’s just me and Anna in this whole world»)
Him being wrong would break him, and that’s why we see that desperate expression on his face when in the penultimate episode he almost begs Tenma to shoot him; because if what he believed all life is true (and to him it’s the truth because people kept demonstrating that he was right) “that not all lives are created equal”, then Tenma had to shoot him. Johan had no doubt in his mind, it was logical to him: even the most benevolent man, put in the right situation, can kill a person.
Tenma doesn’t shoot. He doesn’t kill him. Chance comes in play, and that’s something that even Johan couldn’t predict.
The finale gives you an answer to your “but WHY does he think the way he thinks!” question and as a viewer I find that very satisfying.
In the last episode we find ourself in a metaphorical mexican standoff of ideologies.
«Humans are equal only in death» Johan’s ideology, because if that wasn’t true, then why was his mother capable of making a choice between her two twins. Her children, that should be equal in the eyes of a mother. But when forced to make a decision, she choses one over the other, and what messes Johan up even more is that he doesn’t know if his mother choosing him was her choice or a mistake; but there certainly was an “unwanted child”. (as he puts it)
On the other side there is Tenma, that made one choice many years before, thinking it was a difficult, but fair one. A child over a privileged adult. The child that he saved though, was a monster, and he brought it back to life unknowingly of that fact. It caused the death of so many people. If Tenma had a time machine, would he save the kid again? Or would he just let him die?
There’s no need for a time machine, because the choice presents itself to him one more time. This time he knows the true nature of the person that he has to save. And he saves him. It’s hard, but he does it not only because it’s the right thing to do according to his ideology, but if he didn’t, he’d only prove Johan that he was right. It’d be like he had shot him himself.
That’s why he goes to Johan to prove him wrong once more, when he tells him that he does have a name, that his mother did give him a name.
Is it enough to convince Johan?
(Will he unlearn the hatred that humans are capable of, like Dieter? Will he accept that he has a name, like Nina did with hers? Does he, like Lunge, discover that the simple things in life do matter and are a part of why we live? Does he forget about what he was before, because like Eva says «we only remember the good things; because otherwise humans wouldn’t be able to keep on living»? Does he “turn human” again, discovering the peace that Grimmer found in his death?)
We only know that the nameless monster isn’t there anymore.
It’s like he never existed in the first place.
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