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(More customer reviews)Naoki Urasawa's psychological crime drama MONSTER is, as the other reviewers have said, undeniably one of the most accomplished anime series of all time. It is a near shot-for-shot adaptation of Urasawa's manga, and it is a testament to the strength of the story that almost nothing was changed. It seems almost too good to be true that this series is finally seeing a release in the United States.
Speaking of that, you can currently catch two episodes every Monday night on SyFy's Ani-Monday block. They are airing the English dub.
The story takes place in 1986 Germany. True to the times, the plot is rife with political drama; true to Urasawa, though, you will find a slowly arching, psychological thriller emerge in this gem of a story. Tenma, a Japanese doctor working in Dusseldorf, decides to go against the orders of his hospital's director by operating on an injured child instead of the rich Mayor. Demoted, he loses his fiance and his position in the hospital. In one of the best twists to come out of any fiction recently, the child he saved ends up being a manipulative psychopath, bred by others to be a successor to Hitler. The series begs the question, what do you do when your altruistic intent turns into something wholly horrible? Tenma sets out on a quest to fix his mistake, and the plot slowly unravels along with the mysterious past of Johan Leibert, the monster he brought back to life.
Now, the pros versus the cons. Anything good that can be said about this release is said about the show itself. Before I watched the show, the premise itself was enough to make me sit back for a few minutes and wonder what I might be getting myself into. There was no question in my mind that I would have to watch. And it excels in areas where few anime excel. Perhaps it is the intrinsic advantage that an animated work can sometimes have over a live-action one, but the directing of this series is stellar. As I mentioned, it follows the cinematic scenes and pacing of the manga so closely that it is represented like a film from a master director. Urasawa has a lot to be proud of in his creation, and in this adaptation.
There are bad things about this release, however. The series is 74 episodes long, and these 13-episode DVD releases by VIZ are simply too small. There is no reason to divide so few episodes on so many discs. A 24 episode episode set, even a 16 episode set, would be infinitely better not just for ease of consumption but for the wallets of consumers, too. At the Amazon pre-order price of $32.99 for all 6 anticipated DVD sets, this series will end up costing almost $200, around $2.70 an episode. Still, this is a small complaint when weighed next to the worth of the series, I suppose. The only other nitpick is the quality of the dub. Where characters appear menacing or calculating in the original language, the English dub can, at times, make them appear almost laughable. We have seen, especially recently, that dubs can be done right, though with this series the massive cast of characters and sweep of location can possibly make that difficult.
In short--this series is worth watching. These DVD sets may get expensive over time, but luckily the show is also airing on SyFy for those strapped for cash. Get a taste of it one Monday night and you will undoubtedly anticipate the next episode. This is a great series, not to be missed.
Revision 12/24/2009: I'll leave the review as it is, but as can be seen in my comments (and indeed on the box itself), the product contains 15 episodes. We'll have one less DVD set, it seems.
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MONSTER BOX SET 1 - DVD Movie
