The main character of the series is Doctor Kenzo Tenma. He's a Japanese neurosurgeon working at the Eisler Memorial Hospital in Dusseldorf, Germany. At the beginning of the series, he is the Head of Neurosurgery and is engaged to the daughter of the department's director.
In the first episode, Dr. Tenma is called away from performing surgery on a Turkish worker injured in an accident to operate on a famous opera singer. At a press conference, the department director takes credit for the surgery on the singer. Later, the wife of the Turkish worker approaches Dr. Tenma and questions why he operated on the singer instead of on her husband, who ended up dying in surgery. This event causes Dr. Tenma to start questioning what's been going on and the decisions being made by the director. A conversation Dr. Tenma has with the director, where he learns the director's true motivations for how he decides to do things at the hospital, doesn't sit well with him.
Later, a family who recently moved to Dusseldorf that had gained media attention become victims of a robbery. The parents are killed, one of the children is shot in the head and is in critical condition, and the daughter is in a state of shock. As Dr. Tenma is about to go into an operation to perform surgery on the boy, the director tries to pull him out, saying the mayor had collapsed in his home and he needed Tenma to work on the surgery. After a crisis of conscience, Tenma disobeys the director and returns to the operating room to save the young boy. This event becomes the catalyst for what happens in the rest of the series.
Monster has a very compelling story. However, there is a bit of blood shown on screen; if you're squeamish about that, then you may want to avoid this series. Monster also has some incredible animation to help illustrate the story; the animation and storytelling really go together hand-in-hand.
When Viz Media released Monster, they gave the series a TV-14 rating. However, with the subject matter, as well as seeing blood in the visuals, I have to disagree slightly with this rating. Personally, I would recommend Monster to anime viewers who are 16 or 17 years of age and older.
| Monster | 74 | 2004-2005 | Masayuki Kojima | Madhouse | Viz Media |
