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Manga Recommendation: Herr Doktor - Monster

Monster is a psychological, mystery drama written and drawn by Urasawa Naoki. Its serialization was from 1994 to 2001, published by Big Original Comic. Urasawa is a respected mangaka who’s been in the industry for many years creating notable works like: 20th Century Boys and Yawara. Monster is about a Japanese brain surgeon named Kenzo Tenma working in a renowned European hospital. His life is going great: he’s well respected for his achievements as a surgeon, has a beautiful fiancée and is on the verge of promotion. One night during a complex surgery on a Turkish man, Tenma is pulled from this operation in order to save the life of a famous singer. The Turkish man died and the singer lived. The family of that man would yell and scream at Tenma for allowing him to die. Tenma, deeply sorrowful for the choice he made, does what he thinks is right when he’s in the middle of saving a young boy’s life and suddenly asked to come save the Mayor’s. Tenma risks his career opting not to abandon the boy in order to go save the Mayor, resulting in the Mayor’s passing and the boy living. From this moment on, Tenma’s life starts spiralling out of control, causing him to lose much he had attained. Suddenly, a series of murders that benefit Tenma put him back on top in his profession. Years would go by before similar murders would happen again making Doctor Tenma the main murder suspect of these crimes


Monster is a complex mystery but extremely intelligently put together. It has great pacing, memorable characters and a mystery that lives up to the hype. It explores some good themes and questions that make the reader think. Is doing the right thing always just? If a good deed spawns an unjust aftermath, was said deed righteous? Monster explores these types of inquiries and in addition to that the suspense in this manga is astounding.

This series truly shines for picking up extremely quickly and not suffering for it later on. Lots of series that start off too strongly spend the latter half of the story attempting to live up to the beginning. Monster gets you hooked and caring about Doctor Tenma relatively early. He’s a nice guy and a good man but caught in the middle of medical politics. Tenma only wants to save lives and live happily but it’s never that simple. You see how well his life is going, how happy he is saving lives and being in love. Even though he’s being used by higher ups in the hospital, he’s content. To quickly see that spiral out of control as he loses everything is heart wrenching. Then as soon as things seem okay again, the same types of murders start reoccurring. This results in making him a prime suspect forcing him to go on the run in the pursuit of truth. It’s difficult not to sympathize with Tenma and you’ll find yourself rooting for him.


Manga that properly use and explore psychology in their narratives are amongst the best kinds. Monster truly dives into the psyche and traumas of various characters allowing readers to understand them perfectly. All the actions each character takes is driven by past events and everything they do is in line with their personalities’. You’ll never find a character doing something unprecedented that’s doesn’t relate with their goals and motivations. The progression of the individual characters is also well done. Tenma may have become a lot more “hardened” by his experiences but never does he truly lose his doctor like instincts. He was taught how to save lives, not how to take them and the readers get to see him struggle with his changing personality. Urasawa most definitely put a lot of thought into progression of the characters as the story went along.


Proper use of red herrings, clues, suspense and a satisfying conclusion are the ingredients for making a compelling mystery. Monster has got that and some. Readers will always find themselves in deep thought trying to figure out what’s going to happen next or why something already happened. There’s also good use of dramatic irony that’ll have you stressed out because the characters are walking into a trap. Monster is definitely not the best mystery out, but it’s up there. The final confrontation with the main antagonists is epic and the questions that have been floating around during the story are answered to satisfaction.


In the end, Monster is one the better written manga out there having enough mystery to keep the reader guessing, deep characters to keep the reader caring, tons of suspense to keep them on edge and lots of food for thought. Monster is completed with 18 volumes and 162 chapters. This IS the psychological thriller and mystery drama you are looking for, so read it.



Written by: Nyamekye Hemmings
Twitter Handle: @LolitaZenpie

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