Its easy to neglect what story Monster is truly concerned with telling. At face value its the struggle of Tenma to prove his innocence and yet its driven home numerous times early on that that isnt Tenmas raison detreso then whats really going on here? Its easy to detach from the central narrative and instead get swept up in its boundlessly deep characterizations. Every single recurrent character has some deeper implications machinations and essential strengths and weaknesses to explore and the narrative seems hellbent on touching on each and every one. However that still is not the central conceit of this tale it always was and never ceased to be a story about a Monster. Pretty comical to think of right? If youre not constantly wondering just what the hell Johan is are you really even paying attention? Even as the series dangles an explanation youre meant to meet such an explanation with skepticism and yet this isnt made clear until the very end when frankly youre quite tired of being skeptical at all and just want to have your cake and eat it. That there was my fatal falling with this series and why Im conflicted in propping it up as a classic as so many others do. On the one hand I can see now the each and every character was meant to perform a specific function and yet my cynicism and general expectations of this medium sort of demand such a construct be more easily discernible from the jump and therein lies what must be ascertained from this musing in general. This series is a mystery. Its meant to be akin to a puzzle being constructed slowly and deliberately for that final grand payoff at the end sliding the final piece into place and stepping back to see what was built. Spoilers abound as we move forward.