List of Monster characters
List of Monster characters
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List of Monster characters

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List of Monster characters

The manga series Monster features a cast of characters created by Naoki Urasawa. The story revolves around Kenzo Tenma, a Japanese surgeon living in Germany whose life enters turmoil after getting himself involved with Johan Liebert, one of his former patients who is revealed to be a dangerous psychopath.

Voiced by: Hidenobu Kiuchi (Japanese); Liam O'Brien (English)

Kenzo Tenma (天馬 賢三, Tenma Kenzō) is a Japanese neurosurgeon working at Eisler Memorial Hospital in Düsseldorf. Little is known of Tenma's childhood apart from his father and brother also being doctors and that his family ties grew weaker when he left Japan for Germany. He is a humanitarian who cares about the lives of others, and his kindness influences those he meets. His surgical skills earn him the position of chief neurosurgeon. He is engaged to Eva Heinemann, daughter of the hospital's Director Heinemann. When a young boy with a bullet wound arrives in 1986, Tenma is about to operate when Chief of Surgery Dr. Oppenheim and Director Heinemann tell him to work on the mayor, who came in later instead. After a crisis of conscience, Tenma saves the life of the young boy who came in first while the mayor dies. At a banquet, Tenma asks for forgiveness from Director Heinemann who forgives him while blacklisting him and appointing Dr. Boyer the new chief neurosurgeon. Eva also ends their engagement. Weeks later, Tenma gets word from the police that Director Heinemann, Dr. Oppenheim and Dr. Boyer have been mysteriously killed. The chairman of the board appoints Tenma Chief of Surgery and Eva tries to reconcile, but Tenma ignores her.

Nine years later, Tenma learns that the doctors' murders were committed by the boy he saved when the now-grown boy, Johan Liebert, commits another right in front of him. Johan is also the mastermind of the serial murders of middle-aged couples throughout Germany. Plagued by guilt, he resolves to find Johan and end the life of this "monster" he feels responsible for creating, while evading Inspector Lunge, who suspects Tenma of the murders. In his quest to kill Johan, Tenma nearly succeeds several times only to have him slip away until their final confrontation in Ruhenheim. When Johan wants Tenma to kill him, he threatens Wim Knaup when the child's drunk father mistakes Johan for a monster and shoots him. After Johan is flown to a hospital in a helicopter, Tenma treats him and is cleared of all charges. He later joins Doctors Without Borders, visits Johan's mother, and visits the comatose Johan in a police hospital.[ch. 161, 162]

Voiced by: Nozomu Sasaki (Japanese); Keith Silverstein (English)

Johan Liebert (ヨハン・リーベルト, Yohan Rīberuto) is the older twin son of the Lieberts, whose father Michael was an East German trade advisor who defected to the West. He is the titular "monster" and the main antagonist of the series. The mystery of his past is the focus of the plot. He is called a monster, the next Adolf Hitler and the devil himself. Johan Liebert was shot in the head as a child when his parents were killed in their home, but saved from death by Dr. Tenma. He claims to love his twin sister Anna, and has some loyalty to her. Johan has spent parts of his life in different places under different names. He possesses charisma and intelligence but is also cunning, manipulative and deceitful; while he is seemingly kind, compassionate and loving to children, he is actually cold, cruel and fundamentally incapable of empathy. He uses his talents to manipulate and corrupt others, often with no apparent end than to cause suffering and destruction. His goal is to kill everyone that knows of his existence. He identifies with other killers, discovering their secrets. After causing the death of Peter Čapek, he orchestrates the Ruhenheim Massacre and has his final encounter with Tenma. When Johan threatens Wim to get Tenma to shoot him, Johan is shot by Wim's drunken father, Herbert.[ch. 160] He is flown to a hospital in a helicopter, with the bullet wound treated by Tenma.[ch. 160] Comatose, he is visited by Tenma in a police hospital. The final page shows his bed empty, ambiguously suggesting that Johan has escaped the hospital.

Johan frequently appears on lists of the best villains in anime, manga, and fiction. Johan placed first in Paste's list of the "20 of the Greatest Villains in Anime", with Toussaint Egan saying that "despite all that he was able to accomplish over the course of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster — manipulating over fifty people to kill one another through suggestion alone, framing the man who saved his life for murder, operating a massive money laundering operation at the heart of Germany, and coordinating a shadow network of killers to do his bidding— Johan has no special abilities to speak of, save for intelligence. No magical notebook capable of killing anyone whose name is written in its pages, no unholy totem gifting him with the blessing of divine fate, nothing. He is a human being, no more and no less, and that is precisely what makes him so terrifying."

Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (Japanese); Karen Strassman (English)

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