I came late to this classic. Often considered one of the all-time greats, 'Monster' takes on ambitious subject matter - an exploration of the nature of evil itself, taking place on an international stage, wrapped up in an epic conspiracy thriller - and feels appropriately worthy because of it. Johan Liebert is one of manga's all-time charismatic villains, and rightly so; his unique genius is understated and all the more terrifying for it. And though his motivations suffer a little from Jokeresque non-directional nihilism, it does seem a shame to criticise this manga's writing in light of the derivatives that came after it. Like I said, I came late.

I was surprised at how plotty this work ended up being. In 18 volumes, Urasawa squeezes a lot of mystery and a lot of characters in. For all the publicity surrounding its protagonist and antagonist, they appear surprisingly infrequently after the inciting incident. This truly is an ensemble piece, though some characters are more interesting than others: my personal favourites being Mr Grimmer and the 17-year-old Vietnamese doctor whom Tenma meets in the second act.

Thematically the manga is a meticulously crafted prism, refracting what I believe is its ultimate question - could a person exist who cannot be redeemed? - through its dozens of subplots. Everyone here has a detailed motive for doing what they do, often explained fairly conventionally through flashbacks or long speeches. This is not necessarily a misstep either, since the Campbellian conventionality of its storytelling is part of its charm and it keeps the pacing nice and brisk. (Personally, I found the deep dive into Czech political intrigue late in Act 2 to be a bit of a slump, and would have preferred more time with characters like Eva, Roberto and Dieter in that space - but this is likely a matter of subjective taste.) The diversity of the characters in age, temperament and motivation is appropriately reflected in art which makes everyone distinctive and characterful.

This is an eminently critic-friendly work, as you have probably gathered - it's worth giving a try for its sheer renown, and if you like the thriller genre you can't go far wrong with it. A bleak but fast-paced and graceful noir about the scariest human being you could possibly imagine, 'Monster' hasn't lost much of its impact in the 25 years since it first began serialisation.