Books vs. Movies
In this podcast we set out to answer the age old question: is the book really always better than the movie?
Books vs. Movies
Ep. 56 Monster by Naoki Urasawa vs. Monster (2004)
A neurosurgeon saves a dying boy and sparks a decade-long reckoning—across hospitals, border towns, and the fragile space between duty and regret. That’s the engine of Monster, Naoki Urasawa’s acclaimed thriller and its 2004 anime twin, and I'm diving straight into what makes it magnetic, maddening, and impossible to ignore.
I start with the bold choice that remade Tenma’s life, and follow the ripples as Johan Liebert resurfaces, drawing cops, criminals, and bystanders into his gravitational pull. I unpack why the anime’s near-perfect fidelity to the manga is both a triumph and a trap: the adaptation lands the tone and tension, yet the pace can stall as the story pivots into side plots that only later tie back to Johan. If you’ve ever felt cliffhanger whiplash, you’ll recognize the pattern—soaring suspense followed by a cold open on someone new. The mosaic pays off thematically, but it can test momentum.
From there, I get honest about character design and credibility. Tenma’s compassion and restraint ground the series, but his near-flawless competence blunts the grit that would make his arc hit harder. Inspector Lunge embodies institutional certainty turned myopia, and Roberto menaces without the layered charisma that unforgettable villains carry. Then there’s Johan: a presence that chills on sight, an idea more than a man. I explore why a “master plan” built to embody chaos starts to feel over designed, and how the final, ambiguous beat will either haunt you or have you muttering, did we learn nothing.
You’ll hear why I still chose the manga as my winner despite rating the anime slightly higher: on the page, the emotional spikes cut deeper, the moral weight feels heavier, and the hateful are more hate-able. If psychological thriller, slow-burn storytelling, and morally gray debates are your lane, there’s plenty to savor. If you crave clean through-lines and steady velocity, consider this a measured heads-up before pressing play or turning the page.
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Welcome to Books vs. Movies, the podcast where I set out to answer the age-old question: Is the book really always better than the movie? I'm Yuvia, an actress and book lover based out of New York City, and today I will be discussing Monster by Naoki Urasawa, and it's 2004 Anime Adaptation Monster. Merry Christmas, everyone! As you listen to this, if you're listening to this on the day it is released, I am in the process of flying home to visit my family. Yes, we are flying out on Christmas Day, and I'm so excited. I haven't seen my family since September, and we haven't seen Orlando's family since May, so it's been a while, so we're definitely looking forward to spending time with our families and yeah, just getting some good family time and rest and relaxation tucked in there. So, that being said, what a perfect segue to go into today's El Paso shout-out. How fortunate that I have an El Paso shout-out on the day that I'm flying home to El Paso. So these El Paso shout-outs come from South of Somewhere by Dale Gray. This is a cookbook which features recipes inspired by South Africa, South Korea, and the American South, or fusions of those, as Dale Gray has lived in all those areas. So she was born and raised in South Africa, moved to South Korea for six years, where she taught English, ended up falling in love with her husband, who is stationed there. And now let's take it to a bit of her story. One sunny Sunday in September 2011, my soldier and I were wed beside a shimmering pond on his parents' property in Louisiana. His dad officiated the ceremony, DJ Kate, and we danced the electric slide. His mom offered a brief introduction to collard greens, okra, and gumbo, then waved goodbye as we set off to our next duty station in El Paso. While the desert landscape of western Texas vaguely resembles certain areas in South Africa, the similarity stopped there. The difference in culture was stark, and adjusting to America proved to be much more challenging than anticipated. I felt hesitant to speak and couldn't shake off my habit of reflexively bowing to greet everyone. People laughed and some rudely asked whether I had crossed the border for Mexico. I became reclusive as a result and started to wonder if I'd made the right decision to come here. So it is unfortunate that Dale experienced that when she came to El Paso, but she was able to draw inspiration from some of our foods. So this is the introduction to her recipe for watermelon and strawberry agua fresca with gochugaru rims. Watermelons grown in Smith County, Mississippi are considered to be some of the best in the country. I'm always thrilled to see pickup trucks loaded with them on the side of the main road in town with their tattered cardboard signs that read Smith County watermelons, very sweet, displayed perfectly alongside a bright red halved watermelon to tempt passers by. I don't need any convincing. Though hauling a 20-pound watermelon back home takes some doing, it's absolutely worth it because they are indeed bursting with flavor and very sweet. Once we've eaten ourselves into a pulp, I make this refreshing Mexican beverage with the remaining watermelon inspired by the fruity agua fresca that we were introduced to at our first duty station in El Paso, Texas. Having grown up enjoying most fruits with little salt and periperi chili for spice, I wanted to experiment a little here. Korean dried chili powder gochugaru has a fruity quality and great depth of flavor. Combining it with salt and sugar to embellish your highball glasses with some sweet and spicy magic before pouring the agua fresca helps to highlight the flavor of this fruity drink. If you're short on gochugaro, use any other fruity chili powder like dried ancho, vasilla, urfa viber, or aleppo pepper. So yes, I love aguas frescas. Aguas frescas, if you don't know what they are, it literally translates to refreshing water. I guess it's called that because it's refreshing because it's made with fruit or I guess it's all fruit. I was gonna say vegetables, but I guess cucumbers are cucumbers of fruit. But yes, so there's like agua de bebino, which is agua cucumber water, there's agua de melon, melon water, limonada lemonade. It's just more, it's flavored more naturally than like store-bought powdered lemonade. Anyway. So moving on to the next time she mentions it, which is in the introduction for her date night steak with rosemary miso butter. Right after my husband's first appointment to Kuwait ended, we got married and moved into a small apartment in El Paso, Texas to begin a new life. For a whole year prior, I had waited for DJ while I taught in South Korea where we first met. It was such a relief to step off the airplane in America and see him for the first time in so long and in good health. This is part of her introduction for steak and cheesy egg and breakfast tacos. Was I let down by that burrito? Yes, indeed. Side note, the burrito she's referring to is a taco bell burrito. So yes, not surprising that she was let down by a taco bell burrito. Anyway, back to her introduction. Was I laid down by that burrito? Yes, indeed. It wasn't the greatest, but I wanted to know more about Tex-Mex flavors. And it just so happened that I moved to El Paso, Texas, one year later when my husband got stationed at Fort Bliss. There, fully immersed in the vibrant community on the border, I ate delicious Tex-Mex cuisine to my heart's content. I eventually incorporated some of those flavors into my own cooking. Now I wake up some morning thinking about how to make the ultimate breakfast taco. Cheesy scrambled eggs tucked into warm corn bordillas with sliced steak, store bois, pico de rayo, and a creamy avocado jalapeno sauce is my go-to. Just the thought of these motivates me to get the day started. That is it, or this El Paso shout-out. So looking forward to heading out to the mountains and seeing my hometown. It's quite beautiful and special, and I and I really have a lot of love for my hometown. So, although I don't know that we do definitely have Tex-Mex in El Paso. So I'm wondering if she had more Tex-Mex than Mexican food, because we do have like a lot of legit Mexican food that is not Tex-Mex. But anyway, not the point. Today we are here to talk about Monster. So, yeah, I just wanna say, I guess I'm a little scared to talk about this episode or to talk about this series because this is such a critically acclaimed manga and anime. And I just have a feeling I'm gonna have a lot of angry people coming at me because I did not love it. I didn't hate it by any means. I did not hate it. I thought it was just okay, but people just get really passionate about the things they love. Look, I get it, I get it. I the things I love, I really love, but I'm not gonna come at anyone for not liking something that I love. I don't understand that. We're allowed to have different opinions. I may ask questions like, how could you not like it? And I know that seems rather aggressive, but I don't mean it in an aggressive matter. It's more of just like, I'm curious to know why you didn't like it because I loved it so much. And were there parts that I absolutely loved that you hated? And I'm curious as to why you hated them. So I do like having those discussions as long as everyone is respectful, but still it's a little worrying to come after something that is so popular. So yeah, this has such high ratings on Goodreads. This has such high ratings overall. The anime and the manga both have such high ratings, and yeah, so I'm a little nervous because I did not love it. I I thought it was just okay. I think there's better mangas and there's better animes out there, but so let's get into it. Monster by Nayoki Uhisawa was published between December 1994 until December 2001 for a total of 18 original volumes. I read the perfect edition, which means that there was nine volumes. So there's they combined two of the original volumes into one to make this perfect edition. So, yes, they're thick volumes. And I mean, I started watching the series earlier this year, and it's taken me about half a year to watch the series in in its entirety and read all thick volumes of the manga. So it is quite hefty and it's kind of dense, but just letting you know that I read the perfect edition. So still the same story, just perfect edition. Nine thick volumes as opposed to 18 slimmer volumes. So the story follows Dr. Kenzo Tenma, who is a Japanese doctor working in Germany. He's highly respected. He is so good at his job. He's engaged to Ava Heinemann, who is the daughter of the hospital director, but he kind of starts becoming disillusioned when he realizes that the hospital is more focused on saving more well-known patients as opposed to those that are more in dire need. All of this comes to a head when fraternal twins, Johan and Anna Liebert, are admitted to the hospital after a massacre at their house. Johan has a gunshot wound to his head and needs immediate emergency surgery. Tenma is about to operate on him when he is told to ignore the boy. Someone else will work on him, and Tenma is told to instead work on the mayor of Dusseldorf, who arrived slightly after Johan, is also in critical condition. But again, Tenma is the best, so he is told to work on the mayor, who has more power and influence than this random little boy. Tenma decides to disregard this and tells the other doctor that was gonna take over for him to take over and work on the mayor. And Tenma works on Johan as he was the first one to arrive. Johan survives, the mayor dies, and this brings all sorts of repercussions to Tenma. There is retaliation against him at work, so it's his career stalls, he's passed over for promotions, even though he deserves them. Ava breaks up their engagement, his colleagues start to ostracize him, just a lot of repercussions. Shortly after all of this, though, the director of the hospital, director Heinemann, and other doctors who were the most critical about Tenma and his decision are murdered. The twins disappear. And although there is no evidence, Tenma is the main suspect. We flash forward nine years, and Tenma is now the chief of surgery. He treats a man by the name of Adolf Youngers, who lets him know that a monster is on his way. As Yunkers is recovering, Tenma goes to visit him and finds the guard that was supposed to be guarding Youngers is dead and Adolf Youngers is missing. He tracks him down and sees Yonkers killed at gunpoint by Johann Liebert. So again, now this is nine years later. Johan Liebert is now around 19 or 20 years old. Tenma soon realizes that this is the monster that Yonkers warned him about, and he's kind of second-guessing whether or not he made the right decision to save Johan. In all of this, we are introduced to BKA Inspector Long, who is determined to prove that Tenma is the one behind all these murders. Tenma finds Anna, Johan's twin sister. She has been adopted by another family and now goes by the name of Nina Fortner. She has moved on. She does not remember any of the events of the massacre and her and her brother's time at the hospital and her disappearance and all that. The only evidence that she has are just recurring nightmares of the situation, but otherwise she does not remember. On her birthday, Tenma lets her know that Johan is back. And despite this warning, he is unable to stop Johan from now murdering her adoptive parents, and Anna is now involved in this. As Tenma investigates Johan's backstory, he discovers that Johan for a time was at 511 Kinderheim, which is an orphanage that was tied to an East German eugenics project, and these children were brainwashed with psychological manipulation and twisted literature into becoming soulless monsters. So that is what happened to Johan. Tenma decides that he needs to stop Johan at all costs. And so he goes across Germany, Prague, Czechoslovakia. This takes him like all over this part of Europe. And as he tries to discover all the threads that Johan is leaving behind, he's evading authorities in the meantime. And yeah, everything that Tenma finds out about Johan lets him know that Johan needs to come to an end. He's just causing too much chaos. And Tenma's whole journey from beginning to end is one in which he is trying to atone for his past and to make up and to stop Johan from committing all sorts of evil and devastation everywhere he goes. The monster anime was adapted in 2004 and it follows Tenma, who is a brilliant neurosurgeon, after he risks his career to save the life of a critically wounded young boy. Nine years later, this boy reappears and seems to be the cause of a string of unusual serial murders. So yeah, honestly, this episode's gonna be a little bit different because there's not much to discuss in terms of the adaptation and any changes that were made because there were none. I mean, there were like very, very minor, not worth bringing up. Manga is already such a visual medium that it's easy to adapt that into an anime. So, like if you compare the manga frame by frame, it'll match up almost exactly to the anime shot for shot. So this is completely faithful. There's like some the minor changes that I'm talking about were just maybe some things were like the order of some events were rearranged in the anime just to keep the flow of the anime a little bit smoother. Some frames from the manga were expanded upon again just to help with the overall flow and storytelling of the anime. But otherwise, what you get in the manga is exactly what you get in the anime. So there are no differences really to talk about and why changes were made, things like that. So yeah, there's nothing really to compare. So this episode's gonna be a little bit different because I'm just going to talk about why I thought it was just okay. And I can see why people like it. I can see why people really, really love it. I can see why it was critically acclaimed, but I just had a lot of issues and I just had some things that I could not get over, and so that made it difficult for me to fully enjoy the series, both the manga and the anime. This is a slow burn, and when I say a slow burn, I mean a very slow burn, and it was hard for me to stay into it. I don't mind slow burns, but this one was a little too slow for me personally. It was hard for me to get into it, and it there was also just some like pacing issues with both, in which there would be like really high intense moments, and I was just really into the story, really, really into it. And then we'd go to a new episode and the pacing would go back to being slow. The episode would end on such a high of like, oh my gosh, we can't wait to see what happens next. And then the new episode would start, and it's like we're following a completely new character with a completely new storyline. Now, I will say every single character, every single storyline either comes back around to Tenma, most of the time it comes back around to Johan as everything comes back to him. He's the catalyst for everything, so it all comes back to him. So it's not like we're introduced to characters and it's like, well, why were we introduced to that person or why were we introduced to this scenario? It all does tie back to Johan ultimately, but it just was just really jarring sometimes to go from like that was really cool, and then to oh, but I want to know what happens to this other person. And a lot of the times we would catch up to that other person, but by then it was like, well, I've already got invested in this other storyline, and now you want me to come back and be invested into this other character's all over again storyline. So that was more of my issue with the series, and what I'm just gonna call it the series since there are absolutely no differences between the two, or like I said, no differences worth talking about. So it was just like it was just hard to I think that was my overall issue with the series, was just the pacing of it was just so so slow, and then at times jarring for me to go from like that was really cool, what's gonna happen now, to oh okay, like now I have to care about a whole new person, a whole new storyline. This, in terms of other issues that I had with the manga or with the series, Tenma I felt was just too perfect of a main character. He's great, he's really, really sweet, but he is just too perfect. Like there is nothing as a doctor that he cannot do. Like, there are great doctors out there, but I don't think as fantastic as a doctor is, I don't think there's any doctor that has a 100% track record. That's just not realistic. But okay, so Temma's gonna have a 100% record. That's fine. That's not my main issue. My main issue is that doctors are not knowledgeable about every single thing. That's why there's different specialties: ENTs, neurosurgeons, pediatricians. That's why there's different specialties within the medical field. Now, that being said, can a doctor, a heart doctor, operate on a brain or vice versa in a pinch? Sure. But like I hope you understand what I'm trying to say. It's just the fact that Tenma, like, no matter what part of the body, what kind of injury is presented to him, he's able to operate perfectly or perform whatever the medical service needed perfectly each and every time. And then this is such a nitpicky thing. I understand that. And it didn't really bother me watching the anime as much, but for whatever reason, once I got to the manga, it was like, and listen, he's so sweet, he's so like he's I don't know, like he's a very, very nice person, but he's just a little too perfect. And even just like his, you know, he's hesitant to kill anyone, including Johan, because of his doctor training. Doctors are not aiming to kill people, their aim is to save as much people as they can. And I do understand that. But like the hesitation also is part of it, is that he's just not some people are just not killers. I do understand that. I don't know that I could kill anyone, even if it had to come down to it. I mean, if it really had to come down to it, I'm sure I could, but I don't know. Like, he's great, you do root for him, but he's just a little too perfect in my like there's no flaws to this man, and there's nothing wrong with having at least one or two flaws. So there's that. We also have some of the most obnoxious characters known to man. Inspector Lung, hate him. Ava, hate her. Roberto, hate him. Like the three of them are just some of the most obnoxious characters ever put to page and screen. I just like every single time they were on page or the screen, I was like, uh, here we go again. Ava, at least she does end up having. Having a nice character arc. She stops being as annoying as she is at the beginning. Towards the end, she does have a nice little character arc. And so I you don't, or at least I didn't hate her from beginning to end. But my goodness, which the times when she was when I hated her, like she was just, but she was not the worst. The worst is definitely Roberto and Inspector Lung. You're not supposed to root for Roberto, he is one of the villains. He's working with Johan. He was, it's later revealed that he was at one of the ones at 511 Kinderheim, so he was also psychologically brainwashed and part of the eugenicist experiment. Another monster, not to the extreme of Johan, I guess, which I will get into Johan as well, but so I you're not supposed to root for him. He's a villain, but like there's villains that are like you love to root against them. They're just so delicious and three-dimensional, and just like I hate you so much, but there's something about you that's like so cool. Like, I still hope you get defeated because you're evil and you you should be defeated. But there's like such like this, they're not annoying. And Roberta's just straight up annoying. And though, like, even the way he's drawn, he just has like this most smug look on his face. Could not stand him. Inspector Long. Oh gosh. So he's just he's one of those characters that is like married to his job, he ends up losing his family. That's not my issue. That happens, unfortunately. That's not my issue. My issue is just that he's so like, I'm right, and you're wrong. And I know Tenma is the culprit, and he thinks Tenma is the culprit for like half or more than half of the series, which it like it happens, I guess. We have our biases, and these biases make us think that we're onto something, even when we're not sometimes, I guess. But there is I just could not stand this man because it's just like you have no evidence to support you. Your only evidence is I'm putting myself in the perpetrator's shoes or the alleged perpetrator's shoes, and this is what he would do. Yes, I am Dr. Tenma as Dr. Tenma. This is my next move, blah blah blah. And conveniently, like he gets it right. Like, not Tenma's next move, but Johan's next move without realizing that it's Johan's next move. But it's also like, that's so this guy is just magical. Like he can just like there's no other detective work going on other than I'm putting myself in this person's shoes. Got it. I know what his next move is. Like, okay, whatever. I will suspend my disbelief, I guess. Except he's just so unlikable that it's like, I don't want to suspend my disbelief. Like, F you, move on from this theory that it's Tenma. It's not. Like, you have found evidence at this point. You have also heard people tell you. I think that was the other annoying thing, is just like he has found evidence that it's not Tenma, but he insists that it's Tenma. And then he's also had like several witnesses tell him, like, it's not Tenma, it's Johan. His logical conclusion at that point is like, got it. Tenma has dissociative identity disorder, and so Johan is just a different personality. It's like, bro, what the hell is wrong with you? No, they no, so he's just annoying because of that aspect. And like, I just could not stand either of these characters, Roberto and Inspector Lung, more so than Ava. Ava, like I said, does at least have the redemption arc. She stops being annoying after a while. But Inspector Lung and Roberto, gosh, there have never been more annoying characters. Like, I cannot think, I'm sure there's other characters that I'm not thinking of at the moment, but like there have never been more obnoxious characters. Like, I just I cannot. I could not with them. Like, I they were just so freaking annoying. I just could not, I could not. Those were my minor netpikes. Like I said, Tenma, he is a great leading character, and you are rooting for him, but I do wish there was more to him. Just he's just a little too perfect, as I said. And the one character I'm not gonna name, who I absolutely adored, is of course the one that meets that dies. It's like this is the one that I would go to battle for. This is and of course he's the one that dies. Why does he have to die? Like, why can't everyone else die? So moving on to Johan. My main issue with Johan is just that his plot, his motivation, his final, his ultimate plan for evil. Yeah, like his ultimate goal, his ultimate plan for evil is just so incredibly convoluted. And it's just like, I honestly don't know how we got from point A to point B in this plan, because this plan is completely nonsensical. And I I saw the anime, I read the manga, and like the ultimate explanation for it is that he's a monster. He's like the perfect agent of chaos, like the ultimate what they were trying to create at 511 Kinderheim, which was like the perfect race, but not only the perfect race, like the perfect breed of soldiers that feel no remorse and can go after anyone or anything and just destroy anything in their path. Like the perfect soldier. That ended up being Johan, like none of the other experiments worked out so well. So it's like, okay, so he's doing this because he's evil, but so like the murders he commits. I can understand why he committed those murders, and I guess you could say his like lack of motivation for them. They were, he's just evil and he wants to kill people. Okay, I can accept that. At some point, he ends up changing his mind, and that's when we're introduced to the vampire of Bavaria, and that's when he admits, like, my plan has changed, my original plan has changed, and now it's this. And I'm still just like, I still can't really tell you what his ultimate plan was. Could I tell you what his ultimate plan was? No, and that is one of the minor complaints that people seem to have, and I say it was a major issue for me, but minor because some and I I say minor just because it is still so blooded, and but a lot of people did find it that it was a little hard to follow at times. So it wasn't just me, but it's still like, yeah, I'm just like, I what is your ultimate goal? What is your ultimate plan? Yeah, it was just like really, really convoluted. It was and yeah, I was just like, I don't understand what your end goal is, Johan. Like, I understand that like if he was just out to create chaos and like everywhere he went because he's evil. I can accept that. But the fact that they keep talking about his master plan or his or he caught keeps talking about like this is like the final, his final, his end game, his final goal, or whatever is this. But it's still like so just do that from the beginning. Like you didn't need to do half the stuff that you did. Like, that's what I mean from like, I don't know how we got from point A to point B. It's like we went from point A to point M to point T just to circle back to point B. It's like there you could just you could have just gone from point A to point B, bro. Like, this plan makes absolutely no sense. You're making things a lot more complicated for you. I'm not an evil person, I'm not confrontational. I feel like I could have come up with your final plan like much faster and easier than you did. And I'm not evil. So I why is it easier for me to plan this thing than it is for you? And like the whole like, well, he wants to create me he's evil and he wants to create chaos everywhere he goes. Okay, you can still create chaos everywhere you go without and still get to point A to point B pretty easily. So those are my main, those are my complaints. I just felt like some of those characters are just so annoying. Tenma's a little too perfect, but he's still a great main character. He's still a great character. Don't get me wrong. I still really, really like Tenma. He's a little too perfect. And just Johan's plot is so convoluted, so you're making things way more complicated than they need to be. Just do it, just do your plan. Like, just stop. And then the ending, which I'm also not gonna talk about since there's no reason to do spoilers in this, but the final moments. I'm just like, did we learn nothing? And mind you, don't get me wrong, the ending is kind of ambiguous, kind of up for interpretation. But when I finished the series, I was like, are you freaking kidding me? This is I don't need an ending tied up with the bow, but seriously? Did did we learn nothing? Did we learn nothing? That's all I'm gonna say. Did we learn nothing? Ugh. So yeah, this is not a terrible series. It's just I just think there's way better manga, way better animes out there that are easier to understand, that are a lot more fun, and yeah, I don't know. There I just thought this was okay. I mean, if you're really into manga, if you're really into anime, you might like it. Like I said, I'm I'm more of a casual manga reader and anime watcher, and this is a critically acclaimed series, and this was I think number five on the list of mangas that people want to see brought to life in a live action version. The live action versions, I feel like they're kind of hit or miss. This one is very easy to make it a miss, if I'm being honest. But if you're really into manga and anime, check it out for yourself. Like I said, this is very, very critically acclaimed. This was just not for me. I was not a fan of it. But you might be if this is more of the stuff you check out more often. To me, I wouldn't, I would say it's a skip, it's a miss. I would there's other series I would recommend over this. But let me know what you think if you've read it or if you've seen it, if you're one of the people that absolutely love it. Yeah. Editing Yuvia here, I almost forgot to give you a winner. This is my second time recording this because I don't know what happened to my microphone. But uh okay. Anyway, so I gave the manga an average rating of three stars across the volumes, and I gave the anime a rating of three and a half stars. But as odd as this sounds, the winner is the manga. So while though I gave it a lower rating overall, I just felt I understood things a little bit more easily while reading it than I did while watching it. And I also just felt so much more strongly for the characters. The characters that I said I absolutely hated and that I absolutely loved. I did hate them while watching the anime, but reading about them just I just felt so much more passionately about ever each and every single one of them. So the winner is the manga. That is it for this week's episode of Books versus Movies. If you liked what you heard, please give it a rating and review. Tell your friends all about it, help me grow this little community, and I will see you next time. Bye.