Stream of the Week – Monster

I’m a huge Naoki Urasawa fan – HUGE. Definitely my all-time favorite mangaka beating out even Tezuka. I have all 18 volumes of Monster manga on my shelf, the first DVD Box from Viz, all 8 volumes of Pluto, and the current 8 volumes of 20th Century Boys. Plus, I have all the dubbed episodes of Monster that aired on SyFy saved on my DVR downstairs. I even gone as far as to write an essay of the series for my Comp class last semester –it’s pretty crazy. So when Viz decided to upload DUB (which is a first for Viz – everything else they stream is subbed only) Monster I was overjoyed to have the chance to legally share this epic series to everyone I knew.

Plot Summary:

I always have a difficult time in getting the ‘umph’ that is behind such a great series like Monster into a summary. Whenever I try to give one it sounds just boring, so let’s see (a bit long, in hindsight).

Enter the emergency room of Dr. Kenzo Tenma, the leading neurosurgeon at Eisler Memorial Hospital smack in the middle of Düsseldorf, Germany. One late-night case comes in with a set of twins whose parents had just been murdered in-front of their eyes, along with one of the twins having a bullet lodged into their brain. The one in need of the operation is the young Johan, while his sister, Anna, is lost in shock. Tenma rushes Johan into the operating room, putting off another dire operation of the mayor of the city, and attempts and successfully saves the boy. Days later, Johan and his sister are gone and Tenma never sees them again until another late night years later. Tenma enters a parking garage to find a suave young man holding another man to gunpoint. The young guy shoots the other with Tenma standing there. Tenma then recognizes the young man as Johan, and realizes that he saved a brutal monster. Half of the hospital staff is then murder and everything is put on Tenma. Now on the run from the law, Tenma starts his journey to stop this Monster from reeking havoc over Eastern Europe and to vindicate his name.

Review:

As I said above, I love Urasawa. His unique and detailed art style, his dark and psychological storytelling — everything just melts together into one of the best stories I’ve ever come across in my life. I always tell people unfamiliar with manga or anime (and even to some who are but are iffy about watching it), that if Monster was not told through the medium of manga and anime, but rather novel, there is no doubt in my mind that it would go a international bestseller. It is so enthralling and elaborate that even without Urasawa’s detailed art with adds a whole delicious layer to the tale, the story alone could hold audience worldwide.

With that aside, I have to say this is one of Viz’s finer dubs in recent years. It wasn’t dubbed by Bang Zoom, though, but a smaller company named Salami Studios. They did the dubs for Honey and Clover, Busou Renkin, as well as Viz’s newest dub Kekkaishi. Even though the dub is from a rather small company, some ‘big name’ English voice actors came on to give this series an overall pleasant dub. Liam O’Brien really is able to get into Tenma’s character and really bring out the rather mixed emotions he has at time, and Karen Strassman, whom at first I didn’t think really fit the role of Anna, really is able to pick it up and get her solidly down. Also to note that no accents were used in the dub even though the series occurs all throughout Europe. Was really hoping Roberto at least would have an awesome accent as his voice actor, J.B. Blanc, did the voice of the Vatican’s hard-arm Escariot leader Enrico Maxwell from Hellsing, but alas, none of that for Monster. Another note is that some of the music used in the Japanese version was unable to be licensed for an English release. Although it is a pity, if does little effect on harming your experience of the series. Seeing it for the first time in English, you won’t even notice (for you who have seen the Japanese version, a few certain BGM were replaced, ED1 is instrumental, and ED2 is non-existant). No biggie there.

Where to Find It:

You can find Monster online on Hulu or YouTube. This, of course, is only the English dub. There currently are no streams for the Japanese version with English subtitles. If you care for a dual-audio experience, head on over to your favorite anime retailer and pick up the first box which includes the first thirteen episodes. Viz has yet to release a second one, but hopefully they will continue.