Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Monster – episode 72

February 1, 2006 on 5:02 pm | In Monster | 1 Comment

“A man without a name”

A game of table turning clouds up Johan’s motives once more. Involves a revelation that’s painfully obvious in retrospect; but will it mean anything?

Spoilers ahead!

Lunge goes up to Roberto’s room and lets his guard down for a split second. There is an incredibly tense battle that consists entirely of Roberto and Lunge taking turns at outsmarting each other. More pitiable aspects of Poppe are revealed, and perhaps we now know Johan’s true goal.

I was surprised that Roberto’s taunts actually worked on Lunge; his dedication to his family has been quite lacking up until now, so to react as he did was rather unexpected. The fact that Roberto told him that the only thing that he has left is chasing after Tenma should have strengthened his resolve rather than weakening it. Having come so far and lost so much, Lunge should be dedicated to victory.
He didn’t die here, but I expected slightly more intelligence from him; at the very least he shot to fatally wound, rather than just annoyingly hinder.

It’s amazing that I’ve never considered the loss of Monster before; very few of the major characters have not lost anything significant either over the course of the series, or had lost something beforehand to make them “incomplete” people. Offhand I can think only of the characters of Munich, but even their knowing Johan certainly came at a heavy price.

The revelation that Roberto was, in fact, Grimmer’s only childhood friend comes only as a shock when you consider the very different paths that they have taken: they’re of the same background, yet they chose a different “side” of reality. I’d compare this situation to that of Johan and Nina, but the difference there was that Nina blocked her memories and Johan mishandled his own; neither Roberto nor Grimmer had complete control of their minds.
I would have to know exactly what Johan said to trigger Roberto’s memory, but if it had worked anything as it should have, Roberto should have recalled that he once had a friend; that he did not hate everyone.

As for Johan’s plan: I don’t understand it at all. Tenma is to become the only survivor; the man without a name. I cannot conceive of this plan, or what purpose it serves. This calls for another meeting of Johan and Tenma, because anything that other characters say is little more than speculation.
The interesting parallel is that drawn between Poppe and Tenma.
“I created a monster,” says Poppe. “And I revived him,” says Tenma.
These characters are not really comparable; Tenma never killed everyone who knew about the twins or their mother, for one thing. Actually, that’s pretty much the entire argument: Poppe made Johan a monster, but Tenma served only to prolong the monstrosity. Tenma is human and doing something for the greater good, while Poppe has always been motivated purely by selfishness. He can now feel the pain of others, but he acts for his own benefit.

Nina’s memories in the “vampire house” were a cold link to Johan; now she knows that she is in exactly the wrong place. For one who understands Johan as she does, she could kindly let us know a little bit more.

It’s the final countdown; you know the drunk has been kept alive for a reason.