"Monster...? There is no such thing as monsters. Johan was a human being... And while we call those people who commit murder without blinking an eye 'monsters,' we cannot lose the act of murder. We must look at them head-on, and see them as humans. We must remember that they are not monsters, but human beings with names like all the rest of us... That is the key to understanding what Johan was, exactly."
Monster is one of the most misunderstood works of fictions ever. The problem lies with a complete lack of understanding about the motivation of the main antagonist, Johan Liebert. Johan is commonly misunderstood to be nothing more than a nihilist who seeks catharsis in destruction, without any further or deeper meaning to any of his actions besides a desire to affirm his life through destruction, from which he derives pleasure. However, such a thesis makes little to no sense because it is never showed at any time throughout the series that Johan derives pleasure from his killings in the same way a pleasure killer does, like Lunge describes in chapter 4 of Another Monster. Instead, Johan only disposes of individuals whom know his identity from the brief period during which he exploited or manipulated them to further his goals. As such, Johan does not kill for senseless pleasure but out of necessity and caution to hide any traces of his identity, and therefore to eliminate any potential risk that he would be unable to achieve his goals. In episode 64 of the anime, or more specifically, from 21:27 to 22:56, it is revealed that all the schemes Johan had orchestrated were all coordinated in-order to protect his sister, Nina, from the monster in Monster. Some have criticised my theory because they believe it was Johan’s intent for Nina to die when Roberto attempted to kill her. However, such criticism is refuted by the following clarification in chapter 26 of Another Monster:
"It is not easy to understand why Roberto, Johan's faithful servant, wanted to kill Nina. But it's possible to guess if we assume that it was his own initiative and not Johan's order. As might be expected from such a capable subordinate, he may have wanted to get rid of what he knew to be Johan's only weakness as soon as possible."
The reason why Nina is Johan's "only weakness" is because he loves her and therefore cannot bring himself to kill her. This was caused by an event that happened during his childhood. When Johan and Nina's mother was forced to decide whether to give Johan or Nina to Bonaparta for an exeriment, she first chose Johan but then chose Nina instead. Did she mistake Johan for his sister, or did she not love either of them? Keep in mind, they were dressed alike and looked identical. The anxiety caused by existence of the dilemma rather than by the answer to the dilemma is what caused Johan to become a monster; it is what caused Johan to become nihilistic since he believed that he was not wanted or loved by anyone. After all, even his own mother had abandoned him. And so, the only person he had left in the entire world was his sister, Nina, whom he decided he wanted to protect.
"Were you born because you were wanted? Why were you abandoned? Didn't your mother abandon you because she didn't like you? Being born really isn't that uncommon... Almost everything in this world is meant to die. In this world, a life born is nothing more than an insignificant speck... and shouldn't even be counted as an existence. Death is natural. Then why are you alive? Is it because someone wanted you? Who wanted you? What us your reason for living?"
Although Johan's action may at first glance seem devoid of any deeper meaning beyond that of senseless destruction, they are in actuality motivated by his desire to defend Nina from what he perceives to be a monster, which came to give rise to the appearance of a certain pattern that repeats itself three times throughout Monster: Johan pointing to his forehead when Nina discovered that he had killed the Lieberts; Johan pointing to his forehead when Tenma and Nina confronted him at the book collection donation ceremony; Johan pointing to his forehead when Tenma confronted him in Ruhenheim. For this to happen, Johan has to fulfil three conditions: to protect Nina from the perceived monster (what Johan believes threatens her) and to also keep her oblivious about its existence in-order to not frighten her; to kill or run from the monster in-order to deal the threat; to commit suicide when Nina comes to perceive him as a monster (a threat to her existence) after having learnt of his killings. This has unanimousyl been dubbed the so-called “perfect suicide” by many fans. However, I and Naoki prefer to call it by what it is referrred to as in the context of the story, “the landscape of the end.” It is there the boy, Johan, from the picture book The Nameless Monster, stands alone without anyone at his aid at the top of a hill, after he has completed his mission: to shoulder the burden of Nina's troubles and trauma, which is represented by Johan devouring the other monster, his other half, Nina. As a side note, the reason why Tenma is also able to see the landscape of the end as opposed to Roberto is because he is just like Johan in that regard. They both shoulder the burden of other people's responsiblities without caring for their own welfare.
"But if no one calls out to you... that means nobody wanted you. What will you do then? What will you do?"
Johan perceives himself and Nina to be the same person instead of two different people due to their upbringing. When they were kids, they wore the same clothing and had the haircut. As such, they seemed indentical. However, he perceives himself to be the evil side of the personality, whereas Nina is the good side of the personality. Therefore, even if he were to die, he would still be alive since Nina would still be alive.
"I was born in a town that was straight out of a fairytale. Many people died. I held the hand of my other half and walked. There were only two like us. We didn't have names."
This is illustrated in the picture book The God of Peace, in which the God of Peace is always busy. He is too busy to look in a mirror because he has to maintain the prosperity of the land and the happiness of the people. The God of Peace gives everyone a name: he gives one boy the name "Johan," who, as a token of gratitude, gives the God of Peace his hat. The God of Peace, then, looks into a mirror to see if the hat suits him. However, when he does look into the mirror, what he sees in the mirror is not a reflection of himself but instead a demon who suddenly claims: "I am you, and you are me. The God of Peace asks himself: "What should I do?"
"The god… pointed the gun… at his forehead!"
Due to Johan’s memory loss after having been shot in the forehead, he forgot many important memories about his and Nina’s past. Particularly, he had forgotten that the only person who was aware of their escape from the Red Rose Mansion and probably from Kinderheim 511, too, was Bonaparta. To Johan, Bonaparta was a monster for the things he had done to both him and Nina. As such, he wanted to escape from his influence. But since he believed Bonaparta to be actively searching for them in-order to retrieve them, he came to believe that every person that they met would eventually betray their trust by turning them over to the authorities due to them believing that they were orphans, which would lead to Bonaparta discovering their whereabouts and coming to retrieve them. In reality, however, Bonaparta instead wished for their escape from the Red Rose Mansion and allowed Johan and Nina the opportunity to escape by tampering with the number of dead bodies buried in the garden of the Red Rose Mansion from 42 to 46 skeleton remains.
"She [Nina] remembered that back then, Bonaparta had let her escape from the Red Rose Mansion. 'Run far away. Run as far away from here as you can...' he told her. 'Human beings can become anything.' He touched her cheek with his hand and continued, 'You are both beautiful jewels. That's why you must not become monsters.'"
When Johan lost his memories of Bonaparta, his fear of Bonaparta (the perceived monster) through others morphed into a desire to genocide humanity when the corruption amongst the director and staff at Eisler Memorial Hospital made Johan realise that he had not escaped from the monster. As such, he sought to exterminate the societal monster once and for all because it was a threat to the safety of Nina. But then he discovered the picture book The Nameless Monster, by which Johan remembered what he had forgotten and subsequently came to realise that which threatens Nina is not societal, as presented to him by the hospital, but rather that Bonaparta is the only person who has hurt Nina. In other words, his desire for global genocide by crashing the European economy was unnecessary.
"The monster inside of me isn't inside of me. It's outside me. Franz Bonaparta… is alive."
In the last arc, Johan acts out his final plan: to kill Bonaparta and to commit suicide by proxy of Tenma. He wanted Tenma to understand that life is neither equal nor equitable, that people are not inherently good natured, and that some people are irredeemable; humans are only equal in death. However, Tenma refuses to listen to Johan and saves him, nonetheless. Although, in the first operation, Tenma saved Johan life, in the second operation, Tenma saved Johan’s soul because he gave him his true name. Much like in the picture book A Peaceful Home, in which a thief stops to commit crimes and simply leads a quiet life instead.
The thematic question in Monster is whether people are evil by nature or become evil by nurture. The answer is revealed at the end of the story when Grimmer is on his deathbed and his emotions return to him at the end of his life, despite Grimmer having undergone the brainwashing at Kinderheim 511 with the aim of suppressing his nature by desensitising him to cruelty and depriving him off his sense of individuality by depriving him off his name, familial linage, and past memories: people become evil (consumed by nihilism) when they are deprived off love and connection. That is why the conclusion of the experiments conducted at Kinderheim 511 about what made children able to resist the despair of nihilism was love: something most parents give to their children, but something Johan never received during his childhood.
Children are frequently featured in Monster due to their malleable potential to become either good or evil depending on the nurturing they receive during their childhood. It is portrayed through Johan’s characterisation, being mainly flashbacks into his childhood that subsequently reveal his backstory, that the nurture of his childhood corrupted him by nihilism. Tenma, on the other hand, lived a normal life and was therefore characterised through the nature of his character throughout the story as a good person. Moreover, Johan surrounded himself with children as he wanted to understand the nature of the human condition: he managed to turn good children into delinquents, as children are a paradoxical microcosm of both Johan and Tenma’s philosophies due to their childish innocence, even when they behave cruelly against their peers: Johan has no faith in humanity because he believes that nothing has any inherent meaning, whereas Tenma has faith in humanity since he believes that all humans have an inherent value because they are inherently good natured. Children have the innate potential to embody both of these beliefs, as they are cruel to each other, but at the end of the day, most children do not turn out like Johan, because they, contrary to Johan, received love from their parents when they grew up.
"If Johan was just placed in a loving home, had friends, his sister and caring parents; he most likely wouldn't have become a monster."