One of the best crime thrillers ever made, which audiences claim is “better than Breaking Bad,” is currently streaming on Netflix, and it deserves to be binge-watched this weekend. Breaking Bad was one of the founding three of prestige TV (alongside The Sopranos and Mad Men) and is often regarded as one of, if not the greatest TV series ever made. Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul’s crime thriller ran for five seasons between 2008 and 2013, earning 16 Emmys in the process and becoming the highest-rated TV series on IMDb. Breaking Bad is currently streaming on Netflix. But the streaming service is also home to one of the most underrated crime thrillers of the 2000s. It was released four years before Breaking Bad and, to some audiences, it’s even better than Vince Gilligan’s hit series.
We’re talking about none other than Monster, the 75-episode crime thriller anime. All episodes of Monster are streaming on Netflix, and the series needs more love from non-anime fans. Don’t let the fact that it’s anime put you off. Monster has long been called one of the greatest anime ever made, and anime’s answer to prestige TV like The Sopranos and the aforementioned Breaking Bad. It’s a common compliment that the series receives, especially on the anime ratings platform, MyAnimeList. “Monster might be better than Breaking Bad,” wrote one user, rating the show 10/10 stars, while another praised the show’s tense story, saying “Monster plays out like a macabre game of cat and mouse in a world that is frighteningly similar to real life.”
The story is based on the manga by Naoki Urasawa (who himself is a legendary storyteller, also writing Pluto and 20th Century Boys), who adapted the manga into the anime. The manga began serialization in 1994 and ran until 2001. Madhouse animated the series, establishing their reputation as one of the giants of the industry years before they would work on modern classics like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Orb: On the Movements of the Earth, and Sonny Boy. The official synopsis reads:
“Tenma, a brilliant neurosurgeon with a promising future, risks his career to save the life of a critically wounded young boy. The boy, now a charismatic young man, reappears 9 years later in the midst of a string of unusual serial murders.”
‘Monster’ Is a Western Crime Drama in Anime Form
Monster isn’t just a phenomenal series. It’s also one of the best starter anime for newcomers to the medium. Anime has a deserved reputation for being a bit over-the-top. Even serious dramas and thrillers contain wacky moments of off-kilter humor and childish animation. But Monster is different.
Monster is a HBO-esque crime thriller through and through… it just so happens to be in the form of animation. Naoki Urasawa is renowned for writing realistic and grounded characters and incredibly tense stories, even in his more sci-fi heavy stories like Pluto (which is also a Netflix series). Tenma, the show’s protagonist, is incredibly complex and tortured. But it’s the show’s villain, Johan Liebert, who has gone down in storytelling history as one of the greatest villains ever written. He’s terrifying, calculated, nihilistic, and unrelenting in his mission. Every now and again, a great villain comes along that fans never forget (like Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight), and Johan Liebert is one of them.
- Release Date
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April 7, 2004
- Directors
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Masayuki Kojima, Morio Asaka
- Writers
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Tatsuhiko Urahata, Naoki Urasawa
