I prefer realistic/serious Anime, there is a lot of unlicensed stuff in Japan that has not come over to America. You can download these legally since there is no way to buy them in America. They are generally referred to as fansubs. The original Japanese voices are intact but a person adds in subtitles with translation. There is some really good stuff over there.
Monster is pretty deep storyline wise.
The series follows Dr. Kenzo Tenma (天馬 賢三, Tenma Kenzo?) as he pursues a young psychopath/sociopath named Johan, whose life Tenma once saved. The story rapidly progresses through a number of locations: it starts in Düsseldorf, Germany, passes through Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Wiesbaden, cities in the Czech Republic such as Prague, and other cities and villages.
The text on the cover of the first volume reads as follows:
"Dusseldorf, West Germany in 1986. One day, Dr. Kenzo Tenma ignored his boss's order and executed humanitarian rescue of a man's child. That's how this horrible story begins!!"
Dr. Kenzo Tenma is a young Japanese doctor working at the Eisler Memorial Hospital in Düsseldorf during the 80s. A highly accomplished brain surgeon, he appears to have everything on his plate: a promotion in the offing; the favor of the director of the hospital, Heinemann; and Heinemann's daughter, Eva, as fiancée. However, Tenma grows increasingly dissatisfied with the political bias of the hospital for treating patients, and seizes his chance to change things after a strange massacre brings the twins Johan and Anna Liebert into his hospital. Johan has a gunshot wound to the head and Anna keeps muttering about killing, and Tenma decides to operate on Johan instead of a prominent politician who arrived afterwards. Johan is saved, but the politician dies. Tenma loses all his social standing and Eva as a consequence. However, Heinemann and other doctors in Tenma's way are mysteriously murdered, and both children disappear from the hospital soon after. The police suspect Tenma, as he benefits greatly from this turn of events, but have no evidence, and so can do no more than question him.
At this point, the story advances to nine years later. Tenma is now the Chief of Surgery at Eisler Memorial Hospital. However, he is about to come face to face with a sociopath - a sociopath that he helped save.
A known criminal is found on the street, hit by a car. He comes under the care of Dr. Tenma, who observes him muttering about a "Monster". Then one evening when Dr. Tenma comes back with a clock as a gift for the criminal, he finds the guard in front of the criminal's room dead, and the criminal himself gone.
Following his trail to the construction site of a half finished building near the hospital, he finds the man. The man, who has developed a sort of doctor-patient friendship with Dr. Tenma, warns him against coming closer, and pleads with him to run away. Tenma refuses, however, and the identity of the man holding a gun pointed at the criminal in the abandoned parking garage is revealed to be the boy whose life Tenma had saved nine years ago, Johan. Despite Dr. Tenma's attempt to reason with him, Johan shoots the criminal, tells Tenma that he could never kill the man who had saved his life, then walks off into the night while Tenma is still too shocked to stop him. After this incident, Tenma is again suspected by the police, particularly Inspector Runge, and he tries to find more information about this 'Johan'. He soon discovers that the boy's sister, Nina, happily living the life of an adopted daughter to two caring parents, the only trace of her terrible past a few dreams she's had. He discovers her on her birthday, and manages to prevent her from meeting her brother, but comes too late to prevent Johan from murdering her foster parents. As the show progresses, Tenma learns of the origins of this monster, from the former East Germany's attempt to use a secret orphanage called Kinderheim 511 (where Johan came from) in order to create the "perfect soldiers" through "psychological reprogramming", to the author of a children's book which was used in a eugenics experiment in Czech Republic. He also learns about the scope of the atrocities this 'Monster' has committed, and he vows to fix the mistake he made when he saved Johan's life.
While Tenma is the main character of Monster, the story also focuses heavily on those surrounding his search for Johan, such as Inspector Runge (who is investigating Johan's various murders but pins them all on Tenma) and Nina Fortner (aka Anna Liebert, Johan's twin sister), and a host of other characters, minor and major, whose lives have been shaped by the deeds of the monster named 'Johan'.
More information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_mangashame this hasn't been licensed for the US but i've been watching the fansubs and it is pretty interesting.
Topic: Anyone here like Anime? (Japanese Animation/cartoons) (Read 16704 times)