What was his problem?

He was literally Hitler

>>156252222
Nothing suggest he is even evil or has anything. The more you go back to his origins, the more you find out there was nothing to kickstart his intents until the very last moment of the show. And it all comes down to one thing, why is he doing anything? Even with the explanation for his mother corrupting him, it makes no sense initially
.
The answer is that he's trying to get someone to kill him. Because he's bored and above humanity. Like he says, he's just messing with the line of ants to see what happens. Humanity bores him. Creating chaos is interesting to him because he sees no purpose in life. Johan attained the top at a very young age and felt that there was nothing more to life. He had his own criminal underground organization of money laundry. He learned multiple languages. He traveled the world. He understands human nature perfect. To Johan, there is nothing left to do.

Because of this, he sees only the cruel and ugly nature of humans. He only sees the world as being ugly. So he figured out a way to make the world pretty. To do so, he would fight fate and destiny itself.
One of the key aspects of Johan that you need to pay attention is whenever he talks to children. He is very open about his true feelings and what he thinks to children much more than adult. This is because Johan feels he never really became an adult.

In one episode, he tells children to go fight on the roof. To both stare at each other and tempt fate. If one falls, then you defeated 'his' fate. And once you succeed, you see the world differently. That kid that fell and the kid that won both saw the world in a different light. Essentially, this is what Johan does. He temps and fights fate by trying to see if he can make people try and kill him.

>>156252222
This is essentially why he went to kill that person in front of Tenma at the beginning of the show, 10 years after the operation. Simply to tempt Tenma to spend his life searching him. Johan would have continued that game of cat and mouse, to tempt fate, but unlocking his past memories made him change his tune.
This is also why he went to see his sister on her 20th birthday. He had absolutely no reason to do that but he did it just to fuck with her.

Johan seeks joy in seeing if he can fuck with a person so badly that he can corner himself with that person, then use as little energy as possible to get out of the situation.
He's playing the biggest game of dare imaginable. This is why he points at his forehead.

And the brilliance of this is that no one can understand this about him. Even the characters in the show never figure it out. Johan is essentially lying completely by making it seem as though he has motives or passions or connections when he absolutely doesn't. The Nazi think he even loves his sister when he doesn't. The only reason he cares and protects her is simply to make sure she can corner him to see if he can get out of cornering himself.

Johan simply lies and lies the entire time.
It's the whole ''the monster inside of me is growing'' bit that shows that insight.
He's fucking with people so they can seek him out. Like the psychologist explained, psychopath love to taunt people into thinking there is something they can't control and Johan does this the entire time.
Johan's past becomes the drive for wanting to seek and stop him and he's letting everyone try and find him by purposefully leaving as little clues as possible.

>>156252222
And so we come to the ending.
The brilliance of the ending of Monster is that Johan is doing the opposite of what he's been doing with people. After he finds out about his mother's past, he understand that he finally has a purpose in life.

When Johan is wearing a wig, dressed as his sister, and is talking to the kid who later went to the Red light district, Johan is talking about life being meaningless, not having a place in the world and not being wanted, Johan is talking to himself about himself. That's how he sees himself, meaningless, like the world as a whole, to him.

So, in the end, Johan creates a perfect scenario that leaves a village killing itself and forces Tenma's hand to kill. Unlike in the past where Johan was playing with fate to see how far he could go before getting caught, Johan is testing to see if he can plan a perfect suicide and wonder if fate can save him somehow.

And as it turns out, it happened. Something outside of Johan's calculation ironically saves his life, with Tenma saving him.

So by the end, Tenma figures out everything about Johan through his mother and understands the way Johan was born and thinks he understands everything. And that's where Johan reveals the bomb that it was all because of his mother. He was never evil, it was all his mother's fault.

Because of that doubt, Tenma doesn't know if Johan is evil or it's really all because of his mother's impossible decision. The genius is that Johan is again lying. He's creating a fake explanation for his actions, just like 511 and the Rose Mansion. They're all just bullshit explanation for Johan to put doubt in Tenma's head so that he can run away.

And, in the end, we see Johan's bed empty. Johan is off to get more people to try and kill him to start the process all over again. No matter how many times you try, evil's still out there.

>>156253400
>Nothing suggest he is even evil or has anything.
>The more you go back to his origins, the more you find out there was nothing to kickstart his intents until the very last moment of the show.

That's why he's pure evil.

>>156252222
>tfw to intelligent

Discount Light Yagami.

Mommy issues

That sexiness that charisma

This is like the best good guy/bad guy combo for a anime ever.

Am I the only one who just rewatches this once in a while?

Like who knows what went through Johan head but the dude was so fucking lovable.

>>156253400
>>156253446
>>156253488
How many fucking times have you given this same spiel by now?

Is 511 Kinderheim the greatest story never shown?

>>156254390
kinda, yeah

Monster's a good manga but I didn't find Johan believable or likeable as a villain. Psychopathy may be a real disorder, but there's no background to even suggest that this is why he's murdering etc.

In general I kind of get annoyed with how much Monster overshadows 20th Century Boys, despite how much better written I find the latter to be. It's not that Monster is bad, it's a great work, just that there are pretty real flaws with some of the characters (i.e. zero motivation for actions, not just johan) - something hard to take when the cast is so tiny.

>>156254390
>>156258797
The other way around you fucking niggers
Light is a fuckboy
Kill yourselves

>>156258797
>20th century boys
>better than monster
>well written
>well written
>WELL WRITTEN
Holy fuck kill yourself right now
20th century boys was a fucking trainwreck
The MC is MIA for most of the fucking manga and that isn't even the biggest problem of that damn series which you should tell you everything