Ruenheim. A peaceful town. Where ordinary people live ordinary lives. There is no crime here, and few if any own guns. Why should they? The worst that ever happens here is a dog gone missing for a day or two.

Everyone knows each other, and everyone goes about their daily lives following the same old routine. Nothing remarkable would ever happen in this town. At least, not without a little push.

A quiet gunshot. A mysterious death. Guns gifted by strangers. People are on edge. Paranoia sets in. Old friends start to become suspicious of one another. Tension slowly starts to boil. And then, it starts. A single gunshot spirals the town into a mass of anarchy and bloodshed.

These were normal people. They wouldn’t have ever killed before. But in all of humanity lies a delicate balance between good and evil, kept in check by fear and love. And when people start to fear for their lives, or become enveloped by selfish desires,

And lose trust in their neighbours, and those they care about, the very worst in all of us is set loose. This right here is the monster’s thesis. Ruhenheim becomes a display of the worst of humanity, the perfect scenery of doomsday. Can this be stopped? Can this town be saved?

Once it begins, there is no hope of turning back. But there are still things that can be done. Acts of kindness, restraint, trust, and forgiveness; the only way to counter the worst in humanity is to offer it’s best in turn.

In the now deadly town of Ruenheim, a small band of people, knowing of the monster’s intentions, attempt to save as many lives as they can by offering and reminding people of these very things.

And, for as many lives that are lost, they are as many saved. Good finds ways to overcome evil. One cannot dominate over the other for long, no matter how hard it tries. In Ruhenheim, people find out what they are capable of, and what they had all along.

Take the case of another man who had a monster inside him. Though this man was a grinner, he couldn’t actually experience joy or happiness. He couldn’t feel anything at all. Even when he lost someone close to him. Whatever emotions he had, he thought he lost them forever.

But humans don’t lose their ability to feel. What was done to him could only hide the feelings from him, locked away deep inside. Normally, when this man experienced a deep pain, eventually, the monster inside him would come to protect him, and do away with his enemies.

But in Ruenheim, that monster didn’t come. He felt the pain, the anger, and the rage, and he let them all out. And when he was done, he finds the very things he thought were gone forever return to him.

The emotions he should have felt way back when finally come back to him, and for the first time since his childhood, he is able to experience genuine feelings of both sadness and happiness. They tried to rob him of his humanity. But they could only suppress it.

People can’t lose their emotions. Sooner or later, the monster inside him was bound to disappear. And, in the end, he returns to being human.

In Ruhenheim, the immutable humanity within all people reveals itself. People find out whether they can really shoot another human being. They discover humility, and regret. They experience guilt, and despair. They are forced to remember things they once wished they didn’t.

They realise how precious memories, and one’s sense of identity, truly are. They come to new conclusions about themselves, and come out as better, stronger people for living through it.

They discover what they really needed all along was something they never realised they had or could be given in the first place. They find out things don’t always happen the way they plan to. No matter how cruel or cunning, there is no human being who is completely a monster.

There is always a chance for redemption. There is always a choice one can make. In the end, the main protagonist of this story is spared having to make one choice that would ruin a life, but is given another than can save someone else’s.

The monster was wrong. All human beings are not only equal in death. They have just as much of a right to live too. Redemption & forgiveness does exist. This is the end of Monster. The final questions are answered, the last secrets are revealed, and the final choices are made.

It culminates a fascinating exploration of the balance of good and evil that dwells within the human spirit, our shared humanity, and what it takes to do what is right.

A nuanced, intricate tale that deals with the nature of the human mind, and what we can be capable of at our worst, and our best. Ruhenheim provides a conclusion both profound and meaningful.

In the end, everything our characters suffer through, all the pain and hardships of their past, are left to memory. Life goes on, people move on, and they find ways to cope and survive. Perhaps even find some happiness for once in their lives.

There are some things that can never be forgotten, but that can’t stop people from moving forward to new phases in their life.

The final scene says it all. The monster is gone. What happens from there, no one knows.

But it’s an optimistic ending, one that promises that these characters, all of them, will find both purpose and happiness in their lives.

A criticism leveled at Monster's ending is that it is a cop out. By having Wim's father shoot Johan, Some say that the ending essentially robs the narrative of closure & doesn't force Tenma to confront the difficult choice he's been agonizing over for the entirety of the story.

I think, however, that the ending's set-up is meant to illustrate the morals of the story while elucidating, through the characters, the overarching philosophy of the series.

In essence, the story is saying that it is always wrong to kill and killing should be done only to save life, when there are no other possible options. Saving innocent life is the only reason where you are justified in taking someone else's life.

No one has the right to kill another because they've judged them to be evil or for revenge. Nina, essentially, represents the revenge aspect. She is chasing after her brother with the intention of killing him for the hell he's put her through and the lives he's destroyed.

It's understandable to us, as the audience, why she would feel this way. And yet, one of the major themes of the story is how revenge only causes more bloodshed and suffering.

This is most clearly demonstrated in Tenma's interactions with Milan Kolas who attempts to kill Peter Chapek in revenge for the loss of his son. In the end, all Milan accomplished was getting himself killed while hurting those who had come to love and respect him-

As Tenma says, "revenge only leads to more revenge" and it is when Nina realizes this that she can begin to forgive her brother. She sees how her hatred of him and her desire for vengeance merely contributed to the suffering.

Tenma is a bit more complicated in that he does not hate Johan on the personal level that Nina does but, instead, feels responsible for the destruction he causes as Tenma was the one to bring him back to life.

This is yet another parallel with Milan, who helped Chapek get into Germany. Tenma's central issue is that he views Johan as a monster and thus sees it as his duty to put an end to his atrocities. He is, in essence, judging Johan as worthy of death for his crimes.

And while we as the audience can sympathize with his frame of mind, the point that Urasawa is making is, in my opinion, quite subtle. It's not wrong that Tenma wants to help other people and protect them from Johan;

what is wrong is that Tenma is essentially taking it upon himself to kill Johan because he has judged him as evil and in need of elimination. It gets to the core of the series' dynamics.

When Johan firsts asks why he can't go around killing people, Tenma responds:

"These are people's lives! Saving your life helped me open my eyes! I realized that all lives are equal! No one has the right to take away another's life!"

No person, no matter how good they are, has the right to kill another because they judge that person as evil. No matter their crimes. Urasawa, the way I interpret it, is essentially saying that murders occur when people treat others' lives as disposable or less than their own.

But no matter what a criminal's prior actions, it is wrong simply to kill them because they are evil; all life has value. Tenma is one of the purest and most genuinely good characters in any of the fiction I've read. And Johan is certainly one of the most evil.

But, regardless, Tenma has no right to kill Johan solely for being evil.

It is Wim's father, then, that holds the key. He alone is right to shoot Johan. He does so not out of revenge, not out of a sense of duty to correct a "mistake," but simply to protect his son's life. He doesn't know who Johan is or anything about his history.

When he sees him, he simply sees a threat to his son and reacts accordingly to protect his child. As flawed as Wim's father is, he does love his son and that's why, I believe, he sees Johan as a "monster" —

because in that moment, he's not reacting to Johan as a person, but to the very legitimate threat against one he loves. And he is right to do so.

Tenma's resolution, then, comes in his decision to once again save Johan's life. Here, he can finally accept that it was never wrong for him to have done so in the first place and that trying to help others, no matter their faults, is not wrong.

There are no monsters, there are only monstrous actions.

Tenma is a really idealistic character and definitely a good one, but during his mission to kill Johan, he almost forgets his ideals and goes dangerously close to losing his mind and becoming like the monster he wants to kill, which I believe was exactly what Johan wanted.

When Tenma was about to shoot him, for example, Johan didn’t try to escape or react in any way. He just pointed at his forehead, challenging him to shoot. Maybe he knew that Tenma wouldn't have killed him, maybe not, but I think that’s not the point.

I think the point is that Johan wanted Tenma to kill him. That way he’d have won the match; didn’t matter if he was dead, because the objective wasn’t killing Tenma or surviving the fight as much as it was destroying his ideals.

Sparing Johan basically meant beating him at his own rules. While I don’t believe Tenma realised that, it could be a sort of poetic justice against Johan and the only way he could have been beaten.

Just realised the starting post has a spelling mistake. Meant to say Ruhenheim. Oh well