It's kinda cliffhanger.

Read Pluto if you want an Urasawa manga with a decent ending.

>>139338662
The point is that regardless of what Johan goes on to do next it is not Tenma's responsibility just because he saved his life.

>>139339436

>saved his life

Twice.

>>139339737
Yeah, same either way, it taken the second time and his disappearance to hit that point home.

The Monster was inside him all along

you're the one who decides the end.

>>139340810

Thats another word for "Lazy Writing"

>>139340965
I hate this buzzword.

Alright, well, where to start? Might as well start with what Johan does through the show and why he does it and explain details as I go along.

The mystery and drive of the story, from the start is 'who is Johan and how did he turn out in such a way?' As the story unfolds, it creates a false explanation to describe why he became who he currently is. This plays a role in one of the themes of what makes a person a monster and if that person can be redeemed. If you can understand the environment that created a monster, the monster can be considered innocent. But what if Johan was simply born evil that that was all there is to him? That's the main drive of the story and quest of Tenma as he also tries to stop Johan.

At first, Tenma finds out that 511 was an experimental site that did horrible things to children. You initially believe that it's what created him. But then you're told that Johan was what caused 511 to have a revolt and that Johan was evil before that point. And that leads back to the events that happened in the Rose Mansion and you think *that's* what made him go insane. But then you find out that it was Anna that was there, not Johan.

There's always a secondary backwards explanation that seems to be the reason for why he does what he does. And at the very last minute, Johan tells Tenma that everything went to shit because of his mother making an impossible choice. I'll explain why this is important later. What you need to remember is that everything always seems to lead back to something else.

>>139341061
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.

>>139341093
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.

>>139341129
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.

>>139338662
The "monster" is dead, because Tenma broke the cycle of violence and retaliation.
Johan might or might not be dead.

He didn't escape though, it'd be totally retarded.
>haha Tenma is here and I just woke up somehow without anyone else noticing before that, I'm gonna spook him!
>I DID IT NOW I'M GOING BACK TO SLEEP MAYBE HE'LL THINK IT WAS A DREAM HAHA SPOOKED
>holy shit he actually believed it I'm such a mad man
>he's gone
>guess I'm going out of the hospital
>wait it's full of people how do I do that
>i just woke up from a coma how do I even walk
>also i'm a proved serial killer they're probably monitoring me

Not happening, ever.

>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.

I still dont understand.

Is Johan speak to Tenma is real or is only in Tenma head ?

>>139342291
>Is Johan speak to Tenma is real or is only in Tenma head ?
Open to interpretation. The End.

>>139340965
by that conclusion many great novels and films are lazy writing

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>>139341061
>>139341093
>>139341129
>>139341167
This is a pretty nice explanation I'll keep in mind when I read through the manga someday.

So basically in summary,
>what a fucking monster

People get so worked up over the ending, when the ending is honestly just staying true to the story's theme. Evil is out there. That is why despite all logic and realism somehow Johann vanishes. The author thought the power of the image of the empty bed was way more important than whether it's realistic to have Johann escape, and I agree, the image is more important, since Johann, and evil, defies logic.

The final speech is just the stinger moment every spooky story needs before the end.

>>139342890
People loves to overthink everything. I agree with you. There's nothing else to say.

>>139342443

Yup. Lazy Writing confirmed.

>>139343427
or you're just a lazy reader/viewer

>>139342890
This is how I always saw it, too. Good (like Tenma) is good. Evil (like Johann) is evil. It reminded me of the farmer and the viper story a little, except instead of literally killing Tenma, Johann's "killing bite" was leaving a good man to live with the fact that he couldn't help himself from saving someone truly evil.

>>139346405
Evil doesn't exist.