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Naoki Urasawa's Monster is widely considered one of the best anime series that the psychological/thriller genre has to offer. Despite being relatively grounded, Monster manages to gracefully keep its audience intrigued until the very end. The show centers around Dr. Tenma, a successful and renowned neurosurgeon whose conflicting efforts to save a young boy's life end up unleashing a monster into the world. This monster is none other than Johan Liebart.
Johan is often regarded as one of the best anime antagonists to date and for good reason. After being saved by Dr. Tenma, Johan grows up to become a psychopathic serial killer wreaking havoc everywhere he goes. Though, he was already a monster to begin with, as evidenced by the incidents shown in the series. Throughout the remainder of his life, Johan continues to indulge in his vile nature, corrupting, manipulating, and murdering people wherever he goes. This list highlights some of the most evil crimes carried out by Johan Liebert.
5 The Murders of Director Heinemann, Dr. Oppenheim, and Dr. Boyer
While in recovery after being saved by Dr. Tenma, Johan overhears Dr. Tenma wittingly wishing for the deaths of Director Heinemann and his other corrupt subordinates. Johan then proceeds to kill Director Heinemann, Dr. Oppenheim, and Dr. Boyer using poisoned candy of all things.
Dr. Tenma is shocked to learn of the passing of his boss and coworkers, as he did not actually mean for them to die. But Johan perceived this act of killing as a favor on his part that he did to Dr. Tenma for having saved his life. In the aftermath of these events, Dr. Tenma is left incriminated for the murders. For years Dr. Tenma was left dealing with the guilt following the incident. It is only upon their reunion 9 years later that Johan tells Tenma the truth about what transpired that night.
4 Manipulating Anna
At the very beginning of the series, we see Johan being rushed to the hospital due to having been shot in the head. But this was actually all his own doing. After proceeding to kill both of his foster parents at the time, the Lieberts, Johan manipulated and ordered Anna to shoot him in the head, in an attempt to corrupt her soul as well. Anna, being angry at the passing of his caretakers, obliges and makes the shot, therefore critically wounding him.
Though this would not be the only time Johan caused psychological harm to Anna, this was by far the cruelest attempt he ever made. Johan wanted to prove that he and Anna were both monsters, being two sides of the same coin. One could only imagine the trauma this incident had left on a small Anna, who despite Johan's best efforts, still tried to remain a good person.
3 Johan’s Plans During His Time At The University Of Munich
In 1997, Johan enrolled at the University of Munich, majoring in children’s law. While there, Johan became closer to a business tycoon named Hans Georg Schuwald. He initially planned on killing Shuwald, allowing him to take over Germany’s economy, but later on changed his plans due to unforeseen circumstances. To achieve this goal, Johan continued to isolate Shuwald, by killing people close to him and thus making Shuwald more reliant on him instead. He then proceeded to set up a student named Edmund Farhen to pose as Shuwald’s son but upon encountering Shuwald’s real son, Karl Neuman, he drove Farhen to commit suicide. He then solidified his own position beside Shuwald’s side by bringing him his true son.
It was also during this time that Johan started teaching a group of kids The Roof Top Game, in which one goes onto the roof, closes their eyes, and walks forward. If fate is in the player’s favor, they wake up to see the world in a new light, otherwise, they die a brutal death. This led to the death of many children, while Johan still managed to conceal his identity. If this was not evil enough, Johan also sabotaged Shuwald’s book donation ceremony at the Library of The University of Munich, by persuading a woman within the building to ignite a fire.
2 The Kinderheim 511 Massacre
When Johan and Anna were about 6 years old, they were found wandering near the Czech-German border by a patrol officer called General Wolf. The general proceeded to send the two children to two different orphanages, Anna to Kinderheim 47, which was a kind and caring facility, and Johan to Kinderheim 511, which was an experimental institute set up by the German government to create superhuman soldiers. During Johan’s stay there, he along with other children were the subjects of various experiments.
One day, Johan developed a resistance to the drugs used on him, and after waking up, he decided to let his hatred for the institute run rampant. He manipulated the children into fearing an unknown Monster. Meanwhile, the instructors started quarreling about who would succeed the upper management following their director’s death. The students then went into a frenzy and the teachers soon lost control over them. The chaos then led to a massacre in which a total of 50 people, including children and instructors, were killed as Johan sat on a chair and watched it all unfold.
1 The Ruin of Rohenheim
In 1998 Johan instigated another massacre, albeit this time it spread throughout a whole town. After getting rid of all of his previous foster parents and the serial killers that he manipulated to do his bidding, all in order to commit the Perfect Suicide, Johan went to a village called Ruhenheim. There he preyed on the doubts and fears of the people and began distributing guns in the village while playing around with the notion of greed and its association with human nature. The peaceful village soon fell into ruin following Johan's actions. Amidst the chaos, Johan traveled to the center of town to confront Dr. Tenma.
Upon meeting Johan, Tenma quickly took aim to shoot him down once and for all but was disarmed by Bonaparta, who soon after was killed by Roberto. Roberto then also died succumbing to his injuries. In a final confrontation between the two parties, Johan overwhelmed Tenma by showing him the scenery of the doomsday. As Tenma prepared to shoot Johan down, Anna entered the scene to stop him from giving in to the corruption. Anna told Johan that she forgives him, but Johan rejected her forgiveness claiming that it was too late to turn back. He then provoked Tenma one last time by holding a gun to a young boy’s head, but in the end, was finally shot by the boy’s alcoholic father. This incident marked the last of the crimes committed by Johan.