polina

I’m Home

                Everything Johan did was for Anna. 

                      A “Monster” capable of love.

“What I’m most afraid of is…forgetting Anna. The strange lessons we have everyday… are making my memories fade. Please, don’t make me forget Anna. It’s only Anna and me in this whole world. Just give me that - please. Please.” – Johan Liebert”

I was very confused about the complexities of Johan’s character up until the last handful of episodes. After rewatching the series for a 3rd time and exploring how Johan is portrayed in the manga, it became very clear to me that my initial opinions about Johan were basic and devalued the intricacies of Naoki’s writing. From the beginning we are only TOLD by conflicting views, who Johan was. His character, in the fictional world as well as our own, is simply defined by an individual’s perception of him and the story presented. However, if we dissect ALL of the themes and even the undertones Naoki presented to us through the world of characters; I think it would be evident that Johan was not committing heinous acts for superficial reasons such as: simply being evil to be evil.

                                       So what was the method to his madness? 

        I believe… Everything he did was for Anna.

                                  (Yes this includes erasing himself from existence too )

Author’s Note: I want to preface before you read on that although these essays are written in a sympathizing light that this is not written in an attempt to dismiss his heinous acts lightly, but to simply understand the “Monster” of the series by tackling Johan’s crimes deeper than the surface. I tried to make sense of Johan’s every action in regards to his OVERALL PLAN and why Naoki presented them to us as viewers.

For those who will nitpick the term “everything” quite literally, I want to make it clear that not E V E R Y -S I N G L E- A C T I O N Johan has taken coincides with his love for his sister; his actions towards the children specifically - because there are some things that had nothing to do with his “perfect plan” but more to do with attempting to build Johan’s character and his view of the world us as viewers.

Justifying ones actions vs. rationalizing ones actions are completely different. I am in no way attempting to discard the accountabilities that Johan should face for his actions, but instead trying to make sense of it all.

I’ve analyzed Johan’s crimes against children here: 

However, this will explain the root of Johan’s character and the core of his overall plan(s) that was committed for the sake of his sister from the very beginning to the end.The overarching theme and message of Monster is that there are no such thing as Monsters, only broken human beings capable of great evil; so we will humanize this great Monster in order to understand not only Johan Liebert, but the hows/whys Tenma/Nina was able to forgive him and ultimately find value in saving the life of this supposed Monster.

Thank you for reading! Hope to share some future discussions with you all! 

       Anna was set up from the beginning to become The “Monster” given she was the one who actually endured the experiments. Her tendencies are shown in glimmers throughout the show. The heartbreaking twist to it though… is that the only reason why she DID not become the beast, was because SHE ( unlike Johan ) HAD KNOWN UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. -Johan’s love and sacrifice is what kept her safe from the darkness he knew very well. He got his hands dirty to shield her. He chose to leave her behind in the care of her foster parents, knowing she would forget him, in order to heal. 

He chose her than himself over and over; becoming her shadow; choosing to lose his only attachment to his already weakened identity in order for her to heal. 

His love for her is why she never became a monster...and tragically, Johan had.

 Which reflects exactly what Mikhail Petrov (whose real name is Reinhart Biermann)  said about his “PROFOUND DISCOVERY” concerning his current experiment on the children he had in his home; he said the children did not become animals because he gave them LOVE.

 In his own twisted way and view on things, he was protecting her. He killed every “parental” figure they had because he was betrayed by every adult figure in his life so far. People who mentioned calling the police, ended up finding out about their past - anything that could lead the man, who Johan referred to as “The Monster”  into finding them, he disposed of. 

The adults in their lives thus far would betray them, torture them, hurt them, throw them away-  and forcefully separate them. In his severely abused mental state, any adult figure was a potential threat to his and Anna’s safety. So he’d kill in order to runaway from “the monster” and protect Anna. Then when Anna found out about the blood on his hands that fateful night the Monster paid them a visit, he realized that now he had become someone Anna feared - a different kind of Monster but all the similar to the one they were running from. 

So he rationalized that now he needed to die.

In that moment, I think we should focus on his body language and expressions. Johan faced the ground. hardly picking up his eyes. His shoulders were sunken and he did not have that menacing little smile he usually had. He could hardly look Anna in the eyes. Johan has killed in secret various times with Anna and back at Kinderheim. 

So why was he so messy with the Lieberts? 

Because he did not want to kill them - he said HE HAD TO. 

It was not a calculated murder, because he was not truly calm and collected; He was afraid. 

Lets not forget who Johan was up until that moment: the infamous little boy who provoked an entire riot and massacre by simply opening his mouth. With mere words he was able to sway the adults and children into doing what he wanted. BUT IN THAT MOMENT when Anna caught him red handed, he could not, or rather, would not - try and manipulate Anna even though he had the power to do so. 

Instead, he asked her to shoot him and run - in an attempt to finally liberate her from the horrific life they had to lead up until now - blaming his existence for the constant chase their predator (Boneparte) gave way to them as prey because in that moment, his memories were distorted and he believed he was the one who went to the Red Rose Mansion. (***)[reference]

 But when he was brought back to life and realized the gravity behind his methods, seeing how terrified Anna was of him - he started to cry. Because despite his initial feelings of finding his death absolutely necessary for her to be safe, he still wanted what he had with her; the only bond of love he ever knew. 

What set his entire ADULT plan into motion (wiping out everyone who ever hurt Anna and created HIM) was Anna’s rejection at the hospital. That was when he realized internally, he was beyond forgiveness and that he was nothing more than a monster. A Nameless monster in her reflection that needed to die in order for her to live in peace. (Referencing the God of Peace storybook. )

Johan was the one who gifted the God (Anna) her hat and then she saw herself as the Monster she was supposed to be due to the Red Rose Mansion experiments. This would NOT have happened if Johan did not give her the hat (the red hat which can symbolize the blood he spilled for her. ) so in this instance, Johan is also  the reflection.  (you are me and I am you. They are both nameless monsters.)

 From that moment on, he wanted to wipe out his entire existence, and that meant those who ALSO “created” him so that Anna could heal as Nina. 

I believe this is what is depicted in the Nameless Monster storybook. 

Initially, we are made to believe Johan wanted to “consume everyone” so he would be the last one standing. The Monster known as Johan in the book also devours his counterpart, the Monster who went West and then there is no one left to call him by his name. But clearly, Johan never does this, because Johan never attempts to kill/devour Anna - because what it has symbolizes is entirely different in nature regarding Johan’s intention. 

A quick reminder that both Johan and Anna were considered Nameless Monsters. HOWEVER - by Johan’s hands, Anna does not remain “Nameless” nor does she ever become a “monster” the moment Johan decided to not only leave her behind in the hands of a loving family, but by her changing her name and her identity to Nina. The Fortners never made any implication that they knew of Nina’s past concerning the Lieberts murder and I believe this is because Johan introduced her as Nina to the Fortners and never allowed them to see the trail behind her identity as Anna Liebert. 

Symbolically, Johan, as the Nameless Monster, consumed the Monster inside of Anna and became the only Monster left. This is what is mirrored in Johan’s intentions and the Nameless Monster storybook. 

With Anna forgetting him and Johan leaving her behind thus losing his only connection to someone who truly knew him, now all that is left is Johan, without absolutely anyone to call him by his name - the one and only Nameless Monster.

-

There wasn’t some sick satisfaction from any of his killings done when he was a child. To him, it was needed for the sake of her safety. This was Johan’s initial “plan.” set in motion. He wanted to be the only one left in the world with his sister - so that they wouldn’t have to be afraid anymore. 

(I also believe at that point when they were kids, Johan’s very first plan he referred to when telling Anna “Remember, I have a plan.”  was to run to another country with her so that the Monster will never find them.  It is the only logical idea of a plan that a child could conjure following what he actually leads them to do, which was cross the border. Simply destroying the world is unreachable in his current state and Johan is smart enough to not be delusional in his endeavors. With that being said, he had to kill that old couple to erase any trail they may have left  of “two beautiful blonde twins.” But this plan fails because they nearly die at the Czech Border and was discovered. )

RUHENHEIM:

One of the biggest moments in Ruhenheim has been misinterpreted and lost due to mistranslations in both the English Dub and the Japanese subtitles. 

I clarify and mend this by breaking down what Nina unraveled in Boneparte’s house when she looked at the portraits by correctly translating the Japanese script/text in depth here:

 But to summarize it for the purpose of this essay, it was revealed to us as viewers that Johan apologized to Anna when she returned from the Red Rose Mansion, revealing the overwhelming weight of guilt he carried when Anna had been taken that day. 

and then Johan accepts his mother will never return to them (assuming she abandoned them) and goes on to tell Anna this:

This information provides clarity as to why Nina was finally able to understand Johan, empathize with him enough to be able to forgive him. She remembered he was a boy who felt guilty over what happened to her; a boy who cried when he realized they were now all alone in the world.  She understood that Johan desperately did anything and everything to ensure he and Anna survived despite it all.

-

That Rainy Night:

I want to GREATLY EMPHASIZE the important factor I missed my first time watching the scenes with Johan/Anna - the scenes shown to us were through her recollection were only fragments. They were told from what she COULD remember, so her take on what really happened that rainy night the first few times the events are unfolded before us should not be taken as absolute.

At least…up until it is revealed in the final episodes that Anna realized that on that night instead of seeming like an empty shell of a person asking for death, Johan was crying and crying before she shot him.

The scene where Anna finds the portraits reveals what truly happened between them that night and its so important. She said “Johan was crying “here” just like before.” She was mimicking a memory she had just recalled in its entirety. “Why are you crying, why are you crying?” She sounded in distress. Directly after she reveals that she remembers him crying, it shows the image of him pointing at his head that rainy night so she was not referencing any other moment.

 Even though Johan told her to shoot him, it is IMPORTANT that he was ALSO crying.

I believe that, finally being able to remember that day finally revealed to her that Johan wasn’t the “face of absolute evil” she initially dismissed him to be; he was a boy/man who could cry and mourn - he was human. He was a terrified boy protecting Anna and himself the only way he knew how. and instead of showing him forgiveness/love - she added on to his collection of wounds scarred upon his soul from everyone else who chose to harm him. 

 Tenma…was ultimately the ONLY one in his life who showed him kindness.

Johan’s intentions and reasons behind his many crimes: ( I will summarize it here and link the 2nd essay as it was too long to put on this post)

(***) I want to ask, did Johan truly believe he was the one who went to the Red Rose Mansion or was that simply a masquerade he performed to not only make sure Anna did not remember but to also foil the life long plans of those running these experiments? 

(I wrote an essay on this being a possibility here: PART 2 OF THIS ESSAY. This will explain Johan’s intentions in depth)

(this is a theory I FIRMLY believe and have completely adopted. But for the sake of argument, I will entertain both concepts behind Johan’s memory in this essay.)

If we entertain that idea, I can dissect Johan’s intentions some more. ( I will summarize it here as the extension essay was far too long to put on this post)

Throughout the series you see that he is trying to wipe everyone who knew of what happened to Anna off the face of the earth, that included himself. He did not want Anna to remember. So when it was revealed she did remember, he mourned. It was subtle but evident in the anime when she reveals “you are wrong.” something in him shifted - for once he was reacting to the words of another.

 She said “he had a smile but seemed like he was crying. I never seen such an expression on his face before.” [view photo in the post.] 

That entire scene, Johan’s eyes expressed something we’ve never seen from him throughout the series - a sense of mourning or longing?

 Johan in front of Anna always appeared the most human

If, however, Johan DID truly think he was the one who suffered at the red rose mansion, his “perfect suicide” plan still relates to his feelings for Anna. 

 Johan learns it was not him that suffered at the Red Rose Mansion…but Anna instead. and then Johan goes on to commit the “perfect suicide.” In his plan to die, he wanted to take The Monster with him, forcing Bonaparte to endure the same exact hell he forced Anna to suffer as a child. Call it an act of revenge. Some may think Johan is incapable of being vengeful but I cannot see this cruel and calculated act as anything other than malice. After Bonaparte was finally dead, the monster disposed of - Johan  was ready to die. 

But you can see his conviction began to slip away when Anna forgave him. What made it worse was realizing he was wrong about Tenma because even now, Tenma was still hesitating on killing him ruthlessly like he always presumed would happen. Johan thought he had humans all figured out - after all, all Johan has EVER known was the darkness in people’s hearts. That is why he was so confused/moved by Tenma and wanted so desperately to prove him wrong.

The manga portrays Johan’s expressions 1000X BETTER THAN THE ANIME. As soon as Anna arrives, Johan is just staring at the floor, unable to look at her - Repeating everything from that fateful rainy night when they were kids. But this time, Anna doesn’t kill him, she chooses love and compassion.   and when she says she forgives him - his reaction is something the anime does not do justice

The subtle shift in the way the artist expressed in his eyes is so significant but missed in the anime; but he reacts rather deeply, moved and shocked by her words.

Because, “forgiveness is the remission of sins. For it is by this that what has been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again.“

In the manga he isn’t quick to reply. He ponders over her words carefully and I think this is when his mind starts panicking.

Anna realized that forgiveness was the one thing he wanted that night she shot him, despite him also thinking his death was needed. His value depended on her view of him; and what she once robbed from him was now returned - a human being worthy of forgiveness instead of a monster.

Johan refuses her forgiveness not because he resents her or thinks its too late for her to redeem herself - but because he doesn’t think he deserves it. “There are somethings that cannot be undone.”  Because it is too late, Johan is going to die - he WANTS to die. Then you see the fear and helplessness in his eyes after getting the one thing he always wanted [ Anna’s forgiveness] because he desperately wanted to die as the only thing he knew himself to be: the nameless, nonexistence monster. But both Anna and Tenma rob him of that by bestowing upon him the gift of compassion, mercy and empathy; for the first time treating and valuing him like a human being instead of a monster,god,experiment, devil etc. as everyone around him has. 

(The Monster inside of Johan begins to crumble.)

Johan in his final moments was cracking and finally falling apart. You see it in the final expression he makes: the distraught, confusion and sadness. Because he realized, he was wrong about people, he was wrong about the world. But how can we blame him for his view on humanity when all he has ever been shown since birth was how ugly, selfish, cruel and inhumane people can be? 

 How can we expect someone who has only seen darkness to be able to find the light?

I want to clarify one thing I noticed: Johan has never shown to take any kind of sick satisfaction from killing unlike all the other serial killers being interviewed in the series. The writer highlights this in the show on purpose. Especially contrasting Johan with Roberto, specifically, when Roberto tries to kill Anna.

Despite his callousness and his lack of care for life - Johan, despite how much of a “monster” he was, very clearly had humanity and had love….for his sister most of all. Johan saw when his mother choose, how little their lives meant to her and this instilled his nihilism at such a young age. He watched Anna get tossed to the wolves like nothing and in that moment, he probably thought his mother chose Anna over him for a reason. (even though the question on her intention would haunt him for the rest of his life)  But her being able to choose is what affected him the most and it’s probably what instilled his self sacrificing mentality to care for Anna above the world in order to never make the same mistake his mother had.

That is why after she got back from the Red Rose Mansion, he cried for her story. It should have been him that suffered. Then after, he treats her with the upmost care, telling her everything is hers, no matter what she will win everything because he would deem it so. He is kind to her, never letting go of her hand even when she is dragging behind - he sacrificed all of himself for her…

Because she deserved everything in the world to contrast their mother throwing her away.

 (it should be noted that the Lieberts did not want Anna either but only adopted her because Johan refused to leave the orphanage without her. Which is also why I believe he killed them when Bonaparte came because he thought the Lieberts were conspiring with Bonaparte to get Anna)

        He wanted her to know above all else,  she was loved. 

🌰 (The ‘Acorn game’ represents their Mother’s choice, a child in each hand. But in this version, Johan would ensure that no matter what hand Anna chooses, she will NEVER choose wrong. He manipulates the fate behind her choices by holding two acorns instead of one; never letting her make the same mistake as their mother.)

-

A clear indication of this adoration/attachment he has for her is the fact that he DOES NOT forget her even after enduring the hellish experiments in Kinderheim that aimed at wiping out / messing around with his memories. That is pretty incredible to me. 

There is a reason why the author chose the words “precious sister” whenever others described Anna in regards to Johan. The world saw how important she was to him. If she meant nothing to him, how did everyone else conjure up this concept that Anna was important to him, despite also saying with that very same breath he was a heartless Devil? 

It’s contradicting honestly. 

 I wrote this because I was astounded to see various posts/Wiki pages implying that Johan’s intentions were to torture Anna and make her kill herself. Telling her to shoot him was his first attempt to drive her insane? They twisted a lot of things Johan did to try and make this statement true. But I cannot comprehend how they drew this conclusion?  The series has characters mentioning on more than a few occasions that Anna is dear to Johan. “He is lost with you." Everyone knew Anna was important to Johan; Professor Geidlitz was the first to mention this besides the old blind man.  Roberto was aware of this which is why he tried to kill her as mentioned in Another Monster. Which is ALSO why Peter Capek tried to hold her hostage to prevent Johan from killing him.and for the first time, Johan DOESN’T kill him.

Johan cried when he awoke at the hospital after he reached for his sister and she screamed in fear of him. His face full of tears - his heart completely broken. If his intention was to drive Anna insane, he would have triumphed in that moment she screamed and fell to the ground after he reached out to her. But instead he mourned.

To those who believed Johan crying as he reached out for Anna was a façade - those tears were genuine, which is the ONLY reason why her forgiveness was so powerful at the end. 

  Anna has mentioned several times that Johan has cried for her, like when he was in the room full of their happy portraits, he was crying. He never once tried to bring harm to Anna - not intentionally towards her person. I firmly believe he killed the Fortners after they decided to keep lying to her, thus keeping him in the shadows when he wanted to return. (or because they were going to tell her the truth. Either or works)  If he wanted to torment her, he would not have tried to lure her away to the castle when he set up the Fortners to be killed.

They imply that Johan wanted to torture her and then kill her at the end. But that makes absolutely no sense. Where in the storyline does Johan give off this tendency towards her? Even at the end he told her where to meet him in Ruhenheim and not once did he try to shoot her or Tenma. Honestly, if he really wanted to provoke Tenma to shoot him, he would have held the gun to Anna instead of a random child. But even though being shot by Tenma was his greatest endeavor, he refused to point the gun at someone who was important to Tenma…because Anna, is important to Johan too. 

To say Johan, despite being hailed as the Monster of the series, had no love or humanity in him and was merely the Devil himself...completely missed the point of the story…

 I’d like to point out the constant mentioning of Hitler in this story and draw another important factor…Hitler brainwashed people to commit mass genocide. Under his rule, millions perished in horrific ways. But despite that…Hitler was capable of loving others. Hitler was also loved by others. The terrifying truth about people who commit atrocities…is that they are not monsters or demons or devils…

                                                 they are merely human. 

PSA: My twin brother FINALLY finished his INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL Johan Liebert analysis video. It is a 2 hour, in depth break down of not only Johan but the overarching themes surrounding the characters that helps define Johan as well. My essays make an appearance as it served as the groundwork to his analysis video so please take the time to watch it despite its length!  (Bring tissues) 

PART TWO OF JOHAN’S INTENTIONS HERE:

EDIT: Here’s two passages from ANOTHER MONSTER [novel post Monster written by Naoki] that really drives this point:

Hi anon, I love gender swap and also I’m sorry it took me so long to answer this. So I’m gonna sort my favourite ones into two kinds: the ones where they turn into girls and the ones where they have always been a girl!

Turn into girl

Walk a Mile by cloudyjenn - Sam and Dean gets turned into girls. Dean and Cas proceed to hook up. It’s amazingly smutty and one of my all time favorite fics.

Two and a Half Men by highermagic - Dean gets turned into a girl and suffers from period cramps. Cas comes to the rescue. It’s written in short verses, which I love. It’s not explicit, but they do have sex.

Always a girl

The Sacrifice of our Enmity by elizaye - Medieval AU! Princess Castiel, she’s always been a girl, is in an arranged marriage with Dean, the King of a neighboring kingdom. This is an amazing fic with amazing plot as well as amazing smut. I can’t recommend this enough. The plot is amazing, seriously.

The Courtship of Castiel Novak by patroclus - Very cute, short and sweet. Cas is the new kid in town and befriends Deanna. Cas is adorably clueless when Deanna asks him out, but it all ends well and they’re adorable.

Why do you think that in Monster doesn't want to reveal the real names of the twins even in the end and and leaving us with that question unsolved? Is there any meaning or reason behind this?

At the end, when Tenma goes to see the mother, she tells him that even though Bonaparta forbade her to give the children names, she did and tells Tenma but still the serie doesn't want to reveal us to the viewers,and appears that Nina and Johan know their name,but they forgete it(I mean,they maybe know because when Guillen hypnotizes her,she said "I will not say my name".I think that it's curious that Nina said to Johan when they were in the Germany-Czech fronteir,"say my name" or when she had go to Three Frogs with Dieter and she remember that Johan calls her no as Nina or Anna )

Right in the same scene in which she tells them the names of her children, we see Nina hurried to see that her thesis is excellent and that she graduated from a lawyer. The funny thing is that the professor calls her "Fraudline Nina Fortner"(Is that her real name?)

Nina's last scene is her excited to find out that Tenma returned and apparently, she overcame her traumas.

In the case of Johan, Tenma goes to visit him still in a coma and reveals that his mother loves him and that he knows what his name is (perhaps, who he really is) to wake up and tell him that his mother was the one who decided which child to given. My curiosity here is because Johan says it in the dream and not in reality? Is it something that Urusawa wanted to tell us but obviously there is a hidden message?

Thanks you for read it.

Hello anon!

The twins’ names are not revealed simply because they are not important. In short, what matters to the story is not what their names are, but that they do not have them. They are nameless monsters, after all.

In Monster the twins’ names are symbolically relevant for multiple reasons.

First of all, I am not sure of the source, but I read some time ago that Nina, Anna and Johan are pretty common names. So, Urasawa chose those names specifically for this. There is nothing special about them. They are names many children are given, just like the twins could have been like many other children if they were given the chance. And, of course, this also means that many other children could have turned out like the twins if they had been through the same traumatic experiences.

Secondly, a mother that does not give a name to her kids is a mother that fails:

This is why Johan’s doubt is so painful. Other than Vera sacrificing one of her kids, Johan is not even sure she knew who was who. A child’s identity is rooted in how their parent reacts to them. However, Viera could not even differentiate between her kids, so they end up confusing their dentities and memories with each other.

That said, Viera was clearly in a very broken psychological state by the time and it is not that she did not want to be a proper mother for her twins:

She had come up with names, but could not give them to the kids. However, by the end she remembers them and so Tenma is able to tell the twins and to convey that deep down their mother loves them.

Thirdly, names are symbolic of identities and personhood, so the twins lacking them is about them lacking both. This is why they  define who they are through each other. This is also why they both are deep down scared to be nothing, but monsters. It is just that Johan embraces this fear, while Nina refuses to face it.

This leads us to the scenes you mention in your ask.

I could not find the one when Dieter and Nina go to the Three Frogs, I am sorry. I reread the chapters, but saw no mention of Johan calling Nina by name. If anything, we are shown in other scenes that Johan mostly calls her Anna.

When it comes to the scene at the border, I think that it actually shows the twins do not know their names:

Nina is begging Johan to call her by her name because once again a name is a symbol of who you are. They are no-ones, they are nameless children left behind by their mother and are exhausted and scared. However, they desperately want to be more. They want to be people and not to feel alone. This is why Nina asks her brother to call out for her, so that she can feel someone truly knows her and so that she truly exists. However, Johan can’t do it because they were not even given names.

Let’s highlight the twins’ scene parallels Wolf’s death scene in the same chapter:

A name is a proof of existence. It is the proof someone knows you and so that even if you are going in the land of the nameless (death, nothingness) a part of you keeps on living with the people who love you.

The twins are desperately looking for this because they were negated it.

Finally, there is this scene:

Nina here is not talking about her name, but about who she is.

As we know from future chapters, here Nina has just remembered that she is the one that went to the Red Roses Mansion. This is what she really does not want to say.

Notice that she actually offers an indirect answer... she repeats “I’m home. I’m home”.

This is foreshadowing. Nina has convinced herself she is the one who said “Welcome back”. However, this is false. She is the one who got caught and not Johan. However, Nina does not want to admit it. She does not want to admit it for several reasons. First of all, there is the pain of  being the “unwanted one”, which is something addressed at the very end of the story. Then there is the fear and shame of being a monster:

These panels make it very clear. Nina here is remembering what happened at the Red Roses Mansion and she associates it to the picture of the nameless Monster swallowing people. She is scared that the monster inside her is going to gulp her down destroying her very frail sense of self.

So she clings to the idea Johan is the one who was brought to the Mansion:

And here is why:

Nina is scared that she could have become the monster, if she had been the one brought to the mansion. The tragic irony is of course that she indeed was the one who saw all those people die. However, this did not turn her into a monster, but her inability to accept this horror ends up turning Johan in the monster he is (of course this is tragic and none of the twins’ fault tbh).

So, Nina and Johan are defined by the opposite way they relate to “that memory”:

That memory is probably the one of their mother’s choice.

Nina refuses it. She builds an identity that is negates everything that memory represents.

Johan embraces it. He builds a self identity that is everything that memory is about.

Nina refuses herself. Johan embraces her to the point that he becomes her or... to better say... he becomes a twisted version of her:

This is why symbolically he dresses as Nina while he is on his personal journey to retrieve “his memories”.

This is ironically because, even if Johan embodies nichilism, he is deep down scared of nothingness:

The monster inside Johan is not another personality, like Nina mistakenly believes initially. It is just the emptiness he feels.

By the end, however, Nina remembers everything. Johan has instead to accept that he is not his sister and is finally stopped because of two people (Nina and Tenma) aknowledging who he is:

Anyway, in the end, as you say, we are shown what happened to both Nina and Johan.

Nina is finishing her studies. her last scene is an inversion and parallel to her introduction. She is once again late, like in the beginning. However, at the start of the story she says she wants to be a prosecutor, so she wants to have criminals condemned. In the end, she has changed her mind and wants to instead become a lawyer, so that she can save people’s lives. This is because she has changed her mind about death penalty and Johan’s himself. She has chosen to forgive him and in this way she can finally forgive and accept herself. She is called Nina Fortner by her professor (Fraudlin means something like Miss, I think) because this is who she is. She does not need her true name because she is already Nina Fortner for all the people who love her.

Johan’s last scene is instead ambiguous and I have discussed it here:

I would like to highlight that this scene in itself is ambiguous. Is Tenma dreaming? Or is Johan truly talking with him? It is not clear, but in the first case we can say Tenma has finally understood the truth behind the mystery Johan is, while in the second case we have Johan finally opening up about what hurt him the most.

In both Nina and Tenma’s cases, it is important that their understanding of Johan is radicated in their understanding of themselves. Nina is Johan’s sister and so she must understand him as a sister, she must untie and solve all the ambiguities and misunderstanding of their relationship and uncover the past they share. Tenma is the doctor who saved Johan’s life and clearly Johan has laced on him as to a father figure, even if in a twisted way. Because of this, it makes sense that in the end he is the one who realizes how much his mother’s choice has affected Johan.

In other words, Johan is a mirror of both Nina and Tenma and his elusive nature is what keeps the story together thematically. The story asks what a monster is and if the answer were simple the story would not be so captivating.

In the end both Tenma and Nina “defeat” the devil, but they do so not by killing him, but by refusing his nihilistic logic. They have managed to free themselves from the devil’s constant tempation. Even if the life of the man with big eyes is difficult the only hope lies in fighting against evilness and injustice through a correct behaviour. If one leaves that path they will only suffer and lose themselves.

This is also why the final image is so powerful:

Johan disappears once again and we, as readers, can only hope he will use the second chance he was given in a positive way and not to start another cycle. That said, this is something we can’t be completely sure of as we can’t be sure of evilness completely disappearing from the world. What we can be sure of is that it is necessary to resist it.

Is the mystery behind Johan finally solved? Or is it just a rationalization Tenma does in his head to explain him? Will Johan stop being a monster and start to finally be his own person?

I think the narrative implies that yes, this is the truth behind Johan and that yes, he will live as a normal person. However, the ending is open and this is why it is so powerful.

This is also why we are not revealed Johan’s name and why we are not told what he will do. All in all, this is the story of a “monster”. What will happen to the person inside the monster is not the story’s concern.

"Enjoy the View? Charles? I know you are here. "

---

I mean, there is just no way in this world for this page to be interpreted in any other way, other than that this is a prelude to gay porn...

The robe? The glasses? Erik, you know what you are doing.

I still can't believe this is a real page from official comic books....

Charles is just sitting in distress but won’t say anything because he really wants Erik to ask him what’s wrong, so he just stares at him in silent agony like a catholic mother until he’s finally presented with the chance to scream out the monologue he’s rehearsed in his shower for the last ten years

Erik is probably feeling whack as hell after sitting in a concrete tank for like a fourth of his life, like this is his first time seeing the sun in a decade for christ sake, and also he’s trying to understand why Charles came to get him but felt the need to bring along his hot new boyfriend? like what is this some elaborate plot to make him jealous?

Logan has no idea that Erik thinks he’s Charles’ hot new boyfriend and he’s just trying to tolerate the teenage drama playing out in front of him while knowing his friends and family could be actively dying with every second these two grown men don’t see a therapist