Monster (manga) - Characters - Main Characters

Main Characters

Dr. Kenzō Tenma

Voiced by: Hidenobu Kiuchi (Japanese), Liam O'Brien (English)

The main protagonist of the series. Kenzou Tenma is a Japanese neurosurgeon working at Eisler Memorial Hospital in Düsseldorf. At the beginning of Monster he is the Head of Neurosurgery who was favored by the department's Director Heinemann for his surgical skills and offered Heinemann's daughter Eva in marriage. When a young boy with a bullet wound arrived, Tenma was about to operate when Chief of Surgery Dr. Oppenheim and Director Heinemann told Tenma to work on Mayor Roedecker (who collapsed at his holiday home) first. Tenma told Heinemann that he was the only one who could operate on a child and asked Heinemann to have Dr. Boyer handle the mayor. Heinemann ignored his request, ordering him to operate on the mayor. After a crisis of conscience, Tenma saves the life of a young boy instead of Mayor Roedecker. He is then scolded afterwards by Dr. Boyer and Dr. Oppenheim for not treating the mayor (who died as the doctors had to scramble to cover for Tenma at the last minute). At a banquet, Tenma begged for forgiveness from Director Heinemann who forgive him while blacklisting him, withdrawing Eva's hand in marriage, and Boyer becoming the new head of neurosurgery. Weeks later, Tenma gets word from the police that Director Heinemann, Dr. Oppenheim and Dr. Boyer have been mysteriously killed. Because of the three deaths and transfers of some doctors, the Chairman of the Board appoints Tenma chief of surgery. Nine years later, Tenma learns that Heinemann's murderer (and the recent killer of Adolf Junkers) is the boy he saved years before, Johan Liebert. Plagued by guilt, he resolves to find Johan and end the life of this "monster" he feels responsible for creating (while evading Inspector Heinrich Lunge, who suspects Tenma of the murders). He is a humanitarian who cares about the lives of others, and his kindness influences those he meets. Little is known of Tenma's childhood apart from that when he was growing up in Japan, he was picked on and wet himself; this earned him the nickname "Sissy-pants Tenma". His father and brother were also doctors; however, Tenma's family ties grew weaker since he left Japan for Germany. Tenma's surgical skills became evident to his superiors, and he was promoted to chief of neurosurgery around the time he met Eva. In his quest to kill Johan, Tenma nearly succeeds several times only to have him slip away until their final confrontation in Ruhenheim. When Johan wants Tenma to kill him, he threatens Wim when the child's drunk father, Herbert, mistakes Johan for a monster and shoots him. After Johan is picked up by the ambulance, Tenma treats him and is cleared of all charges. He later joins Doctors Without Borders (learning from Otto Heckel where Johan and Anna's mother is), and visits the comatose Johan in a police hospital.

Johan Liebert

Young Johan Liebert Voiced by: Yuuto Uemura (Japanese), Julie Ann Taylor (English)

Adult Johan Liebert Voiced by: Nozomu Sasaki (Japanese), Keith Silverstein (English)

Johan Liebert is the "monster" of the title and the principal antagonist of the series. The mystery of his past is the focus of the plot. He is called a monster, the next Hitler and the devil himself. Johan Liebert was shot in the head as a child, but saved from death by Dr. Tenma. Because of this, he regards Tenma as a father figure. He claims to love his twin sister, and has some loyalty to her. Johan has spent parts of his life in different places under different names. He possesses charisma and intelligence but is also cunning, manipulative and deceitful; while he is kind, compassionate and loving to children, he can be cold and cruel. He uses his talents to manipulate and corrupt others, often with no apparent end than to cause suffering and destruction. His goal (stated as a child) is to be the last one standing at the end of the world. One of the themes of Monster is how individuals are capable of behaving monstrously, and Johan often acts as a direct or indirect catalyst for such behavior. He identifies with other killers, discovering their secrets. Like Tenma, Johan is similar to a character from a manga by Osamu Tezuka: in this case Michio Yuki, the villain in MW. This includes his childhood involvement in a secret military experiment, his ability to manipulate powerful people, his ambition to trigger the end of the world, his suicidal tendencies and occasional episodes of cross-dressing. In keeping with the Apocalypse theme, Johan shares traits with the Antichrist: (being "resurrected" after being shot through the head and being mistaken for a monster with "seven heads and many horns"). Although Nina remembers that Johan and Anna had no real names, he is primarily known as Johan. After causing the death of Petr Capek, he orchestrates the Ruhenheim Massacre and has his final encounter with Tenma. When Johan threatens Wim to get Tenma to shoot him, Johan is shot by Wim's drunken father, Herbert. He is found by the ambulance, with the bullet wound treated by Tenma. Comatose, he is visited by Tenma in a police hospital. The final scene shows his bedroom empty with the window open, ambiguously suggesting that Johan has died or escaped from the hospital.

Nina Fortner/Anna Liebert

Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (Japanese), Karen Strassman (English)

Johan's twin sister, the only unharmed survivor of the night her parents and brother were shot in what appeared to be a botched burglary. Nina is a sweet, kind, loving, hardworking and intelligent young woman. She seemed to have a happy life, but discovers there are parts of her past she does not remember. At first, she had amnesia due to the psychological trauma of the attack. After she and Johan disappeared, she was adopted by the Fortner family from Heidelberg (who were unaware of her previous identity as Anna Liebert). As Nina Fortner, she was a law student at the University of Heidelberg and a practitioner of aikido. She lived in peace until Johan contacted her on her 20th birthday and also pursues Johan, with different methods and for a different reason than Tenma does. While Nina does not share her brother's psychosis, they have similar fears linked to their past: she is frozen with shock after reading a children's book which caused Johan to faint. While Nina is primarily a pacifist, she will threaten (or kill) someone if she feels it necessary or to protect others. During a hypnosis session with Dr. Gillen, her personality changes and she reveals that Nina is not her name; when he asks her real name, she refuses to say and attacks him. She also reveals that their father was a soldier in Czechoslovakia, that he was murdered before they were born, and their mother was a political activist. She is present at the Ruhenheim Massacre, forgiving her brother and trying to dissuade Tenma from shooting Johan. By the end of the series, Nina graduates from college and plans to attend law school.

Inspector Heinrich Lunge

Voiced by: Tsutomu Isobe (Japanese), Richard Epcar (English)

First seen in chapter five, Inspector Lunge is a BKA detective assigned to the murder case at the hospital. He thinks Tenma is the prime suspect, believing that Tenma invented Johan; he is later convinced that Johan is Tenma's alter ego. Like Javert in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, Inspector Lunge is obsessed with Tenma. His devotion to his work comes at the expense of his personal life; during the series, his wife and pregnant daughter leave him. What he loves most is his job; Lunge missed a chance to meet his grandson for the first time to see Tenma's friends from Japan instead. He expresses some regret; during his fight with Roberto he seems angry to hear Roberto say how happy his wife was with another man, and his grandson saw that man as his grandfather. Lunge has an excellent memory, "entering data" into his mind by making typing gestures with his hands. He seems devoid of emotion, which allows him to commit himself to every case on which he works. His toughness drives a murder suspect to suicide, prompting his superiors to remove Lunge from all his cases. Like Grimmer (see below), his facial expression barely changes. After the University of Munich fire, Lunge learns that Johan really exists. He then takes a "holiday" in Prague to track down Franz Bonaparta, author of a book which may reveal Johan's origins. Lunge ends up in Ruhenheim, meeting Grimmer and Tenma; apologizing to the latter for his mistakes, he heads off to a showdown with Roberto. Both are wounded in the shootout; Lunge survives, while Roberto dies of his wounds. In the final episode, Lunge visits Grimmer's grave next to those of Jan Suk and Fritz Vardemann. He tells them he is a professor at the police academy, and has rekindled his relationship with his daughter.

Dieter

Voiced by: Junko Takeuchi (Japanese), Laura Bailey (English)

First seen in chapter 12, Dieter is a young boy Tenma encounters in his search for Johan. When Tenma first meets him, he is under the care of a man named Hartmann; Tenma later discovers that Dieter is physically abused by Hartmann. Hartmann plans to make Dieter into another Johan by applying the same conditioning used in the Kinderheim 511 orphanage. Dieter later becomes happier after being saved by Tenma from Hartmann's physical and mental abuse. Dieter follows Tenma in his search for Johan, to prevent Tenma from becoming a murderer because he is fond of him. He later teams up with Nina, to help her find out more about her past and give her moral support when her traumatic memories resurface (since he was also subjected to similar abuse). Dieter seems to have absorbed some of Tenma's beliefs and optimism about life in episode 33 ("A Child's View"), when he meets a young boy influenced by Johan to be more like the latter. The young boy recites what he heard Johan say about life, death and fear, and tries to tempt Dieter to walk along the ledge of a building and jump. Dieter refuses, saying he wants to live, to experience new things and see the faces of the people he loves; he repeats what he heard Tenma say: "Tomorrow will be better". Dieter helps Nina find out more about her past. By the end of the series he reunites with Otto Heckel, who tells Dieter where the mother of the Liebert twins is.

Eva Heinemann

Voiced by: Mami Koyama (Japanese), Tara Platt (English)

Eva Heinemann is Tenma's fiancée and daughter of Director Heinemann. She is independent, superficial, bossy, loud, demanding and manipulative. She is also cruel, taunting, demeaning, and hates not having her way. She is not often seen without either demanding to be pampered or having a drink. Tenma's relationship with Eva seems to have problems; he tends to ignore Eva while he is doing research, and insists on activities Eva does not want to do. Although she claims to love him, she sometimes treats him cruelly. However, Tenma asks for Eva's hand in marriage (to her father's approval). She leaves Tenma after he is demoted by her father for disobeying his orders where she drops her ring near him and meets up with another man without saying a word to him. Director Heinemann's murder takes a toll on her. She tries to reconcile with Tenma, but he quietly rejects her. Several years and three failed marriages later, she meets Inspector Lunge where she reminiscing about her time with Tenma. Nostalgic, Eva visits Tenma at the hospital and attempts to start over with him. When Eva is rejected again, she lashes out at him. She becomes an embittered alcoholic, using money from divorce settlements to finance her lifestyle. After burning her house down in a drunken rage, she wanders throughout Germany and is caught up in the investigation of the "monster" where one of her drunken activities caused her to spend a night in the police department's jail. Although she does not suspect Tenma caused her father's death, she obsessively hopes to see him suffer in prison in retaliation for his rejection of her. Eva becomes a target of Roberto during her near-encounter with Johan Liebert the night he murdered Adolf Junkers. Eva is an empty, miserable person due to her anger and lashing out at others. Eventually, though, her personality changes somewhat. Petr Capek and "the Baby" hire Martin to bring her to Frankfurt, where she tries to mold him into a replica of Tenma. When Martin dies after a shootout, Eva is devastated. Although Tenma tells her to go by train to Munich to meet with Dr. Reichwein and tell the police what she knows about Johan, instead she plans revenge on those responsible for Martin's death and purchases a gun. Eva finds Christof Sievernich (partially responsible for Martin's death) and tries unsuccessfully to kill him. She is saved by Tenma who wounds Sievernich. Eva is later seen with Dieter at Julius Reichwein's house where she mentions that the police did not believe her story that Johan Liebert was the culprit. During this time, Eva trades alcohol for cigarettes. By the end of the series, she becomes an interior decorator who has released her anger at Tenma and her grief for Martin when she visits Dr. Reichwein.