I used to hear about Monster a lot.
This 74 episode murder mystery anime with the greatest villain ever in the genre.
Episode count seems a little daunting, but I always had it on my list to finally watch one day.
What I didn't realize is that had I actually looked it up and tried to watch it I would have had a hard time.
It's been in license limbo for more than a decade. There are no DVD box sets. Viz stopped releasing them mid-show. It aired on SyFy before it was SyFy and that may be the only time it was broadcast in English outside of Canada.
Even now, Netflix just got the whole thing but THEY DON'T HAVE IT IN ENGLISH. the dub that aired on US TV seems to be lost....
but yes, it's on Netflix with English subtitles and YOU NEED TO WATCH IT.
It is the WIRE of anime.
This show couldn't be made now. The manga ran from 1997 to 2001. The anime ran from Spring 2004 to Fall 2005.
In those days, a show didn't have to be otaku pandering shounen schlock to get adapted by a good quality studio (unlike nowadays where shows like 91 Days and My Home Hero have amazing stories but alas look cheap).
Madhouse did this show. Madhouse NAILED this fucking show. The suspense, the atmosphere, the intensity, everything.
People talk about "anime to show people who don't like anime", THIS is the one. This is the kind of thing nobody thinks anime can do. It's messages are still relevant today. It has kind of ruined the genre for me, because nobody's ever gonna make anything like this again. Watch Monster, on Netflix. There are places you can find the dub, and you shouldn't catch any shit because it's not actually available anywhere.
When I first started the show I called it the True Detective of anime, but it's the Wire.
Psycho Pass is the True Detective of anime because most people only really like the first season (but actually the only season that's necessarily BAD is the 2nd one)
(actually, by that logic, it's not the Wire because everyone told me before I watched the Wire "it gets a bit crap in the final season". I guess it's Breaking Bad.)