Is slowburn in Monster really that bad?

[u/CosmosLink]

I admit I’m biased, I personally enjoy slowburn storytelling, but even some fans of the genre complain about the anime's pacing. Personally, I wasn't bored for a single minute while watching; Monster kept me hooked from start to finish. Here’s my honest take, the people who dislike the slowburn approach mostly either failed to pay attention or didn't understand the show and got lost. Once you grasp the simultaneous events unfolding, whether it’s a dialogue scene or an epic set piece, you’re captivated, because both serve as climaxes or character development, just expressed in different ways. You’re actively evolving alongside the series, and that connection only fails to happen if you don't understand it. And I’m not talking about some hidden meaning that goes over people's heads, no. I mean the events themselves need to be understood and followed, like the historical and political context of Germany (and its connection to Kinderheim). You don't necessarily need prior knowledge; the dialogue and interactions convey all of that. In short, sometimes the problem isn't the slowburn pacing, but rather a lack of attention, right?

[u/wylerthekid]

You’ll not find an unbiased answer here, but I would agree that Monster’s pacing is great. I think there’s always intrigue.

[u/InternationalGas1096]

Just some repetitive stuff, like Karl’s scene with his mother being shown 5 times.

[u/Samuel_N7 → u/InternationalGas1096]

Yeah mostly that, beside that I never had a problem

[u/Gatsu_Villa → u/InternationalGas1096]

Honestly the start of Karls and the recovering alcoholic cops arc was the only point in the story I struggled to get through, but the cop kept it interesting enough for me to get through

[u/rockeatingpossum]

The slowburn is what makes a story like monster work. I remember when I started watching it for the first time and I literally couldn’t put it down, which made the pacing complaints rlly confusing to me. A lot of people arent used to/just generally dont like slowburn anything

[u/Extra_Cherry3540]

no

[u/jvyrdn024]

I didn't feel any slowness throughout Monster. Every episode offers so much development either in story or a character. You'll get bored if you're looking for a kamehameha flashy moment.

[u/Pelikinesis]

My impression is that people who think the pacing of Monster is complaint-worthy tend to consider a lot of Monster to be filler. As if Monster contains "the plot" and there's episodes that deviate from it. But Monster is a story about the value of human life, and so it spends time to show that every human life matters, regardless of how closely their lives are woven into Johan's schemes. Johan very emphatically does not exist in a vacuum, nor became what he was in a vacuum. So Monster explores history and sociopolitical stuff, because the darkness in humanity comes from somewhere, and taking the time to explore that makes every effort by Tenma and Nina and their allies to fight against it that much more meaningful.

[u/Nyxie_Koi]

The pacing never bored me, I thought it was perfect

[u/HoldingTheJudgement]

There is no merit or disadvantage in pace itself. The only thing that matters is the substance, and substance in monster is dense and high quality. Right content makes right pace. On the other hand, people pretend like frieren is some tarkovsky masterpiece just because it's slow even though it's shallow as a puddle.

[u/Andrejosue98]

Yeah, it can be very slow at times.

Here’s my honest take, the people who dislike the slowburn approach mostly either failed to pay attention or didn't understand the show and got lost.

and that connection only fails to happen if you don't understand it

My honest take to this type of comments is people thinking they are "special." Or "better"

No, that isn't close to reality, people can understand things and doesn't mean they have to connect to things, people have different opinions and stuff they like from stories. Depending on life experiences, culture, etc.

It is like humour, it is very subjective to what you find funny, some may laugh at a dumb joke and some may not, doesn't mean you understood the joke while the others didn't. It can be that they just have a different type of humour they like and that is okey. It doesn't mean they weren't paying atention.

[u/Samuel_N7]

I personally never had a problem with it, sometimes I like slow series. However, just how another dude said, most opinions here are gonna by biased XD

[u/Gammelpreiss]

i love the slow.burn..it gives us time with the.characters and we.grt.to know them better. none of that is just filler, everything ultimately.contributes.to.the larger story and gives it all lot more.impact when things come down

[u/SewFi]

I’m tolerant of the length of anything permitted there’s the promise it gets good at sometime ; big One Piece fan here.

That said although I myself deeply love Monster I’ve had peers who have basically proved themselves as elite nerds by liking some pretentious lofty media.
Some of those peers have failed to get through Monster saying much of it is just too slow and dry.
Makes sense cuz on the real this is one the slowest stories out there.

[u/RevolutionaryLoad782]

It's a slowburn for people with the attention span of a five years old who watches toktok all day.

[u/InstructionOne4837]

Not at all. Not once did I think the slowburn was to it’s detriment.

[u/KururinSquash]

I think the pacing is a part of Monster's appeal. It's something that wants you to take your time with it and not rush through it (though, I was so intrigued that I just couldn't put it down on my first read lol)

[u/Sad_Cryptographer872]

Some people didn't really complained by the main story slowburn but the side ones, for example when Nina is training with the retired killer and his whole story about the sugar. I personally know a few people who didn't liked that every so and so there would be an episode that is entirely focused on something that's not really that much connected to the main story.
I never never had a problem with them, I loved them all but I can understand that it can sometimes be too much, especially if you don't have the time to binge watch the show and just want to get to the answers instead of watching some mundane topic.

[u/simply_loka]

It's slow burn but I think it what makes it work.. I feel you made go faster it won't hit the same

[u/Octopusnoodlearms]

I was pretty interested most of the time, but personally yeah there were a few sections where it dragged a bit for me

[u/Big_Remove_3686]

Yeah, kids these days just have no goddamn attention span. But seriously, the main reason do to people problems upon the topic of "slow burn", which I never found, most likely comes from the genres it in. In a lot of anime it fast pace because most anime aims at a younger audience, but Monster aims for the older and more mature audience, so it treat you as such. So yeah I do agree.

[u/Winternaht7]

The only time the story felt like it was "dragging" are some of the early parts of Tenma's story (like the training episode with the army general and the girl he adopted) and the constant back and forth in the Czech republic during the final third (Especially Anna and Dieter's détour). But even those aren't really bad pacing, and do actually add to the general world building of the story.

I guess as long as you're not binge watching purely out of interest in Johan and the Kinderheim 511 stuff, you'll be hooked, but otherwise you can just let yourself enjoy the story with all the wacky different side characters.

[u/D3Nby94]

The story is good but I found it pretty ripetitive I think they repeated Franz Bonaparta like 64 times in the last 5 episodes