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Rather than a grown man gaining the ability to go back in time and change the decisions he regrets having made in the past, this manga feels more like what a kid thinks he would do if he gained that power (at least the protagonist is supposedly 26 years old and acts more immature than some of his former 14-year-old classmates).

Yes, this manga has some truly epic fights, but it's not worth putting up with all its nonsense and shounen clichés:

A continuous and poorly executed power escalation (each new character has to be stronger than the last, easily defeating the old "invincibles" and then being ... matched with inexplicable power-ups from old characters...), protagonists who keep endlessly getting back on their feet after being beaten (it gets old pretty fast), an author who doesn't seem to grasp the significance of the age ranges he's working with (are you seriously saying that a 10-year-old can beat a grown adult to death with his bare fists?), characters who manage to solve ANY situation by fighting, a pretty bland and generic ending, etc.

Just find another, better fighting manga if that's what you want to read.

Although the plot is quite different, this manga "feels" similar to 20th Century Boys (by the same author): I think this is because, broadly speaking, in both cases there is some kind of elusive mastermind and the protagonists have to embark on a journey to "catch" them.

Following the comparison, this manga has a more "realistic" approach than 20th Century Boys, but it still has several flaws, one of the most obvious being the unbelievable coincidences that occasionally occur in the story (I'm talking about something at the level of an investigator suddenly discovering that his new dentist is the same one that 10 years ago ... treated the dental problems of the criminal he is hunting right now, and unearthing key intel from that connection... what are the chances of that?).

There are other flaws as well: the characters are sometimes too quick to fully trust other people, certain situations are overdramatized, and the ending feels rather bland (it definitely doesn't live up to the expectations built up throughout the story).

However, this manga also has some really strong points, such as a good amount of interesting and "human" characters, and very engaging (and numerous) story arcs. In fact, the story feels almost episodic, because every X chapters the protagonist travels to another place and you meet new and well-fleshed characters that presents you an (almost) new story.

If you forget about the ending and just focus on enjoying all those different stories without paying too much attention to the small details, Monster can be a pretty good read.

This manga has some very strong points (such as the urban survival elements, the interactions between some characters, or how it portrays the eccentricities of some of them), but it also has its fair share of flaws that seriously detract from its overall rating:

The first part (4-5 volumes) is quite slow because it spends a lot of time showing the normal everyday life of the protagonist before the outbreak (and he continues to act the same even after it starts...), and in the last part (last 4 volumes or so) it loses the essence of what the story was to become a simple battle ... royale (plus the ending is pretty anticlimactic and dry), not to mention that some of the middle parts of the story dedicated to other groups of survivors are not even that interesting, and there are also a considerable amount of confusing dreamlike scenes.

In the end, the really good parts of the story take up less than half of the volumes, so this is clearly not an overall masterpiece, and I'd say you'll only consider this manga slightly above average if you are into prepping or urban survival.

If I had to sum up this manga in one word, it would be "childish". Yes, the main theme of the story is about turning childhood fantasies into reality, but it could have been approached in a "realistic" way, at least showing how some parts of the bizarre plans made by a bunch of kids have to be changed or adapted because they don't make any sense / are unrealizable...

Instead, they are implemented word by word, and the author warps the world itself to make those plans "work", which causes many problems in the plot: lots of grown adults thinking or acting like children, ... over-dramatization of relatively small events, a government class that does not seem to care about its own well-being when implementing its "evil schemes", etc...

Luckily, the mystery plot is really engaging, and the story is told in a rather clever way, with continuous time jumps that are masterfully placed and keep key points of the plot hidden but without confusing the reader too much. This, along with a pretty good ending, makes this manga a good read overall if you are able to turn off your common sense and just enjoy the ride...

This manga is actually a compilation of dozens of very short and completely independent stories that only share the same protagonists (in fact, you can read the chapters in any order you want, it doesn't matter). That means that there is no progression in the story at all, the author could have ended it at chapter 10 and it would be the same as ending it at chapter 100, it's just adding more of the same.

Also, the adult protagonist is pretty dry and imive, the drawing style makes it difficult to differentiate some characters, and in general it can get repetitive (after all, each ... chapter is always the Wolf killing a new target, the only novelty is how he approaches them and why they hire him to do it).

To be honest, I don't understand why this manga has a higher score than other works by Kazuo Koike like Hanzou no Mon (yes, that manga also has some issues, but at least it's a proper story, with its progression and character development...).

The only strong points here are the setting (it skillfully shows some of the customs and mentalities of feudal Japan) and the occasional moments when the child has some prominence (he proves to be very resourceful for his young age, but also pure and kind).

This manga could have been a masterpiece if it wasn't impossible to take it completely seriously because of an extremely simple and comedy-like drawing style, and the constant joking remarks of some of the characters...

Although on the other hand, if this manga had been created in an absolute crude and "reallistic" way, I think it would be too heartbreaking to read, so maybe it's better that way: it's still pretty good, and it depicts the situation from the eyes of a protagonist who is still a child and has a really strong and positive mindset.

As a side note, the characters sing more than those ... in a Disney musical, I don't know if it is faithful to what Japanese children were like at that time, or if it is a tool used by the author to transmit his feelings to the reader (it must be ed that this is an autobiographical work).

Even though it's not that bad, I think it's a stretch to call this manga a masterpiece. This is not a drama, mystery or police investigation manga, but one about logical explanations: most of the story is just characters talking in a random room and explaining all the logical deductions they keep making, so it can come off as rather dry and inelegant (at least for those who think plot twists and intrigues should be shown, not just told / talked about).

Also, the manga has some childish moments (I guess that's inevitable in a shounen), and even if most people say the first half is ... the "good" one, I find the first third of the story a bit weak and feel like from that part on it becomes more engaging.

Rather than a historic seinen, it's better to think of this manga as a gory action shounen set in a generic feudal Japan (almost none of the characters / events depicted in it are real, and even the weapons they use are quite fictional).

If you look at it that way, the story is very engaging and well rounded, and its only downside (apart from a somewhat clumsy first volume) is the unnecesary cruelty displayed by one of the characters (even if you want to portray a crude world, you don't need to intentionally go out of your way to create the most sadistic character ... you can imagine...).