This is a monster story about monster stories.

Episode 9, "The Girl and the Seasoned Soldier," has our hero seeking out a master to train him in the arts of the warrior so that he may go out and confront the villain.

I never expected to type that sequence of words when describing Monster of all damned things, but this series is nothing if not surprising.

Johan is probably the smarter one, then. He may or may not turn out to be physically stronger as well (the way things are going, I suspect that he will). And he's a psychopathic megalomaniac.

Partial augments don't necessarily have the superior ambition problem.

This show really walks a fine line between gritty realism and nightmare psychedelia.

I swear to god if he starts shooting people in the mouth with a poisoned candy launcher it would make "Monster" the best piece of media ever created by any person. No joke. Unironically.

Is this the work of creepy psychic kids, or is Kenzo just falling to paranoid psychosis and poisoning his coworkers?

The masterful evoking of paranoia and dread, the almost feverish surreal social horror, and the excellent art, music, and voice acting. Kenzo is also really growing on me as a protagonist, though I think that has at least as much to do with his VA as it does the script. Whether this goes in the weird crime drama or supernatural horror direction, I'm here for it.

One of the best anime pilots I've ever seen.