Johan Liebert : A Monster

Johan: Nameless Monster

No…All lives are created Equal

The only thing Human Beings are equal in is…death

Denial and Love

To understand how Johan became a monster , we need to take an inspection at his backstory. There are many hints throughout the manga that Johan had a terrible upbringing. Johan was said to grow up in Kinderheim 511, an orphanage infamours for violating human rights and running some experiments. As we learn more about Johan throughout the series it becomes clear on how he became a Monster.

Kinderheim 511 ran horrible experiments on children to create super soldiers. These experiments resulted in creating children that are… Monsters. Human Beings can become anything. Kinderheim 511 resulted in children forgetting their names and becoming Nameless Monsters. Just like Franz Bonaparta’s “The Nameless Monster”. Kinderheim 511 stripped away emotions from kids that make people human. The children on Kinderheim 511 were never loved.

Johan, was never loved.

Johan was dying to have a name. “There was no one around to call him by that”. He wanted to have a name, he wanted to be loved and be called by that name affectionally. But, he never experienced that love. The only thing that was left in the world for him was his twin sister, or his other part, just like the Monster from Bonaparta’s story. And when Anna came back from the Red Rose Mansion, Johan embraced her memories into his own, and became her.

“I am you. You are me”

Just like the Monster in Bonaparta’s story.

With Johan “eating” Anna like the Monster in The Nameless Monster, Johan learnt about how his mother abandoned Anna. His mother showed him no love. She abandoned Anna in a second, and it definitely could have been Johan. The reason he was born was becasue of an experiment and a mission conducted by a government. Being experienced no love, Johan was broken.

When he killed the Lieberts, Johan played a game. The rooftop Game, but instead of a rooftop, he was playing with fate. He wanted to see if Anna, the only one he cares most in this world, his other self can forgive him or not. Whether he himself is capable of showing love. But when Anna shot him, he was completely broken. He was not shown a single drop of love, even from himself.

And thus the Nihilist Monster was born.

Johan doesn’t care about anything. He was born, not because of love, but because of a mission. Johan was abandoned as a child, experienced the horror of not having a name, spent a year in Kinderheim 511. It was like that life made him suffer every bad thing, and not a single good thing.

“Did anyone ever want you?

What is the reason for living?

If nobody calls you out, no one wanted you.”

Johan doesn’t care about anything at this point. Johan is playing the ultimate game of fate. He kills people, because what’s the point anyway? This world is full of rotten people and it always will be this way. Parents don’t love their children, so screw them. Life is boring and stale, the only way it can be fun is by playing a game. And he did play that game and he wished to be the victor.

What game was it?

Johan made everyone around him a Monster. Someone capable of taking a human live. That’s the reason he said “I already saw the end. The scene of doomsday”. Johan, the ultimate Nihilist, who never experienced a tiny drop of love in his life. And for the last game in his life, the perfect suicide, he wanted Tenma to kill him.

 

Johan was a Nihilist Monster. The reason this suicide would be perfect is because he would finally be able to be the victor between their battle of idelogies. To Tenma, all lives are created equal. To Johan, the only thing Human Beings are equal in is death. Another reason is that he needs to kill Nina and Bonapart so no one would remember his past. He would become, a fictional man. This further reinforces his thinking of birth being meaningless.

Unfortunately however, he lost this game. Tenma stayed true to his philosophy and did not kill Johan. Johan lost the battle he so, so much yearned to win. But, Tenma gave him something he yearned too. Love.

Tenma saved him from death. The first time, Tenma didn’t know anything about him. But when Tenma realized that he created this Monster, he went on a hunt to kill Johan. Tenma wanted to kill Johan because, all human lives are equal to Tenma. But Johan wasn’t a human, he was a Monster. But when he gradually learnt more about Johan, he realized that Johan… wasn’t a Monster. That’s why Tenma didn’t shoot. Johan was just a broken child who wanted love from this harsh world.

Tenma saved Johan. Both from death, and from this harsh world. Tenma showed him love. Something that he never experienced before. Thus, Johan accepted defeat and his nihilism was crushed.

Tenma, at the end, finished his mission. His misssion was to kill the Monster, not Johan. He killed the Monster inside Johan, and became the first person to call him his name.

Many thanks for reading