“ | There's nothing special about being born. Not a thing. Most of the universe is just death, nothing more. In this universe of ours, the birth of a new life on some corner of our planet is nothing but a tiny, insignificant flash. Death is a normal thing. So why live? | ” |
—Johan, "The Cruelest Thing" |
Johan Liebert (ヨハン・リーベルト, Yohan Rīberuto?) is the titular "monster" and main antagonist of the Monster series. He is the older twin brother of Nina Fortner, formerly known as Anna Liebert. Johan was shot in the head in 1986, but he was operated on and saved from death by Kenzō Tenma.
Johan has spent portions of his life in different locations under different aliases, and possesses extraordinary levels of charisma and intelligence. He tends to use his gifts to cruelly manipulate and corrupt others, often with no apparent motive other than to cause chaos and suffering.
Appearance
Johan has short, middle-parted platinum blond hair, light blue eyes, and pale skin. He is often described as being exceptionally handsome and beautiful. His slender build and delicate facial features allow him to easily pass as a woman, and he takes advantage of this several times throughout the story.
As a child, he had short bangs hanging over his forehead.
Personality
On the surface, Johan is a polite, charismatic, and compassionate yet somewhat aloof young man who possesses a myriad of favorable traits and can easily overwhelm individuals with his seemingly flawless nature, as seen with Hans Georg Schuwald, who describes him as being not of this world.[4] This meticulously crafted facade makes it easy for him to make new allies and manipulate them into doing various deeds for him through the influence of his supposed friendship and good will. With such skill in creating this sense of perfection and pureness, Johan hides his true motives with ease.
Within this contrived exterior, however, Johan callously delivers destruction and suffering to those who happen to fall prey to his schemes. Even before his tenure at Kinderheim 511, Johan still exhibited psychopathic tendencies. For example, most of his murders, both in childhood and adulthood, have been premeditated and calculated. Many of Johan's beliefs run consistent with nihilism, as he does not see any meaning to life. He claims, "Most of this universe is 'death' anyway," and that to the universe, "most lives are just specks in a corner of the earth, gone in a flash".[5]
Johan also has a tendency to make his victims experience the worst possible loss and suffering rather than actually killing them himself; this experience often leads the victims to kill themselves, however. Helmut Wolf is a prime example of this; instead of simply being killed, Wolf is forced to watch as all of his close relatives and acquaintances die, one after another, all so he can feel what Johan felt: solitude.
The root of Johan's actions is unknown. Although he was sent to the experimental orphanage of Kinderheim 511, Hartmann informs Tenma that, "[Kinderheim 511] couldn't possibly create a masterpiece like him!" Neither of his parents seemed to suffer from psychopathy or any other mental illnesses. Nina, despite being the twin to experience the traumatic events at the Red Rose Mansion, turns out to be a genuinely loving and caring person. However, while she is able to suppress her memories of the Red Rose Mansion, Johan takes them as his own, coming to believe that he was the one who experienced them.[6] After the Ruhenheim massacre, while convalescing in a state hospital from his second operation, Johan reveals to Tenma, through unknown means, his memory of his mother's decision,[7] revealing that the memory affected him profoundly.
Biography
SPOILER WARNING The following text contains spoilers. Proceed with caution. |
Early life
“ | I was born in a town that was straight out of a fairy tale. Many people died there, and when I walked away, I held hands with my other self. To me it seemed like we were the only two people in the world. Neither one of us possessed a real name. | ” |
—Johan recounting his childhood |
Johan Liebert and his twin sister, Nina Fortner, were born as the result of a eugenics experiment orchestrated by Franz Bonaparta, the primary goal of which was to create a child who had not only an exceptionally high level of intelligence and a flawless appearance, but who could also lead the human race.[8]
After Johan's mother, Věra Černá, is released from confinement, she and the twins move into the Three Frogs Building next to Čedok Bridge in Prague. Černá dresses both of her children as identical girls to make it appear as though she has a single child, rather than twins. The family leads a very quiet life, and most of their neighbors hardly take notice of them.
In 1981, Franz Bonaparta and his then-assistant Petr Čapek appear before the family to inform them that one of the twins will be taken to the Red Rose Mansion for experimentation; the other will stay at home. Bonaparta stages the situation such that Černá is the one who has to make the decision of which twin to give away. At first, she hands over Johan, but quickly changes her mind and gives up Nina instead. It is unknown whether or not she is aware which child is which. This event impacts Johan for the rest of his life, leaving him to question whether his mother was trying to protect him or had confused him for Nina.[9]
Nina is taken away, Věra vanishes, and Johan is left at the Three Frogs by himself. Alone, he spends time reading The Nameless Monster, a picture book written and illustrated by Franz Bonaparta under the pen name Emil Šébe. After Nina escapes from the Red Rose Mansion and returns to the Three Frogs, Johan asks her to describe the experience. Eventually, Johan confuses the information relayed by his sister for his own experiences, and comes to believe that he was the one who suffered through the events at the Red Rose Mansion.[10]
When Nina inquires as to their mother's whereabouts, Johan reveals to her that they have been left to survive on their own. The children then burn down the Three Frogs and run away, directionless and with no destination in mind. Sometime later, the twins meet a middle-aged couple who give them food and contemplate taking them into their care. However, they are both killed by Johan. Later, Nina (unaware that the couple is dead) gathers flowers to give to the couple, but Johan suggests they leave, saying he has "a plan".
On their journey, Johan and Nina in time pass out from exhaustion in the mountains by the Czech-German border. A patrol officer named Helmut Wolf rescues them from their near-death experience.[11] He looks in Johan's bag and finds only one thing: a copy of The Nameless Monster. He decides to name the boy Johan after the monster in the book, and gives the girl the name Anna. Afterwards, he sends them to two separate orphanages: Nina to a place called Orphanage 47 and Johan to Kinderheim 511.
Kinderheim 511 massacre
Kinderheim 511 was a secret, East German experimental orphanage located in East Berlin, with the goal of creating perfect soldiers.[12] When Johan arrives at Kinderheim 511, he is said to have already been beyond their program, naturally arousing the curiosity of the higher-ups and leading to a forced interview while under the effects of chemical treatment.[13]
In time, Johan no longer desires to be at the orphanage. To escape, he formulates a plan: He will take advantage of the tension within the orphanage, or "[throw] a scrap of cloth doused in oil onto an open flame" as he puts it,[14] by capitalizing on the hatred born when people come together. This eventually leads to the chaotic event that forever taints the reputation of Kinderheim 511. Fifty children and instructors fight and kill each other, all while Johan simply sits in a chair at the top of the main staircase, watching calmly as the massacre ensues and the orphanage burns.[15]
After the massacre is over, Johan finds and saves a hungry and parched Christof Sievernich, with whom he formulates a plan and decides to reunite with roughly ten years later.[16]
The Lieberts
Johan and Nina are then adopted by former East German foreign trade advisor Michael Liebert and his wife. Originally, the Lieberts only want to adopt Johan. He, however, refuses to go anywhere without his sister, so Nina too is adopted and given a place within the family. In April 1986, the four flee to West Germany, specifically to the city of Düsseldorf.[17]
Franz Bonaparta, who is now living in the south German town of Ruhenheim under the name Klaus Poppe, sees the twins on TV and decides to pay them a visit. The Lieberts allow him in, and he looks at the twins while under the impression that they are sleeping. Johan, however, is not asleep and thinks that Bonaparta, whom he has coined a "monster", is going to seize hold of him and his sister again, supported by his later statement, "A monster came today... A monster came to take the two of us away."[18] He consequently kills the Lieberts. The gunshots wake Nina, and she finds her parents' corpses as well as Johan standing armed in a nearby room. He gives Nina the gun, then orders her to shoot him in the head, wipe the gun after, and throw it out of the window. She follows through with Johan's request and pulls the trigger, subsequently entering a state of shock herself. The neighbors, who have woken up due to all of the gunshots, call the police. The authorities arrive shortly after and Johan, in critical condition at the time, is sent to Eisler Memorial Hospital to be operated on by Dr. Kenzo Tenma.
Eisler Memorial Hospital
As Dr. Tenma is just about to begin surgery on Johan, he is contacted by the Eisler Memorial Hospital director, Udo Heinemann, who demands that he remove himself from the boy's operation and attend to Mayor Roedecker instead. After thinking of a similar previous incident he had regretted, Tenma ultimately decides to operate on Johan. Although Johan's surgery is successful, Tenma's decision to operate on him instead of Mayor Roedecker results in the latter's death. His decision also consequently leads to him being punished: He is stripped of his position and any chances of career progress ruined.[19]
Filled with rage, Tenma approaches a presumably unconscious Johan to vent his anger. Proclaiming that he was not wrong and that Udo Heinemann is not a doctor, but rather a filthy money-mongerer, the angered surgeon wishes death upon the Eisler Memorial director.[20] Unbeknownst to him, Johan is not only conscious, but also very grateful for Tenma's decision.[21] As a result, Johan, using poisoned candy, decides to repay his debt by granting Tenma his wish: He kills Udo Heinemann, along with Dr. Oppenheim and Dr. Boyer, then disappears from the hospital with Nina.[22]
After escaping Eisler Memorial
On the same day that they escape from Eisler Memorial Hospital, Johan and Nina run into Reinhard Dinger, who has come into trouble with the authorities for attacking a man. Johan tells the police that Dinger isn't in the wrong, and that the abuser had attacked him first,[23] saving him from potential jail time. Out of gratitude, Dinger offers to drive Johan and Nina to their home, but, after discovering they have no home, allows the two to stay at his apartment for a couple of days. Johan, Nina, and Dinger watch the news while eating dinner. When Dinger mutters to himself about how depraved the world is and how "the scum should all die", Johan agrees with his notion, stating, "We don't need... those people", a comment that marks the start of Dinger's career as a murderer.[24]
Sometime later, the siblings travel to Heidelberg, where Johan leaves his amnesia-stricken sister in the care of the Fortners until 1995. Then, he goes to Munich and stays with a family under the name Franz Heineau from March of 1987 to April of 1988, where he strikes up a good relationship with a blind man and former soldier. The veteran tells Johan war stories and, per his request, gives him his personal description of "ultimate fear". He also teaches Johan French and English, which he masters by the end of the thirteen-month period.[25] Johan then stays with the Reichmanns in Köln for a year, the Schumanns in Hanover, a couple in Hamburg, and Hanna Kemp.
Other Lieberts
Next, Johan goes to Bruntal, where he finds a new couple with the last name "Liebert." Coincidentally, they once had a son named Johan who died as a toddler, which gives Johan the opportunity to jump into the deceased boy's identity. Following a convenient fire where the town's birth certificates are kept, the Lieberts are able to apply for a new application making it seem as though their son never died. Johan provides his new family with a nice home in Offenbach Hessen.[26]
Johan uses the couple to prove he has an identity and ordinary background. Although he has established a family, however, he doesn't spend much time with them. At the age of fifteen, Johan organizes a money laundering business which becomes very prosperous and well-known in the German underworld.[27] Towards the end of his career, he spends several months living with Halenka Novakova, who is baffled by the extraordinary similarities between Johan and her friend Věra Černá. Novakova is the victim of a phantom killing in 1995, presumably related to her association with Johan. Eventually Johan grows bored of the underground bank, so he takes an amount of money and abandons it. With the president's disappearance and an inevitable end in sight, those involved lose control, wiping away what is left of the organization with a massacre.
Reunion with Dr. Tenma
From 1993 until he abandons the bank, Johan begins hiring serial killers around Germany to murder his former foster parents. One trio carrying out the executions involves Adolf Junkers and two of his partners.[28]
In 1995, Johan betrays the group; two are killed on the spot and Junkers is hit by a car after trying to run away, sustaining an injury to the head. He receives treatment from Kenzo Tenma and makes a miraculous recovery, until one night his paranoia causes him to run out of the hospital in terror. Tenma chases after him and they reach an abandoned building. There, Junkers is shot to death by Johan, leaving Tenma severely shocked. As Johan leaves the premises, he is observed by Eva Heinemann.
Picking up Nina
Johan goes to pick up his long-lost sister, who now goes by the name of Nina, from Heidelberg in May 1995.[29] He begins to interact with her anonymously via email, and informs her that he is going to retrieve her soon.[30] He later monitors her as she meets with a young man named Otto Huberman, whom she believes to be the anonymous sender. Nina, after spotting Johan in the crowd from afar, begins questioning who he is and subsequently faints.
Later, Johan sends Nina a message requesting that she meet him at Heidelberg Castle.[31] He hires two corrupt cops, Detective Messener and Michael Müller, to kill the Fortners while Nina is out. He also pays a gardener at the castle to make sure she doesn't leave the premises, as he has something to do before he can arrive himself. Dr. Tenma later arrives at the castle and escapes with Nina, foiling Johan's plan.
Targeting the neo-Nazis
Traveling to Frankfurt, Johan begins to target an organization led by neo-Nazi leaders "the Baby", Professor Gunther Goedelitz, Petr Čapek, and Helmut Wolf, who believe that he will become the next Adolf Hitler.[32] Tenma, meanwhile, arrives in Frankfurt investigating the murder of the Springers, a family Johan stays with under the name Erich before arranging to have them killed by unnamed man.[33]
Johan kills Goedelitz and his henchmen and leaves Nina a message telling her to meet him at the ruins of the Hilden & Engels warehouse in Romberg.[34] He then leaves a message for Tenma on a water tower that reads "Hilfe! Das Monstrum in mir wird explodieren!" (Help! The monster inside me will explode!) [35] After these events, Johan leaves to pose as a law student at the University of Munich.
Closing in on Schuwald
Johan's plan in attending the university is to get close to the former business tycoon Hans Georg Schuwald. In his initial scheme, Johan intends for Schuwald to ultimately end up dead, which will then allow him to gain control over Germany's economy. First, he manipulates murderers to kill those close to Schuwald, creating an empty space he can fill with himself as one of Schuwald's Latin readers.[36]
He begins setting up Edmund Fahren to appear as Schuwald's son, but soon realizes that the tycoon's real son, Karl Neuman, is available and latches onto him instead, consequently putting Fahren up to suicide.[37]
Private detective Richard Braun is hired to investigate the case of Fahren's suicide, and, after suspecting Johan, begins to draw connections between Johan and other unsolved murders. In response to Richard's meddling, Johan pays him a visit and takes him out to a bar. There, masked as research for his college thesis, he begins mentioning how Richard executed a seventeen-year-old serial rapist and murderer named Stephen Joos while supposedly drunk. In conjunction with stating various sections from the on the Rights of the Child, which put the detective in the wrong, Johan is able to rile up Richard and suggests that the two go on a walk for some fresh air, taking with him a bottle of whiskey. The two eventually make it to the top of a building roof, where Johan reveals that he knew Richard wasn't actually drunk when he shot and killed Stefan Joos, rather that he was sober. He further provokes Richard by questioning how his daughter, whom he is supposed to see the next day for the first time in years, would feel about this information. After this revelation, Johan offers a then-anxious Richard the bottle of whiskey he took from the bar. Richard is found dead the next morning.[38]
Meanwhile, Johan is able to reunite Schuwald with his long-lost son; delighted, Schuwald makes Johan his newly-appointed secretary. Karl and Schuwald decide that because Johan has a broad understanding of economics, if anything were to happen to Schuwald he would occupy his position instead of Karl. Johan's plan had run smoothly up until that point, and all he had to do was ensure Schuwald's death at the book donation ceremony (which would be carried out by Roberto).
While previewing the collection of books Schuwald is donating to the Munich University Library, Johan, on a sudden urge, wanders off and finds a copy of The Nameless Monster. Examining the picture book's contents triggers a sudden psychological reaction in him, which causes him to shriek and cry in agony before fainting.[39] He is then admitted into a hospital and leaves the next morning. In Another Monster, it is suggested that after Johan encounters The Nameless Monster, he abandons his plans with both Schuwald and Sievernich, and his focus shifts to uncovering his past.
At Schuwald's mansion, Johan is given a letter by Karl sent to him from the "Red Hindenburg", whom he knows to be Blue Sophie. Blue Sophie has been posing as Margot Langer (Halenka Novakova, Karl's mother and Schuwald's former lover), and met Johan when he visited her with Edmund Fahren. Johan knows the purpose of the letter: Sophie has been attempting to blackmail him in hopes of getting hush money for his connection to the deaths of Fahren and several others. As a counter to this, Johan has had Roberto form a relationship with Sophie in order to obtain her trust before going to meet her himself. He goes to the red-light district where she is located and converses with her. She informs him of the various things she knows, ranging from his real name not being "Johan Liebert" to his scheme to kill Schuwald, threatening that if he is to leave, her "boyfriend" behind the door will come out and shoot him. In response, Johan asks her what she thinks to be the most frightening thing, and follows up by stating, "I thought I had gotten to the darkest place in the world... but then... ahead of me... I saw an even darker blackness."[40] Claiming to be done with Sophie, he begins to leave the premises, revealing that he is no longer interested in Schuwald. To this, Sophie orders her boyfriend Roberto to come out, who, unbeknownst to her, is Johan's right-hand man. As Johan leaves the premises, Roberto executes Sophie.
On the day of Schuwald's book donation ceremony, Johan prepares to burn down the ceremonial room and somehow convinces a woman to ignite a trail of oil to initiate his scheme. Unbeknownst to Roberto, who was initially supposed to ambush Tenma on the second floor of the room and use his sniper rifle to kill Schuwald, Johan changes his mind and instead decides to give his goodbyes by showing the tycoon a scene from Hell.[41][42] During the ceremony, as Johan aides Schuwald to the podium to make his speech, he whispers into Schuwald's ear, "Many, many people to see you... A huge flock of them."[43] Schuwald picks up on the allusion and orders all of the visitors to leave the building. It is too late, however, as Johan soon after cues for the swayed woman on the second floor to ignite the oil, thus setting all of the books alight and causing the visitors to panic and selfishly topple over each other.
As the books burn and the visitors try to escape, Johan calmly stands on the stage with an equally fearless Schuwald, and informs the tycoon that he no longer wants to kill him. When Schuwald asks him where he is from, Johan peers into his decrepit eyes and answers him, saying that he was born in a town straight out of a fairy tale, and that he and his other self were the only people in the world, nameless.[44] This act and answer instills fear into Schuwald, leaving him wide-eyed and frantically shaking. Shortly afterwards, out of the smoke and flames comes Tenma. As Johan gets off the stage and begins to walk towards the doctor, he points to his forehead, tempting Tenma to shoot him. Just when it seems Tenma is going to perform the deed, Nina arrives and calls out to him, claiming that he must not shoot Johan. Unfazed by his sister's presence, Johan simply walks past Tenma into the inferno and disappears.
Disguised as his sister
Johan later embarks to Prague, where he establishes his identity as "Anna Liebert" and begins emulating Nina by adopting her personality and sense of fashion. First, he murders Reinhart Biermann, the headmaster of Kinderheim 511 before his enrollment, as he was in possession of a tape from Johan's youth located in an undisclosed safety deposit box. He then tracks down Filip Zeman and two of his subordinates, former members of the Czechoslovakian StB who are trying to obtain the tape for the purpose of selling it, to a factory setting where they were torturing Wolfgang Grimmer for information about the tape's location. Upon interrupting the interrogation, Johan (disguised as his sister) shoots one of the subordinates in the head, before apparently allowing Grimmer to kill the other two by manifesting his "Magnificent Steiner" persona.[45]
Johan thereafter begins to frequent a local bar, where he connects with Zeman's protégé, Detective Jan Suk, who becomes smitten with "Anna". Johan uses this to his advantage, getting close enough to gift poisoned whiskey bonbons to one of Suk's colleagues, Detective Patera. When Patera meets with fellow detective Janacek and corrupt police chief Hamrik to discuss Suk's discovery of his and Janacek's former involvement with the StB, he shares the bonbons with the other men and all three are later found dead. Suk then becomes the primary suspect for the killings.[46][47][48]
Johan's efforts to acquire the tape lead him to Suk's mother, who allows him to see it and record a message for Tenma over the original recording, replacing it entirely.[49] Meanwhile, in order to exonerate Grimmer from false suspicion of murdering Biermann, several of the orphans who were previously in his custody band together to find the "mysterious blonde lady," and one of them, Miloš, is successful.[50] While disguised, Johan invites the boy back to his apartment and tells him to find his lost mother, but says that if he cannot find her, then he has no place in the world. He then sends Miloš to look for his mother in a nearby red-light district, where he witnesses several forms of human depravity during his search. Miloš becomes nihilistic as a result, and it's only through the narrow intervention of Tenma and Grimmer that he does not commit suicide.
Before departing the city, Johan, with little else left to attend to in Prague, proceeds to burn down the Red Rose Mansion after talking to his mother's portrait.[51] He then encounters Hermann Fuhr and tells him about his scenery for a doomsday.
Destruction of the neo-Nazis
Thereafter, Johan attends a high society gathering back in Germany, where Eva Heinemann, who has encountered him once before, points him out to Petr Čapek, enabling his reunion with Christof Sievernich.[52] In the weeks following their reunion, Johan manipulates multiple serial killers to murder three people in order to cover up Christof's various scandals.[53]
However, Johan has other matters to attend to as well, and proceeds to send the organization attempting to make him their leader into chaos and disarray. A prostitute named Carmen garners the Baby's trust and then kills him, though it unknown whether she was hired by Johan or Christof, as the latter was on bad terms with the Baby. Johan then visits a paranoid Čapek at his villa in Idstein to determine Bonaparta's current area of residence. Čapek is able to supply him with the location of Bonaparta's son,[54] Jaromír Lipsky.
"The perfect suicide"
“ | I woke up from the dream. There were so many visions I had of the end, but now I'm picturing a different ending altogether. A clearer vision of the true end. | ” |
The perfect suicide is Johan's last goal. He wants to erase himself from the world, and by doing so, he has to get rid of everyone who knows him and his past. Just like the character Johan in The Nameless Monster, he wants to be the last one to know his identity, before killing himself.[55]
After abandoning his plans, the last piece Johan needs to get rid of is Franz Bonaparta; before doing so, however, he finally meets with his sister and tells her about all horrible experiences he supposedly underwent at the Red Rose Mansion. Nina tells him that he is wrong, revealing to him that the story is not his to tell, as she is the one who went to the mansion. He then listens to his sister's story, which leaves him smiling, yet saddened and tearful all the same.[56] He leaves the site of his and his sister's reunion, as Nina is unable to shoot him after seeing the expression on his face.
Before executing his final plan, Johan visits Horst Grossman, his last remaining subordinate. Grossman greets Johan with tea and asks him who they are going to kill next. In response, Johan points to his forehead and puts a handgun on the table between him and Grossman, provoking the latter to shoot him. As Grossman takes the provocation as a joke, Johan stops pointing to his forehead and tells his associate, "I've awakened from the dream." Angered by this revelation, Grossman asks Johan what the purpose was of all the money he made and people he killed. Johan then informs Grossman that he has seen the end many times, but now can see a different scene—the true end—and knows where he needs to go. After further elaborating on his revelation, he then kills Grossman and leaves the premises.
Following Grossman's death, Johan goes to the remote village of Ruhenheim and destroys the town's peace by instigating a massacre by playing on the doubts, fears, and innate greed associated with human nature. In the midst of it all, he visits a small cottage on the edge of the town where he finds piles of drawings of himself and his sister as children. According to Nina, who visits the same place shortly after, he had been crying as he sorted through the unfinished sketches.[57]
Johan travels back to the center of town to meet Bonaparta and Tenma. After he arrives, Tenma immediately takes aim, but is then ambushed and disarmed by Bonaparta from behind. Bonaparta then aims the gun at Johan and suggests that the two die together. Before Bonaparta can shoot, he is executed by a gravely injured Roberto. Succumbing to his injuries, Roberto collapses to the ground and requests that Johan allow him to see the scenery of the doomsday, to which he is informed that he is not able to see it.
With no one else left to interfere, Johan asks Tenma if he has finally realized that the only thing all humans are equal in is death. He then shows Tenma the scenery of the doomsday, which Tenma is temporarily overwhelmed by. Nina arrives on the scene and pleads with Tenma not to shoot Johan. She then tells her brother that she forgives him. Johan, however, rebuffs her forgiveness, claiming that some things can never be amended and there is no turning back. He then tries to provoke Tenma into killing him by holding a gun to the head of a young boy, Wim Knaup, but instead is shot by the boy's alcoholic father, who later describes him as "a monster with seven heads and ten horns". Then, with urging from both Nina and Heinrich Lunge, Johan is operated on and saved yet again by Tenma.
The End
After having visited Johan's mother, Tenma pays him a visit in the state police hospital where Johan has been unconscious ever since the massacre. Believing that he is speaking to a comatose Johan, Tenma informs Johan of his recent work with Doctors without Borders and how life has progressed since the events in Ruhenheim. During this secluded meeting, Tenma tenderly shares that Johan indeed had a name. Abruptly, Johan appears to wake from his coma and sit up, staring at Tenma. Paralyzed with fear, Tenma silently listens as Johan begins recounting the story of his mother's choice before pointedly asking Tenma to explain who the unwanted child was, trapped with wondering if his mother made a mistake. Tenma then seemingly jolts awake to find Johan still unconscious, leaving it unclear as to whether the conversation was real or merely a dream, and he departs shortly thereafter. Johan's hospital bed is then shown to be empty, and his fate is left unknown.
Another Monster
- Main Article: Another Monster
Within this book, Johan caused the events of the series by inspiring Fuhr to kill Molke and kill everyone who knows him. It is revealed that the world now knew of his existence and his crimes and that he was nicknamed "J" by the media. However, he is still believed to be in a coma.
Relationships
Nina Fortner
Nina is Johan's twin sister. After they were separated from their mother, he repeatedly murdered their foster parents, unbeknownst to Nina. Since they were all that they had, Johan expresses great attachment to his sister and often described her as his other self, tending to refer to the fact that they are the same person - an increasingly disturbing case of their conflicting identities. As a child, she was the only person other than his mother Johan has expressed empathy for, crying after she told him about her traumatic experiences in the Red Rose Mansion. Later, while being interviewed at 511 Kinderheim, he begs that they don't make him forget his sister, as he feels that she is the only other person he has in the world.
Nina, for her part, is terrified of her brother for various reasons. At one point in their youth, Nina had shot him at his insistence, but he was saved by the doctor that the twins would later associate with, both perceiving him as a sort of "father" figure. After their separation, he repeatedly stalks Nina. His quote declaring that "I was born to smother you with flowers" suggests a genuine love for his sister, despite his actions hurting her as shown in his murder of her foster parents. Nina, however, is the only person, other than Tenma, Johan does not try to kill. After regaining her memories of her childhood and discovering that he killed the Lieberts, Nina becomes determined to kill him and he once again tries to goad her into shooting him, but she spares him and forgives him because she cannot bring herself to kill her brother after everything they went through.
It is later revealed that the twins' mother used to dress Johan up in the same girl's clothing as Nina to create the illusion of having only one child. The children were dressed identically when Bonaparta came to take one of the twins and their mother decided to send Nina in the end, but her hesitation led Johan to believe that she intended to send Johan and simply mistook his sister for him. Johan convinced himself that Nina's painful memories of her time at the Red Rose Mansion were his own, alluding to a deep connection with his sister and perhaps resentment towards their mother.
Kenzo Tenma
Tenma saved Johan's life when he was a child, unaware of the villainy within him. Tenma would later spend several years (after a 9 year period of peace, in which he is unaware that Johan was responsible for the Eisler Memorial Hospital murders) tracking down Johan out of a sense of guilt and responsibility for the "monster" he brought back from the grave.
He is one of only two characters Johan has shown any care for, the other being his sister. It is implied that a core reason for Johan's actions are an attempt to see how far Tenma would go to stop him, yet Johan is also shown to genuinely respect Tenma both as a father figure and as an opponent.
Jan Suk
Johan, dressed as Nina, manipulated Suk into revealing info of his case and put him in a situation similar to Tenma when he poisoned Suk's superiors.
Hermann Führ
While the exact nature of their relationship is unknown, Fuhr's status as Bonaparta's superior pupil and Johan's connections to Bonaparta, intertwined their fates. The two have had only one known meeting, when Johan encountered Fuhr when he was burning down the Red Rose Mansion and showed him his scenery for a doomsday. This sparked Fuhr's desire to kill Eugan Molke and the events of Another Monster. Notably, Fuhr is one of the only people Johan has considered worthy to see his scenery for a doomsday, and is the author of his favorite book.
Associates
- Roberto
- Christof Sievernich
- Adolf Junkers
- Ivan Kurten (unwilling)
- Mrs. Hess
- Peter Jürgens
- Detective Messener
- Michael Müller
- Reinhard Dinger
- Murderer of Frieder Schelling
- Murderer of Erich Klemperer
- Horst Grossman
- Old Couple (Ruhenheim)
Victims
Known Victims
- Unnamed couple near the Czech-German border
- The Lieberts
- Udo Heinemann
- Dr. Oppenheim
- Dr. Boyer
- Adolf Junkers
- Ivan Kurten
- Richard Braun
- Mikhail Petrov
- Gunther Goedelitz
- Numerous henchmen in the employ of Goedelitz
- Jakov Sucháček
Suspected Victims
- Edmund Fahren
- Joachim Holmer
- Rutte Gauck, CEO of Dornach Inc.
- Hans Georg Schuwald's housekeeper
- Schuwald's chauffeur, Hans
- Five unnamed children playing a rooftop dare game in Munich (indirectly caused)
Trivia
- Although he is most frequently referred to as "Johan Liebert", Johan is not his real name, but rather one of the many ones he uses over the course of his life.[58]
- It is clear that the two Bible verses at the beginning of the series (Revelation 13:1 and 13:4) are likening Johan to the beast or the antichrist. However, Urasawa takes this similarity a step further, albeit more subtly due to not including the highly relevant Revelation 13:3 - "One of its heads seemed to have received a death-blow, but its mortal wound had been healed. In amazement, the whole earth followed the beast."
- "Johann" is the spelling used in the official German translation of the manga. In episode 29 of the anime, the name of the identity stolen by Johan is written on the tombstone as "Johan Wilhelm Liebert". The Spanish translation of the manga, anime, and Another Monster uses the name "Johan Libheart".
References
|
Characters | ||
---|---|---|
A to D | Adolf Junkers • The Baby • Dr. Becker • Blue Sophie • Christof Sievernich • Dieter | |
E to H | Egon Weißbach • Erna Tietze • Eva Heinemann • Franz Bonaparta • Fritz Verdemann • Gunther Milch • Hans Georg Schuwald • Hartmann • Heinrich Lunge • Helenka Nováková • Helmut Wolf • Herbert Knaup • Hugo Bernhardt | |
I to L | Jan Suk • Jaromír Lipsky • Johan Liebert • Julius Reichwein • Karel Ranke • Karl Neuman • Kenzō Tenma • Professor Kronecker • Lotte Frank | |
M to P | Martin Reest • Detective Messener • Michael Müller • Mikhail Petrov • Milan Koláš • Miloš • Nina Fortner • Otto Heckel • Petr Čapek • Peter Jürgens | |
Q to T | Richard Braun • Roberto • Rosso • Rudy Gillen | |
U to Z | Udo Heinemann • Věra Černá • Wolfgang Grimmer • Wim Knaup | |
Other Characters | Unnamed Characters • Other Minor characters • Johan and Anna's Foster Parents |