Once upon a time, in a land far away, there lived a nameless monster.
The monster was dying to have a name.
So the monster made up his mind, and set out on a journey to look for one.
But the world was such a very large place.
The monster split in two, and went on separate journeys.
One went east.
The other headed west.
The one who went east came upon a village.
There was a blacksmith who lived at the village’s entrance.
“Mr. Blacksmith, please give me your name!” said the monster.
“I can’t give you my name!” replied the blacksmith.
‘If you give me your name, I’ll go inside you and make you strong,” said the monster.
“Really?” said the blacksmith, “If you make me stronger, I’ll give you my name.”
The monster went into the blacksmith.
And so, the monster became Otto the blacksmith.
Otto was the strongest man in town.
But then one day he said, “Look at me! Look at me! The monster inside of me is getting bigger!”
Munch munch, chomp chomp, gobble gobble, gulp.
The hungry monster ate up Otto from the inside out.
Once again, he was a monster without a name.
Next, he went into Hans the shoemaker.
However…
Munch munch, chomp chomp, gobble gobble, gulp.
Once again, he went back to being a monster without a name.
Then, he became Thomas the hunter.
But soon…
Munch munch, chomp chomp, gobble gobble, gulp.
Back he went to being a monster without a name.
The monster next went to a castle to look for a nice name.
He came upon a very sick boy who lived in that castle.
“If you give me your name, I’ll make you strong,” said the monster.
The boy replied, “If you can make me healthy and strong, I will give you my name!”
So the monster jumped right into the boy.
And the boy became full of vigor.
The king was overjoyed.
He announced, “The prince is healthy! The prince is strong!”
The monster became quite fond of the boy’s name.
He was also quite pleased with his royal life in the castle.
So he controlled himself no matter how ravenous his appetite became.
Day after day, despite his growing hunger, the monster stayed put inside the boy.
But finally, the hunger just became too great…
“Look at me! Look at me!” said the boy, “The monster inside of me has gotten this big!”
The boy devoured the king and all his servants.
Munch munch, chomp chomp, gobble gobble, gulp.
The castle was lonely now with everyone gone, so the boy left on a journey.
He walked and walked for days.
And then one day, the boy came upon the monster who had gone west.
“I have a name!” said the boy, “And it’s such a wonderful one at that!”
But the monster who went west replied, “Who needs a name? I’m perfectly happy without one. After all, that’s what we are – nameless monsters.”
The boy ate up the monster who went west.
At last he had found a name, but there was no longer anyone to call him by it.
Such a shame, because Johan was such a wonderful name.
1-DR. KENZO TENMA: He is a Japanese neurosurgeon working in Düsseldorf, Germany. In spite of his Director’s explicit orders, he decides to operate on a critically wounded boy instead of the city’s mayor, which results in his demotion and the break-up of his engagement. He is, however, shortly promoted after the mysterious murders of three of his superiors, and continues working at the hospital until it is revealed to him that the boy he risked his career to save is, in fact, a mass murderer.
2-JOHAN LIEBERT: He is introduced as a ten-year-old with a bullet in his brain. Shortly after being saved by Tenma, he escapes from the hospital with his twin sister Anna. He resurfaces nine years later as a killer, admits to having poisoned Tenma’s superiors, and proceeds to wreak havoc across Germany. His identity is unknown to the general public, and his murders are subsequently blamed on Tenma.He is alternately perceived as a vampire, an alien, the Devil, and the next Hitler. Both the manga and the anime open with a passage from Revelation that refers to the Antichrist and mirrors several events from Johan’s life.
3-ANNA LIEBERT / NINA FORTER: Johan’s twin sister. After the incident in 1986, she is adopted by a couple from Heidelberg where she leads a normal life. When Johan decides to contact her again, Tenma foils his plan by helping Nina escape. Her foster parents are, however, killed by Johan’s henchmen, and their murder sends her on a quest for vengeance, across Germany and the Czech Republic where she picks up the forgotten pieces of her past.
4-INSPECTOR HEINRICH LUNGE: An agent of BKA (the German federal police), he is assigned to the case of the murders of the three Eisler Memorial officials. Believing Tenma to be the only logical suspect, but deterred by the lack of evidence, he resumes the investigation ten years later after an officer guarding one of Tenma’s patients is killed using the same M.O. used on the three doctors. Personal pride, rather than an interest in justice, prompts him to chase Tenma across Germany and Czechoslovakia, concluding that ‘Johan’ is Tenma’s alter-ego.
While his obsessive search for Tenma closes off all other theories from the case he does eventually agree to look into the possibility of Johan when other victims insist he exists. Lunge checks out the hotel Johan was supposedly staying at and finds nothing. Not just the lack of Johan, but there’s a sheer absence in the room of even the most basic “data” that he would normally type out. This blankness unnerves Lunge and ultimately plants a small seed of doubt in his tunnel vision for Tenma.
5- EVA HEINEMANN: The daughter of the Eisler Memorial Hospital director, she is engaged to Tenma at the beginning of the series. When he falls out of favor with her father, she breaks off the engagement, but has a change of heart soon after Heinemann’s death. Tenma’s subsequent rejection leaves her embittered and with an advanced alcohol problem, and she spends the remainder of the story vacillating between love and hate for him.
GREENSEA 