For my post, I found an anime/manga series that reminded me of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The series is titled, Monster, by Naoki Urasawa, and the story takes place in Germany during the 1980’s. The storyline revolves around this moment when Dr. Tenma had to choose to use his medical skills to save the life of the mayor or to save the life of a child. His superiors were pushing him towards saving the mayor for monetary reasons however, because of Dr. Tenma’s past, he chose to defy orders and try to save the child. The surgery on the child was successful but the mayor had passed. The mayor passing away resulted on Dr. Tenma’s superiors firing him. Upon hearing about his termination, Dr. Tenma was feeling angry and spiteful and vented to the child he thought to be unconscious. Dr. Tenma explained how his superiors were wrong and wished death upon them. The child hearing this felt the same way and felt gratitude towards Dr. Tenma for saving his life. So, the child decided to grant the doctor’s wish and murdered the men the doctor spoke of and the one who replaced his job. Dr. Tenma was re-hired because of those death however, the police believed him to be the killer. Throughout the series, the Dr. Tenma tries to find out exactly who or what exactly did he save.

Monster and Frankenstein are similar in the sense that the protagonist of each story spawn a so-called “monster” that murders the people around them. Both not knowing who or what they created and bringing back the dead to life. Another circumstance where the stories are alike isthe fact that both protagonist had a past where they failed to save a life that scarred them. That past led them to wanting to bring life to their creature. However, Monster differs from Frankenstein because the child in Monster had a past that turned him into a murderous creature and he has his own family. On the other hand, the creature from Frankenstein was lonely and had no past before being brought back to life.