Johan Liebert

Johann Liebert is the titular "monster" and the main antagonist of the Monster anime and manga.

Although he is most frequently referred to as "Johann Liebert," Johann is not his real name, but rather one of the many ones he uses over the course of his life. He is the twin brother of Anna Liebert.

Johann was shot in the head at a young age, but was operated on and saved from death by Dr. Kenzo Tenma. Because of this, he is very grateful to Dr. Tenma. He has spent portions of his life in different locations under different aliases and possesses an extraordinary level of charisma and intelligence. He uses his gifts to cruelly manipulate and corrupt others, often with no apparent end other than to cause suffering and destruction. His original goal, as he states when he is young, was to be the last one standing at the end of the world, though he decides upon a different fate toward the height of his acts.

Appearance
Johan has blue eyes and a short blonde hair.

Personality
On the surface, Johan is a well-mannered, charismatic and compassionate young man. He 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. This makes it easy for him to make new allies and manipulate them into doing various deeds for him. With such skill in creating this facade of perfection and pureness, Johan can hide 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 exhibits 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".

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 to the victims killing 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. Anna, despite being the twin to experience the horrible 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. 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, revealing that the memory affected him profoundly.

Abilities
Johan possesses genius-level intelligence and he is capable of perfectly memorizing anything. His school teachers remark that he easily maintained perfect grades. While investigating Johan, Richard Braun also deduces that he had a reputation of being at the top of his class with perfect grades at the gymnasium (school) he went to. Johan is prodigiously brilliant in whatever he studies and has a natural aptitude for attaining new talents; picking up complicated skills quickly and retaining them. This is noted by Schuwald, when praising Johan's knowledge of law and economics, and by Karl, who notes that none could surpass Johan in anything. He is multilingual; in addition to the Latin he rapidly learns and masters while volunteering as one of Schuwald's readers, at twelve years of age, Johan is also able to become perfectly fluent in both English and French within a thirteen-month period. At the age of only fifteen, he starts and presides over an underground bank, a feat requiring perfect intuition and flawless intuitive understanding of mathematics, economics, trade, business, politics, management, and leadership. Schuwald's conclusion is further proof of Johan's vast understanding of economics: he decides that if anything is to happen to him, Johan will take over his place as opposed to Karl Neuman, his own son.

Johan has often been described as "beautiful" by various characters. He is physically and genetically perfect, he possesses a monstrous charisma and an inhuman prowess for manipulation. He is highly proficient at analysis and deduction, especially when it comes to the human psyche, and can instantly gain direct access to people's cores, hitting their weak spots, acknowledging their worth, and figuring out their mental processes, and manipulate them easily thereafter. He possess innate understanding/knowledge of psychology. He understand how the mind works to the smallest details. Allows him to detect lies, and perform perfect cold-readings. He can use it for various purposes, often changing the perception or behavior of others through underhanded, deceptive, even abusive tactics. He could use it to help those with mental or emotional problems, but instead he use it to manipulate others into doing his bidding, even drive some to acts of murder or suicide. What he is especially good at is unlocking the "monster" in other people, bringing out their inner darkness and making them accept it like he has. He does not feel fear, guilt, regret, loneliness or pain. Johan leaves such a strong impression on people that he is able to convince legions to do whatever he wants, such as commit murder, play suicide games, or do other monstrous things after just a single encounter. According to Heinrich Lunge, this process is done by altering the fulcrum of someone's identity, like removing a map's coordinate axis. The more jumbled their "lines" become without that foundation, the more room he has to redraw or redefine their maps. He is a very eloquent speaker, orator, and story-teller, by nature he is incredibly persuasive and charming. Able to bring anyone to understand and feel for his viewpoint, even large audiences.

Trivia

 * All of Johan's characteristics are similar to Michio Yuki, the main protagonist of MW. They turned insane when affected by secret military experiments. They are also experts at manipulating people, have ambitions to end the world, try to commit suicide by cop, and they also cross-dress. Also, both have a benevolent sibling. It is very likely Naoki Urasawa based on Michio Yuki to create Johan.