Étiquette : johan liebert

Hey, but if the RCMT is accurate somehow, because real!Ciel didn’t want to be separated from his brother and Vincent’s enemies manipulated him using that, then it really reminds me of Urasawa Naoki’s Monster and the Liebert twins:

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Johan Liebert, who is an actual psychopath (when we’re still wondering if real!Ciel had sociopathic tendencies of his own, was manipulated or if he was just a normal kid) was a little obsessed with Anna (Nina), his twin sister, whom he literally saw as his double. 

After everything they went through, she always was the most important person in his life and his behavior towards her as a result was… peculiar. From TV tropes:

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and

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The difference between real!Ciel and Johan is that the Liebert twins didn’t have such a fancy childhood, whereas Vincent and Rachel managed to create a loving environment for their sons.
 Also, Johan doesn’t get manipulated, ever, rather he is the one who manipulates everyone whereas real!Ciel, in the case of the RCMT or even in the current arc, probably was manipulated.

However, what’s interesting is that, in both cases, the twin who turned out “okay” is the one who wasn’t obsessing over their sibling (our!Ciel and Anna), so I might be far off my mark, but I really enjoy this possible parallel between real!Ciel and Johan when, no matter if the RCMT is accurate, we can see that real!Ciel is currently not in his right mind (Agni ;_;) but still quite serious about staying with his brother.

Hi! I was thinking abt Kaneki in Tg and Johan in Monster. I know they are completely different: they have different roles (MC and main antagonists), different pasts and different attributes, but I can’t avoid comparing them. They are both built so that they subvert many tropes. I feel that in TG K was built so that he represented in his different phases different MC stereotypes (the shy and pacific one and the pragmatic and cool one) and Johan subverts all the tropes the reader is expecting to c

midnight-in-town:

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Hello 🙂 As a person who’s a big fan of both, I’m glad to hear that my blog gave you the opportunity to try TG and Monster. ^3^ If I’m lucky, maybe you’ll try Berserk one day. xD

Also, thanks for the little analysis, I’m actually not good at making cross comparisons between different series most of the time, because I tend to categorize things a little too much and restrain everything down to a series’ scale, which is why I generally don’t see many similarities from one series or character to another, but I do recognize the characters in what you’re explaining.

The only thing I’d add would be that, even now, Kaneki is being pulled forward by other people in anything that he’s doing: Arima and Eto made him into the OEK and he has not yet achieved, in my opinion, the feat of becoming the Nameless King because his current power relies mostly on “being the OEK”. It’s what the title of the OEK represents, due to the past, that’s making Kaneki a threat so far to his enemies (his own personal strength aside). [x]

Compared to him and on the contrary, Johan always outwitted anyone who tried to use him because he’s always been the one using others. That’s a big big difference between these two characters and that’s why I personally never considered they had any similarities, until you pointed out a few ideas. 

Anyway, thanks for all of this. 🙂 It might not be my thing to compare characters from different series, since ultimately I find that a characterization is dependent on world’s building and settings, but it certainly was interesting. :3

Thanks again for the very nice words and have a great week as well! ^3^

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Hello Anon! Oh, I hardly ever mind talking about series I like and anyway, I think my point of view is probably too categorizing which isn’t necessarily the best way to go. xD 

Many people like to compare different works since you could say fiction is based on tropes, I just am not particularly good at it that’s all, haha. What’s important is that your analysis sounds well-proved, which seems to be the case here, and it’s all that matters. 

Thanks again for passing by and have a very nice day as well! :3

I love Monster too and now I wanna read other works from the same author! The only thing I would have enjoyed to know more about is the twins’ mother and what exactly made her leave her children behind (I may have missed that since I read the story pretty fast). I mean, Tenma is told the mother was taken away with her child, so what happens to her after Nina goes back home? However, I love we practically don’t meet Johan until volume 8 even if his presence is constantly felt throughout the cont.

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Hey Anon! Oh Gosh, I haven’t read Monster in a while but I rewatched a big part of the anime a few months ago so I hope I’ll be able to answer you xD

About the twins’ mother: it’s not exactly certain what happened after Nina/Anna was taken to go the Red Rose mansion (the story never really emphasized on this part) but, if I remember correctly, there might have been a hint or two that she quickly came back and told the twins that they had to “survive by themselves”, which is when they left the Three Frogs for the border.

About Nina/Anna and Johan: I remember how disturbed I was about the “two little girls” back when Nina was trying to recall what had happened, until we learnt that Johan was disguising as a girl to protect them both from Bonaparta… Poor kids, seriously.

Honestly though,

while Nina definitely maintained a true identity outside of her brother’s shadow, the fact Johan kept on using her identity at some point + how he constantly referred to Nina/Anna as his “other self” (without mentioning some moments of his…ahem, uncanny behavior towards his sister) makes me think that she was a genuine part of Johan’s own identity (which is why he really wanted to go get her back for her 20th birthday + why he didn’t want to/couldn’t forget about her at Kinderheim 511).

Johan’s possible identity issue towards his sister might come from their mother’s decision on “that day” anyway, since we know that it unsettled Johan greatly not to know whether his mom saved him on purpose, or if she only confused him with his sister. :/ 

Anyway, their relationship is incredibly interesting (especially Johan’s point of view, but Nina’s final decision about her brother really moved me as well) and it’s definitely a part of why Monster is so good 😀

Thanks for passing by Anon, have a nice day! ^_^