A character sheet for Naoki Urasawa's manga/anime Monster.

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Main Characters

Dr. Kenzo Tenma

Voiced by: Hidenobu Kiuchi (JP), Liam O'Brien (EN)

The protagonist of the series, 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.

An Aesop: In-universe, he gives some of these.
Action Survivor: Dr. Tenma is initially an average person, insofar as a well-known brain surgeon can be average. The series' circumstances force him to become a hardened survivor.
Adaptational Attractiveness: In the manga, he starts off plain and downright funny-looking. The anime takes its cue from the later chapters' more adorable Tenma◊.
Adrenaline Makeover: Ahem.◊
All-Loving Hero: This is both a large advantage and similarly a large disadvantage to him because of the complex location on the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism that Monster inhabits.
The Atoner: As kind-hearted as he is, he sees his absolute biggest mistake as being something he alone can fix. And despite numerous opportunities he gets where he could abandon his self-set mission, he refuses every time.
Johan: (Seconds after killing Junkers in front of Tenma) I was supposed to die that night. You're the one who resurrected me, doctor.
Badass Pacifist: He can take a beating, jump off a bridge to avoid confrontation, and save people's lives while avoiding the police and criminals alike.
Barbarian Longhair: Subverted, he's not, by any definition, a barbarian. But by most persons in the series, his long hair is perceived as ugly.
Beard of Sorrow: He is normally beardless, but after he learns about Johan's true colors, he attempts to grow a beard and overly disregards his appearance.
Beware the Honest Ones: Tenma's idealism turned out pretty bad for his money-grubbing boss.
Big Good: This is particularly evident in arcs where he is offstage or not the main character. In keeping with his nearly messianic role, by the end, nearly all the characters would do anything to protect him.
Beware the Nice Ones: Tenma is kind and righteous, but false accusations force him on a path to become much more assertive.
Break the Cutie: By all accounts, he's sweet and adorable, but his entire life was ruined by the actions of a former patient.
Care-Bear Stare: He frequently does this, illustrating his initial idealism.
Celibate Hero: Post-Eva, although there is some subtext involving Nina that may avert this. In Another Monster, it is explained that he was still quite the celibate during his high school years and even purposely didn't get together with a girl who liked him (and the feeling was somewhat mutual) merely because he was friends with her (cheating) boyfriend.
Character Development: He begins as a well-respected, compassionate doctor. Over the series, he becomes more driven and relentless.
Cheaters Never Prosper: Averted, though not soon enough for poor Gillen's complex. He cheated on a test in medical school, which made him excel, and caused jealousy in one of his classmates. This acquaintance later becomes an important character.
Chronic Hero Syndrome: Despite his goal of hunting down Johan, he'll never turn down helping a stranger, even if the person's a criminal.
Clear My Name: Averted. His reason for hunting down Johan isn't to clear his name, but rather to correct the error he made in keeping Johan alive.
Combat Medic: "This is the carotid artery. Even a ballpoint pen could kill him, if you pierce it in the right spot."
The Drifter: Justified, since he's a murder suspect and has to be on the run from the police.
Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Played with. As kindhearted as Tenma is, he can't stand people who have no regard for human life. He's capable of summoning enough righteous anger to wish his money-grubbing boss dead, and he's even willing to chase after a serial killer to enact some vigilante justice. However, Tenma can also let go of grudges fairly easily. He no longer hates his boss once he actually dies, for starters. But what about Johan, the killer he brought back to life? He ends up saving his life. Again. After trying to kill him for three years.
Expository Hairstyle Change: Starts off clean-cut, but gets progressively more disheveled.
Expy: Monster is based on The Fugitive and Tenma is Dr. Richard Kimble — a surgeon wrongly accused of murder on both sides of a Stern Chase (chasing the real killer and being chased by a police detective).
Extreme Doormat: He used to be very submissive to his boss and his fiancee.
The Fettered: His beliefs frequently make him question his mission.
Forgets to Eat: Quite frequently. At other instances, he'll bemoan the lack of soy sauce in Western cuisine.
Friend to All Children: The good doctor loves children, and he is perfectly willing to help them. He even formed an Intergenerational Friendship with Dieter, a kid.
Friend to All Living Things: He saved a hurt bird in the time he was training as a gunmen. Later, when he was talking with a former friend to all living things, a finch landed in Tenma's arm.
Gentleman and a Scholar: He is a highly-accomplished brain surgeon and an incredibly caring and selfless man.
Good Is Not Dumb: Well, he's good, and intelligent. Heck, he's a brain surgeon. Beyond fitting the literal trope title, however, Roberto underestimates him at one point because of his goodness and pays for it by losing the use of his right arm.
Good Is Not Soft: While a genius neurosurgeon, he is nice, humble, and compassionate. When Johan becomes a threat, he takes a level in badass and takes a journey to stop him. Also, he doesn't hesitate to threaten people with his pistol if their actions endanger one or more lifes.
Grew a Spine: He decides to stop being the doormat of his fiancee and his boss after seeing the immorality of both (the fiancee is not that evil, but this counts).
The Heart: Tenma is the moral center of a morally complex series.
The Hero: He is inaguably the protagonist, and he's very heroic, motivations and rumination aside.
Heroic Resolve: Kenzo has one in his battle against Roberto.
Hero with Bad Publicity: Wanted for the very murders that he keeps trying to stop.
Honor Before Reason: Though he cares about the "right thing" rather than any type of personal honor.
Hospital Hottie: He has a cute appearance, be well-groomed or not.
Humble Hero: He never takes credit for his good deeds and maintains that all people are equal despite conspicuously being better than everybody else in every imaginable way.
I Can't Dance: According to Eva, Tenma claimed to not be able to dance. They stood and held each other on the dance floor instead.
I Just Want to Have Friends: According to Eva in Another Monster, he was chronically lonely and thanks to his workaholic tendencies, he was unable to make friends other than Dr. Becker.
Intelligence Equals Isolation: His medical capabilities make him isolated among peers.
I'm Not Hungry: When he was captured by the police, he refused to eat for so long they had to put him on an IV. Which doubles as Fridge Brilliance, as he was trying to end up in the infirmary in order to get in touch with Gunther Milch.
Inconvenient Hippocratic Oath. All the more so (or not) for being an integral part of what he comes to be about after the first episode.
Incorruptible Pure Pureness: One of the rare examples of this trope being pulled off successfully. No matter how complicated things get, he retains his idealistic views on humanity.
Just in Time: He saves Reichwein, who came VERY close to being killed by Roberto, just in time in episode 30.
- He also shows up at the last second to save Eva Heinemann, who is precariously close to being shot by Christof Sievernich when she gets in over her head.
The Last DJ: Both played straight and averted, in short succession. His integrity makes him lose his job.
Last-Name Basis: People tend to call him by his last name rather than his first name, even when they've got to know him well—including Nina and Eva (though the latter is the one that does it least).
Looks Like Jesus: His long hair and stubble look make him somewhat similar to Jesus.
Magnetic Hero: He's kind, charming, and persuasive.
Manly Tears: He does cry, but it doesn't make him appear weak; it showcases just how horrible his life gets, in spite of how much he tries.
Married to the Job: Noted constantly, one of his fellow physicians tried to hook him up with other loves, but he was more focused on his job.
Messianic Archetype: To counter Johan's Anti-Christ.
Morality Pet: Alongside Anna and Johan's mother, he is one of the only human beings Johan appears to come remotely close to caring for.
Nice Guy: He's very nice and will help even his enemies. This is both a blessing and a curse, considering how dark the series is. It gets him a lot of friends, but it also gets him into difficult situations.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He helped Johan, and then he's framed for murder.
Johan: I was supposed to die that night. You're the one who resurrected me, Doctor.
- This is also the curse that tends to follow Tenma: despite his best intentions, his attempts to solve problems frequently hurts himself. The entire reason he moved to Germany was to force his father to appoint his older brother to hospital director instead of himself... only for Tenma's brother to be inspired to go help small towns in Japan. If he had remained in Japan, Tenma would be a renowned hospital director and his troubles with Johan would never have occurred.
Not So Above It All: Like Gillen, he cheated on a forensics exam at University.
Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Tenma is not that old, but he is about twenty years older than Johan. He is 37 in 1995, but since Johan is about 19-20, this still counts.
Parental Favoritism: It's mentioned in Another Monster that his father favored him, his youngest son, over his other brothers. However, his mother favored his two older half-brothers (who are unrelated to her) more than him.
Perma-Stubble: He grows one during his Expository Hairstyle Change.
Save the Villain: At first unknowingly, in the case of saving the young Johan from his asked-for bullet wound to the head. By the end, he does it again, this time intentionally, to defy Johan's point.
Seriously Scruffy: His ungroomed appearance shows that he is primarily focused on stopping Johan Liebert.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Thoroughly believes this, when he decides to operate on Johan's brain-bullet and disobey the director's orders to ignore the kid and work on the mayor's cerebral-thrombosis. He starts doubting himself, when he sees what Johan has become.
Skilled, but Naive: Tenma's a surgical prodigy, but it's not his relative inexperience with a scalpel that gets him into trouble in the beginning. It's his inexperience with another aspect of being a doctor: hospital politics.
The So-Called Coward:
- "Tenma the Weenie! Tenma the Weenie! He peed his pants, too!"
- Even more so considering the full story given in Another Monster. After the first time the other boys scared him during hide-and-seek, Tenma decided to go through it again in order to conquer his fear. What ended up happening was that they couldn't find him and thought that he just went home, so when one of the mothers told them it was time to go home, they left Tenma by himself. When they found him still hiding in the abandoned yard at night, they probably stopped picking on him simply because he had the guts to do all that.
Technical Pacifist: Although he has no problem pushing, kicking, shoving, and threatening with violence, he has a hard time causing harm to others even if it is to defend his own life.
Think Nothing of It: Does not like to take credit for his achievements, e.g. denying that he'd saved the Turkish district.
Thou Shalt Not Kill: A personal philosophy that looks especially interesting when pitted against his initial tantrums of, "These people need to die."
Took a Level in Badass: Early in the series, after receiving weapons training from an ex-mercenary.
Trademark Favorite Food: Heckel notes that Tenma thinks that any recipe can be improved with soy sauce. And if the fandom on Tumblr has anything to say about it, sandwiches.
Turn the Other Cheek: Constantly, over and over again. He does this to his fellow doctors, as well as his enemies. At the end, after spending the entire series hunting Johan to make up for his "mistake", he saves the boy's life again and tells him his true name, giving Johan another chance.
Übermensch: By the end of the series, although he starts out as a very clear-cut Last Man. His personal beliefs evolve over the course of the series. He becomes less conflicted, and more willing to do what's necessary.
Unkempt Beauty: He looks like a hobo and still looks very well. Even most fans think he looks better with the hobo look.
Unwitting Pawn: Used, reused, and subverted. A lot of his actions, even his goal are propelled and encouraged by Johan.
White-and-Grey Morality: How he sees the world.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: Determinedly and stubbornly so. Tenma is convinced that all life is equal, and that everyone can be saved. His beliefs put him at odds with nearly everyone, as he's one of the few idealists in the series.

Johan Liebert

"The only thing all humans are equal in... is death."

Voiced by: Nozomu Sasaki, Yūto Uemura (Young) (JP), Keith Silverstein, Julie Ann Taylor (Young) (EN)

"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?"

The main antagonist of the story, 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 ^note 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 Anti-Christ and mirrors several events from Johan's life.

Agent Peacock: He's extremely effeminate in appearance, cross-dresses, and is very poetic. He's also a monstrous sociopath.
Ambiguously Human: There is no real proof that he's anything but a near-pure evil Muggle, although several characters believe him to be a Humanoid Abomination. He is alternately perceived ^note as a vampire, an alien, the Devil, and a drunk person hallucinates him as a multiheaded dragon Eldritch Abomination. Make of that what you will.
Schubert: ...I can always sense it, the presence of something so unearthly and precise, like Johan. I feel as though he's not of this world. I do.
Ambiguous Start of Darkness: The Driving Question; is his evil nature, or nurture?
Antagonist Title: He is the titular Monster.
The Antichrist: Not literally (though he might be), but certain Revelation passages parallel his life and are used as an epigraph for the series. He also likes to tempt people in high places and at one point hands someone an apple.
Attractive Bent-Gender: Dresses in drag and seduces Jan Suk. For a very old-fashioned girl sense of "seduce," anyway. Or maybe he has stubble issues.
Ax-Crazy: A very subdued and disturbing one. He never goes visibly nuts, is very soft-spoken, polite, and overall calm at almost all times. However, if you associate with him, you will die. If you meet him, you will die. If you make eye contact, you will die. If you so much as think about him, you will die. And if you won't think of him, he just has to think about you, and you'll be just as dead.
Badass Bookworm: A vicious killer whose level of intellectualism and understanding of human beings is on par with that of a philosopher or psychologist.
Badass in a Nice Suit: Johan is a very well-dressed serial killer.
Bad Samaritan:
- He volunteers at an orphanage so that he can turn children into nihilists like himself and/or convince them to commit suicide.
- He gives money to a homeless junkie and tells her to buy drugs with it.
Bait-and-Switch Boss: The Thursday Boy, with all the apocalyptic and previous information about him changing names, you'd never suspect this was an impostor. The actual Johan tutored with the professor in Munich under a different day and under his own name, you got to hand to him pulling that off.
Beauty Is Bad: He is incredibly handsome, but an utterly depraved human being.
Beyond Redemption: Invokes this on himself, as he has personally committed to his mission of being completely irredeemable, despite Nina and Tenma believing the contrary.
Big Bad: He's the titular Monster and the catalyst behind several murders.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He's a great guy to hang out with, and a good listener, too! He'll even shed Tender Tears when you tell your troubles. He'll also cheer up your ailing elderly parents better than you ever could, and get along better with your kids, too. Then he'll do utter atrocities to you when you're of no use to him.
Break Them by Talking: He is very good at this.
Bright Is Not Good: Has platinum blond hair and is a psychopathic serial killer.
Broken Ace: Of the evil variety. He's perfect at everything, including killing and manipulation.
Burn the Orphanage: Johan orchestrated a riot amongst the staff and children in 511 Kinderheim that lead to it burning to the ground. Given the events that took place inside, it was probably for the better.
Cain and Abel: The Cain to Anna's Abel. He's a serial killer, and she's his sister.
Card-Carrying Villain: He's fully aware of what he is and doesn't even try to justify his actions.
Cast as a Mask: The anime does this. To make the reveal that the "Nina" who Suk has been courting in Prague is actually Johan more shocking, the studio used Nina's voice actress to play Johan whenever he dons this look. This is done both in the Japanese version and in the English dub.
The Chessmaster: An extremely effective one, able to control entire operations from great distances.
Commie Nazis: Having grown up in an East German orphanage, he'd have been raised communist. This doesn't stop Neo-Nazis exalting him as the next Hitler. Bonus points for the Antichrist motifs. Truth in Television - the vast majority of Neo-Nazis in modern Germany are from the East German areas, which are harsher and poorer than the West. A lot of Neo-Nazis were disillusioned teenagers raised in a communist society.
Corruption by a Minor: Quite a few times, and we're not talking getting other kids to scrump apples here. Or just kids, for that matter. Inspires a taxi driver to emulate the film Taxi Driver without (thankfully) even going paedophile-like about it, at the age of ten. Even before that, he engineered the Kinderheim 511 massacre.
The Corrupter: What tries to do those with corrupt hearts, making them indulge in their desires and for those like Tenma, he wants him to become He Who Fights Monsters.
Creepy Blue Eyes: His light blue eyes are used to highlight how terrifying he is.
Creepy Child: He caused a mass homicide among a cult at the age of ten.
Creepy Crossdresser: At one point he dresses as a woman. As for creepy, he's a serial killer.
Creepy Monotone: Very apparent in the English version, where in the Japanese, he comes across as soft-spoken.
Crocodile Tears: Johan, when "lending a shoulder", actually sheds a tear during a conversation with Karl, when the latter recounts his own childhood, the tragic life of his mother, and being moved from one foster home to another. And when he cries, it looks very convincing — but don't be fooled, especially when you, the audience, are already aware of what an amazing actor Johan is. This is subverted in Another Monster, where both Lotte and Karl himself contend that Johan's tears about Karl's past were genuine, to the point that he spared Karl because he related to him.
- Possibly subverted when Nina reveals that Johan had been crying while perusing through Bonaparta's sketches of the twins in the "Vampire's House".
Cultured Badass: He's knowledgeable in several subjects, and he can even read Latin. He's also a murderer.
Cute and Psycho: His gaze is visibly innocent, but that does not stop him from being a murderous psychopath.
Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Notably averted. He does use his borderline super-human skills and abilities to make a living, but it's never more than a means.
Dark and Troubled Past: Not really. He just did what he always does; Nina was the one taken to the Red Rose Mansion and Johan was already a murderer by proxy when he came to 511 Kinderheim, which ended in a massacre because of him.
Dead Person Impersonation: In Munich.
Death Seeker: This is his ultimate goal, insofar as he has one. He just wants to bring everyone else with him.
Dissonant Serenity: Nothing, not even murder, shakes his calm and carefree demeanor. In fact, his default facial expression changes about twice in the series' entire run. Both times it makes him even more creepy.
The Dog Bites Back: When he kills Dr. Heinemann's team, who were willing to let him die and then tried to exploit him and his sister for media publicity.
The Dreaded: Every character who has knowledge of Johan is deathly afraid of him. One commits suicide when he's brought up too much in conversation and others start shaking uncontrollably just thinking about him.
Driven to Villainy: Horrifyingly. Sure, he was already an Enfant Terrible as a child, but he was severely warped by the empathic bond that formed between his sister and him when they were still very young. While she repressed the psychological torture she'd gone through, he began to think it had happened to him instead... and thus from that seed a monster grew.
Empty Shell: An exceptionally deranged and creepy example, even by what is by definition a creepy trope. Johan may look like The Ace, but he really has nothing to call his own; no real name (as evidenced by that fairy tale he likes), no proper identity (he had to pretend to be his sister when he was a kid and is still obsessed with her), and no personality- not even his atrocities can be called his own given how utterly divorced from them emotionally he is.
Enfant Terrible: He commits several murders as a child.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: Johan will kill everyone he feels like regardless of race, gender or class. When a group of neo-nazis try to make him the second fuhrer, he murders them before moving on.
Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Seemed to have loved his mother when he was still a child.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Heavily Downplayed with Nina. While he torments her repeatedly, attempts to break her will and has an extremely toxic and unhealthy relationship with her, he allowed her to kill him, was terrified of forgetting about her, and killed Roberto out of concern he might try to take her life.
- Claims to view Tenma as a father figure and, alongside Anna, never makes any attempt to kill him.
Even Evil Has Standards: Played with. He murders the neo-Nazis because they discriminate with their murder upon the basis of race and he has no interest in that whatsoever.
Even the Guys Want Him: He was cross-dressing at the time. On the other hand, Roberto worships him.
Evil Genius: He's extremely intelligent, calculating and a sociopathic serial killer.
Evil Twin: He's Anna's twin, and he's a serial killer while she's a Nice Girl.
Evil Virtues: Works hard, is resourceful, ambitious, patient, and determined.
Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon:
- For someone who's commonly compared to the Anti-Christ, he looks very kind.
- Used very effectively in his first scene as an adult (when he kills Junkers in the garage). He's concealed in shadow for almost the entire scene, underscoring him as "the Monster." But when he leaves, he locks eyes with Tenma and both the doctor and the audience see he looks not just handsome, but downright angelic.
The Farmer and the Viper: Anyone who ever does anything remotely decent or nice for him ends up suffering at his hands, but Tenma, the one who saved his life in the first place, gets the very worst of it through the horrible things that Johan does to others in order to "repay" him.
Faux Affably Evil: He charms, he smiles, he seems to care and he's such a beautiful and brilliant young man... as he uses you and kills you and if he takes enough of an interest in you, he will probably take the time to kill all your hopes and dreams, first.
For the Evulz: He sometimes does things simply because he can. There is also some deconstruction in the fact that even if he does evil for evil's sake he doesn't seem to get any pleasure out of it — in a couple of occasions he is even apparently Bored with Insanity but he continues to be evil because why the hell not? He gets no kicks out of it, he doesn’t really care about hating anybody even as he plots their suffering (to the point he destroyed a Neo-Nazi movement when they tried to make him their leader), he doesn't believe in any vision that he wishes to spread, heck, he even wishes to commit suicide, but part of his scheme is to become an Un-person so it's not like he wants to use his death to become a Dark Messiah or something. Even other notable madmen like The Joker want to make some kind of point for all of their randomness, while Johan's evil is as much a part of him (and as boring as) as any other bodily function.
Freudian Excuse: Sort of. It's complicated. The audience is presented with several possible origins for what he does, but they all prove to be false.
Freudian Excuse Denial: Ultimately, he doesn't accept any Freudian Excuse to explain his nature and deliberately keeps his motives vague beyond turning people into monsters like he is.
Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Multiple reasons for why Johan is what he is are suggested throughout the series, from Kinderheim 511 (which one of the staff members admitted they couldn't have created someone as devious as him) to The Red Rose Mansion (which was actually experienced by his sister and he projected happening to him), but they're all proven to fail to explain what he is. In the end, his mother deciding to choose one of her children over the other, without knowing who it was or what triggered things, and he decides himself that this is insufficient to justify it after he finally learns his true name.
Gentleman and a Scholar: He feigns being this.
Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: How did he get his eyes to be so wide?
Greater-Scope Villain: Of Another Monster, as he's the one who drove Hermann Fuhr to commit murder.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Exploited Trope. Johan tries to present himself as a blond, kindhearted man, but the rest of the tropes here should tell you he is anything but, unlike his sister, who plays it straight.
Half-Identical Twins: He has a twin sister, who is otherwise identical. Although, his hair is somehow lighter than his sister’s.
Hates Everyone Equally: Johan's desire to destroy everybody is beyond such things as race or religion. He even destroys a Neo-Nazi organization that tried to recruit him because, in a nutshell, they were not indiscriminate enough.
I Have Many Names: His true name is only known to his mother, and he uses several aliases. He only seems to fall back on Johan because Tenma and Nina use it.
Horrifying the Horror: Even hardened killers are terrified of him, one serial killer even commits suicide when he's brought up.
Indirect Serial Killer: He's a master at manipulating others into killing for him.
Irony: One of the reasons he became the guy he is, is due to the empathy he felt for his sister's traumatic experiences. That's right, compassion made him a monster.
I've Come Too Far: Near the end, Johan reveals that he believes that he crossed the moral event horizon long ago and it's too late for him to redeem himself, so there's no reason for him to stop committing his horrible actions anyway.
I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He does this for Anna/Nina twice. He willingly allows Anna to shoot him after finding out that he killed the Lieberts, and the reason behind his "perfect suicide" plan of a massacre in Ruhenheim along with eradicating his existence (mirroring Franz Bonaparta's Red Rose Mansion massacre, which is in itself an "expression of love" to the twins' mother) was partly due to how irredeemable he has become and to make Nina happy.
I Will Find You: One of Johan's goals is to reunite with Nina. He tries to make contact with her a few times, but either Tenma or Neo-Nazis who want Johan for their own benefit have a tendency to get in the way.
Intelligence Equals Isolation: Johan is intelligent, and he mostly acts as a lone wolf. Any associates are mere tools to him. Though in this case, he doesn't work alone because of his intelligence, but because he is utterly unable to connect with any other human.
Karma Houdini: Zig-zagged. The ending does not make Johan's fate clear, but it could be interpreted that he left the hospital bed. The anime adaptation heavily implies that this is the case and he indeed escaped the hospital. The sequel novel, Another Monster, reveals that the general public is aware of his crimes and he is still believed to be in a coma. However, it's unknown if he is responsible for the new wave of murders described in the novel or if it's just a copycat.
Klingon Promotion: Last-minute aversion when in his own words, "Something else came to mind." And by "something else," he does not mean resigning unobtrusively.
Lack of Empathy: It is perhaps inaccurate to say that Johan lacks empathy; he is fundamentally incapable of it.
Laser-Guided Karma: His physical threat is quashed by Herbert Knaup, a neglectful parental figure who is utterly oblivious to any of the philosophies at play in the story and whose son Johann randomly decides to threaten to get a rise out of Tenma. Herbert even guns him down to save Wim with one of the pistols he had handed out in the city.
Light Is Not Good: He's a beautiful, almost angelic-looking man who gives off an aura of trust and kindness to all who meet him. Needless to say, he's almost unspeakably, irrevocably evil.
Made of Iron: He survives a bullet to the head twice!
Madness Mantra: "But that's not my real name." Reinforced by his supremely creepy fairy tale.
Manipulative Bastard: His forte is to manipulate people to fulfill his plans.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The series really likes to explore (and muddle) whether or not his borderline invincible efficiency as a corruptor of men is him being just that good or him actually being the demon everybody else says he is.
Meaningful Name: Apart from the context the name Johan has within the series, it is noteworthy that this is a version of John, whose Revelations provide the source for the series' epigraph. Although the St. John of Revelations is usually referred to as Johannes, a different (and more formal) German version of John. John is also one of the most stereotypically generic names, which may be a reference to his own lack of identity.
- It may also be a reference to Johann Conrad Dippel, an alchemist who inspired the character Victor Frankenstein. He was said to have been spoken with the devil, and killed animals and collected dead animals to create an oil which he believed could gain him eternal life.
- Or it could be the Hebrew version of Johan, which is "God is gracious". If so, the irony is a riot!
Mind Rape: His specialty is to break down people to destroy whatever happiness or goodness they could have.
Mommy Issues: Check out his little chat with her portrait, for starters.
Nerves of Steel: A villainous example. Johan is not bothered by things that would make a grown man cower in fear.
Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Everything he does is terrifying, and even the scenes of him as a child are disturbing in nature.
Non-Action Big Bad: More like so good at manipulation and killing, he doesn't need to fight.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Even though nothing has been confirmed, there have been quite a few rumors that Johan's physical appearance could be based on Björn Andrésen when he was a teenager. Considering that Björn's face has been a key inspiration for Pretty Boys in Anime & Manga, this is likely true. Oddly enough, Björn's middle name coincidentally happens to be "Johan".
No Name Given: We never learn his real name.
Nothing Is Scarier: Perhaps the scariest thing about him is that we never really do learn what his deal is. There are plenty of theories in-universe and out, but they're all flawed in some way. He doesn't kill out of sadism, because he commits murder in much the same way normal people would do chores, and he holds no grudge against the people he kills. He's given multiple potential freudian excuses, but they occasionally contradict and some people who know Johan as a child believe that he was always evil. In the Blood? Unlikely, since his twin sister is fine. He doesn't fit the profile for any known mental illness, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have any. Some think that he's a quite literal demon, but none of these are really reliable narrators. In the end, he merely is and does, and others have to pick up the pieces.
Not So Stoic: He breaks his stoicism in regards to his twin sister.
Omnicidal Maniac: While his motives are left somewhat vague, his actions certainly suggest that his ultimate goal is the complete destruction of human society by manipulating everyone he comes across into killing themselves or each other and to be the last person standing atop the rubble of civilization.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Is Johan showing a facial expression other than Dissonant Serenity? Well, it's been nice knowing you...
Parental Abandonment: There is a mystery behind what happened to the Liebert twins' biological parents. It's implied that their father was killed, but it's later revealed that the mother is still alive.
Pay Evil unto Evil: When he kills Tenma's corrupt superiors, and later the Prague police officers who are plotting to murder Suk.
Pet the Dog: Another Monster reveals that he spared Karl despite having no reason to do so because he had grown to relate and had fondness for him.
Practically Joker: Inverted. He is often called The Joker of Manga and Anime and it's not hard to see why, as he is an Ax-Crazy mass murderer with a mysterious past who amasses cult-like followers, has a desire to corrupt his Arch-Enemy by getting him to kill him, a dislike of Nazis because they aren't discriminate enough in their kills for them, and both have disorders and senses of morality foreign to most people. However, they're essentially the reverse of each other otherwise; where Joker is loud and flamboyant, Johan is quiet and dresses unremarkably. Johan was a monster since a young age and is obsessed with his past while Joker's past is left mostly ambiguous and mysterious. Johan's modus operandi is working behind the scenes to manipulate others into doing awful things while Joker loves to kill everyone himself. Most importantly while Johan has a specific goal of trying to erase his existence, Joker would love nothing more than to cause the most amount of chaos possible and build mile-high signs announcing he's the cause. Furthermore, he lacks the humor seen in Joker and is portrayed as a horrific villain throughout.
Pretty Boy: He's very good-looking and has fine features. Unfortunately, his good looks plus his homicidal, anti-Christ-like psychopath personality make for a very dangerous (if not deadly) combination...
Pretty Little Headshots: Averted, when shot as a child and as an adult, there is no exit wound.
Psychopathic Manchild: A combination of Type C and Type D.
Pure Is Not Good: Johan Liebert is portrayed as a charismatic, intelligent, and seemingly inhumanly perfect individual. After all, he's a handsome, well-mannered, well-read, and educated young man. However, nothing changes the fact that he is the monster: a highly manipulative psychopath who has been carrying out a series of crimes and murders since his childhood. With his qualities, the vast majority of the world's problems would be solved, not helped by the fact that he was raised to be the perfect soldier. His unwavering dedication to his twisted goals and his lack of scruples make him an example of how "purity" in terms of determination, physical appearance, intellect, personality, and Evil Virtues does not necessarily denote moral goodness.
Pyromaniac: Books, buildings, books and buildings...
Raised as the Opposite Gender: He wore girls' clothing as a child since his mother wanted to create the illusion of only having one child.
Redemption Earns Life: A possible interpretation of the ending. By saving Johan's life again and telling him his true name, Tenma gave Johan the chance to live as himself and not "the Nameless Monster."
Renaissance Man: Johan possesses extensive knowledge of seemingly unrelated subjects like psychology, literature, international law and other languages. This extensive range of knowledge is part of what makes him so dangerous; he can fit in anywhere, and once he's settled somewhere, he works to destroy it.
Sadist: Subverted, for the most part. His constant calm and cheerful demeanor may suggest that he enjoys tormenting people and some of the ways he induces people to suicide are unnecessarily cruel as well, but this can be better chalked up to extreme emotional disconnection more than anything.
Satanic Archetype: This is what Johan actually is. Like how the Bible claims Lucifer can appear as a "an angel of light", Johan is angelical, gentle and beautiful but only to hide the pure malevolence underneath, that of a twisted, sadistic Serial Killer who uses everyone as his own tools to advance him.
Self-Made Orphan: He repeatedly killed his foster families.
Serial Killer: A very nightmarish one. He induces his victims into committing suicide, or is the catalyst for mass murders.
Sissy Villain: He crossdresses, but it's because he sees himself and the sister he's dressing as as essentially the same person, with no definition between them. And he's too damaged and empty to even qualify as Asexual in the healthy orientation sense, let alone gay.
Slasher Smile:
- Blink and you'll miss it, but when he sees that he's broken Richard, he makes an absolutely sadistic slasher smile.
- He gives another one when he's standing in front of the mirror, just after he's revealed to be posing as Anna. His usual half-lidded eyes make it all the more scary.
Smart People Know Latin: Becomes a plot point as he reads books in Latin for Hans Georg Schuwald, a wealthy man who he is trying to get close to.
The Sociopath: Subverted, believe it or not. Johan checks many of the boxes to a T: superficial charm, pathological lying, manipulative tendencies, shallow affect, early behavioral problems, and a lack of realistic long-term goals. As revealed by his empathetic bond with Nina as a child and him connecting emotionally with Karl, however, he is capable of empathizing with people but has simply convinced himself not to. Even if you set aside his emotional connections with Nina and Karl, he's far too self-controlled and composed to qualify as one, especially considering that the vast majority of sociopaths/psychopaths are criminals with high levels of aggressiveness. One could theorize that perhaps Johan was born with some sort of disorder and/or mental condition, but there was a particular event that made him acquire traits very reminiscent of sociopathy/psychopathy.
Soft-Spoken Sadist: This. Oh. So. Much. And if you watched the anime and reached episodes 25 to 27 — where we meet Karl Neumann and co. — even if Johan hasn't physically shown up in a long time since episode 4 (not counting flashbacks), seeing him speaking very kindly and acting very nice is... erm, very creepy, for lack of better words; and kinda heartbreaking too because of how beautiful he is and how sincere he sounds. Especially when considering the fact that, by this time, we already know what he's capable of and how he's a master manipulator.
Spanner in the Works: His final scheme to goad Tenma in to shooting him is undone by a random drunk, who knows nothing about the elaborate mind games Johan is playing and only shoots him because Johan is threatening his son.
Spell My Name With An S:
- Johann is the German spelling; Johan the Czech. You choose.
- Also Liebheart is to Liebert.
Stalker without a Crush: To his sister. He sends her anonymous e-mails and even visits her university to watch her. Later, it is shown that he has studied her so well that he can impersonate her almost perfectly.
The Stoic: Remains emotionless, cool, calm, and collected while he murders people and burns down a library. However...
Straight Edge Evil: He is never seen drinking or smoking. Even when he's in a bar with a glass of alcohol, he's never seen drinking.
- He does drink once, when he is proving to a very paranoid Peter Capek that the wine isn't poisoned.
Straw Nihilist: Subverted. While he does think life itself is utterly meaningless, he also believes in something bigger. Unfortunately, what Johan believes in is evil.
Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred!: He points at his forehead to order people to shoot him.
The Svengali: He volunteers at an orphanage in order to drill his nihilistic philosophy into the children.
'Tis Only a Bullet in the Brain: He is shot in the head twice and both times he is tough enough to survive and, after Tenma operates on him, be ambulatory and lethal after a short period recovering... or at least, that is a big "maybe" on the second time.
Tragic Villain: Downplayed. He suffered extreme trauma as a child and it's clear that it continues to haunt him. However, others suffered similarly without becoming monsters, and Hartmann admits that he couldn't have crafted a monster like Johan.
The Trickster: He frequently uses people's hypocrisies and the lies they tell themselves against them. And he likes to spread havoc too.
Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: Lots. He was a really evil child.
Übermensch: A very evil and destructive one. He is the result of a Nazi product to create one after all.
Uncanny Valley Girl: A male version, lampshaded in the Munich arc. He's actually at least initially less overtly uncanny when cross-dressing... but then again he is (mostly) impersonating his sister.
Underestimating Badassery: A lot of the other villains think they can control him for their own ends. It tends to end fatally for them.
The Unfettered: Part of what makes Johan so scary is that there isn't much stopping him from committing vile atrocities, given how he views most people as tools and is completely used to doing vile things for literally any reason.
Unperson:
- He is a rare case of this being self-inflicted. Destroying every trace of his existence before dying is one of his ultimate goals in life, what he calls "The Perfect Suicide".
- He is also extremely good at covering his tracks, leaving behind only corpses. Ironically, this is the fact that eventually makes Lunge begin to believe Tenma about his existence — hotel rooms are not supposed to be that clean.
The Unreveal: It is never revealed what exactly is Johan's motive, if he has one. From what is known, most of his beliefs are nihilistic in nature. The only clue to his mindset is Franz Bonaparta's creepy fairy tale, "The Nameless Monster": a monster kills many people in search of a name, but by the time he succeeds, there is no one left to call him by that name.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Averted. Even then, he was pretty horrible.
Villain with Good Publicity: Double subverted. A lot of people end up trusting and liking him for whatever reason, usually because he turns on the charm and starts convincing them he's someone they should like. Then they discover his true colors...and by the time they do, their life expectancy has already dropped significantly...
Villainous Breakdown: After re-reading "The Monster With No Name" and again (offscreen) after Nina points out that some of "his" memories are actually hers.
Where I Was Born and Razed: He caused the destruction of Kinderheim 511.
White Hair, Black Heart: His hair isn't exactly white, but it's either a platinum blond or it's bordering on platinum blond. And it's natural too — no dyes. He's an evil character.
Wicked Cultured: This is part of what makes him so terrifying and effective. He is practically a genius knowing many languages with a keen understanding of law which he uses to Mind Rape a certain character and was even able to run a massive money laundering scheme at fifteen-years-old.
Wise Beyond Their Years: Even as a child, Johan was a genius and master manipulator.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: For Karl, Lotte, and Nina. In Another Monster, Karl reveals that despite everything Johan put him through, Karl could never bring himself to hate Johan as he believed Johan's tears for him were real. Lotte, similarly, says that she doesn't hate him and that she believes Johan couldn't bring himself to kill Karl because Karl wanted things — family and a home — that Johan could never have nor understand. Nina, for her part, believes that had she not shot Johan, had she been able to forgive him, he would not have continued killing.
Would Hurt a Child: This show doesn't shield the viewers from witnessing how Johan psychologically manipulates little children into killing themselves.
Xanatos Speed Chess: He has a tendency to change his plans repeatedly, though typically with the same ultimate conclusion that Tenma will shoot him and thus denounce his ideals and become just as much of a monster as he is.
Yandere: A creepy and platonic male example towards Anna/Nina.
You Monster!: He isn't called one for nothing, you know. He serves as a very deliberate exploration and deconstruction of exactly what constitutes a "monster".

Nina Fortner

Anna Liebert / Nina Fortner

Voiced by: Mamiko Noto (JP), Karen Strassman (EN)

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.

Action Girl: Played straight and later deconstructed. She is physically strong and knows aikido, but that does not equal having the mental fortitude to match.
Badass Adorable: She is adorable and an Action Girl. However, that doesn't save her from Mind Rape.
Beware the Nice Ones: She is nice for the most part, but she is willing to rely on violence when needed.
Broken Ace: She would be perfect in every way, except that her mind is made of easily shattered glass.
Cain and Abel: She is the Abel. She is kind and compassionate, unlike her brother.
Celibate Hero: Well, Heroine: There are a few guys in the series who seem to like her, but she either rejects them (Peter) or is outright oblivious (Lipsky). However, she does have some subtext with Tenma that may avert this.
Damsel in Distress: Subverted early in the series. Played straight several times later on in the series including one case where she is saved from certain death by the same man who murdered her step-parents., as a part of the deconstruction theme that is a huge part of Monster. Though double subverted as people constantly try to capture her as a hostage and bait for Johan, but she willingly allows it if it means reuniting with Johan and killing him.
Damsel out of Distress: She knows how to defend herself. At least physically.
Driven to Suicide: When Johan showed her that she was the one in the Red Rose Mansion, she almost kills herself, but Tenma got to her in time.
Dirty Harriet: She impersonated a prostitute to find Johan.
Establishing Character Moment: Technically not her first moment on-screen but after the Time Skip, she's first seen running late to class. This seems to be a setup to introduce her as a Cute Clumsy Girl but then she manages to easily sum up the basis for the ruling of a certain case that none of her peers were able to answer.
Expy: She has qualities matching Laurie Strode from Halloween.
Forgiveness: "I... I forgive you. Even if we were the last two people in the world, I would still forgive you."
Go Mad from the Revelation: When she realizes that Johan's memories of the Red Rose Mansion were actually hers.
Good Is Not Dumb: She's a sweet girl and one of the best students in her class. However, she won't hesitate to use her aikido or literally scare the piss out of a Neo-Nazi.
Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She is blonde, and she is kind unlike her brother.
Half-Identical Twins: Gender aside, there are few differences between her and her (sinister) brother. Although, Johan’s hair. which is platinum blond, is noticeably lighter than Nina’s, whose hair is dirty blonde.
Heartwarming Orphan: She lost contact with her parents, and unlike her brother, is a nice woman.
Heroic BSoD: She gets shocked very often.
Identity Amnesia: When we meet her as an adult, she has no memory of her childhood.
It's Personal: With Johan, since he's her brother and has repeatedly killed her foster parents.
Morality Pet: Subverted. She may be the one person in the whole world (other than Tenma) who Johan appears to care a great deal about and his greatest fear is forgetting about her, but he's not above mindraping her and nearly indirectly causing her to commit suicide. And her forgiving Johan doesn't stop the latter in wanting to get himself killed.
Ms. Fanservice: Briefly, duing her Dirty Harriet time.
Murder-Suicide: Once she regains her memories, her plan is to kill herself after killing Johan.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Neither "Anna Liebert" or "Nina Fortner" are her birth names. Her real name is never revealed.
The Ophelia: In the first couple of episodes, she's naive, cheerful, and optimistic. It doesn't last long.
Polar Opposite Twins: She is kind and compassionate, unlike her brother.
Stepford Smiler: What her shrink suspects. With her issues, he's not too far off.
Sympathy for the Devil: She tells the Neo-Nazis that Johan is suffering mentally after reading the message he left for her, though it's unclear if she's right. She later tells him that no matter what he does, she could never bring herself to hate him.
Thicker Than Water: She ultimately still loves her brother despite everything he's done to her, and can't bring herself to kill him.
Tomato in the Mirror: Double-subverted (if not more) by the way Johan and she both get their memories and identities confused with the other's.
Took a Level in Badass: From ever-so-wholesome law student to hooker-impersonating, gangster-frightening gunslinger in about one volume, and mostly through her own efforts (Rosso only ever got to teach her pasta sauces). That said, she occasionally finds herself in way over her head later into the series.
Trauma Conga Line: First she's kidnapped and tortured at the Red Rose Mansion, then her loving foster parents are repeatedly murdered by her brother, who then asks her to shoot him.
Trauma-Induced Amnesia: She has repressed her memory of multiple tramautic events, such as her experience at the Red Rose Mansion and Johan's murder of the Lieberts, and her subsequent shooting of him.
What Beautiful Eyes!: Like her brother, the beauty of her eyes are pointed out.

Supporting Characters

Inspector Lunge

Inspector Heinrich Lunge

Voiced by: Tsutomu Isobe (JP), Richard Epcar (EN)

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.

Absence of Evidence: 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.
Action Dad: Lunge is the father of a woman and later would be a grandfather, and is an active agent.
Agent Scully: So, Dr. Tenma, you're saying a ten-year-old fresh out of major brain surgery killed these people?
Anti-Hero: Type III or IV. His heart seems to be in the right place, problem is he can come off as cold and uncaring, a good example being oblivious and uncaring to his daughter being pregnant or his wife having an affair.
Badass Bookworm: A brilliant investigator who's also an Implacable Man in his own right.
Berserk Button: He is generally stoic and not emotionally attached. But bring up his family and his failures as a husband and father, and you will earn his wrath.
Beware the Quiet Ones: More like 'Beware The Stoic Ones' but it still applies. Lunge is generally a quiet, stoic individual, but he does have emotion and if his pressure points are touched, he goes berserk. Roberto finds this out the hard way.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: While he is a borderline-sociopathic weirdo who's comically bad at most interpersonal relationships, he's a very sharp investigator who is only ever held back by his own Blue-and-Orange Morality. At one point, he even gets a murderer to fully confess to their crimes while actively ignoring them.
Busman's Holiday: Subverted in that when he finally takes a vacation, he turns down a request for assistance from the local authorities. Otherwise, not so much played straight as sneakily turned up a notch.
Character Tics: His most distinguishing feature is his habit of moving his fingers as though he were typing, which helps him memorize information verbatim.
Combat Pragmatist: Lunge's obsession with truth ties into his obsession to win, so he's willing to fight dirty. When blindsided and stabbed, he throws the attacker off, kneecaps him and then departs. In the finale he overpowers Roberto by jabbing his thumb into the bullet wound he gave him earlier on in the fight.
The Comically Serious: Especially when he attempted to think like Tenma.
Defective Detective: Very defective; he is so obsessed on his work that he is estranged from his family. It's only towards the end that he starts to become less dysfunctional.
Determinator: He obsessively tracks Tenma across Germany, not caring how it affects his personal life. Not even risking death from blood loss prevents him from trying to prove Tenma guilty.
Germanic Depressives: Lunge is obsessed with work, but we very, very rarely see him be happy about anything.
Germanic Efficiency: Tells his subordinates to stop wasting their time with trivial, mind-numbing games and as they point out, all Lunge does is work.
Implacable Man: He is absolutely relentless in his search for Tenma.
Inspector Javert:
- Played with and Deconstructed. He initially cares more about solving cases rather than actually capturing criminals and was happy to let someone else eventually arrest Tenma. Then he accidentally drives a suspect to suicide, gets barred from working his other cases, and his family leaves him. His obsessive hunt for Tenma becomes less about capturing Tenma and more because the hunt is the only thing left in his life.
- Starts to be subverted halfway through the series. After the events in Munich, Lunge begins to realize he was wrong — that Johan does exist and that Tenma is innocent. From there, he switches goals from capturing Tenma to unraveling the mystery of Franz Bonaparta. Tellingly, after Tenma is arrested in Prague, Lunge blows off his superior asking him to escort the doctor back to Germany, instead continuing his search for Bonaparta. Lunge even apologizes to Tenma in Ruhenheim and goes on to testify about his innocence.
Hero Antagonist: For the most part, he is a detective trying to arrest a man he thinks as evil.
Married to the Job: Viciously deconstructed. His obsession with work takes an incredible toll on his family life and almost gets him fired. He sees this and quits, anyway.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Inspector Lunge's name translates to Mr. Stake.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: There's an uncanny resemblance between Lunge and that other super sleuth.
Not So Stoic: One of the first time we seem him express any emotion at all is when he is standing in Johan's room. He starts to laugh drily, presumably because he's just been proven wrong about his statement, hours ago, that no one other than a demon can be somewhere and not leave a trace, and that demons don't exist.
- This doubles as Character Development: Lunge gets angry when Roberto starts talking about Lunge's failed marriage and how his grandchild doesn't even know his biological grandfather.
Pet the Dog: In Ruhenheim, he helps save a lot of people, befriends Grimmer, and actually apologizes to Tenma!
Photographic Memory: Deconstructed, his memory is oftentimes tainted by his bias and it oftentimes limits his objectivity.
The Profiler: Played with. He's usually correct on guessing who the culprits are, with Tenma being the exception. He just can't predict how they'll react, one being Driven to Suicide and one almost killing him for revealing his motives.
Spell My Name With An S: The translated manga, some fansubbers, the English dub, and the official site of the anime all say "Lunge" as the correct spelling, while the anime shows "Runge" on his ID. While both are German surnames, "Runge" is far more common.
The Spock: He's able to guess motives, but he's not able to read the emotional reactions of cornered culprits, which nearly kills him at one point.
Stern Teacher: To a hospitalized Suk. He becomes an actual teacher at the end.
The Stoic: He is always serious about his work and shows little emotion, which causes others to think he doesn't care about them.
To Know Him, I Must Become Him: "I am Tenma. Domo."
Wrong Genre Savvy: Played with. His assumptions on culprits of crimes is correct, he's not able to predict the reactions once they're cornered, especially one that manages to nearly kill him at one point. Then there's thinking Tenma has a Split Personality to justify the crimes rather than a ten year old boy doing so.

Eva Heinemann

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/evamonster_5301.jpg

Voiced by: Mami Koyama (JP), Tara Platt (EN)

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.

All Take and No Give: How most of her relationships play out. Tenma declined her attempt to get back together for this very reason, still bitter on the whole thing, and finding Johan was much more important.
Amicable Exes: Obviously averted for a long time, but after Martin's death, she reconciles with Tenma and gets acquitted with him without re-entering a romance with him.
Break the Haughty: Her father's death is the beginning of this for her, but she goes through a LOT throughout the series, so much that you end up feeling sympathy for her. Needless to say, her happiness at the end is well-earned.
Can't Stand Them, Can't Live Without Them: She dumps Tenma without a second thought, thinking he was just another fling. It comes back to haunt her years later, when she realizes Tenma was the only one who actually cared about her. Unfortunately, he's too alienated by this point to get back with her.
Character Development: She becomes nicer after Martin's death. However, she admits in Another Monster that she still doesn't believe all lives are equal.
Defrosting Ice Queen: To Martin. Sadly, it doesn't end well.
Despair Event Horizon: Her father's death left her a drunken mess.
Fallen Princess/Princess in Rags: Revolves a few times between these in the course of the series.
Freudian Excuse: Given what an utter bastard her father was, it's no surprise she internalized his self-serving attitude.
From Bad to Worse: When waking up in a police cell with personal belongings missing, smoking someone else's cigarette butts off the ground outside the station just for the hit, and stealing booze from a panhandler is not the low point of her day, you know it's a steep downhill slope.
Gold Digger: She dated Tenma because he was on his way to becoming the next director. As soon as he fell out of favor with her father, she dumped him without a second thought.
Heel Realization: When Tenma told her that Martin died, she became remorseful of her treatment towards Martin and her wish to imprison Tenma even being aware of Johan's evilness.
Her Heart Will Go On: Eventually towards Tenma and Martin.
Hidden Depths: Yes, really. As the story goes on, she starts to realize more and more what her actions have cost her.
Hypocrite: She acted for a while like Tenma abandoned her, when she was the one that threw him away in the first place.
If I Can't Have You…: Though she is kind enough to not actually try to kill him, she does attempt to put him in prison for life.
I Will Wait for You: Waits for Martin at the Frankfurt Central Station to run away with him. He doesn't make it.
Lady Drunk: Through most of the series. She eventually stops drinking as a token to Martin, who didn't like alcohol, and continues to order coffee instead of alcohol three years later in Another Monster.
Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: Most of the time, post-Tenma.
Mistress and Servant Boy: With her gardener and later Martin too.
My God, What Have I Done?: Martin's death really does a number on her and finally makes her aware of all her bad traits and acts, triggering a Heel–Face Turn.
Never My Fault: She dumps Tenma for no good reason, then gets mad when he doesn't want to get back with her after that.
Noblewoman's Laugh: To the point where strong men of all character alignments flinch at the sound.
Out of Focus: She disappears once the Munich arc begins and only returns at the end of the Prague arc (for reference, she's absent from episodes 25-50).
Pretty in Mink: Has a gray fur jacket.
Really Gets Around: She had lots of relationships with many men and slept with them. All of those relationships were unsuccessful.
Returning the Wedding Ring: Though they were at that point just engaged, when she breaks her engagement with Tenma, she drops her ring at his feet and walks off to flirt with the man who got his promotion instead of him.
Rich Bitch: Oh, yes. Her Establishing Character Moment has her telling Tenma that not all lives are equal. That's not counting her attitude towards Tenma and other men.
The Social Darwinist: She blows off Tenma's guilt about the death of a Turkish patient by saying that some lives are worth more than others. She likely soaked this attitude up from her father.
Stalker with a Crush: She was spying on Tenma. When Tenma went out to reunite with a love interest, Tenma bought a gift for Adolf Junkers. She exploited that to mock her and make her go out. Later, Eva continued stalking Tenma and watched Johan.
The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: She can look creepy in some scenes, but even then she is not ugly, unlike her father.
Where I Was Born and Razed: Holiday season turning out to be a disappointment? Why not torch the mansion and surrounding gardens in an epic fit of pique?
Yandere: To Tenma
Villainous Breakdown: When her daddy gets killed, in the first volume. From here it's a long, painful crawl back to the light.
Woman Scorned: She tried to get Tenma into jail because her life was ruined when their romance was cut off, although she was the one who cut ties, not Tenma.

Dieter

Voiced by: Junko Takeuchi (JP), Laura Bailey (EN)

A young boy whom Tenma saves from physical and mental abuse at the hands of a former official of Kinderheim 511, he stubbornly tags along with the doctor (and, later, Nina), providing a foil to Johan.

Abusive Parents: His legal mentor, Hartmann, was applying the Kinderheim 511 methods on him.
Cheerful Child: Once he follows Tenma he shrugs off all his past abuse and acts like a happy kid.
Creepy Child: In his first appearance he avoids talking and yet still cling on Tenma. That's because he is being beaten and taught that there is no future by Hartmann.
Covered with Scars: His bare torso is proof of the physical abuse he endured.
Cut Himself Shaving: When Tenma saw him on the floor screaming of pain, his legal tutor claims he fell while standing on a chair. This is disproven when Tenma lifts Dieter's shirt. The boy had a lot of scars and bruises.
Incorruptible Pure Pureness: The kid rivals Tenma in this since the Kinderheim 511 method didn't work on him at all.
Innocent Prodigy: Sometimes he's at least as wise to the world and people as any of the adult characters, sometimes he's all of his actual age, for better and worse.
Morality Pet: Schumann deliberately lets him follow Tenma to prevent him from killing.
Tagalong Kid: He accompanies Tenma even if his objective is dangerous. He also accompanies Nina, but he can heal them from her fears.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: He takes Tenma's reassurance that Tomorrow can be better to heart.

Eisler Memorial Hospital Staff

Director Udo Heinemann

Voiced by: Masaru Ikeda (JP), Steve Kramer (EN)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/heinemann19.png

The director of Eisler Memorial Hospital. He cares only about the lives of rich and influential patients, and sees Tenma as someone whose skills can be exploited for publicity.

Asshole Victim: It's hard to be sorry about his death because of his disregard for saving lives, his plagiarisms from his subordinates and his attitude against Tenma.
Bad Boss: He uses Tenma as a pawn in his political games, then screws his career over when he stops being his doormat. He also takes all the credit for the research made by his teaching assistants.
Bait the Dog: He allows Tenma to think he's forgiven him for going against his orders, just to twist the knife in deeper when Tenma learns he's been demoted mere seconds later.
Broken Pedestal: Tenma seems to see him as a father figure at first. Two episodes later, he knows better.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: A hospital version. He only cares about money and media attention.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He does seem to truly love Eva.
Faux Affably Evil: He can turn on the charm when there's someone to exploit.
Fat Bastard: Not very fat, but undoubtedly an immoral doctor.
For Science!: He justifies his indifference to patient's lives by claiming that his goal is to advance medical research above all else. Considering his actions are more about pursuing prestige and wealth and he doesn't even write his own research papers, it falls flat.
Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He uses glasses, as the photo indicates, and he doesn't care about human lives.
Greed: His defining sin.
Gonk: Even Roberto is beautiful in comparison to him.
Hate Sink: Dr. Heinemann steals the credit for the research and accomplishments of more intelligent and talented doctors and prioritizes saving affluent people over respecting the order in which clients arrive, marking his short stint in the work as a thoroughly repugnant man.
Hypocrite: He first gives preference to the mayor's life, ordering Tenma to walk out on Johan. Then when the mayor dies, he tries to exploit Johan to bolster the hospital's image.
Karmic Death: Killed by the patient he encouraged Tenma to walk out on, and who he's trying to exploit for media publicity.
Manipulative Bastard: He's manipulated Tenma for some years in order to exploit him, then drops him like a grenade the second Tenma goes against him.
Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: He is a doctor. He doesn't care about the patients of the hospital, but about money.
More Hateable Minor Villain: He lacks any of Johan's charm or complexity, and is simply portrayed as a greedy, amoral doctor who cares nothing for his patients and will gleefully ruin the career of anyone who crosses him.
Obviously Evil: One look at his character design should tip you off.
Only in It for the Money: He only cares about saving the mayor because he's promised the hospital an increase in subsidies. He even says, "We can't have him die just yet."
Photo Op with the Dog: He wants to give the media a photo of Johan and Anna's "heartwarming reunion" to garner attention for the hospital.
Plagiarism in Fiction: His theses are excellent! But... actually, he doesn't do them. His subordinates do, and they will remain obscure while that awesome director has all the credit.
Politically Incorrect Villain: Given Eva's initial "all lives aren't equal" philosophy, it's implied he carries the same classist ideology. His utter disregard for the death of the Turkish man and treatment of Tenma doesn't speak wonders for his progressiveness either.
Small Role, Big Impact: His petty crimes are nothing compared to Johan, but Tenma's entire life is changed by his actions and subsequent death.
Smug Smiler: Often sports a big smirk.
Tampering with Food and Drink: Johan spikes the candy he eats with a muscle relaxant and leaves him to suffocate to death.
Would Hurt a Child: He orders Tenma to walk out on Johan's surgery, which would likely have killed him. He also steals candy from Johan's bedside — he really pays for that one.

Dr. Becker

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/becker_7.png

Voiced by: Yasuyoshi Hara (JP), Christopher Corey Smith (EN)

A colleague of Tenma's at Eisler Memorial Hospital, he is notable for being one of the few non-villains to hold hard onto his Jade-Colored Glasses even after long-term exposure to Tenma.

Casanova Wannabe: Though apparently not entirely unsuccessful.
Cynical Mentor: To Tenma, who is friendly in return but proves resistant once he's got his own way worked out.
Dr. Jerk: While not incapable of empathy (see his scene with Eva), he generally displays a burned-out lack of human response, including endangering patients by turning up late for surgery, possibly due to dalliances with nursing staff.
The Matchmaker: To Tenma, repeatedly and unsuccessfully after his break-up with Eva.
Only Sane Man: How he sees himself within the hospital, in relation to Tenma's idealism and more overtly amoral careerism of some other colleagues.
Sliding Scale of Cynicism Versus Idealism: Tends to stubbornly stick to the cynical side, such as the way he tries to pour cold water on Tenma's former patients when they band together to bankroll a defense lawyer for Tenma.
Sole Survivor: He’s the only named doctor (outside of Tenma himself) working at the hospital to not be one of Johan’s victims.
Vitriolic Best Buds: Despite his cynicism, even telling Tenma he should have just followed orders, he's always by Tenma's side at the hospital and he warms up to him quickly after Tenma disobeys the Director.

Dr. Oppenheim

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/doctor_0.png

Voiced by: Kirk Thornton (EN)

The Chief of Surgery at Eisler Memorial Hospital. He is Tenma's superior at the start of the story, and gives him orders on which operations to attend to.

Blatant Lies: He gets Tenma to switch to the opera singer by telling him there's been a mistake and he's not supposed to operate on the Turkish man. The next time he tries this, Tenma doesn't fall for it.
Catchphrase: "It's the Director's orders."
Death by Irony: In the manga, he complains that the twins are dangerous, because the hospital could be targeted by whoever killed their parents. He ends up getting killed by one of the twins, though for very different reasons.
The Dragon: To Director Heinemann, passing down his orders to other doctors.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He doesn't understand why Tenma disobeyed orders, accusing Tenma of wanting to show off and not valuing teamwork.
Fat Bastard: He's fatter than the other doctors, and is an amoral careerist.
Laser-Guided Karma: He's killed by Johan, who he ordered Tenma to walk out on. Then Tenma gets promoted to his position after his death.
Punch-Clock Villain: He seems purely concerned with making sure Heinemann's orders are obeyed.

Dr. Boyer

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/boyer.jpg

Voiced by: Masahiko Tanaka (JP), Michael McConnohie (EN)

One of Tenma's colleagues at Eisler Memorial Hospital. Boyer sides with the director when Tenma falls from favor, and is promoted to Tenma's old position. It's a short-lived promotion, though...

Career-Building Blunder: He's promoted to Tenma's old position after failing to save the Mayor's life.
Fair-Weather Friend: He's effusively praising Tenma when we first meet him. He turns on him as soon as Tenma goes against the director.
Laser-Guided Karma: He gets himself promoted at Tenma's expense and dismisses him from Johan's case. Johan doesn't take kindly to this, and kills him. Then Tenma gets promoted to an even higher position than the one he had lost.
Never My Fault: He blames Tenma for the mayor's death, because Tenma wouldn't endanger his own patient by walking out of his surgery. Apparently, he doesn't think any of the blame could lie with the ones who actually operated on the mayor.
Only in It for the Money: His only concern about the twins is who's going to pay their medical bills. Turns out one of the twins doesn't think much of him either.
The Rival: He was likely Tenma's main competitor to become head of neurosurgery. He ends up getting that position when Tenma is demoted.
Smug Snake: He takes a little too much pleasure when he tells Tenma that he's no longer Johan's doctor.
The Starscream: Tenma was on good terms with him at first. Then Boyer blames him for the mayor's death, takes Tenma's old position, and proceeds to abuse it, working Tenma to the bone with emergency surgeries.
Tempting Fate: He complains in front of Johan (who he thinks is unconscious) that he considers him and his sister an inconvenience for the hospital, and only cares about who will pay the medical bills. Johan's most likely awake for that.

Tenma's Allies

Dr. Julius Reichwein

Voiced by: Ichirō Nagai (JP), Paul St. Peter (EN)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5007553_6575972351_28846.jpg

An elderly psychiatrist who becomes involved with Johan after the latter murders one of his patients. After being saved by Tenma from getting killed by Roberto, he becomes one of his main allies.

Badass Bookworm: Beats up two guys and brilliantly outsmarts Roberto when he tries to kill him.
Captain Ersatz: He is Urasawa's incarnation of the Osamu Tezuka character Shunsaku Ban, in everything but name.
Cool Old Guy: He is old, but his toughness, combat ability and personality make him cool.
Gentleman and a Scholar: To a lesser extent than Tenma. He is an expert in his work and is a friendly person.
Heroic Second Wind: Takes down two hoodlums after getting the crap kicked out of him.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: He looks a lot like Wilford Brimley.
Retired Badass: Used to work with the border police. This, being the West German border police during the Cold War, which was basically a paramilitary organization as they were expected to hold back a possible Communist invasion from the east, makes it even more Badass.
The Shrink: The third type. He's a psychiatrist, kicks ass when needed, and does a pretty good job counseling Richard.
Trademark Favorite Food: He'll take attempts on his life pretty much on the chin, but the prospect of running out of Weisswurst, not so much.

Dr. Rudy Gillen

Voiced by: Takayuki Sugo (JP), Derek Stephen Prince (EN)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rudy_gillen.png

A former classmate of Tenma's, he is a leading criminal psychologist who attributes his proficiency to possessing the brain of a serial killer. After initially planning to turn Tenma over to the police, he realizes the latter's innocence and becomes an active helper in Johan's case, alongside his former professor Reichwein.

Cheaters Never Prosper: Averted in the Back Story. He and Tenma cheated on an important exam and got scot-free.
Critical Psychoanalysis Failure: He admits in Another Monster that he wouldn't take Johan as a patient, as he believes he'd be easily manipulated by Johan. Jurgens also shows he could have killed him easy when he goads him into arm's length.
The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: His brilliant psychological insights have a tendency not to carry over into his personal life.
Kirk Summation: Being a psychologist, this is a talent of his. He lays down one on Lunge, paving the way for the latter's Heel Realization.
Married to the Job: To the point of being abandoned by his wife because of this.
"Not So Different" Remark: He explicitly invokes this towards the incarcerated serial killers that he interviews, though one may feel that he exaggerates. Also backfires, possibly due to his tendency to get "research subject" mixed up with "research assistant," leaving him repeatedly wide open to Hannibal Lectures from the "subjects."
Rival Turned Evil: Avoided, given his Heel–Face Turn about turning Tenma over to the police.

Otto Heckel

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/287082.jpg

Voiced by: Yoshito Yasuhara (JP), Doug Erholtz (EN)

A small-time criminal who has a symbiotic, highly illegal, and fairly comical relationship with Tenma.

Back for the Finale: In the ending, he reappears and complains with Dieter about the costs he had to find Johan and Nina's mother.
The Chew Toy: His schemes of getting rich never succeed, and that is played for laughs.
Corruption of a Minor: Attempted with Dieter.
Dark and Troubled Past: The only recurring character who seems to avert this.
Friend in the Black Market: He is one of Tenma's links to the Black Market, both willingly and unwillingly.
Hidden Depths: Gets quite serious about his gourmet cooking. Not to mention touchy about Tenma's apparently inevitable suggestion that whatever the dish, it could be improved by the addition of soy sauce. Seriously, this includes Chicken Marengo.
Pet the Dog: He does follow Dr. Tenma and shows concern for him when he ventures to question the killer of a congressman and his wife, particularly when he thinks he has been shot. Not that this stops him from having Tenma shanghaied by terrorists as part of a forced business partnership, and then ratting out the terrorists' (and Tenma's) location to some loan-shark thugs so that they can alert the authorities and collect police reward money to pay off his debts later in the same episode.
- He is initially happy to see Dieter again by the end of the series, commenting on how much he has grown up, despite quickly reverting to being abrasive and self-absorbed when Dieter notes that Heckel does not seem to have changed for the better, showing that he does still have a soft spot for the boy even after being reluctantly saddled with babysitting duties for him by Tenma.
Plucky Comic Relief: His "get rich quick" schemes all tend this way.
Resentful Guardian: He doesn't like taking care of Dieter due to the latter's constant attempts to dissuade him from his shady schemes.
Shoo Out the Clowns: Disappears after Volume 5 and doesn't reappear until Volume 18.
Supreme Chef: Surprisingly enough.
Token Evil Teammate: Among Tenma's allies, he only cares for money and is a remorseless criminal.
Yakuza: His overall appearance is obviously styled after a small-time Japanese hoodlum.

Mr. Maurer

Jacob Maurer

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/maurer.jpg

Voiced by: Yosuke Akimoto (JP), Kyle Hebert (EN)

A senior reporter for the Heidelberg Post, he (initially reluctantly and skeptically) gets involved in Tenma's attempts to track down the twins.

Agent Scully: An underage Serial Killer? You should write a novel, Dr. Tenma. It wouldn't sell.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite his hard personality, he seeks to help Tenma with his research about Johan.
Married to the Job: His wife and child left him for spending so much time at the office, and he currently even sleeps there rather than return home. Tenma eventually manages to convince him to reconcile with them but he never gets a chance to before his death.
The Pig-Pen: First introduced by way of a voice-over of a colleague complaining about his failure to shower.
Please Wake Up: On the receiving end of this from Tenma, who even tries to get him to smoke his cigarettes.
Smoking Is Not Cool: He's not particularly healthy or attractive, and Tenma points out his addiction's negative affects on his body and relationships. As he softens up to Tenma, he eventually promises to quit but is killed not long after.
We Hardly Knew Ye: He's the one of the first to demonstrate just how much Anyone Can Die when Johan's around.

511 Kinderheim

Franz Bonaparta (SPOILERS)

Franz Bonaparta

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bonaparta102.jpg

Voiced by: Nachi Nozawa (JP), Michael McConnohie (EN)

Also known as Klaus Poppe, Emil Sebe, and by many other pseudonyms, Bonaparta is responsible for the eugenics program that resulted in the twins' birth. When he wasn't busy kidnapping his test subjects' mothers and killing their fathers, he engaged in educating the superior children with the aid of morally questionable fairy tales he had penned himself.

Antagonistic Offspring: Another Monster reveals he brainwashed and ultimately killed his father for stealing the affections of a girl he fell in love with.
The Atoner: After witnessing firsthand the suffering Johan brought to Ruhenheim, he fully commits to stopping Johan.
Evil Uncle: The revelation in Another Monster that the biological father of Johan and Anna was actually his own brother makes him this to the twins. Clearly, Johan takes after his relative, sans The Atoner part.
For Science!: Played partly straight, partly as a twisted excuse ("This is an experiment").
Greater-Scope Villain: Zig-zagged. Initially seems like this due to being behind many of the series' events, but instead turns out to be The Man Behind the Curtain. Then it's subverted again when the final episode reveals that he warped Johan's mind with the Sadistic Choice he forced on his mother.
Heel–Face Turn: Rather a slow, maddening process in which he gives up his experiments and becomes a dull, old man, living incognito in a small town where he unsuccessfully tries to continue his creative pursuits. Essentially, it is a slow slip into neutrality.
Horrifying the Horror: Johan refers to him as a "monster."
I Have Many Names: "Franz Bonaparta" is just a pseudonym; Klaus Poppe, Emil Sebe, Helmuth Voss and Jakob Vyrobek are all names he has used in the past and many of the picture books have different credited authors. His birth name is ultimately revealed to be Klaus Poppe.
Love Makes You Crazy: And evil. By killing over forty people in front of your love interest's already traumatized child to give her a chance at a better tomorrow. But don't worry about how your Sadistic Choice affected her, or her other child; your books and the pedagogy you developed will help fix all that. Just leave your evil conspiracy in place, it'll be all right. However, in Another Monster, it is implied that he had a hand in erasing the twins' mother's past, and Lipsky hints that perhaps his reasons behind it was to isolate the twins' mother so only he would know of her existence.
Mad Scientist: He experimented on children.
The Man Behind the Curtain: At least after his Heel–Face Turn.
Matchmaker Crush: One of the most warped examples ever.
Murder the Hypotenuse: It is suggested that he had the twins' father killed. Though he apparently did this with all his test subjects.
My God, What Have I Done?: Undergoes this when he sees all the death and suffering Johan has brought, since he made Johan the man who he is.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: He has some resemblance to Sigmund Freud.
Parental Abandonment: Disowns his own son. Also causes this in other families.
Pet the Dog: Consistently, in his treatment of Wim. Also has an earlier, spectacularly badly thought out attempt.
Redemption Equals Death: Although, whether he was truly redeemed or not is debatable.
Renaissance Man: Has degrees in psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience. He's also a children's book author and fairly talented artist.
Retired Monster: He seems like a perfectly nice guy when we meet him in Ruhenheim.
Stalker with a Crush: He was infatuated with the twins' mother. To the point of murdering 43 people as an expression of his love for her.
Taking You with Me: Attempts to do this to Johan, but he is killed by Roberto before he can do it.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The final episode strongly implies that the Sadistic Choice he gave Johan's mother is what truly set off everything Johan did throughout the story.
Walking Spoiler: He's shrouded in secrecy to the point that virtually any discussion of him existing is spoilery.

Wolfgang Grimmer

Voiced by: Hideyuki Tanaka (JP), Patrick Seitz (EN)

A perpetually smiling man searching for Franz Bonaparta, the man whose pedagogic theories formed the basis of the brainwashing program Grimmer had been subjected to as a child. Unable to feel emotion in his regular state (according to himself, although that doesn't stop him from trying to "fake it"), he transforms into a brutal and unstoppable alter-ego when under extreme duress.

A Day in the Limelight: He, not Tenma, is the main character for the vast majority of Volumes 10 and 11.
Berserk Button: A very literal berserk. When threatened, the "Magnificent Steiner" takes control, and the results are not pretty.
Beware the Nice Ones: He is a Nice Guy, but if he is made angry, he could convert into his Magnificent Steiner persona.
Big Brother Mentor: To Jan Suk.
Care-Bear Stare: An odd version, but it works.
Connected All Along: He is eventually revealed to have been friends with Roberto when they were kids.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He can come off as naive and easy to take advantage of... until his other side comes out.
Death Equals Emotion: He cried for his late son when he was dying.
Dying Moment of Awesome: Takes out almost all of Roberto's men in a final outpouring of anger. Only it wasn't the "Magnificent Steiner", it was his other personality the whole time.
Fingore: He's tortured with a nail clipper by Corrupt Cops.
Foil: To Johan; they're both products of 511 Kinderheim and unable to feel emotion, but while Grimmer is a good man and Friend to All Children, Johan is any thing but. Johan modeling his identity on the Nameless Monster is also reflected in Grimmer taking after the Magnificent Steiner.
Friend to All Children: Though his past at 511 Kinderheim likely contributed to his protectiveness of children.
Gentle Giant: He's easily one of the tallest characters in the series and is only dangerous when provoked.
Heartwarming Orphan: He's a 511 Kinderheim alumni, and pretty much the only one who turned out okay.
HULK MASH!-Up: He has a second personality based upon the fictional Magnificent Steiner where he'll become extraordinarily violent in a mundane version of Hulking Out.
I Just Want to Be Normal: He doesn't enjoy being unable to feel emotions properly.
Intrepid Reporter: How he makes his living.
Moral Sociopathy: He claims not to be able to feel emotion, but has a strong sense of right and wrong.
Nice Guy: Surprisingly, despite technically being a sociopath, Grimmer is a very friendly, approachable, and generous man.
No Name Given: His real name is never revealed.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Sometimes comes across as a bit of a bumbling fool with a congenial and friendly personality; however, he's actually quite intelligent and even shrewd due to his sociopathic tendencies.
Outliving One's Offspring: His son died at a young age and his inability to outwardly grieve, even cry, caused the dissolution of his marriage.
Sociopathic Hero: He is a rare sympathetic version. In spite of his lack of emotion, he's a pretty nice guy who actually performs heroic deeds because he wants to. His Magnificent Steiner persona is the more traditional version of this, as it causes him to kill his enemies in a more brutal fashion.
Stalker without a Crush: His journalistic techniques sometimes amount to this.
Stepford Smiler: Unable to feel genuine emotion, he has to resort to this to try and appear normal.
Taking the Heat: For crimes committed by Johan, but for the sake of Jan Suk, who had been framed for them.
Tin Man: Possibly a deconstruction. He is unable to feel emotion most of the time, but it tends to burst out of him in his "Magnificent Steiner" persona.
Unable to Cry: Discussed. His training at 511 Kinderheim took away his capacity to feel emotions, which meant he wasn't sure if a situation (such as the death of his son) called on him to cry. Eventually subverted, when he spontaneously wells up in tears while trying to snap Milos out of his BSOD after the latter's attempted suicide.
Unstoppable Rage: His Magnificent Steiner persona, which he named from a children's show.
You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!: Towards the end, he almost says this word for word when he's interrogating someone about the massacre in Ruhenheim.

Roberto

Roberto/Adolf Reinhardt

Voiced by: Nobuyuki Katsube (JP), JB Blanc (EN)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/roberto.jpg

A survivor of Kinderheim 511, he takes on different identities during the series in order to eliminate witnesses and obtain information as one of Johan's most devoted henchmen.

Alas, Poor Villain: It's hard not to feel a little sorry for him after Johan callously tells him all his work has been for nothing right before his death.
Ax-Crazy: Very much so. He enjoys killing people.
Bigger Is Better in Bed: He has a large penis, if one is to believe the obese prostitute having sex with him.
Disney Villain Death: Subverted because he survived, but he lost the use of his right hand.
The Dragon: He is Johan's enforcer. He follows him loyally.
- Dragon with an Agenda: However, there is also evidence that he acts on his own initiative from time to time, such as his attempts to kill Nina and Tenma (which runs contrary to Johan's intentions to keep them alive and corrupt them instead, though Roberto begrudgingly comes around to this goal eventually).
Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Somewhat in contrast with Johan, he tends to like to dryly joke about his intended victim's fates, often to their face, effectively taunting them about their imminent demise. Most notably, whereas Johan exclusively reacts to deaths and horrible events he causes with Dissonant Serenity, Roberto laughs at Eva's failed efforts at feigning bravado with his gun pointed at her, and openly lets out an unhinged cackle when he realizes Johan's plan to burn people to death and watch them trip over each other trying to escape the inferno in the University of Munich Library fire.
Evil Is Petty: Rude, foul-mouthed, and generally nasty. With a TearJerker retrospective subversion.
Fan Disservice: Of all the characters in the series, he's the one shown having sex the most. Unfortunately, he's not exactly handsome and a psychotic killer to boot.
Forgotten Childhood Friend: Used to be Wolfgang's friend at 511. Both men remember each other fondly, but neither have any idea who the other is as adults.
Gonk: In contrast to Johan's more effeminate looks.
Handicapped Badass: He lost the use of his right hand after Tenma shot him, but he is still a big menace. The handicap is exploited by Lunge, though.
Implacable Man: Survives being shot by Tenma.
Kavorka Man: He is ugly, but has had relationships with too many woman.
Laughing Mad: His reaction to the fire in the University of Munich library shows how deranged he truly is.
Not Quite Dead: Tenma did not kill him. Just made one of his arms unusable.
Pet the Dog: Revealed retrospectively. He was the boy who befriended Grimmer at 511 Kinderheim.
- In his first appearance, he also gives his employer Müller an opportunity to look the other way when he has Nina kidnapped and continue living undisturbed as a family man, even claiming that he enjoyed working for him, though Müller ends up saving Nina at the presumable expense of his own life.
Psycho for Hire: One of many for Johan. He even deviates from Johan's script sometimes, because he likes killing that much.
Psycho Supporter: He'll do anything for Johan, and is completely insane. He'll even go against his orders not to kill Tenma or Nina.
Slasher Smile: He keeps doing these often.
Stepford Smiler: He is smiling most of the time, but in a Slasher Smile way. He also is a homicidal maniac.
Tempting Fate: Invokes You Wouldn't Shoot Me against Tenma. Tenma shoots him.
Took a Level in Badass: When he reappears near the series climax, Roberto has dropped quite a bit of weight, and acquired quite a muscular physique. Likely done to compensate for his weaker right arm.
Undying Loyalty: To Johan. Shame Johan sees him as nothing more than a pawn.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: He was a kid who loved butterflies.

Christof Sievernich

Voiced by: Masashi Hironaka (JP), Travis Willingham (EN)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/289992.jpg

Johan's disciple and another Kinderheim 511 survivor. Johan and several associates try to turn him into a second monster.

Disappeared Dad: Implied. He has a five year old child with Frieder Schelling, a teenage girl he met while he was a university student. His family paid a large sum to the Schellings so they can raise the child and leave Christof alone.
Leave No Witnesses: He asks Johan to have three people connected to him murdered: Erich Klemperer (the man who smuggled him from East Berlin and sold him to Ernest Sievernich), Frieder Schelling (the mother of his child) and Fritz Overt (an employee at Bilker Investment Bank who was about to reveal a corporate finance scandal which would have affected Christof's company).
Mind Rape: He is as capable of doing so as Johan.
Pet the Dog: When he was hurt and Tenma faded, he sent Tenma's apology to Eva.
Slasher Smile: He smiles creepily while Mind-Raping people.

Hartmann

Voiced By: Masaki Yajima (JP), John Snyder (EN)

Dieter’s previous caretaker, who actually is a 511 Kinderheim associate.

Abusive Parents: Physically abused Dieter so he may be the next Johan.
Admiring the Abomination: He was enthralled by Johan's massacre of the children, calling him a masterpiece, and planning to mold other children into being just like Johan.
Small Role, Big Impact: Is only around for two episodes, but he’s the reason Dieter joined Tenma’s allies. He is also the one who oversees the program.
Would Hurt a Child: He subjected many children under his care to horrific abuse and neglect, to turn them into emotionless soldiers.

Neo-Nazis

Günther Goedelitz

Professor Günther Goedelitz

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gunthergoedelitz_monster.png

Voiced by: Iemusa Kayami (JP)

One of the leaders and founders of the organization, he holds Nina hostage in an attempt to draw out Johan.

Asshole Victim: A Neo-Nazi who tries to burn the Turkish quarter and murders a helpless woman he's holding captive. He gets what's coming to him at Johan's hands.
Ax-Crazy: Much like Johan himself, he's a very subdued and disturbing one. He never goes visibly nuts; however, he's a completely unhinged fanatic who's willing to burn down the Turkish quarter and revive the Nazi movement. He's also a brutal murderer.
Bullying a Dragon: He holds Johan's sister hostage to try to bait him out. Johan shows up, just as expected, and kills Goedelitz and his subordinates.
Evil Teacher: A thoroughly depraved man who happens to be a renowned university professor as well.
Evil Old Folks: An aged man who happens to be a Neo-Nazi and psychopath.
Faux Affably Evil: Despite all his wickedness and extremist views, he's quite polite, courteous, and even charming when he meets with Nina.
Hate Sink: A rabid Neo-Nazi who wants to make Johan Liebert into the dictator for his new Reich. Epitomizing the most contemptible traits of political extremism and fanaticism, there is nothing remotely pleasant, sympathetic, or likable about him—nothing you might expect from an unrelenting psychopathic zealot devoid of redeeming qualities, whose actions and interests could place him right alongside Johan in terms of depravity (the monster himself). And unlike the complex Johan, he doesn't even have a tragic childhood or his genuine friendship with Karl Neuman.
Kick the Dog: His brutal murder of the Turkish prostitute.
More Hateable Minor Villain: He isn't even one of the main villains, yet he manages to be more despicable than Johan Liebert himself.
No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: He treats Nina to dinner at his mansion, while explaining his plans for Johan.
Politically Incorrect Villain: A racist and xenophobe who openly shows admiration for the dictator Adolf Hitler.
The Sociopath: A fanatic devoid of any morals and conscience, he's very open to the idea of killing to vindicate his beliefs, which is quite telling, considering the number of evil people around, including Johan himself. However, he manages to be a highly functional sociopath who can operate perfectly while holding a position as a university professor.
Villain with Good Publicity: Despite being a Neo-Nazi fanatic, he was a renowned professor at Dresden University.
Wicked Cultured: Being a renowned university professor who's impeccably charming and polite doesn't exempt him from being a ruthless and monstrous fanatic.
Wrong Genre Savvy: He compares himself to John the Baptist, believing Johan needs his guidance in order to fulfill his destiny. This gets him killed by Johan, who has no interest in what he stands for.

Peter Capek

Voiced by: Nobuo Tanaka (JP), Dave Mallow (EN)

The head of the organization, formerly a close associate of Franz Bonaparta.

The Dragon: He started out as Franz Bonaparta's right-hand man, before becoming quite a threat in his own right.
Karmic Death: Gets gunned down by his own men in retaliation for his murder of his driver.
Kick the Dog: He helped mastermind the plan to burn the Turkish district, and murdered the five leaders of the resistance against him, which orphaned two children as a result.
Madness Mantra: "Everything is going according to plan..."
Villainous Breakdown: He loses more and more composure after the Baby is killed, murdering his driver in a fit of paranoia. This leads to his death when his men discover the act and gun him down in revenge, thinking that he'd gone mad.
We Used to Be Friends: With Milan, who helped him escape into Germany.
Would Hurt a Child: He started his own version of the book readings with a new group of children, driving Milan's son to suicide as a result. He also killed four people on Bonaparta's orders as part of the cover-up for the deaths at the Red Rose Mansion. This included two children, and it's one of the few acts Capek shows some discomfort with.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He orders Martin to kill Eva once she's served her purpose.

The Baby

Voiced by: Kazuo Kumakura (JP), Kirk Thornton (EN)

A high-ranking member of the organization. He helps mastermind the plan to burn the Frankfurt's Turkish district.

Asshole Victim: Given the atrocities he was involved in, his death was far from undeserved.
Bad Boss: He tells Martin repeatedly that he'll have him killed if he screws up. He's not kidding. While he does object to one of his men being shot by Wolf's men, he seems to take it more as a personal insult than actually caring about him.
Bring My Brown Pants: Wets himself after Nina holds him at gunpoint, without changing his facial expression.
Depraved Dwarf: Much shorter compared to the other adult characters and is a Neo-Nazi.
Evil Tastes Good: Compares his acts of racial terrorism to fine dining, complaing that "my meal has gone cold" when Tenma prevents him from blowing up the chemical warehouse.
Fluffy the Terrible: His name hardly seems intimidating. He's called "the Baby" because his favorite song is "Be My Baby" by The Ronettes.
Heel–Face Door-Slam: He expresses some regret for the life he's lived, right before being killed off.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: He bears a distinct resemblance to Peter Lorre.
Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is not stated.
Tempting Fate: Threatening Christof (who he suspects of three murders at that point) to his face quickly leads to his own death.
Would Hurt a Child: He orders his men to kill Dieter just for being a potential witness.

General Wolf

Voiced by: Kôichi Kitamura (JP), Peter Beckman (EN)

Another founder of the organization, he's the one who sent Johan to 511 Kinderheim, before becoming disillusioned with the goals of the other members.

Ambiguously Evil: While we don't see him commit any crimes and he claims not to share the goals of the other members, he's still one of the founders of a Neo-Nazi organization and the one who sent Johan to Kinderheim in the first place, which makes it doubtful he's a nice guy. He also seems indifferent to the plan to burn the Turkish district and only cares about having Johan killed, and when Tenma decides to help the Turks instead he's told Wolf would be disappointed.
The Atoner: He encourages Tenma to kill Johan, due to him being the one who first discovered him and sent him to 511 Kinderheim.
Evil Old Folks: He's part of a Neo-Nazi organization, though he doesn't share the ambitions of the other members and tries to stop Johan.
Rhetorical Request Blunder: He asks Johan how he's feeling. Johan can't put it into words, so he kills everybody who knows Wolf, so that he'll understand his sense of isolation.
Token Good Teammate: He claims to be this to the other members, as he considers their plan to make Johan their leader to be a foolish idea.

Other Characters

Detective Müller and Messner

Detective Michael Müller and Messner

Müller voiced by: Mike McFarland (EN)

Messenger voiced by: Katsuhisa Hoki (JP), Dan Woren (EN)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/muller.png

Müller (left) and Messner (right)

Two detectives who appear to Tenma and Nina not long after the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Fortner. They quickly turn out to be on Johan's payroll.

A Death in the Limelight: Messner gets a brief characterization as a drug addict on a downward spiral before his demise. Müller gets an entire episode to build a family and reflect on his sins.
Dirty Cop: Both were stealing confiscated drugs and reselling them to criminal organizations. Which Johan was quick to use for his own purposes.
Killed Offscreen: Messner's drug addiction eventually gets him killed at a deal. At least, that's how Roberto wants Müller to think it went.
Never My Fault: Messner completely denies his role in the Fortners deaths and claims he was only a look-out. Müller contradicts this, but also downplays his own culpability by claiming Johan gave them no choice.
Redemption Equals Death: Müller ends up pulling a rescue mission to save Nina, at the cost of his own life.
Small Role, Big Impact: Combined, they appear in three episodes. They kickstart Nina's hunt for Johan, point Tenma in the direction of "the Baby", and introduce Roberto to the plot.
Those Two Guys: In their introductory episode, at least. They soon separate and experience vastly different luck when the plot catches up to them.
What You Are in the Dark: Twice. With tragic results both times.
- When threatened by Johan, Müller and Messner could have turned themselves in. Instead, they chose to willingly follow his demands and murder the Fortners.
- Roberto ends up choosing to let Müller go rather than erase a loose end. With Nina in hand and Müller paid off, there's no reason to bother with Müller anymore. Müller instead chooses to save Nina, as atonement for his murder of her parents.

Martin Reest

Voiced by: Shūichi Ikeda (JP), Roger Craig Smith (EN)

A criminal with a troubled past who is charged with looking after Eva when the mob discovers that she can be of use to them.

A Deadly Affair: His backstory is initially presented as this. It’s subverted when it turns out he didn’t kill his girlfriend; she wanted him to but he refused, so she shot herself. Martin did kill her lover though.
Bodyguard Crush: On Eva, whom he's assigned to guard, and then ordered to kill.
Catchphrase: "I hate this job."
Dark and Troubled Past: He feels guilty for the deaths of two women in his past, his alcoholic mother and his girlfriend.
Deadpan Snarker: Most of his dialouge qualifies. He even snarks in his narration.
Death by Irony: He manages to take out a group of The Baby's men. The one that finally manages to fatally shoot him appears to be a scared, way-out-of-his-league newbie who simply got lucky.
Does Not Like Women: Initially at least, he was very insistent about this.
Dying Moment of Awesome: He goes down in a gunfight to save Eva, taking out four of Capek's men in the process.
Failure Knight: His reason for being insistent on the above, as the last two women closest to him have died with himself feeling guilty as the indirect cause.
Film Noir: His episodes were clearly inspired by this.
Flashback Echo: The flashbacks within the main flashback fall under this trope.
Green-Eyed Monster: His reason for beating up Tenma in the diner is mainly due to this.
How We Got Here: His arc starts with him fatally wounded. The next three episodes are a prolonged flashback showing what led up to this.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Though given he's up against Eva, his initial jerkiness doesn't register that easily.
Love Martyr: He was this to the three women in his life: his alcoholic mother who died freezing in the cold because he left her there when he was a child, his drug-addict late girlfriend who committed suicide after he caught her cheating on him and refused to kill her, and Eva who he died protecting.
Missing Mom: His mother was an alcoholic. When she told him to stop dragging her home one night, he obeyed and she froze to death.
Morality Chain Beyond the Grave: His death makes Eva become much nicer, reconcile with Tenma and fight to give up alcohol.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Possibly unintentional, but he bears a resemblance to Brad Pitt.
Pay Evil unto Evil: When he kills the man who got his girlfriend hooked on drugs, which drove her to suicide as a result.
Replacement Goldfish: Eva admits that she made him wear the suits and neckties that she used to make Tenma wear in the past.
Smoking Is Cool: He's certainly cool, and smokes quite a lot.
The Teetotaler: He doesn't drink due to his mother being alcoholic and dying indirectly due to that. To honor him, Eva works to leave her alcoholism.
Tempting Fate: "I'm surprised I lived through that." Cue the fatal gunshot wound.
Trademark Favorite Food: Those horrible cheeseburgers.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Peter Capek sends his men to kill him for failing to kill Eva.

Inspector Zeman

Filip Zeman

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zeman.png

Voiced by: Steve Cassling (EN)

A corrupt Prague police inspector, and mentor to Jan Suk, who is oblivious to his activities. He is in cahoots with the underground Czech Secret Police, who are trying to find an audio tape of Johan from 511 Kinderheim, so they can use him to regain power and influence.

Asshole Victim: In a single episode, he manages to be one of the most vile characters in the story. It's hard to feel bad when Grimmer quite brutally beats him to death.
Broken Pedestal: To Jan Suk, who had no idea that he was corrupt and viewed him as a father figure.
Cold-Blooded Torture: He inflicts this on Grimmer... with nail clippers. The result is pretty hard to watch.
Dirty Cop: He's on the payroll of criminals, willingly takes bribes, tortures and ultimately intends to kill Grimmer.
Evil Is Petty: He's secretly working with the underground Czech police, but he still demands a sizable bribe to keep quiet about those who managed to get onto the force.
Evil Mentor: To Suk, though he never did anything to hurt him personally.
Faux Affably Evil: It's not very convincing, but he keeps a charming facade up even while torturing Grimmer. Then it slips and he coldly says that he's going to kill him if he doesn't talk.
Nice to the Waiter: To Jan Suk, according to the latter.
Obfuscating Stupidity: He comes off as a little bumbling when Grimmer first meets him. Needless to say, it's just an act.
Only in It for the Money: He's working for the "left-wing" Czech Secret Police to get the Kinderheim tape, but he doesn't care about their politics. He just wants to make a fortune selling the tape on the black market.
- A surprising Truth in Television, the Secret Police was known to be filled mostly by corrupt careerists after Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia and purged the organisation in 1968. In spite of being a "communist" organisation, many of its members are known to have become successful businessmen after Communism fell.

Jan Suk

Voiced by: Hisayoshi Suganuma (JP), Michael Sinterniklaas (EN)

A young, idealistic Prague police officer who is unwittingly caught up in the chase for Johan.

Broken Pedestal: Your heroes can really let you down...
Dogged Nice Guy: When he fell in love with "Anna".
Ensign Newbie: Very much so, constantly inspiring others to attempt mentoring him, generally to his annoyance. By the time Verdemann tries it, pointing out his professional and personal greenness verges on a Berserk Button.
Fair Cop: He is a young, good-looking cop.
Heroic Wannabe: Inspired to join the police by obsessing about cop shows as a child.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: He looks a little like an early 90s Leonardo DiCaprio.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: He gets better, eventually, and not too soured, but it's a rough process.
Wrong Genre Savvy: He's really not on the kind of cop show he thinks his work resembles. And not in the kind of Boy Meets Girl plot he thinks, either.
Vomiting Cop: Hurls after seeing the battered corpse of Zeman. His friends tease him over it.

Richard Braun

Voiced by: Hiroshi Arikawa (JP), Cam Clarke (EN)

A private eye in Munich attempting to deal with his alcoholism and his past. His life went downhill after he shot an alumnus of Kinderheim 511.

The Alcoholic: Formerly, but recovering.
Alternative Character Interpretation: In-universe, by Johan. Welcome to (more) Mind Rape and Mind Screw.
Atonement Detective: look in The Atoner.
The Atoner: He is fighting against his past.
Character Title: Volume 7 of the manga.
Dark and Troubled Past: Just like pretty much every other character in this series.
Decoy Protagonist: Volumes 6-7 is one long day-in-the-limelight arc where the action shifts from Tenma to some new characters, which happens fairly often throughout the series. Initially, he seems to be the main character of this arc (Volume 7 is even named after him), but a tragic run-in with Johan causes the focus to shift to his therapist, Reichwein for the rest of the arc until Tenma returns.
Does Not Like Spam: Hates German whiskey. The presence of a bottle of Racke near his body makes Reichwein suspect that his death wasn't just him falling Off the Wagon and committing suicide afterwards.
Gory Discretion Shot: The fact that it's not revealed just how he dies makes the whole thing all the more maddening.
He Knows Too Much: The reason of his demise.
Heroic BSoD: In his final scene before he's killed off screen, he starts having one of these. Johan identifies it as a Heel Realization.
Kick The Son Of A Bitch: He views his shooting of a serial killer (while drunk) to be this. According to Johan, though, there's no evidence that he actually was drunk, putting it in different territory.
Off the Wagon: Somewhat complicated and it becomes a plot point.
Private Detective: Since being kicked off the force for shooting an underage suspect while drunk.
Sacrificial Lion: His arc is built up over several episodes, then he's unceremoniously killed off. This firmly puts the story in Anyone Can Die territory.
Spell My Name With An S: Braun would be the German version, but the Viz translation gives his name as Brown throughout.
Yank the Dog's Chain: Johan gets to him just when he's about to reunite with his daughter.

Karl Neuman

Voiced by: Tomokazu Seki (JP), Yuri Lowenthal (EN)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/karl_7.jpg

A young student attending Munich University. He works for Hans George Schubert on Tuesdays, reading him Latin passages. He's also Schubert's son.

Commonality Connection: He and Johan bond over their experiences in the foster system and issues with their parents. Whether Johan genuinely felt this way or not about Karl is another story.
Happily Adopted: Zig-zagged. His current foster parents are wonderful, caring people... that he can't make himself connect to because of how often he's been bounced around. His search for Schubert spawns because he's hoping to hate his birth father, to make himself love his new parents more.
Horrible Judge of Character: To be fair, it's hard to blame him for falling under Johan's spell. But after the truth has been exposed, he still seems to believe Johan genuinely sympathized and cared for him.
Innocently Insensitive: Points for trying, but his attempt to pay someone to go dancing with Lotte doesn't come off as the kind gesture he thought it was.
Only Friend: What he thinks he was to Johan in Another Monster. It's left ambiguous if he's right.
Parental Abandonment: Schubert was never in his life. His mother was forced to send him away because she couldn't afford to keep him.
Unwitting Pawn: Within a few conversations with him, Johan quickly finds use for him so that he can ease his way into Schubert's life.

Lotte Frank

Voiced by: Kyoko Hikami (JP), Julie Ann Taylor (EN)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lotte_1.png

An anthropology major at Munich University. In her attempts to help Karl, she soon finds herself stumbling into a much bigger story than she expected...

Amateur Sleuth: A more generous reading of her nosiness. Whenever she gets a whiff of a mystery, she immediately starts investigating as much as possible, from Karl's tangled family tree to the connections between Nina and Johan. She even briefly joins a detective agency at the end of the story, only to get fired for demanding better wages for the staff.
Did Not Get The Guy: Karl just isn't that into her.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: She helps investigate Karl's family life for him and does anything she can to help him solve his woes. She's quickly resentful of how little time Karl has for her now that he's happier.
Innocently Insensitive: She spends much of her early friendship with Nina moaning that Nina is too beautiful for anything bad to happen to her. Luckily for her, Nina doesn't seem to mind.
Mr. Exposition: She catches Karl up to the mysteries and rumors around Schubert. Karl's too polite to tell her that some of this is As You Know to him.
Satellite Character: She manages to run into all the main characters of the Munich arc, but doesn't have nearly as much baggage or story relevance to justify sticking around.
Spotting the Thread: It isn't until she's listing off all the strange things going on in Munich to Nina that she suddenly realizes that they're all connected.
Sympathy for the Devil: She states in Another Monster that she doesn't hate Johan for what he did and believes Johan would not have killed Karl.

Hans Georg Schubert

Voiced by: Michio Hazama (JP), Dan Woren (EN)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/70925.jpg

A mysterious business juggernaut with a sentimental past, he is the center of one of Johan's extremely elaborate plots to wreak large-scale havoc across Germany.

The Atoner: He's so desperate to make up for the actions in his younger days, he pays a prostitute enormous amounts just because she claims to be his ex-lover. And he knows she's lying.
Dark and Troubled Past: Yes, he's got one of these too.
Excellent Judge of Character: He was able to figure out how evil Johan Liebert was on his own because of how "perfect" he was acting. He knew that Johan couldn't have been any ordinary human being what with how intelligent and skilled he was at basically everything. He also drew this conclusion from noticing the parallels between himself as a young man - who wanted to be a beyond-human, chaotic monster - and Johan, who is most certainly those things. And this is before he saw firsthand what Johan was capable of, unlike Tenma, Nina and Reichwein.
Fatal Flaw: His immense wealth has made him deeply suspicious that others might be using him for his cash. This keeps him and Karl from reuniting for much of their arc. It also means, once he's caught onto Johan's game, it doesn't occur to him that Johan is targeting the people around him.
Fiction 500: According to Lotte, his wealth keeps accumulating without check. He is rumored to singlehandedly control the German stock market.
Red Baron : "The Vampire of Bayern." Vampire of Bavaria in the dub.
Lonely at the Top: Despite his wealth, the only real comfort in his life is paying people to read Latin to him. It's invoked. Johan dedicated four years to killing off all of his friends to isolate him.
Luke, You Are My Father: It's complicated. Johan complicates it some more.
Out-Gambitted: He's eventually revealed to be smart enough to catch on that Johan is too perfect and takes steps to keep Karl away from what he suspects will be his own death. But by that point, Johan's already changed his plans for Schubert completely.
Spell My Name With An S: Either "Schubert" or "Schuwald", as the Japanese pronunciation "shuubaruto" can be transliterated both ways.
Took a Level in Cheerfulness: Reuniting with Karl lightens up his life immensely.

Fritz Verdeman

Voiced by: Ryusuke Oobayashi (JP), Kyle Hebert (EN)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fritz_3.png

An extremely talented lawyer known for always getting innocent verdicts. In fact, he only takes on clients if he believes they are innocent. His desire to free innocent people is rooted in his childhood, when his father was accused of being a spy.

Amoral Attorney: Completely averted, he's one of the most unflinchingly noble people in the whole series. In fact, he only takes on cases where he thinks the defendant actually is innocent.
Denying the Dead Parent's Sins: Deconstructed. Upon finding out his father really was a spy, it became really hard for him to trust people.
Good Lawyers, Good Clients: He only takes a case if he believes the client is innocent.
Happily Married: One of the very, very few characters who has a stable, generally happy marriage, let alone happy relationship.
Knight in Sour Armor: He seems like a Wide-Eyed Idealist at first, but once his past is fully revealed, it turns out that deep down, he's this.
Miscarriage of Justice: Subverted with his father, though it's implied that he made a Heel–Face Turn.
The Power of Trust: He struggles with whether he really believes in this or not due to finding out that his father really was a spy.
Spell My Name With An S: Verdeman/Vardemann.
Unwitting Pawn: Roberto impersonates a lawyer in order to get close enough to kill Eva and to get his hands on his father's notebook.

Characters / Monster

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