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This villain was proposed but was rejected by the community for not being heinous enough or lacks what is necessary to be a Pure Evil villain. Therefore, this villain shall be added to our "Never Again List", where proposed villains rejected by the community shall be placed to prevent future proposals of the same evil-doer. They can be proposed again (with the permission of an administrator) if new elements appear in their series that can change their status as non-PE villains.

Any act of adding this villain to the Pure Evil category without a proposal or creating a proposal for this villain without the permission of an administrator will result in a ban.
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Villain Overview

I saw Hell right there in his eyes. Hell. In the eyes of a living human being.
~ Hans Georg Schuwald on the true nature of Johan Liebert.
Dr. Tenma. For you, all lives are created equal; that's why I came back to life—but you've finally come to realize it now, haven't you? Only one thing's equal for all... and that is death.
~ Johan Liebert provoking Tenma to shoot him.
Dr. Tenma. There's something I want only you to hear. That time, long ago, when the monster appeared in front of me—was my mother really trying to save me that day, or did she confuse me with my sister? Well, which is it? Which one of us didn't she need?
~ Johan's last words to Dr. Tenma in a dream sequence and in the entire series.

"Johan Liebert" is the titular main antagonist of the manga and anime series Monster and the overarching antagonist of its light novel sequel Another Monster.

He is a ruthless, emotionless, and psychopathic serial killer whose life was saved by Kenzo Tenma as a child. He is also the older twin of his sister Nina Fortner. Johan has stated that his one true goal is to be the last one alive when the world ends—but upon rediscovering a children's book that appeared to play a major role in his past, he instead set his mind on committing the "perfect suicide", i.e. dying without leaving behind any evidence of his existence (with the possible exception of Dr. Tenma's memories of him, in order to destroy Tenma's faith in humanity).

He was voiced by Nozomu Sasaki in the Japanese version of the anime who has also voiced Mello in Death Note, Tetsuo Shima in Akira and K9999 in The King of Fighters, and Keith Silverstein in the English dubbed version, the latter of whom had also voiced Hisoka Morow in Hunter x Hunter, Chairman Rose in Pokemon: Sword and Shield, Dr. Wily in the Mega Man franchise, Ougai Mori in Bungo Stray Dogs, Deag Grav in Doom, Hawk Moth in Miraculous, Masayoshi Shido in Persona 5, Deep Sea King in One Punch Man, Aaroniero Arruruerie in Bleach, Kurozumi Orochi in One Piece, Kimimaro and Isshiki Ōtsutsuki in the Naruto/Boruto series, Bartleby Farnum in Monster High: Escape from Skull Shores, Zasalamel in the Soul Calibur series, Hammerhead in the Marvel's Spider-Man (2018) and Monspeet in The Seven Deadly Sins.

Personality[]

Tenma: You can't just go around killing!
Johan: Why not?
~ Johan expressing his utter lack of empathy.

Johan can be best described as an entity of pure evil, heavily allegorical to the Antichrist and the Beast. His wanton cruelty and depthless malice do not appear to be humanized by traits or drives such as hatred, vengeance, lust, a point to prove, or even sadism; being fully aware of his nature and devoid of any need to justify himself, his actions are about as reasonless, emotionless, and nihilistic as he is—thus possibly rendering his evil as literally pure and undiluted as can be, given his lack of any discernible gain from it or even a consistent identity. It is perhaps for this reason that he earns such condemnations as monster, devil, vampire, alien—and for which Schuwald claims to have seen Hell itself in his eyes. The clear psychopathic tendencies he exhibits as a child—along with the hellish fate he inflicts upon the child-experimenting orphanage Kinderheim 511, even prior to most of his past traumas—clearly prove that he is far from a victim of circumstance, given the premeditated and calculated murders of his foster families; a former director of said orphanage, Hartmann, admits himself that not even such an inhumane place could have crafted a "masterpiece" like Johan. His most consistent belief is that all life is insignificant, equal only in death.

Once again like the Antichrist, Johan masks his vileness and coldness with a persuasive, unfailing veneer of compassion and politeness, and bears an aura of perfection. When approaching others, he is almost angelic in both appearance and behavior, possibly also paralleling Lucifer himself before his fall; Schuwald, before falling victim to Johan's true colors, even describes him as being not of this world due to his apparent myriad of favorable traits. He is an extremely intelligent, patient, and methodical chessmaster who is always five steps ahead, and his unprecedented prowess for manipulation allows him to use even the most uncompromising criminals to his advantage and corrupt them further, whom he invariably disposes of once their utility expires.

He possesses an equal capacity for psychological torture and can persuade nearly anybody to kill either others or themselves; whenever possible, however, Johan will subject his victims to the worst possible suffering and loss rather than killing them himself, which often drives them to suicide anyhow—such as when he forces Helmut Wolf to watch his wife, children, and many friends and acquaintances all die one after the other, reducing him to a broken and paranoid wretch, despite he and Anna having been saved by Wolf from a near-death experience. Johan has expressed a similar lack of gratitude to Dr. Tenma, who had also saved his life, by poisoning his boss and coworkers, thereby framing Tenma for the murders due to his severe demotion prior to this.

With an unchanging expression and monotonous manner of speaking, Johan appears to be pathologically stoic, if not nearly devoid of emotion; he retains an unnerving calm regardless of the atrocities he commits and when he is confronted about them. He has only ever once expressed genuine emotion upon rediscovering The Nameless Monster (a picture book that is a key component of his past), screaming and passing out from being overwhelmed by his memories. On two occasions, he sheds tears that are, in all likelihood, deceptive. He shows a malicious grin upon relentlessly attacking Detective Richard Brown's psyche, which is the only instance that may imply genuine sadism; otherwise, he has enough of a penchant for corruption and ruining lives to treat it as a mundanity.

The only two people that he seems to refuse to kill are Anna and Tenma, most likely merely to toy with them. It is often believed that Johan genuinely cares for Anna, yet seeing as he has no qualms with (and expresses no remorse for) traumatizing her time and time again to further his own goals, gaslighting her, and nearly driving her to suicide, it's quite transparent that his idea of "love" is either twisted or—as with many of his other traits—feigned. It is also implied he only "loves" Anna because he sees her as his "other half" or an extension of himself. While he claims to view Tenma as a father figure, he takes no issue to killing in front of him even as he pleads for him not to, and seems to spare him only out of a petty desire to crush his idealism.

As an example of his deceptive nature, Johan once hints at having multiple personalities—a criminal one that is the dominant personality, and a distressed one wishing to prevent the crimes, the latter never physically seen—which is quickly dismissed as merely an attempt to mislead Tenma, Anna, and/or the authorities.

However, despite his cruel and malevolent nature, there are indications that Johan has a few redeeming qualities. These qualities are best presented in Another Monster, as it's confirmed Roberto wanted to kill Anna as he believed she was Johan's only "weakness", implying that deep down Johan was still truly fond of her. There's also indication that he might hold a similar level of care and respect to Dr. Tenma. Another Monster also indicated that Johan might've held some sort of care for Karl, as it is stated his tears for him were not deceptive, but were rather genuine signs of empathy. There has also been credibility granted to the idea that had Johan been shown love before going to Kinderheim 511, he might've been able to turn for the better, demonstrating that despite being a monster, Johan might've never truly been fully evil.

Abilities[]

In addition to his astounding emotional intelligence, Johan has also inherited his mother's genius intellect and deductive reasoning capabilities. He possesses endless willpower, vitality, he never gets bored. His inability to feel any fear, guilt, regret, loneliness, remorse or emotional pain makes him extremely dangerous when combined with his ambitions and intelligence. He's capable of leading humanity on a global scale with ease.

  • Genius-level Intellect: Johan is prodigiously brilliant and impressive in whatever he studies and the absolute best in anything he pursues. This is noted by Schuwald when praising Johan's knowledge of law and economics, and by Karl, who notes that none could surpass Johan in anything.
    • Tenma once visited the blind man who taught Johan French and English. The old man was impressed by Johan's intelligence, patience, and mastery of the languages, as he had quickly become perfectly fluent (mastered) in both within a span of just thirteen months. Johan learned and mastered Latin in a very short time while attending the University of Munich. He tutored Karl to help him impress his father.
  • Psychological Warfare: Johan's ability to manipulate people is almost supernatural and therefore an indomitable force to be reckoned with. Johan is an exceptional master manipulator. The process of his exploitation could be represented by a tree where he is the base and each branch in a separate case which is all tied together in one grand scheme. He always knows the right thing to say at the right time; he is an excellent speaker and teacher. He appears to be of perfect health and has the most prime physical conditions overall.
    • Johan is also skilled at making people reflect on their mistakes or any haunting memories of the past, as in the cases of Richard Braun and Miloš. He forced Richard to connect his former blunders as an officer and alcohol problems with his desire to see his daughter, making him believe he was not worthy of the one thing he truly wanted. Similarly, he convinced Miloš that he was not wanted by anyone and thus destroyed the boy's cheerful personality (at least temporarily).
    • As discussed in the personality section above, Johan often manipulates people to kill for him; this is done in a variety of different ways. When working with Michael Müller and Detective Messener, for example, he blackmailed the two by threatening to reveal their drug scandal if they refused to murder Mr. and Mrs. Fortner. In other cases, such as with Peter Jürgens and Rheinhard Dinger, he befriends his victims and acknowledges their worth; they are therefore willing to perform "favors" as extreme as killing, dedicatedly withholding any information on him even in the face of authorities.
  • Near-Superhuman Charisma: Combined with hid behavioral analytics, he can use his inhuman charisma, eloquence, and persuasive abilities, allow him to create convoluted plans and control anyone into doing what he wants easily. Johan can create loyal, submissive, and completely obedient "friends," allies, and followers out of anyone and anything after one conversation, one word, and people will do what he says, absolute obedience.
  • Behavioral Deduction: Johan can intuitively and perfectly assess anyone's psychology, behavior, and motivations, he sees their mind and soul at first glance allowing him to perfectly predict what people will do and how to manipulate them, he has perfect, observational, perceptive, analytical, calculating, tactical, and deductive skills, these allow him to perfectly predict, understand, and control anything no matter how simple or complex, easily. He can make anyone and anything feel good and hopeful, or feel overwhelming intimidation, fear, and despair with his presence.
  • Identity Manipulation: Johan leaves such a strong impression on people that he is able to convince legions to commit murder, play suicide games, or do other monstrous things after just a single encounter. According to Heinrich Lunge, this process is done by altering the fulcrum of someone's identity, like removing a map's coordinate axis. The more jumbled their "lines" become without that foundation, the more room he has to redraw or redefine their maps.
  • Master Impersonator: Johan is also a master of perfect disguise. Around the middle of the series, he masqueraded as his sister while living in Prague. This proved to be quite useful, not only for spying but also because he was able to pass unnoticed while leaving crime scenes. However, Tenma wasn't fooled. Grimmer was also skeptical of Johan's disguise. Johan, for the most part, played his role as "Anna" perfectly, leaving the impression of a beautiful, charming and polite young woman. It was easier for him to manipulate people while in form, especially the male characters like Detective Suk.
  • Near-Inexhaustible Wealth: He can amass wealth and power without being noticed or challenged, he nearly and easily conquered Europe's entire economy only to stop because his goal changed.
  • Socio-Political Influence: When dealing with Schuwald, Johan gained the tycoon's trust pretty quickly. Schuwald noticed Johan's talent in law and business and decided to employ him as his personal secretary. To further secure their relationship, he approached Schuwald's son Karl and reunited the family, putting himself on even more favorable ground to succeed Schuwald's position.

Quotes[]

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?
~ Johan tormenting Miloš, an orphan, while disguised as his sister Anna.
I was born in a town that was straight out of a fairy tale. Many people died there, and when I walked away, I held hands with my other self. To me, it seemed like we were the only two people in the world. Neither one of us possessed a real name.
~ Johan terrorizing Schuwald.
I woke up from the dream. There were so many visions I had of the end, but now I'm picturing a different ending altogether; a clearer vision of the true ending.
~ Johan to his henchman Horst Grossman immediately before killing him.
How weak the mind when it wants to forget. Maybe you didn't forget; maybe you're lying. Is it a lie you tell everyone around you, or perhaps a lie you tell yourself?
The big secret to breaking the rules is to make it look as though you're following them.
Tell me, what do you think is the ultimate fear? I really thought I'd already reached the darkest of the dark—but then, ahead of me, I beheld a darkness even greater still.
Hatred is born when people gather; I just poured a little oil on it.
Evil... there's no more fitting word for a place like that. 511 Kinderheim still sends a chill down my spine.
~ Johan about 511 Kinderheim.

Trivia[]

  • Throughout the story, Johan is referred as three things: the monster, the next Adolf Hitler, and the Devil.

External Links[]

Navigation[]

          Naoki Urasawa's Villains
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Kinderheim 511
Johan Liebert | Hartmann | Franz Bonaparta | Roberto | Christof Sievernich | Stephan Joos
Neo-Nazi Organization
Professor Goedelitz | Peter Čapek | The Baby
Eisler Memorial Hospital Staff
Udo Heinemann | Dr. Oppenheim | Dr. Boyer
Corrupt Law Enforcement
Michael Müller and Detective Messener | Inspector Zeman | Detective Patera and Detective Janacek | Police Chief Hamrik
Others
Hermann Führ | The Nameless Monster | Eva Heinemann | Adolf Junkers | Gustav Kottman | Peter Jürgens | Ivan Kürten | Blue Sophie

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Professor Abullah | Pluto | Dr. Roosevelt | President Alexander | Brau-1589 | Adolf Haas | Adolf Haas' Brother | Anti-Robot Hate Group | Darius XIV

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Fukubei Hattori (Katsumata)

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