Monster (manga)/Heartwarming

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.



  • Dieter, walking away from the abusive foster-father who tells him he'll never make it in the big bad world: "Dr. Tenma said tomorrow will be a good day."
  • Tenma. That's it.
  • The orphanage boys grouping together to try and prove Grimmer's innocence to the police--and leaving him their favorite soccer card as a gift.
  • The crazy-expensive, hot-shot lawyer Fritz Vardemann being hired by... Tenma's former patients.
  • Tenma's gun teacher and his adoptive daughter finally reaching out to each other, thanks to Tenma's niku-jaga and a problem with chopsticks.
  • Tenma and Grimmer rescuing Milosh on the bridge. Also something of a Sadness Crowner, both for what Milosh has been through and because Grimmer has to ask Tenma what he is feeling: "You're crying."
  • Dieter, talking another kid away from a roof-edge and spoiling one of Johan's ugliest schemes. Works even though the other kid has done just about all he can to put the reader off him by then.
  • Vardeman, Suk and Runge meeting at Grimmer's grave. Also doubles as a Tear Jerker, not least for the way the inspector brings along the beer they never got to have together.
  • Eva ordering coffee.
  • Dieter deciding to follow Tenma.
  • Verdeman discovering his father advised a boy from Bonaparta's reading seminars to escape the program; a boy who has now become a happily married and perfectly sane man.
  • Nina, Dieter, and Lipski dealing with their collective horrible memories by spending a fun, tourist-y day in Prague making good memories for themselves.
  • Runge going out of his way to compliment Wim's new bike.
  • Karl taking Schubert, a man with terrible vision, out to a construction site that used to be his favorite spot, lush with greenery and with a giant lake. Karl almost tells him that it has been destroyed during construction, but Johan hands Schubert a single apple, telling him that it has fallen off a nearby tree. Schubert cries upon eating the apple, telling his companions that he can see his beloved lake perfectly clearly.
    • Especially poignant when one considers that this is Johan we're talking about, even if he is doing it with ultimate insidious and destructive intent...
  • In Ruhenheim:

Lunge: Dr. Tenma... I'm sorry.

  • Dr. Tenma embodies this, to a fault. In Monster, he wanders Germany looking for serial killer Johan. Along the way he does a lot of nice things to strangers. Even Johan (ya rly) convinces a blind, bitter, aged billionaire that the desolate construction site that used to be his cherished childhood spot is still a beautiful lake by lying to him and handing him a sand covered apple. He even convinces him the birds are still there. It moved the old man to tears and it made this troper wonder what sort of awful plans Johan has waiting for him.
    • Assassination and arson, in case you were wondering.
  • The guy with the five spoonfuls of sugar belongs here, too.
  • Several of Tenma's previous patients blocking the hallway and allowing him time to get away. Later we see that they're all still working hard trying to prove his innocence.
  • After several occasions of Tenma leaving the restaurant leaving his food uneaten, the somewhat-grumpy waitress makes him eat a bowl of soup on the house.
  • Nina, Dieter, and Lipsky spend a day making fun memories for themselves throughout Prague, then Lipsky shows them his new puppet show based on Nina, that he wants to have a happy ending.
  • Verdeman lost all faith in humanity when he discovered his beloved father was a Communist spy. Then he discovered that his father advised one of the boys from the Red Rose Mansion reading seminars to escape from them. The boy took his advice, and in stark contrast to the rest of the children who went to the seminars, he has become a happy, well-adjusted adult.
  • Dieter, period.
  • Nina comes very close to shooting herself in the head, but Tenma reaches her in time. He carefully pulls the gun away from her, holds her tightly in his arms, and delivers a touching speech about how much she means to him.
  • At the end it shows that all the characters are starting to put their lives back together. This is especially poignant with Nina after every horrible thing she's been through and how much her brother has tried to psychologically break her. She's set to become a lawyer and seems to be enjoying her life again.
  • Even after everything that Johan has done to her, Nina genuinely forgiving Johan can be considered a heartwarming moment. The entire series, she's been hunting him down and set to kill him, but Nina actually finding it in her heart to forgive Johan is heartwarming in itself.
  • In her interview in Another Monster, it's shown that Eva still continues to order coffee over alcohol after three years. D'aww.