Monster (manga)/Nightmare Fuel



When the title of your series is called Monster, the alias of your Big Bad, you might as well ramp the scare factor Up to Eleven. Since said Big Bad is Dissonant Serenity, a lot of the horror is a bit more subtle.

""Do you know what the god does? I know, I figured it out. Do you know? Do you know what the god did after that?""
 * The OP, "Grain". An effective piece of industrial ambiance, sprinkled with a bit of Ominous Latin Chanting, that sets the tone for the entire story.
 * Most of Grimmer's past is heart-wrenchingly terrifying, but what takes the cake is that the brainwashing treatment that he had experienced as a child left him unable to.
 * Adolf Junkers had a change of heart after a long, sentimental talk with Tenma. He decided to confess to his crimes. He said he felt like Tenma was like his father. Tenma even bought him the clock he always dreamed of having. And then Johan found him.
 * Roberto and the way he tracks his targets down. Along with tons of Fan Disservice, he's one of the scariest people in the series.
 * Nina's backstory, which quite literally drives her to the point of suicide:
 * Wim, a young boy working at a small town motel, has an alcoholic father who takes all of his earnings. He is also constantly bullied by other kids. And then, after getting beat up in the rain, and having his bicycle stolen, a kind elderly man gives him a gun.
 * Everything about Kinderheim 511.
 * Johann presenting Tenma with an ultimatum:
 * The fact that Johann is not only a but a repeat offender at that. After one notable instance, he is spotted by his sister who, unable to quite come to terms with her brother  follows his request to  They were ten at the time.
 * The extremely creepy guy ordered by Johann to make sure that Nina doesn't leave the Heidelberg Castle.
 * Martin's backstory - The creepy guy who knew Martin's entire backstory and happily explained it only makes it worse.   The shadows on his face and his wide eyes complete with that unnerving smile made it all the more freakier.
 * Johann teaching children to play a game that involves falling off of buildings. One of the rules of the game is that, if at first you don't succeed, you try again.
 * The death of the Turkish prostitute. It happens off-screen, but you get to hear her dying gasps through a bathroom pipe.
 * The bloody aftermath of Grimmer's rage.
 * This little snippet from Episode 29: Dr. Gillen is interviewing the murderer Peter Jurgens. He shows Peter a picture of Johann and Peter says that he does not know him, and then he asks him for a pen. He takes the pen and begins shading around the face of the man in the picture. He tells Dr. Gillen that on the second day of the murder, he had gone to the park; he was telling himself that he wanted to stop, and then he saw the man surrounded by children there. Peter then repeats the words "You should come too" over and over again while some ominous little tune plays and the camera does a close up on his expressionless face. He then takes the pen and plunges it into his right ear. Blood squirts out and he falls over dead.
 * The "children's books". In particular, there's one where God looked into the mirror to admire the hat somebody had given him and saw the Devil staring back. The face, and then the name of the child...

"The monster finally had a name,
 * The almost Creepy Monotone way Nina reads the book.

But all the people who could call him by that name have disappeared.

And Johan was such a wonderful name, too."

"Runge: I've never before seen a room so devoid of human presence. I am Johan Liebert. Who am I? I was here, but I don't exist. Am I a demon?"
 * Nail clippers.
 * The whole Ruhenheim arc, when
 * Johan's completely blank expression . Johan's typical, default expression isn't much better. Half-lidded eyes, faint smile and Dissonant Serenity ahoy.
 * There's also Johan's expression just after
 * Anytime Johan has an expression on his face other than Dissonant Serenity is sure to make the viewer/reader void their bowels.
 * "...Well ?" "How about a drink?" If you didn't believe Johan was one of the most evil Complete Monsters ever before, that entire scene should have sealed it for you.
 * Right before he asks him if he'd like a drink, Johan realizes that he's got him right where he wants him and makes on of the most terrifying Slasher Smiles ever put onscreen.
 * The tape recording in The Scariest Thing.  Someone somewhere screamed in horror at that scene.
 * The Cruelest Thing. Breaking a child by giving him a nihilistic speech about why he's alone.
 * Inspecter Runge goes into a room that Johan had been renting. He had just found definitive proof that Johan Liebert did exist outside of Tenma's head. He goes into the room and...his fingers don't type AT ALL! Creepier than it sounds, as just a few minutes before he mentioned that everyone who can be considered human leaves a trace behind wherever they go but he notes that there was no trace at all in Johan's room.


 * Mr. Hartmann. The way he
 * Johan Liebert is pure Nightmare Fuel in every scene he's in! There's a good reason he's considered the Complete Monster poster boy. Whether it be the way he casually murders anyone who knows anything about him, burns a library down just to see people in chaos, drives mostly sane people to suicide or murdering for him through Mind Rape, that he scares the bejesus out of otherwise hardened criminals and psychopaths, or the fact that he does ALL of this and more with an emotionless smile constantly on his face.
 * Johan screaming in terror and passing out in episode 33. The fact that such a Complete Monster who until this was calm and emotionless, completely lose it after reading a book, is very distressing.
 * During the Lunge vs Roberto fight it was rather nightmarish to see Lunge get the upper hand on Roberto by grabbing his bleeding wound through his shirt and squeezing it.
 * Another frightening thing about that scene is how Lunge ends up losing control when Roberto simply repeats things Johan told him. Johan's Mind Rape powers are so extreme he can Hannibal Lecture an emotionless Inspector Javert into a breakdown without even needing to do it himself!