Johan Liebert

Johan Liebert is a male anime and manga character who features in Monster.

Biography

Johan Liebert (Japanese: ヨハン・リーベルト, Hepburn: Yohan Rīberuto) and his twin sister, Anna, were born as the result of a eugenics experiment orchestrated by Franz Bonaparta, the primary goal of which was to create a child who had not only an exceptionally high level of intelligence and a flawless appearance, but who could also lead the human race. After Johan's mother, Viera Černá, was released from confinement, she and the twins move into the Three Frogs Building next to Čedok Bridge in Prague. Černá dresses both of her children as identical girls to make it appear as though she has a single child, rather than twins. The family leads a very quiet life, and most of their neighbors hardly take notice of them.

In 1981, Franz Bonaparta and his then-assistant Petr Čapek appear before the family to inform them that one of the twins will be taken to the Red Rose Mansion for experimentation; the other will stay at home. Bonaparta stages the situation such that Černá is the one who has to make the decision of which twin to give away. At first, she hands over Johan, but quickly changes her mind and gives up Anna instead. It is unknown whether or not she is aware which child is which. This event impacts Johan for the rest of his life, leaving him to question whether his mother was trying to protect him or had confused him for Anna. Anna and Černá are both taken away, and Johan stays at the Three Frogs by himself. Alone, he spends time reading The Nameless Monster, a picture book written and illustrated by Franz Bonaparta under the pen name Emil Scherbe. When Anna escapes from the Red Rose Mansion and returns to the Three Frogs, Johan asks her to describe the experience. Eventually, Johan confuses the information relayed by his sister for his own experiences, and comes to believe that he was the one who suffered through the events at the Red Rose Mansion.

An individual visits and informs the twins that they will have to live on their own. Johan and Anna then burn down the Three Frogs and run away, directionless with no destination in mind. Sometime later, the twins meet a middle-aged couple who give them sandwiches and contemplate taking them into their care. While playing in a field of grass in front of the couple, Johan tells Anna that he has a plan: to kill their new caretakers and subsequently wander directionless once again. On their journey, Johan and Anna in time pass out from exhaustion in the mountains by the Czech-German border. A patrol officer named Helmut Wolf rescues them from their near-death experience. He looks in Johan's bag and finds only one thing: a copy of The Nameless Monster. He decides to name the boy Johan after the monster in the book, and gives the girl the name Anna. Afterwards, he sends them to two separate orphanages: Anna to a place called Orphanage 47 and Johan to Kinderheim 511.

Overview

Personality and attributes

In appearance, Johan Libert was a handsome young man who has often been described as 'beautiful' by various people with short blonde hair that has bangs hanging on either side, blue eyes and his skin appears to be a very pale skin color.

On the surface, Johan was a well-mannered, charismatic, and compassionate yet somewhat aloof young man who possesses a myriad of favorable traits and can easily overwhelm individuals with his seemingly flawless nature, as seen with Hans Georg Schuwald, who describes him as being not of this world.[8] This meticulously crafted facade makes it easy for him to make new allies and manipulate them into doing various deeds for him through the influence of his supposed friendship and good will. With such skill in creating this sense of perfection and pureness, Johan hides his true motives with ease.

Within this contrived exterior, however, Johan callously delivers destruction and suffering to those who happen to fall prey to his schemes. Even before his tenure at Kinderheim 511, Johan still exhibits psychopathic tendencies. For example, most of his murders, both in childhood and adulthood, have been premeditated and calculated.

Johan also has a tendency to make his victims experience the worst possible loss and suffering rather than actually killing them himself; this experience often leads the victims to kill themselves, however. Helmut Wolf is a prime example of this; instead of simply being killed, Wolf is forced to watch as all of his close relatives and acquaintances die, one after another, all so he can feel what Johan felt, solitude.

Many of Johan's beliefs run consistent with nihilism, as he does not see any meaning to life. He claims, "Most of this universe is 'death' anyway," and that to the universe, "most lives are just specks in a corner of the earth, gone in a flash".

Although he was sent to the experimental orphanage of Kinderheim 511, Hartmann informs Tenma that, "[Kinderheim 511] couldn't possibly create a masterpiece like him!" Neither of his parents seemed to suffer from psychopathy or any other mental illnesses. Anna, despite being the twin to experience the horrible events at the Red Rose Mansion, turns out to be a genuinely loving and caring person. However, while she is able to suppress her memories of the Red Rose Mansion, Johan takes them as his own, coming to believe that he was the one who experienced them. After the Ruhenheim massacre, while convalescing in a state hospital from his second operation, Johan reveals to Tenma, through unknown means, his memory of his mother's decision, revealing that the memory affected him profoundly.

Powers and abilities

Johan possesses genius-level intelligence and he is capable of perfectly memorizing anything. His school teachers remark that he easily maintained perfect grades. Richard Brown also deduced that Liebert had a reputation of being at the top of his class with perfect grades at the school gymnasium. He was also prodigiously brilliant in whatever he studies and has a natural aptitude for attaining new talents; picking up complicated skills quickly and retaining them. 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. He is multilingual; in addition to the Latin he rapidly learns and masters while volunteering as one of Schuwald's readers, at twelve years of age, Johan is also able to become perfectly fluent in both English and French within a thirteen-month period.

Notes

• Johan Liebert was created by Naoki Urasawa where he featured in the setting of the Monster universe.

Appearances

• Monster:

External Links

• Monster Wiki Entry

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