Guillermo del Toro developing an adaptation of Urasawa Naoki's Monster for HBO

With the assumption that they won't fuck this up, this has to be the best news I've heard in a while. Monster by Urasawa Naoki is simply an amazing story. I've read the manga and watched the anime, both have become one of my favorites for both mediums, and I really can't express how excited I am if this comes to fruition.

According to Deadline Hollywood, Guillermo del Toro and HBO are "teaming on Monster, developing a potential series culled from a series of 18 volumes of Japanese Manga by author Naoki Urasawa published by Shogakukan Inc. Del Toro will co-write the story with Steven Thompson, best known for his work on Dr. Who and Sherlock." That's excellent news, a very good team to get the ball rolling as I'm a big fan of Sherlock too, and even though I haven't watched Dr. Who, I don't need to explain the importance of the series around these circles.

Urasawa Naoki has been for some time my favorite mangaka. He has a real talent for writing and drawing characters and telling carefully crafted compelling stories. He has a talent to make even the most minor of characters an interesting one. Not only interesting, but even important to the story. He has an amazing ability to show us the ugliness and the beauty of what it means to be human, and all his characters serve this very purpose. Urasawa will give you an engaging story, with good drama, awesome memorable characters, great character interaction, a good mystery, a good amount of tension, and stories that have meaning. I hope this happens, and if it's successful, that it opens the door to other of Urusawa's stories like 20th Century Boys or Pluto.

Monster is simply amazing and be ready to meet one of the best antagonists I've ever encountered. Even if this project doesn't become a reality, I exhort everyone to either read the manga or watch the anime, doesn't matter which as the anime was a very loyal adaptation. You will not be disappointed.

Kenzou Tenma, a Japanese brain surgeon in Germany, had it all: incredible skill at his work, a rich and beautiful fiancee, and a promising career at his hospital. However, after becoming disenchanted by hospital politics, he chose to save the life of a young boy who got shot in the head over the life of the mayor. As a result he lost the support of the hospital director, as well as his position in the hospital and his fiance. A short time later, the hospital director and the doctors that replaced him were murdered, and once again he was catapulted back onto the top. But as the chief suspect of the murders, Tenma did not get a easy life. As a matter of fact, it seems that the boy he saved was much more than he had appeared to be... Now to clear his name and to correct his past mistake, Tenma must get to the bottom of these and other murders, and investigate the truth of the Monster who is behind all of this.

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