Johan Liebert

Nina Fortner (younger Twin Sister)

Franz Bonaparta (Paternal Uncle)

Jaromír Lipsky (Cousin)

“Being born really isn't that uncommon... Almost everything in this world is meant to die. In this world, a life born is nothing more than an insignificant speck, and shouldn't even be counted as an existence. Death is natural. So why live?"

## History

Johan Liebert 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.

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.

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.

From then on, the events of Monster ensue.

## Personality

On the surface, Johan is 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. 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.

## Appearance

Johan is a handsome young man who has often been described as "beautiful" (by various characters) with short blonde hair that has bangs hanging on either side, blue eyes with his complexion being strangely pale.

## 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. While investigating Johan, Richard Brown also deduces that he had a reputation of being at the top of his class with perfect grades at the gymnasium (school) he went to. Johan is 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. At the age of only fifteen, he starts and presides over an underground bank, a feat requiring perfect intuition and flawless intuitive understanding of mathematics, economics, trade, business, politics, management, and leadership. Schuwald's conclusion is further proof of Johan's vast understanding of economics: he decides that if anything is to happen to him, Johan will take over his place as opposed to Karl Neuman, his own son.

He is physically and genetically perfect, he possesses a monstrous charisma and an inhuman prowess for manipulation. He is highly proficient at analysis and deduction, especially when it comes to the human psyche, and can instantly gain direct access to people's cores, hitting their weak spots, acknowledging their worth, and figuring out their mental processes, and manipulate them easily thereafter. He possess innate understanding/knowledge of psychology. He understand how the mind works to the smallest details. Allows him to detect lies, and perform perfect cold-readings. He can use it for various purposes, often changing the perception or behavior of others through underhanded, deceptive, even abusive tactics. He could use it to help those with mental or emotional problems, but instead he use it to manipulate others into doing his bidding, even drive some to acts of murder or suicide. What he is especially good at is unlocking the "monster" in other people, bringing out their inner darkness and making them accept it like he has. He does not feel fear, guilt, regret, loneliness or pain. Johan leaves such a strong impression on people that he is able to convince legions to do whatever he wants, such as 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. He is a very eloquent speaker, orator, and story-teller, by nature he is incredibly persuasive and charming. Able to bring anyone to understand and feel for his viewpoint, even large audiences.

## Trivia

* Johan is called a monster, the next Adolf Hitler and the devil himself.
* Although he is most frequently referred to as "**Johan Liebert**", **Johan** is not his real name, but rather one of the many ones he uses over the course of his life.
* It is clear that the two Bible verses at the beginning of the series (Revelation 13:1 and 13:4) are likening Johan to the beast or the antichrist. However, Urasawa takes this similarity a step further, albeit more subtly due to not including this verse at the start; this series-opening text skips over the highly relevant Revelation 13:3 - "One of its heads seemed to have received a death-blow, but its mortal wound had been healed. In amazement, the whole earth followed the beast."