Kenzo Tenma
The Japanese neurosurgeon who saved a boy instead of a mayor, then spent nine years hunting what he had saved.
Dr. Kenzo Tenma is a Japanese neurosurgeon and the protagonist of Monster. In 1986 he had a promising career at Eisler Memorial Hospital in Düsseldorf, but he disobeyed the hospital director to save the life of a young boy, Johan Liebert, instead of the mayor who arrived after him. The decision cost him his standing, and he came to regret it when Johan grew up to commit countless atrocities.
Quick Facts
- Born
- 2 January 1958, Yokohama
- Occupation
- Neurosurgeon, Eisler Memorial Hospital (Düsseldorf)
- First appears
- Episode 1, "Herr Dr. Tenma" (manga chapter 1)
- Voiced by
- Hidenobu Kiuchi (Japanese), Liam O'Brien (English)
- Later
- Cleared of all charges; Doctors without Borders
Facts from the source article.
Background
Tenma was born on 2 January 1958 in Yokohama, the third son of the director of a prestigious hospital, and came to Germany at the invitation of Director Udo Heinemann, whose daughter Eva was his fiancee. His motto is that all lives are equal. After he operated on Johan, Mayor Roedecker died, Tenma was demoted and Eva broke off the engagement; soon afterwards the director and two senior doctors were found poisoned, the twins vanished from the hospital, and Tenma, the chief suspect, was made chief of surgery.
Nine years later, in 1995, the patient Adolf Junkers was shot dead in front of him by the grown Johan, and the BKA's Inspector Lunge made Tenma the prime suspect. Tenma fled, resolved to stop Johan himself; along the way he rescued the boy Dieter from an abusive foster home and travelled with Nina Fortner, Johan's twin. He was arrested in Prague, handed to German custody and escaped. In Ruhenheim he faced Johan, and after Johan was shot he operated on him again, as he had in 1986. Cleared of all charges, he went on to work with Doctors without Borders.
Source
Text adapted from Kenzō Tenma on the Naoki Urasawa's Monster Wiki (Fandom, CC BY-SA 3.0). Page history: contributors. Codexery summarised the page, and this entry is shared under the same licence.
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