Koyomimonogatari

Owarimonogatari aired on Fall of 2015, It brought many joys to the Monogatari fans animating the last of the Monogatari installment regarding Nishio Ishin novels produced by Anime Studio SHAFT.

Our hopes dove a bit when we found out only 2 / 3 Volumes of the Owarimonogatari installment was animated during the Fall season of 2015. As a Monogatari fan I was a bit mad since as not only a fan but an objective reviewer knew that the end product wouldn't have the impact we the fans wanted on the newbies regarding the series or maybe it's more adequate to say the conclusion of the ... series.

In light of the screening of Kizumonogatari Tekketsu-hen Part 1 / 3 on Japanese cinemas the fans got a little extra. A prep-show that would massage the audience for the turmoil that's to come to us the fans for the upcoming Volume 3 of Owarimonogatari through a phone app that would air alongside the re-airing of Bakemonogatari. The remainder arcs of Owarimonogatari are the following:

-Mayoi Hell
-Hitagi Rendezvous
-Ougi Dark

So what exactly is this thing called Koyomimonogatari and what exactly does it mean to the franchise or what's to come it?

Story 10 / 10

Koyomi is a Japanese phrase for Calendar or rather it's KANJI could be read as calendar and this of course being a part of the Monogatari franchise deals with tada...Stories.

Calendar Story deals with events dealt during the year since which Araragi Koyomi had the fateful meeting with "Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade" The Hot Blooded, Iron Blooded yet Cold Blooded Vampire. The Name of the series already being a pun since it's a story about our Main Character Koyomi but it also depicts 12 stories depicted on 12 months which constitute a whole year.

We are carried since the aftermath of Spring Break all the way towards March 13th the day it left off on the last episode of "Shinobu Mail". Which is the end of volume 2 of the light novel adaptation.

The series dissect whether Araragi Koyomi meeting with oddities has somewhat normalized him to expect odd but ordinary situations to be oddity related, Most of all this based around perspective and lessons for the viewer regarding situations and train of thought.

A sort of behind the scenes of the main vein of the Monogatari Series that straighten not only the main series of maybe misunderstanding or vague assumptions but also produce a bridge to the 5th arc of the Owarimonogatari novel which has quite the complicated beginning and as of now can understand how delirious it was or is for the producers to bring forth the lasts of the Final Season Section towards the fan base.

Art 7 / 10

The art it's standard but deluded since the watching experience comes from a telephone app. Most adequate since it's a series of 12-13 minutes but quite annoying for those always expecting to be surprised.

Quite frankly I was meh...about the art since it doesn't bother me but the quality of it.

Sound 8 / 10

Given the outlet the sound wasn't as good as it would be it regular streaming sites but it was good enough. The voice actors like always had the meticulous delivery and the BGM was refreshing.

Character 10 / 10

Many aspect of the characters that we know or think we know came out to the light and widen our perception of these characters.

Enjoyment 10 / 10

I was quite pleased with this installment of "Setting things Straight" as this is what the show is about and enjoyed it to the maximum of my capabilities. If only AniplexUSA had licensed this on a better format then I wouldn't have the slightest of complains.

Overall 10 /10

This is a great set of stories which shed light to aspects of points of view, character and even human nature itself. I would say the Last Two episodes are more than crucial to any Monogatari FAN as they're bridges and the groundwork of what's to come for the Owarimonogatari Volume 3 Adaptation. Anyone who binged the series and reached this review I recommend to you the same and I really hope you love this series as I have come to enjoy it and love it.

In several of my anime reviews, I've spoken about titles that split the community, and this same principal also applies to series that span several iterations and installments. And If there was ever an anime series that immediately invoked contention among anime enthusiasts it would be that of the Monogatari franchise, with fans on one side proclaiming it as the "crème de la crème of anime" and naysayers labeling it as pseudo-intellectual fanservice-bait for plebeians. Since its anime debut in 2009, that tug-of-war relationship has shown no signs of letting up. With such bipolar opinions between parties, there seems to be only one solution to ... determine the show's worth, and that's simply to have someone who couldn't give a flying fuck either way to provide an impartial evaluation. Ladies and gentlemen, in an attempt to restore a semblance of common sense to this feud, I, a man who has mastered the sacred art of "Who cares" shall proceed to do just that by bringing equilibrium to this cacophonous mess of a "debate."

To put it simply:

-If you're searching for something with a great audiovisual presentation that properly utilizes the medium of anime to its advantage, look no further than the Monogatari lineup, as it rivals many of its competitors in terms of striking imagery and eye-candy material.
BUT
-If you want a little something extra with your audiovisual experience, like, I don't know... maybe a compelling narrative and actual character exploration, then I suggest you go check out a Masaaki Yuasa project instead.

Koyomimonogatari, like its prior installments, is yet another entry into the franchise that upholds its quirky upbeat presentation, wordy banter and all the glitz and glam expected from a Shaft/Shinbou love-child, but like its prior installments, the narrative is a meandering pile-driver of senior-citizen pacing and superfluous storylines that border on utter pointlessness. No, the Monogatari franchise isn't trash like many self-proclaimed elites would preach, but at the same time, it isn't really breaking new grounds either. It's a show that, script-wise, can barely keep its head above water, but presentation-wise, stands as a monolith that dwarfs others around it.

Diving head first into these side stories, the show wastes no time plopping us and our protagonist Ararararararagi against his first obstacle. And in typical Monogatari fashion, that obstacle is, of course, something that is accompanied by the involvement of some quirky female character. If you wanted to make a template to help describe Monogatari as a whole to an outsider, it'd go something along these lines:

Arararararargi meets a female --> He helps solve her problems --> Female has some kind of infatuation with our lead (whether rational or not) --> Bombastic visual motifs and rapid-fire dialogue occur in quick succession--> The cycle starts all over again.

Koyomimonogatari is essentially a set of side stories that can be wedged into several different moments throughout the entire franchise. They serve as placeholders of sorts, all self-contained, but still a part of the ever-expanding Monogatari-verse. Each one of these mystery episodes centers around the involvement of any given female character that has been introduced up to this point, and it is up to our protagonist Arararararargi to solve yet again whatever issue they're having. Take the template I just gave, but applied on a micro scale, and you've pretty much got the plot of any given scenario. Of course there were a few episodes that serve as exceptions to this rule, but for the most part, it consisted of this formula. The biggest difference is that Arararararargi often seeks the advice of other females in the story, this time, around to help piece together the mystery that he can't quite figure out himself. These cases can range from trivial to something that directly ties into bigger events to come (as seen by the franchise's other installments).
There is also a continuing storyline established in the last three episodes. While still self-contained in standing with the rest of the series, it's an overarching story for these specials as its own entity. Another thing to take note of is that these episodes aren't of feature length time for typical anime episodes (20-24 minutes), but are condensed down to 10 minute run times, with exclusion of the opening and ending themes.

The mood of each episode also changed with the female whom it was centered around. For Ougi Oshino, things had this morbid sense of dread hanging over everything, while Tsukihi Araragi's story gave off a more bubblegum mood. It was a minor touch, but one worth noting, as it did much in spicing up the feeling and tone of each new story. Even the color choices placed throughout were adjusted accordingly, with the personality commonly associated with the character. For Yotsugi Ononoki, her surroundings were mostly washed out and devoid of color to reflect her doll-like personality, while characters like Shinobu Oshino had sparse uses of yellow tossed in to represent her intermittent bursts of child-like innocence better. These touches showed an eye for detail on the staff behind these specials, which made them feel like they were done by people who care about the project rather than a team producing material of an established brand for profit. Of course, these techniques were carried over from the main series, but applying them here shows that they cared about these shorts as much as anything found in the main story up to this point.

Another thing worth noting was that the opening songs would change in accordance with whichever female character the episode was focusing on. These were songs used throughout the prior seasons for their individual story arc and, like the minor details found with the color choices, this too helped in setting the tone for whomever the female in question was for that episode. Every episode was crafted to be in service of the subject matter at hand, which when compared to the conventional method of creating episodes, could be seen as a liberal act for the betterment of creative freedom on the staff's behalf.

If you're reading this review then you're already familiar with the characters of this universe; nothing really changes. It's still the mischievous and slightly perverted Arararararargi being surrounded by a bevy of zany females. And while the main series seems to be zigzagging with its plot constantly, the benefit of this mostly episodic format made these specials far more palatable and easier to follow.

Enjoyment: 5/10

I often found myself spacing out and rewatching several scenes of this show. The content itself is fine, but it contains stories and characters I honestly don't care about. This was made for the fans, not me, so it's really unfair to evaluate it for doing its job. This wasn't made with everyone in mind; this is a niche project that knew who its target audience was. So while I might not find much here to enjoy, there will be those who eat this up, simple as that.

Overall: 6/10

These specials are without question self-indulgent excuses to revisit the world of Arararararargi and friends. Is that necessarily a bad thing? No, not really. As it stands, it doesn't hinder the integrity of the franchise as a whole and serves as a decent enough deviation from the main story for fans to partake in. It's just as eccentric and warped as anything offered in the shows prior and did a commendable job maintaining the same level of quality found in a typical episode of Monogatari. This was made for the die-hard fans of this franchise, and with that said, if you've been apathetic or just detested the series up to this point, then don't waste your time here. However, if you're an avid follower of this ongoing series and for some reason hasn't viewed this installment yet, I highly suggest you check it out soon.

Something I never talked about regarding this franchise is the wordplay in the titles, as the first two combine the last syllable of a word with the first one of monogatari. It’s lost in the translation, but the original names of Monsterstory and Imposterstory are cool because of that. Then later entries lost that because the connection of syllables just wasn’t there anymore. Koyomimonogatari doesn’t reach that level either, but at least it has a double meaning of Calendar Story, because it happens across many months, while it also means the story of Koyomi, as he is the main character of every episode.

Besides that, ... I suspected even before I watched it that it would be the one to get the lowest rating out of me, since even the fanbase agrees it’s the worst entry in the franchise and don’t defend it much.

The show is usually referred as filler or a type of series of specials, more than an actual season, and that’s exactly what it feels like. It’s just about Koyomi and one girl per episode pondering about a silly mystery that might or not be related to an aberration, and as most episodes prove at the end, they aren’t. Heck, even the duration is just about half of a normal one, and even less when you consider that most have an opening and ending. So, if an episode it’s between twelve and fourteen minutes long, it’s actually about nine to eleven minutes long.

So basically, it’s just a cashgrab of an entry that shouldn’t even exist, but even just saying that doesn’t cover how bad it is. Although every season before had a lot of meandering and dead time, it was never done to this degree. Here’s a rock, let’s talk about it for twelve minutes about if it is or not supernatural, only for the resolution to be completely stupid. There are some flowers there, let’s ask ourselves if they are for a ghost or not, only for the reason to be something completely different.

Some other stories are even sillier. Kanbaru’s father looks wrong at water. Shinobu, the once most powerful supernatural entity ever, wants to eat donuts. Let’s spend a whole episode just with that.

Some episodes even go against the concept because they are not even about whether something is supernatural or not, like the Shinobu one, or the Tsukihi one, since she is convinced beforehand that her problem is not related to a ghost.

Some other even contradict the canon since, despite the show attempting to connect every story with a specific point in-series, Araragi talks with Kaiki before they actually met, and Nadeko goes to his room when she already was becoming one with the snake. Those things don’t add up.

You can’t even call this series a proper mystery, since the answers are given out of the blue through lateral thinking without any proper hint or anticipation. It’s not slice of life either, because the things that happen to the characters are initially thought of as out of the ordinary.

Maybe it’s supposed to be comedy? Well, I may not be the proper audience since I rarely laugh when watching anime, but this series didn’t even get a smile out of me, I bet I get more laughs out of Monogatari fans that dislike my reviews than this series ever got from me.

Even in terms of visuals and audio the entry just feels uninspired, because the artwork goes back to Bakemonogatari levels of polish and the motions, directing and special effects are far more common than they were in ALL the previous seasons. At the same time, since the actions of the characters are far more mundane, there aren’t nearly as much nor as good sound effects, and every piece of soundtrack and every opening is straight up reused from the shows before it. At least the intro on Shinobu’s episode is great. There’s a new ending I think but it’s nothing special, even among the not special outros of this franchise. Don’t get me wrong, both aspects are still above average but nothing compared to what was shown so far.

The only few positives I found in it is how it keeps building up the actions of Ougi, and it shows Ononoki keeping an eye on Araragi at some point around Second Season, I guess based on both her own will and Kagenui or Gaen’s orders, to ensure that events from a certain arc happen the way they did.

The last two episodes are the only ones that can be said that progress the plot, and even then the second to last barely does it and is not very serious, while the last one is the best but goes for a shocker of an ending, which doesn’t work because Hanamonogatari already showed that everyone is fine, thus it ruins the outcome that Koyomimonogatari goes for.

The best thing that I can say about this series is that is not as bad nor cheaply made as other Specials type of extra entries of other series, but if I have to go to THAT level to say something nice about an anime, then it’s seriously fucked.