Bakemonogatari

"To be blunt, I just enjoy talking to you... so I want to talk with you more."
"If our opinions clash, let's talk it over." (Dialogue from episode 5)

'Bakemonogatari', cleverly translated as 'Ghostory' or 'Monstory', is about five not-so-normal girls that Araragi Koyomi, a vampire himself, encounters and attempt to save from oddities possessing them.


CHARACTER:
The main characters of 'Bakemonogatari' are among the most unique and complex I have yet to encounter.
Heroine Senjougahara Hitagi is a tsundere like half of all modern heroines in anime, but she is also 「ドS」, a sadist to an extreme degree, which is more common for side characters and rare for heroines. ... Our protagonist, as expected, is rather on the masochist side who takes constant verbal abuse from Senjougahara.

What makes the couple extraordinary, is that Senjougahara is often boke while Araragi is tsukkomi. Traditional Japanese stand-up comedy consists of a duo: One takes the "boke" role who says something stupid while the "tsukommi" role points out the flaws in boke's argument, often with a violent slap in the head.

Yes, that's right. Boke is masochist by nature and often not very intelligent, while tsukommi is sadist by nature and often more observant.
The leading couple in this series, on the other hand, take turns with the roles. It is particularly interesting when the sadist and intelligent Senjougahara purposefully take on the boke role and overwhelms tsukkomi. Such as making insulting statements that sound flawed, but when Araragi tries to make a comeback, he realizes what she said was true. Or Senjougahara makes a blatantly flawed statement just to hurt Araragi, and his comeback fall into deaf ears. And of course, plenty of intentional boke or tease spoken with so much authority that Araragi just gives up and let it slide.

The unlikely toggling of comedy roles were delivered extremely well, and this back and forth interaction between the leading couple is a key part of this show's appeal.

The remaining four main characters are not as complex as the leading couple, but they all have their own unique issues that drive the story,each with distinct personalities that made them memorable.
There are 6 main characters in this series, and total of only 5 side/peripheral characters (Meme, Shinobu, two sisters, and Senjougahara's father) in the whole series. The limited character headcount made thorough character development possible despite being an arc-based series.


STORY:
Simply put, half the show is about the romantic relationship between the Senjougahara and Araragi.
The other half is about a constant argument between two values: The rational vs the idealistic, with Araragi as Mr. Nice Guy seeking happy end for everyone. Solution of supernatural oddities as the topic of the argument.

Hachikuji, Kanbaru, and Hanekawa's arcs developed the relationship of leading couple while offering new topics to the story.
The only flaw in the story in my opinion, is that Sengoku's arc was pretty much by itself, and contributed very little to the whole series other than loli and moe fan service.
Each arc is an incident focusing on a different girl, but all the arcs combine to show a whole picture of Araragi and Senjougahara closing their personal distances.

"Bakemonogatari" is essentially a verbal performance with visual support. Story is driven by back and forth debate on various issues.


SOUND:
With verbal performance playing such a big role in this show, voice acting is taken to a whole new level in this series.
Every characters' voices fit perfectly, and not only that, distinct tones and nuance of speech establish unique impressions for every single character. The characters speak so fast in this series with lots of tongue twisters, but the seiyuu cast had done a wonderful job in keeping up. I don't think it's an exaggeration to describe voice acting in this series as epic.

Music score in 'Bakemonogatari' has a generally consistent ambient feel to it with a nice flow. Other than intense music for action scenes, they don't particularly set the mood or enhance drama as what I usually consider to be strong BGM for anime, but the usually upbeat sounds in the background set the quick pace for dialogue, and make conversations all the more engaging.

OP song "Staple Stable" is one of the best anime opening theme song by a seiyuu, ever. Really memorable tune accompanied by great vocal and lyric by meg rock was simply amazing.
The other four OPs sang by seiyuu of each arc heroines were nowhere as impressive as "Staple Stable", but offers refreshment value to the OPs, and fits each character perfectly.
ED song's lyric made little sense at first, but its meaning was unveiled in a conversation between the leading couple in a certain episode, and it turned out to very suitable for the series. The two Senjougahara theme songs (OP1, ED) were masterpieces.


ART:
Animation in 'Bakemonogatari' mainly serve as a visual aid to the verbal performance, and it proved to be very effective.

Visuals for the anime got somewhat of an "art house film" treatment. There were many abstract and surreal scenes, unconventional cuts, and intriguing camera angles that made the viewing experience very pleasant. It's the perfected form of SHAFT's signature style.
Character designs were attractive, and main characters had visually shown a wide range of emotion that further portrays the character's state of mind.

The only complaint I have with the animation is the use of photographs/videos of real-life imagery. At the risk of sounding like a super-otaku, I would say 3D images do not belong in the world of 2D.


ENJOYMENT:
As a fansubber and having seen thousands of hours of fan/professionally translated works, I can tell you that at least 10% of the meaning is lost in translation, no matter how well translated. In conversation/narration driven series filled with wordplay and metaphors, at least 20% of the meaning, therefore enjoyability, will inevitably be lost to non-Japanese speakers.
Still, 'Bakemonogatari' is a true masterpiece with experimental production that actually worked. Attention was paid to the tiniest details, and a story well-told. Truly amazing direction by Shinbou Akiyuki left us with so many memorable scenes, and this will definitely be a series to be remembered.

The 8-month wait for the final three episodes were excruciating, but the ending was so satisfying that it almost made it worth the absurd wait. Given the commercial success 'Bakemonogatari' has achieved, I will be hoping for the remaining novels in the series to be animated. Possibly 'Kizumonogatari' OVA/film and 'Nisemonogatari' as a sequel season.


To be blunt, I just enjoyed listening to them... so I want to listen to them more.

THIS REVIEW IS FOR ALL SEASONS, AS SUCH, IT CONTAINS SPOILERS

Monogatari takes place in a city populated by about 20 people, cardboard cutouts, and kanji characters, and follows the story of Koyomi Araragi as he meets girls who have supernatural oddity-related issues in their lives and tries to help them.

I am not a fan of the Monogatari anime, but I will get into why later in this review.

The characters are all pretty much what you'd expect from a harem anime. There's the selfless main character, the Tsundere girlfriend, the shy Moe girl who turns out to actually be psycho and manipulative, the smart girl who ... wears glasses (for a brief time anyway), the little sister(s), the athletic girl, the lesbian, etc.

However, most of them are written with more nuance than what you'd expect, as in, they get backstories, but on a basic level, I don't feel like it's any deeper than the character backstories from any other anime. But they do have a bit more depth than what you'd expect from a harem show, meaning they are not in a round-the-clock quest for the main character's dick. I'm not a fan of the characters (except for Kaiki Deishuu and maybe Meme Oshino), and don't think they're very noteworthy, but I do give the writer credit for that.

The dialogue is also the same as what you'd expect from an anime. Talking about motivations, delivering exposition, and bantering whenever there's nothing going on. The difference is that most the show is just that, talking, with nothing else going on. However, I don't have that much of a problem with that aspect and some of the dialogue is occasionally funny. Nevertheless, even then, the dialogue often tends to go in circles and isn't strong enough to carry the whole show in my opinion, but more on that later.

When it comes to the story, however, a lot of the story arcs start out with potential, but then they end up focusing more on the dialogue rather than doing something interesting with the premise, and then end unmemorably.
In my opinion, the biggest example of this is in Monogatari Second Season's Mayoi Jiangshi arc. In that arc, Koyomi time travels and prevents something from occurring in the show's backstory. Because of this change he made, a character was unable to help him during the events of a previous story arc in this alternate timeline, which leads to the extinction of humanity via a vampire zombie invasion. I was genuinely pleasantly surprised at the premise of this story arc because it gave new meaning and importance to previous arcs and character interactions. But guess how the story arc plays out. Lots of talking, of course.

Surprisingly enough, despite the first scene of this show being a 15-20 second-long panty shot, there isn't actually all that much fanservice. However, when there is, it's rather unappealing.

Two running gags with Koyomi include going out and molesting Mayoi, who is 11, and planning on tricking his little sisters into being molested by him, and he suffers no real comeuppance for it. I'd say it's refreshing to have a subversion as a change of pace from the typical harem humor where the main character does something perverted by accident and gets beaten up for it, but I don't think child molestation or incest are funny.

That's not to mention the rape snake from the Nadeko Snake arc, and two extended scenes from Nisemonogatari, in which Shinobu, who is over 400 years old but is physically 8, bathes with Koyomi, as well as the infamous scene where he brushes his little sister's teeth and it looks like they're having oral. I have read an essay analyzing the fanservice in Nise, of all things, and apparently it's supposed to represent teenage sexuality, or how the girls want to be seen by Koyomi. Okay, but that doesn't mean that I have to feel it's worth waxing philosophical about this aspect. Might as well apply that same logic to every ecchi harem out there.

The biggest problem I have with Monogatari, however, isn't intrinsic to the series in general, since I've read some of the light novels and think they're okay, despite having these flaws.

The animation looks nice and clean (despite the obvious low budget resulting in all these still frames), however, it is also its biggest flaw (besides the fanservice).

Shaft has been using the same visuals for every Shinbo-directed show for several years (10-11 years as of the time of this review), but I feel that when making Monogatari, they rely on their visuals too much.

A lot of the time, during the dialogue scenes in Monogatari, they keep cutting to Dadaist visuals, text screens, weird camera angles, and extreme closeups, which wouldn't be a problem, except that they focus on them for so long and so often, that it detracts from the experience. They go too overboard with those and fail to build up a good momentum for the pacing.

I don't judge a show based on the animation, as long as I'm interested in the story and the characters, but this is one case where I have the opinion that it detracts from everything else. In this case, I feel like the animation department is too busy showing off what I already know that they can do while not advancing the story in a significant measure in each episode with little pay-off, and that aspect is what I actually care about in a show. I've already seen this exact same type of animation in multiple other Shaft shows previously, so it doesn't do anything for me anymore, I'm not going to give it extra points.

Imagine if someone made an adaptation of a book, and instead of adapting the events of the book in a visual format, the adaptation entirely consisted of watching some guy sitting there, reading the book out loud. That's what watching Monogatari feels like.

In conclusion, I think that the Monogatari light novels are okay despite their flaws, but that Shaft's direction makes the anime boring to watch, and that I would have likely enjoyed the show more if it was made by another studio, or if Shaft hadn't gone so overboard with the animation to the extent that it detracts from everything else. The only reason I continue to watch it is just because I'm waiting for the moment where it finally lives up to its potential.

Monogatari is a love-it-or-hate-it show, watch it if you want, maybe you'll like it, but if you end up not liking it, I recommend watching Monster or Mushishi as preferable alternatives.

For every medium, there are few masterpieces that transcend the genre and become something special. Since I consider anime, as a genre, to be just as legitimate an art form (despite the bad rep it often gets), I will also review Bakemonogatari as a work of art, and it is irrefutably one of the special few anime series that fully capitalize on the strengths of the anime medium.

STORY
People have complained that the story is too episodic, too disjointed. However, the virtue of Bakemonogatari's storyline is that it is so minimal. In all senses, this anime is a character-based experimental, and an elaborate ... storyline would actually detract from that experience. There are plenty of anime out there that thrive on plot twists and progression that keep the viewer on their seats, but Bakemonogatari isn't one. The episodic storyline is a brilliant framing device for character development and nothing more, which works out perfectly for this particular anime.

ART
As usual Studio SHAFT splurged on art. This is definitely a series to be enjoyed in high-definition, preferably with the room lights turned off. Anime, by definition, is a genre segregated from realism. The beauty of anime as a medium is that every cut is animated, so that the blemishes, imperfections, and limitations of reality can be omitted in favor of stylized, beautified perfection. Anime art style that attempts to be too realistic are bound to lose that edge and, naturally, pale in comparison to live-action works featuring comparable visuals. Anime that go all in on stylizing can often seem distracting and too detached from reality. With all of that in consideration, Bakemonogatari is one of the few shining masterpieces of the anime genre that hits the sweet spot. Everything in this anime is crisp and beautiful, from the characters to the slightest scenery detail. What would have seemed tacky when drawn are boldly stylized and symbolized, rather than allowed to compromise the atmosphere. For example, people have complained about the cuts to photographs and abstract diagrams that pop up frequently. But imagine if all of those were actually animated; it would have been clunky and distracting from the dialog. For example, Senjougahara's mother isn't a character in this anime, therefore having an designed, animated character to her credit would distract from the very small and tight cast. I don't know how much budget went into this production, but they sure splurged where it was needed (characters, scenery-porn sequences, pivotal action sequences) and were decisive in radically minimizing what would have been superfluous.

SOUND
There is quite a rave about Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari and Staple Stable, and they are indeed catchy and appropriate opening/ending. Much more underrated are the mundane, ambient sound design of this anime. Just as Bakemonogatari should ideally be viewed in high-quality settings, so it should be heard with at least "nice" audio. Perhaps I had the fortune/misfortune of being an impeccable audiophile and watched the series with headphones that cost me half a fortune, but everyone should at least watch Bakemonogatari with real speakers or decent headphones. This is a series that can only be fully appreciated when the viewer is immersed in it, and laptop speakers simply won't do.
Having said all of that, the non-intrusive BGM and ambient sounds do a perfect job of accentuating the dialog/situation without, again, distracting from what is really important. Perhaps the best example is in the TV finale, where the BGM swells and fades without the viewers really noticing because they are so perfectly integrated with the ebb and flow of verbal/situational push and pull between the two leads.
The voice acting, without even the need to elaborate, are top-mark. The seiyuu for Koyomi is appropriately serious, jocular, and reflective. I especially enjoyed the sequences and inserts in which Koyomi is thinking selfish/perverted/silly thoughts. Excellent sound designing makes it sound like Koyomi's voice is really ringing inside my head, adding to the effect and how identifiable his character is. Voice acting for Senjougahara seemed a bit too fragile and breathy at first, but it was revealed to be not the fault of the seiyuu, but part of character development, but more on that will border on spoiling. Let me just add that voice acting for both leads hit the sweet spot at least by the TV finale.

CHARACTER
All of the other elements, story, art, and sound, up to now were accompaniments to the brilliant characters of Bakemonogatari. If those elements had their virtue in garnishing the backgrounds of this anime, the characters' virtue lie in their shocking assertiveness and charisma.

Koyomi - Of all anime leads I've seen, he is one of the few truly-believable leads that are likeable. He is objectively decent-looking and decently dressed, not, as are many a blue-haired shounen characters, outrageously flamboyant. He is not an outspoken paragon of bravery and power. He is even a bit of a sociopath. However, the subtle inner stability he shows makes him stronger than Goku or Lelouch in my opinion. He isn't a social butterfly, but he would never seriously harm another person. Though he is a bit of a pervert, just like the rest of us, the viewers can't picture him ever being disloyal to his romantic partner. Koyomi's inner strength and stability are what keeps this series from becoming a typical harem anime, and such qualities of his character are what makes the viewer so strongly and ineffably identify with him.

Senjougahara - First of all, her name is awesome, just phonetically. I read that it means something like "battlefield" in Japanese, but it sounds so feminine and appropriate to her character. With that aside, if Koyomi is the steady, dependable drummer keeping beat to the Bakemonogatari band, Senjougahara is the lead vocalist that captures and enthralls the viewer. Anime is, more than anything, a visual art, so it is of course important that her every frame is perfected and beautified with adoration. Not only is she one of the most flawlessly beautiful female characters in anime, the way she poses and moves is also idealized. Imagine a girl who never does anything unsightly: never makes an unflattering face, is never without makeup (or always looks perfect without one), never goes to the bathroom, you get the idea, and that would be Senjougahara. Again, the creators of Bakemonogatari really cashed in on this aspect of anime to create a visually flawless female lead. Utter perfection, however, isn't always likeable, as none of us are perfect. Senjougahara, therefore, needs some profound flaw in order to offset her physical perfection, and that's when her character development comes into play. I won't say much more on that for fear of spoiling, but she exists not as a perfect, standalone being, but someone who absolutely depends on Koyomi to complete her. That's why their interactions work, even though they should logically have zero reason to even know each other. Senjougahara is the modern Yamato Nadeshiko, though the usage of that term to describe her may be controversial. The numerous attempts to categorize her as a tsundere/kuudere/yandere/whaeverdere have all failed because her character is grounded not on a trope, but a real-life ideal of feminine beauty. She is the culmination, or rather, an amalgamation, of decades of anime heroines that captured the viewers, male and female alike. Senjougahara and Koyomi have such subtle and inexplicable chemistry because they are both subtle, ultimately mysterious characters.

ENJOYMENT
This is the one category where I admit that the 10/10 is highly subjective. Objectively, Bakemonogatari is a top-quality art form, and I firmly believe that high-profile artists, filmmakers, etc. would appreciate that Bakemonogatari is the epitome of modern anime counterculture (Suzumiya Haruhi being the mainstream crystallization of modern anime). However, you have to be looking for the right thing to enjoy this anime. If the anime you typically enjoy are Naruto, TTGL, etc. (not that they aren't fantastic either), Bakemonogatari is perhaps not for you. This series is really for people who have watched a lot of anime, perhaps even an otaku, and were drawn to the more sophisticated, post-modern aspect of the genre as a whole. It is, in a way, analogous to how Mozart is universally loved (for a good reason!), while composers like Hindemith appeal strongly to those who have developed a taste in classical music. I personally pick this series as the number one anime of all time (along with NGE) because it had all I was looking for: deep, subtle characters, platonic romance, somewhat surreal atmosphere, idealization only possible in anime, wit, and that pinch of sociopathy shown in each character, as are present in every human being. There isn't one thing about this anime that is the "hook" (though, if I had to pick one, I'd go with SENJOUGAHARA FASCINATION). Rather, every aspect of it plays its role perfectly to create a gestalt whole. Oh, and by the way, if you're like me and are desperately looking for non-moe, non-loli (getting harder and harder to find) anime made in 21st century, welcome to Bakemonogatari. This series is for mature viewers looking for a subtle, yet decisively anime experience.

Overall, if you think yourself the discriminating, intellectual beta-component of modern society (who also happens to watch anime), you will love this series. It's a love or hate type of anime, in my opinion, and if you are the type of person this show caters to, you will come to thoroughly appreciate every aspect of the show, besides just Senjougahara. If you're not, that doesn't mean you're not as cultured or some nonsense; just need to find your anime masterpiece, as I found Bakemonogatari.

"Did you know every time you sigh, a little bit of happiness escapes?" - Senjougahara Hitagi, Episode 6

Well, you won't be sighing anywhere in this anime.

Bakemonogatari from the start can give the wrong impression to the viewer. They must be wondering, "Why is this rated so high, if it all it is, is just random words popping up on the screen?" However, it is a really good anime in its own weird way, and you're probably going to have to appreciate it that way as well.

Character: Usually, I'd start my review with the main part (story), but I believe the most important part of Bakemonogatari ... is its character development. You have Koyomi Araragi, who interacts with 5 different girls throughout the story; the tsundere Senjougahara Hitagi, the cute and small Mayoi Hachikuji, the tomboy Kanbaru Suruga, the other cute loli Sengoku Nadeko, and the Queen of Fanservice Hanekawa Tsubasa. Oh yeah, I almost forgot Oshino Shinobu. Each interaction and arc is unique. From funny wordplay, to stapling someone in the mouth, the character development is what makes this series a really entertaining one. If Bakemonogatari didn't have a storyline at all (which it does), it would still be entertaining to watch.
Rating: 10

Story: The first episode actually starts off with flashing scenes from Kizumonogatari, the prequel of Bakemonogatari. You have Koyomi Araragi, who was recently bit by a vampire. In the beginning of the story, he meets Senjougahara by catching her fall. Was that the right decision to make? Araragi himself says; "Not ignoring her was the right decision... I think" (Episode 1). She then tells him (in fact, forces him, by stapling the side of his mouth) to be quiet about her "incurable disease", but Koyomi insists on helping. He gets his friend who had helped him recover from the vampire attack; Oshino Meme. He specializes in supernatural problems to help not only her, but everyone else throughout the story. The series overall isn't a story-focused one. It's more focused on the character interactions. The interaction between Senjougahara and Araragi are always entertaining to watch.
Senjougahara: *to Araragi* "I'm suprised you know such useless things. This is the first time since birth that I've admired you."
Story: 9

Sound: The voices sound really nice, and the voice cast has a lot of popular names. The dialogue plays an important role is this anime, and is done really well, especially with its jokes. The OPs are really catchy (notable mention to Senjougahara's "Staple Stable" and Nadeko's "Ren'ai Circulation") and the ED (supercell - Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari) is just great.
Sound: 9

Art: The art is somewhat similar to SHAFT's other work (as expected). It's almost like a mix of Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei and Arakawa Under the Bridge, but everything is crisp and clear nonetheless. Another element that plays a huge role in Bakemonogatari is the flashing text and small detail that happens almost too frequently each episode. I think it is done well, and sets a mood for the episode. You don't have to stop and read everything, but the flashing words do provide some info and foreshadowing.
Art: 10

Enjoyment: Bakemonogatari has a lot of entertainment value, and all the elements combined make it a really good supernatural-romance-comedy. Each arc is enjoyable, and has a good amount of fan service for those who enjoy it. The romance was also done very well, which leaves the view with a warm feeling at the end. It took some time to get used to the weird flashing words in the beginning, but once you get used to it, you'll be in for an entertaining ride.

Overall Rating: 10

**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**

You don’t have to be a member of the anime community for long to know that the Monogatari series is very, very highly praised. Inevitably, I gave into the hype and tried it out for myself. The result? Well… I walked away entertained, but FAR from impressed. Yes the characters are amusing, yes the dialogue is witty, and yes the visuals are beautiful, but make no mistake: Bakemonogatari is just a harem. It exists only for comedic gags and fanservice. The characters are shallow and have little to offer beyond their archetypes and their dialogue, not to mention that the “plot” is loose ... and unimpressive to say the least. I guess I have very mixed feelings about this anime; I’m happy I watched it, but the people hailing it as a masterpiece need to check themselves.

Synopsis: Koyomi Araragi, our harem lead, gets himself involved with all sorts of supernatural stuff, including vampires, spirits, myths, ghosts, and other apparitions. Being the overly selfless, and unreasonably nice harem lead that he is, Araragi meets a series of girls, each of which with their own problems. He finds a way to solve those problems, thus making essentially all of those girls fall in love with him until he has his very own harem.

Now, you’ve probably heard that sort of plot premise many times before, and that’s because there is nothing unique about this show’s plot what so ever. Even the supernatural thing has been done before. It’s quite simply a show about a boy helping girls with their problems one by one, a-la every visual novel ever made (even though this show is not based on a VN). There really isn’t much to say about it except one thing: Holy shit is there dialogue. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing; lots of my favorite anime are considered dialogue heavy, but Bakemongatari is essentially “Dialogue: The Animation”. Granted, it's usually very witty and well-written dialogue, but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't lose interest on more than one occasion. I really enjoyed the action scenes because of how incredibly animated they are, but they were few and far between to say the least. You can count them on one hand. In short, this plot is just a bare-minimum narrative framework for the show to conduct comedic gags and show tons of fanservice all the while attempting to incorporate every otaku fetish ever conceived. Needless to say, the plot is NOT the reason to watch this show…

The real selling point for Bakemonogatari is the characters: They are praised to no end for their likeability and depth. The former I can get on board with. The latter, however, I must wholeheartedly refute. The cast of characters is simply shallow, and I don’t think that’s debatable (I’ve been told they receive more depth in later seasons, but for now, they are shallow). Senjogahara, everybody’s obligatory “best girl”, may be amusing with her witty remarks and constant insults, we never get to know who she really is as a person. The romance between her and Araragi has its moments, but it comes across as unrealistic and misguided more often than not. Araragi claims to love Senjogahara but... does he? It doesn't seem like it at all. She constantly berates him, constantly puts him in uncomfortable situations, and is clearly mentally unstable. Senjogahara’s love feels very unreciprocated, making it quite difficult to empathize with their relationship. Speaking of that love, the show also doesn’t bother to flesh out why Senjogahara loves Araragi in the first place. As the anime itself manages to point out, it seems like she's just a mentally unstable, lonely girl who would fall in love with anyone who showed her the slightest bit of kindness a-la Yuno Gasai. That person just so happened to be Araragi, making the entire relationship based upon coincidence rather than legitimate connection on a psychological and/or spiritual level. The question is simply this: Is the show making fun of these tropes, or merely utilizing them? Who knows, but in the end, it doesn't really seem to matter since nothing profound is ever actually discusses and no commentary is ever made. For that reason, I just can't get into them as a couple; I don't like the confusing and round-a-bout way that it was handled. The other characters don't receive any remarkable depth either. They come and go at random intervals in between episodes; uncomfortably blurring the line between minor and major character. Our protagonist, Araragi is the prototypical overly generous and generic harem lead, with the exception of his tendency to create situations with unfathomably sexual undertones (even more so than an average harem). Don't get me wrong, the characters are witty and entertaining; they had me laughing multiple times, but there is an obvious problem with depth. They are funny, but shallow and archetypical.

I would be doing the show a disservice if I didn’t mention the beautiful animation, which was easily the best part of the entire anime. Bakemonogatari’s beautiful, experimental art style and orgasmic uses of shot composition and lighting are the real reason you should watch this show. Any fan of animation owes it to themselves to bask in the glory of this genius art direction. There are a FEW shots that don’t really work, but as a whole, stupendous animation. The music was good as a tone setter, but a tad underwhelming as a whole with the exception of a single track: The ED; AKA my new favorite anime ED of all time. My god is it increadible.

In conclusion, Bakemonogatari consists entirely of witty humor and fanservice in a beautifully animated and surreal setting. It has lovable characters and great dialogue, but it seriously lacks depth and originality in the departments of plot and characters. The plot isn’t memorable at all, and if the characters are memorable, it’s for their humor and boobs rather than their motivations and complexity. While I totally understand why fans of harems consider this to be the pinnacle of anime, it’s quite clear that Bakemonogatari is not worthy of that title. I think the show is worth watching, but don’t let the ridiculous hype surrounding the series ruin it for you. Remember: At its core, this is just a harem.

This anime seemed to have a lot of mysteries in it, but the biggest mystery it presented to me was why I took such a violent dislike to it even though it has been favorably discussed by intelligent viewers. I stopped watching it early on, out of simple irritation. To me it was marching straight down that wrong road we are warned against in the aphorism, "Don't gild the lily."

It's episode number 2, and an interesting "exposition" conversation is taking place between the anime's Girl Number 1 and the hero. It presents a considerable subsidiary mystery--why is this girl acting in this unusual and ... unpleasant way? This viewer would have liked to watch the interchange closely to try to find that out. But I couldn't! Or at least I couldn't do so with full real comprehension, because it was just here that the director intensified his already-established habit of complexifying everything on the screen beyond reason.

This scene is taking place in some kind of loft-like living space within an industrial building. Beams and pillars cross and recross the whole field of view of the "camera", which is set at a middle distance from the action. In addition, when the camera moves, it is often to new points of view that are also well-removed from the action--and every one of the resulting fields of view is also seriously obscured by more architectural elements. In this long scene there are times when the camera does get closer to the "actors", and there are even a few--very few--closeup shots of the players' faces, but when those shots arrive they are usually jump-cuts--a quick close-up of the face in question then away. The overall experience of dealing with this as a viewer is similar to trying to interact with someone you've never met before in a dark room where the only light constantly goes off and on at irregular intervals.

All of this ladles on lots of mystery. FINE. The director's primary job at the beginning of a show is to suck us into the story--that is, to make us at least begin to make the story imaginatively ours. One way to do that is to mystify us at the outset, but this can be overdone! When the basic premise of the show, given in the first episode, is already a very large mystery, do we really need in the next scene to be presented with constant subsidiary visual mysteries? The other usual way to "suck us in" is to make us at least begin to identify with the protagonist. That's pretty hard to achieve here, where, in their very first substantial conversation, both the protagonist and his antagonist have been distanced from us both by too much shooting of their conversation with long shots and by constant visual clutter that has nothing to do with the story.

But I bet lots of you liked it all. And my best guess as to why lots of you do, and I don't, is generational. Modern technology permits all lilies to be easily gilded, I bet few directors can resist doing so; so most of you have gotten used to this. I'm an old guy, and I can't.

Watch this intriguing anime, please, and see what you think. It may be announcing the beginning of a new rococo age.

Some people say Bakemonogatari is a big milestone in the anime history. And they're goddamn right, because before this one came to being, the anime industry hasn’t been known what the ultimate shit is. And now it knows, we all do now. This show is the very standard of ugliness, boredom, tastelessness, hackwork, the national team of all shounen cliches. From now on the lowest mark on the "Quality" scale has a material incarnation - Bakemonogatari. So, with no doubt, it is really a great milestone in anime history.
Well, i do understand that i have to be more specific. But what can write about here? ...
The plot? What plot? There is no plot. Yes. There. Is. No. Plot. Narration made of identical and disjoined arcs. Because of this Bakemonogatari has no outset, no outcome, and no common climax (only within arcs). And what the hell? The main heroine (who she pretends to be, at least), Hitagi Senjougahara, has the shortest arc and has too little screentime. Closer to the final episodes it looks like her total screentime is even less than, for example, Hanekawa's. By the way, Episode 12, a part of Hanekawa's arc, and why the hell there is no even a single mention of Hanekawa? How does this arc system work here? Dialogues are epic twaddle about literally nothing with tons of mutually exclusive conclusions and other kinds of bullshit, sometimes it is offensively obvious that the only reasons for those dialogues are screentime extension and giving a reason to underage seekers of deep meaning to think that Bakemonogatari is a highly intellectual postmodern work. "Wait, are we in anime?"-joke has nothing in common with postmodernism, it's just a motherfucking cliche that pisses the shit out of viewers since at least 1990.
The setting? There is no visible setting. Weak undeveloped universe made of second-rate fantasy, a thing everyone should be already bored with. Author fabricates rules right in the middle of narration. And again: no outset, no outcome, and no common climax. Instead of all this we’ve got many minutes of twaddle and not about the Bakemonogatari's universe, not about what's-going-on, not about what-we-have-to-do, but about panties, breasts, virginity, nekomimi and about other undoubtedly important for plot development things. Maybe we should be a little more honest and conclude that this show is about panties, breasts and other similar "pillars of the universe". Fullscreen panties at the 6'th second of episode 1 - a sprinter-like start.
The characters? Oh, cmon. “It's all the same shit”, right? Senjougahara is one of 9000 usual crappy sub-tsunderes, and i am confident that tsunderes alongside with moe are the cancer that kills anime. Araragi is a pestered for the last 5-6 years type of protagonists: "Ah, you such a worthless man but i still love you, don't know why".
An art? Oh, it's a biggest sore of Bakemonogatari. Background design and especially those slides... ugh... It's the worst thing i've ever seen in anime. It's just like Endless Eight of "Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya". A similar inferior attempt to disguise a low budget alongside with creative crisis by claiming all of this a special and original idea. And JUST like in the case of Endless Eight, crowd ate this horseshit and yelled: "How deep! Brilliant! Masterpiece!". Making lots of references for the only one sake of making a reference is a dirty trick: a reference itself doesn’t make show any better, especially when there’s no cultural background coming with it, but viewer gets a positive emotion every time he/she guesses the reference out and extrapolates this positive vibe on the show itself. It is exactly the same reason why lots of people consider Lucky Star masterpiece: familiar references get them high.
I'm in the deepest shock, one step away from having a stroke. The score "8.46" totally shreds my ass. Good God! It's even bigger than NGE's. Tons of 10/10 reviews with crap like "100021309213134214 people found this review helpful" make me cry in pain and think: "World, what the hell is wrong with you?"

Overall: -10/10, ultimate shit and the worst anime in existence.

**Monster Story**

Gatari is voicing form of Katari. Katari is a tale which by oral tradition, is passed down from generation to generation. Thereby, the words "Bakemono" means monster and "monogatari" means story. Thus, you get "Bakemonogatari" which is an anime that contains tales of monsters.

Alright, enough of the trivia. Let's get down to business.

Story: 9

It'd be very difficult to describe the story without letting out spoilers. With that in mind, I can only tell you that Bakemonogatari is a collection of monster tales that are revelant to life. The story depicts surrealism and "supernatural phenomenons" amongst people, which occur when the main character, Araragi, interacts ... with them.

Art: 10

Once again, SHAFT saves the day! SHAFT is well known for their artistic techniques to portray abstract scenes. Their other works, such as Ef - A Fairy Tale of the Two, are very much similiar. Bakemonogatari utilizes many, unique camera angles that are relevant or not relevant to what is being said. Such scenes could be the sky, cars, the character's hair, etc. Additionally, multiple screens and walls of text pop up to give the viewer a sense of abstract understanding.

Sound: 10

The music is amazing. I don't really know anyone who dislikes the OP and Ending themes. To make Bakemonogatari interesting, director Akiyuki Shinbo, allowed only a few episodes to have certain OP/Endings and mix them so it won't get boring. Indeed, it's nothing like your standard anime where there is the same boring OP and Ending played over and over. The insert music is also very excellent.
OP:
#01: "staple stable" by Chiwa Saito (Eps. 2, 6)
#02: "Kaerimichi (帰り道)" by Emiri Katou (Ep. 4)
End:
#01: "Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari (君の知らない物語)" by supercellxnagi

Character: 8

The reason for the 8 is because, I feel the characters aren't being introduced thoroughly. Of course, it's understandable that Bakemonogatari will only be 15 episodes - thus they have to "pack and condense" the character development (Tales) to fit the 15 episodes. Had Bakemonogatari been 24 episodes though, I think overall character growth would be KILLER. The romance between tsundere-Senjougahara and male lead-Araragi is pretty nice, however.

Enjoyment/Overall: 9

Beside the story and character development-in-15-episodes, Bakemonogatari deserves a good two thumbs up. Also, for a anime having a tsundere female, I'd say it REALLY stands out from Shakugan no Shana or Zero no Tsukaima. Albeit the many interesting anime coming in 2009, Bakemonogatari is certainly something else. It's unique because it stands out from your traditional anime. It is as if Bakemonogatari is wearing a green shirt while the other anime series wear white.To put it bluntly, Bakemonogatari offers this sense of upmost perfect surrealism that is damn near addicting.

Bakemonogatari (Monster Story) is definitely a MUST-SEE.

Author's note: Please don't take this review too seriously. This is merely describing my own painful experience with this show. I'm not personally attacking Monogatari fans! Thank you.


Overview:

Bakemonogatari is generally hailed as a masterpiece for being bold, innovative, challenging, and overall an unforgettably unique experience. While all of these things are certainly true, it is only a partial truth. Those above listed traits would all describe Tatami Galaxy and Mushishi, but Bakemonogatari is QUITE different from those series. Tatami's philosophy, comedy, and characters can transcend the language boundary. This is also true for Mushishi with its amazing visuals and atmosphere. Bakemonogatari though, is a series ... in which full mastery of the Japanese language is an absolute necessity. It feels that roughly 90% of Bakemonogatari's value and 100% of it's enjoyment is based on clever prose and wordplay that doesn't translate outside of Japanese. There is a reason this series will NEVER be dubbed. I feel that Bakemonogatari lovers can be neatly divided into 2 categories: those fluent in Japanese and fucking liars!

Language and translation:

Have you ever wondered why novels have widespread appeal outside of their countries of origin and poetry typically doesn't? People aren't kidding when they say things get "lost in translation". Prose that is immensely intricate in its original form will often get butchered into something clunky and brutal. The English speaking world fell in love with Tolstoy and Dostoevsky through the translations of Constance Garnett, who is considered by some to have been a sub-par translator that eviscerated the original Russian. It didn't matter because the characters, themes, psychology, etc was able to shine through. Even if it kind of sounded crappy and had awkward sentences. The poetry of Alexander Pushkin though has never really found as much fanfare outside of Russia. While we can certainly appreciate his brilliant narrative poems like The Bronze Horseman and Evgeny Onegin, we non-Russian speakers can't seem to really understand his prose and just what makes it so "good" to Russian ears. Similarly, Bakemonogatari to a non-Japanese speaker like me has all the appeal of listening to Igbo or Yoruba poetry while nodding my head and pretending to understand because I want to be smart.

Plot and characters

A bland male character finds girls with supernatural problems and solves them. Lets be honest. You are NOT watching this for the plot. Would you watch a performance of Love's Labour's Lost for the plot? NO! You watch it for the prose! Or if you're being perfectly honest, you watch it because your girlfriend dragged you to the Shakespeare festival and you want to get laid. At least we all know Costard is awesome. Senjougahara is an obnoxious bitch. Yes, she is a self-aware, meta character that plays around with classic tsundere tropes. I get it. She's still an obnoxious bitch. "I'm like that magical dragon from that one anime. I can grant you any wish you want. I can wake you up naked or perhaps if you are a pervert you could give me an enema!" In the original Japanese this was undoubtedly a biting, crude, but clever comment because the Kanji for "enema" resembles the Hirigana for another word in that sentence. In English, you are just left scratching your head. She mentions that adding another "Ra" to Araragi makes it rather lewd, but once again I can't understand. She got some interesting character development in episode 2, but mostly I'm just frustrated by the characters and left in a state of total non-comprehension...like I am with most aspects of this show.

Art:

The art is very unique and the animation is top notch here form Studio Shaft. The series experiments with wild camera angles and often looks stunning...when it isn't straining your eyes. It also has a real habit of flashing to black and displaying random text before flashing back. Personally I found it (flash) "Tedious" (flash) "contrived" and (flash) "pretentious". Of course that's just me.

Overall:

I give Bakemonogatari a decent score based on its art and ambition. However, I am incapable of rendering a truly valid judgement because I don't speak Japanese. Imagine a native Telugu speaker with no knowledge of the German language. That person couldn't appropriately judge the poetry of Heinrich Heine. I find myself in the same position. I can't say this is a bad series. I can't say it's a good series. I don't feel I'm qualified to say much of anything in regards to its merit. I wrote this review for one simple purpose. Don't make the mistake that I did and go in expecting to love this series because its popular with the elite crowd. If you don't speak Japanese, avoid this one like the plague!

If you're looking for an adrenaline-pumping, anxiety-giving anime for your hot, red-blooded selves...

Then Bakemonogatari is not for you.

I disliked this series. I prefer action and suspense and Bakemonogatari did not invoke any feeling in me.

I simply clicked an episode and as soon as it started my mind would wander due to sheer boredom.

The story was very poor to me, I didn't know what was going on 99% of the time and there are a lot of pointless scenes (fanservice included, I guess). They repeatedly jumped around scenes and there was some skipping here and there... Not that I really cared.

The art was alright. It was ... fine to look at, but wasn't great or "different" or anything. You could say the random shots of random things are creative, but they were nuances to me and weren't particularly thought-provoking. They were just random and just, well... There.

The sound, I could bear. It wasn't inspiring and didn't enhance the scenes for me. Sometimes the sound didn't match with scenes. Very confusing.

Character development was poor. The characters seemed very one-dimensional. Plastic. I found myself asking the screen "really...?" as I watched this series.

I definitely did not enjoy this. At all.

Overall I give BAKEMONOGATARI a 4.

It came out to 3.4 on my calculator but I will give it some credit to trying.

Trying too hard.

To be serious, if you want to watch something to get your heart hammering then
I do not recommend this series!

It is very rare to see such a successful marriage of a director’s vision and an author’s material. Bakemonogatari’s existence is an anomaly especially in present day where adaptations are subpar when compared to the source. However, there has never been a more potent combination than Nisio Isin and Studio SHAFT’s Akiyuki Shinbou. Shinbou’s quirky, and imaginative art direction greatly compliments the fast paced dialogue and witticisms that Nisio is known for. The end result is a tour de force of both visuals and prose. Bakemonogatari is a meticulously crafted tale that never ceases to maintain the viewer’s attention and titillate the imagination.

Story- Bakemonogatari is ... a broken into individual arcs, each focusing a certain character dealing with a supernatural “Oddity.” There is an overarching plot that is delicately threaded throughout each arc. Every character is related to one another either directly or indirectly. Throughout each arc, we learn more about each girl and their specific affliction. In other shows, this would mean long, drawn out expository dialogue that lacks personality and charisma. However, Bakemonogatari is unlike other anime. Every interaction is interesting due to how well the visuals compliment the dialogue. Although the dialogue seems to meander from time to time, the interactions between characters are always at the very least entertaining. And through these seemingly meaningless conversations, we learn more about their personalities, motivations and personal beliefs. It is all done in a very subtle way so it may take some close attention to catch some of the nuances of the characterization. Bakemonogatari does not try to baby the viewer; it tells you only what you need to know and lets your imagination fill in the gaps.

The quality of writing remains consistent throughout each arc but the show takes a bit of a downward spiral during the Nadeko Snake arc. Not that it is a bad arc as much as it is underwhelming. Sengoku Nadeko is easily the most uninteresting female in the cast. She is timid, shy and cute. She does not have any stand out traits or eccentricities like the other members of the cast. It seems her sole purpose in this arc is to appease fetishists due to her being placed in many compromising positions. She wears school swimsuits and her affliction is the most sexual in nature. The conclusion to this arc also leaves much to be desired but it is only a minor dip in the overall quality of the narrative.

Art- Studio SHAFT has become synonymous with eccentric art and whacky animation, and Bakemonogatari really benefits from SHAFT adapting it. It is a true visual spectacle, using a mixture of different art styles to make conversations much more interesting. Most scenes are vibrant and full of color and unusual geometric shapes which breathe life into the show. It also uses an interesting blend of typography and simple black and white scenes that really support the tone of the conversations. You could argue that Bakemonogatari’s success is due to the visuals. It truly is a feast for the eyes.

Character- Bakemonogatari features of one of the most intriguing cast of characters I have had the pleasure to watch. However, the crowning achievement of the show has to be Hitagi Senjougahara, the protagonist Araragi’s girlfriend. She is cruel and cynical and never ceases to make Araragi her whipping boy. But that is all a part of her indelible charm. Past her ice cold exterior, lays a really gooey and lovable center. Her change is gradual but very apparent by the end of the series.

The relationship dynamic between Araragi and Senjougahara is simply a joy to behold. It is free of all usual issues that plague romantic anime: awkward confessions, a melodramatic backstory and a general lack of believability. The development of their relationship is set at a slow but realistic pace. Think of it as a flower in bloom, when it blossoms you can truly appreciate it in all its beauty. Throughout the course of the series, Senjougahara’s presence makes itself known even she is not on screen. Araragi’s relationship has actively changes his character and influences what decisions he makes. Each encounter also builds upon their relationship and builds an unspoken bond of trust and affection.

The supporting cast of females also serves to facilitate the development of Araragi’s relationship with Senjougahara. While each arc deals with a specific heroine, it very subtly also tackles aspects and issues within any romantic relationship such as: miscommunication, jealously, and infidelity. Every obstacle they face reinforces the strength of their bond.

The supporting cast are not only mere catalysts for the development of Araragi and Senjougahara, but they stand strong by themselves. The cast is comprised of the usual harem archetypes: the little sister, the class representative, the loli, and the energetic girl but they are given distinguishable traits that separate them from any other character. For example, take Kanbaru Suruga. Although she falls into the energetic girl archetype, she completely betrays our expectations of what that character should be like. She is not only athletic, but she freely embraces her sexuality by making jokes about it and making advances towards Araragi if only in jest.

Bakemonogatari is a tour de force of visual storytelling. It represents the best of the medium as it completely defies all storytelling conventions of anime. It is wordy but never ceases to captivate the viewer with its beautiful imagery and wit. Bakemonogatari popularity and acclaim is well deserved as it will likely linger in your mind, whether you liked it or not, for a long time.

Filled with gorgeous shots of underaged women, inventive fourth-wall breaks, and highly detailed PowerPoint slides, Bakemonogatari single-handedly redefined what it meant to be a pretentious anime at the time of its release in a way that no anime since has been able to capture the essence of. It is an incredible feat that a harem anime manages to get across so little humor and emotion with so much ostensible effort. Perhaps if I was steeped in Japanese culture, I would understand that the tsundere girl talking to the viewer about being tsundere was actually a post-ironic meta-commentary reference about the overabundance of meaningless fourth wall ... breaks and not just a waste of time so that SHAFT could save a few extra yen to work on another frame of Zetsubou-Sensei. Alas, I do not have time to live in Japan, so instead the fansubs written by people who probably didn't get half the jokes will explain to me in translator notes that it's common to joke about being a lolicon around a loli, and then draw her in sexually suggestive ways as to completely undermine the very criticism it seems to be making. Very funny joke! Really shows a level of thoughtfulness and effort that's only seen in things like people who smoke at gas station pumps or bundles of rocks.

It is a show that has its cake and eats it too, and while there can be a trashy fun to shows like that, most of the fun of Bakemonogatari is squeezed out of it like a snake that squeezes out scene after scene of suggestive underaged girls in short skirts and tank tops. Sorry, I promise I'll stop talking about the whole loli thing, but can you imagine taking a show like this seriously when it "ironically" sexualizes little girls? Anyway, the reason why this show amounts to nothing more than a slightly unintelligible fantasy for Western NEETs to beat off to is because the parts of this show are very weak on their own.

The story is extremely formulaic, with the plot of each character arc being more or less the exact same. That within itself is alright and often a playground for character studies, as we get to see how each character reacts to the various highs and lows of that plot's structure. However, when the characters are these ironic caricatures, there end up being these very flat scenes where instead of learning about the characters' motivations or their feelings or what they've gone through, you get the feeling like you're learning about the director's knowledge of popular character tropes in anime. This ends up making the characters not feel like characters at all, but rather these weird symbolic stand-ins for ideas that, ultimately, make you feel this weird emptiness when you watch because you're not actually watching people but rather ideas, and ideas make me feel nothing without a human representing them in a natural way. I can't explain it exactly, the closest I've felt to this is by watching the live action Western comedy Community, but that was a lot more clever of a show than this, and it had a lot of different plots (divergent and varied situations that cause the flat caricatures to maybe reconsider their typical responses to thinks and thus become more round; something this show sorely lacks) to boot.

The art, beyond being softcore lolicon hentai a third of the time, is impressively drawn, with most impressive being the lines given much weight and detail. When Araragi starts to laugh because he got some thought in his head, there's some over the top reaction he shows that's done in meticulous detail, and there's a lot of examples of that throughout the show. This works because of SHAFT's ability to draw small/medium/large lines for character models and within their bodies for color detail, then how they give them depth through their shading. On another show, a character may just put their hand to their face to hide laughter in that situation, or you'd see a thought bubble with chibi heads giggling. These details that show without telling can be found throughout the art of this show, which is all the more strange when the story of this show feels almost like the opposite as it tells instead of shows. Bakemonogatari exudes an undeniable style from its art, and that alone is worth the price of admission for many people, me included. I feel like the various characters' designs were mostly boring (seeing as though they were often kinda trope-y or ironically sexual in nature, they ended up being a bit plain), but I did quite like Araragi's and Senjougahara's character models, although the latter's look gets muddled when new girls are introduced into the show with similar color schemes/body types.

What is really jarring about the art is the direction the show was given. I honestly do not mind the PowerPoint slides like many people might. I think it's a shallow, lazy artistic choice if done more than once, which it was. But okay, it is forgivable in and of itself, it adds a little bit of humor or flavor, fine. Yet when scenes are placed a kilometer away from the action for artistic effect, then zoomed in close to the face, then there's a jungle gym, then a shot zoomed only half a kilometer away and you can see half the character's body in the shot even though it's the other character that's talking...there's a pointlessness to everything that is going on, and the slides seem exceedingly lazy. When you "break the rules" of what makes a scene well shot, you should do so on purpose, with reason. When Tatami Galaxy shows the main character in a kaleidoscopic and impotent hellscape, it's because the main character is losing his mind since he can't get any. It makes sense why the director would choose really weird, wide angles for those shots. When I see the floor and ceiling of a house with dialogue and quick shots of characters interspersed throughout, I don't think it has any meaning or purpose for the story than beyond just being different or weird. So then you have to judge it by how pretty it looks, and since the REAL purpose of those weird shots were to save costs, it makes the anime seem a lot less beautiful. This made a lot of dialogue-heavy scenes feel like a total drag, unfortunately.

Ultimately, when you combine the show's self-congratulatory use of irony that it did not earn the right to congratulate itself on, the often meandering direction that comes across as someone trying to act really cool, and the very forgettable character motivations and story that are done up in an opaque way on purpose (instead of a more traditional harem story of a boy meeting a bunch of girls at school and they do normal stuff with each other or fight things with them etc, which this could have easily been, there's supernatural elements mixed with plodding repetitive plots that the characters never fully realize themselves within), you get this empty shell of an anime, a real waste of beautiful art, a show that if any other studio produced, would be a trashy mid-level anime that would be totally forgotten. A comedy that takes itself seriously when it wants to in order to seem as artistically cunning as possible, while in reality it's less deep than Oreimo, Bakemonogatari is the prime definition of a pretentious anime, and as a result I find it hard to connect with on any level beyond some empty anger I feel for having my time wasted.

Finally giving in to the hype, I picked up Bakemonogatari, the most discussed anime of '09, on the very first day of this year. The show's appeal was lost on me during the first few episodes, but after a while the reasons for this anime's charm on so many became apparent. As to whether that charm worked on me as well, that's something I'm going to explain a bit more thoroughly further on.

The story of Bakemonogatari may at first seem confusing with the odd events of the show's beginning. Soon, however, the plot's structure comes clear enough as new characters (all female) are introduced, with ... each of them having their own arc consisting of a few episodes at a time. Amidst the weirdness of Bakemonogatari's characters, artwork and animation, a simple storyline like that is a welcome asset. Of course, on the occasion you're not one to enjoy a storyline based on a few episode-arcs, it'll be exactly the other way around for you.

Despite each story arc concentrating on a new character each time, the story of our main couple, Araragi and Senjougahara, flows along nicely as well. The relationship between the two is somewhat the core of the entire show, with the story-arcs functioning either as a means to deepen their chemistry as they go about solving the encountered mysteries together, introduce new characters, or bring more depth to our main hero, Araragi. This I have no qualms of, for I quite like the way a clearly harem-esque series has the most prominent love interest set in stone instead of the guy tinkering on edge until the very end about who it is that he loves.

Be not completely turned off yet, all you who despise everything which has the word "harem" attached to it, for even though I dubbed Monstory as "a clearly harem-esque series", this show isn't an average one in that category in the least. Yes, it's yet again a series where a single guy is surrounded by attractive females (sans the loli character), and yes, all of them are expressing more or less of an interest in him. But they're not brainlessly-unconditionally-helplessly or otherwise idiotically in love in him, nope. In fact some, if not most of them are having open and cheeky banters with him _AND_, unlike in most of your typical harems, the guy isn't actually an utter retard with no redeeming qualities.

This brings us to what I believe is commonly praised as Bakemonogatari's greatest strength, which namely is the wonderfully wicked and excellent character chemistry. As I stated before the characters actually have more intricate interaction between them than your usual scenario of a bunch of chicks loving on an idiot with an attraction level somewhere around -9000. The verbal battles between Araragi and co. (and especially with Senjougahara) are indeed the shows most prominent and refreshing aspect.

But whereas "a bunch of chicks loving on an idiot" can be seen as one frustrating extreme of character interaction, at times I felt as though Bakemonogatari presented a polar opposite no less frustrating. All too often it seemed like the heavy dialogue was there just to accentuate the girls' excellency over Araragi as the poor fellow always appeared to get the short end of the stick in their interactions. A feature meant to be humorous for sure, and I do remember smiling at times, but I certainly wasn't as entertained as I guessed I should've been.

Another fracture burdening on the show's enjoyability is the usage of still-images with text which I suppose were there to support the story. I can't remember if there was a single episode where there wouldn't have been a series of stills flashing on the screen so fast it was impossible to read the sentences on them without stopping your media player to read them. You can guess if I myself cared much for doing so. A hint: I didn't. Surely I didn't miss anything of importance when I opted to roll my eyes in annoyance instead of stopping to read each time when a still featuring either a sentence or a meaningless word like "red" or "black" appeared on the screen, but it certainly didn't add to my viewing pleasure either.

That's about it from me this time, really. Other factors you'd usually pay attention to while watching, like the music and art, fell into the vast category of "alright". The theme songs let alone the rest of the soundtrack left no impression on me whatsoever, and just like everybody else, I did notice the artstyle in this show was a bit funny at times. Surely nothing which folks familiar with Gankutsuou, Zetsubou-sensei, and SHAFT in general can't handle. Characterization, relationships, and intriguing story are the plusses, somewhat questionable humour and stupid stills the minuses. Sounds like yer cup of tea? Then drink up. It doesn't? Then go look for another one - but not before sampling this.

ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE, SORRY IF I WRITE SOMETHING WRONG
Spoilers! (kinda)

✧ Introduction/the story
Bakemonogatari, A story of a guy that casually meets different types of girls throughout the episodes. Coincidentally, all of those girls are possessed by a curse that resembles an animal.

✧ The characters
The protagonist is a guy that wants to help every single girl he meets, even if he met her only 5 minutes ago, just like your typical self-insert protagonist. Like a male lead in every harem out there he is bland, boring, and doesn't know what to do with his life.

The story just introduces female characters that are all very ... archetypal, but they want to "hide" this fact through the pseudo-intellectual dialogue. Most of the time, their role is diminished to flirting with the protagonist, adding nothing to the typical formula.

I might add that the "jokes" between the protagonist and the little girl, Mayoi, are very disgusting and uncomfortable. I'm not going to describe all of the girls because they are forgettable due to their lack of charisma and originality. You can describe them in one sentence, except for the protagonist's girlfriend, Senjougahara. She's kind of memorable thanks to her attitude towards the protagonist and because she has the most screen time out of all the females. But she is not an important character after all.

✧ The script
Unless the dialogue is made with a bit of effort, it feels pretentious and unrealistic. It's not intellectual, it's not deep, it only tries to make you think that they are saying something smart, but if you analyze it properly, it makes no sense at all and most of the time it doesn't add anything to what's going on. This is just an attempt to "not to be like the other harems with empty dialogue and bland characters", but it ends up being almost the same at the end. Why? I'm going to explain it.

The story is divided in mini-arcs in which the protagonist meets and interacts with every cursed girl, conveniently, every girl ends up having a "crush" on the protagonist, so the show becomes a harem really fast, but there is no plot, there is no sense of progression, there is not a specific goal that would drive the plot.

✧ Production values
The art is amazing and very versatile, but most of the time it feels like an ornament more than an element that would complement the actual story. Sometimes the art has nothing to do with the story or the characters at all. This, plus the dialogue, which is not as smart as everyone says, are the most recognizable elements about this anime, and that's why it's loved so much.

The seiyuus are very good, they fit the characteres very well. The music is not that memorable and sometimes it feels repetitive, but it's apreciated how they made one opening for each arc.

The ecchi shots sometimes feel completely out of place, ruining the atmosphere, and the same goes for the jokes. One moment they are trying to sound smart (and failing miserably) and after two seconds the conversation changes its focus to panties or "touches". This all happens without a proper transition and I can't take what they are saying seriously because the fast change in tone overwhelmes me.

✧ Conclusion
Bakemonogatari is try-hard slice of life harem that wasted all its potential to be meaningfully different by staying in its comfort zone and the show ended up being mediocre.

Bakemonogatari is based on a series of light novels by Nisio Isin, and is later produced by Shaft. It features different short stories all related to the main character, Araragi Koyomi. Bakemonogatari is now known for its superb art and animation, and the unique way the story was presented to us. Adding to that, Bakemonogatari surprised many due to its weekly ranking sales and how well it sold across Japan. This was clearly evident in the field of BD sales, where it made history, selling 29,000 units of Bakemonogatari Vol.1, beating out the previous record holder of Macross Frontier, which sold at 22,000 units. It ... also took first place in DVD sales in Oct 26 - Nov 11, beating other titles such as Gintama, Haruhi and Eden of the East. Volume 3 of Bakemonogatari also sold a lot, getting 1st place again in terms of DVD and Blu Ray sales, the margin between 1st place and 2nd place (Detective Conan Movie) being around 5 million. Volume 4 will be delayed a little while and will be released in January 27th, hoping to take the title of 1st place again.

It is clear at why Bakemonogatari sold so well over the time. Bakemono is a collection of short stories, all with their unique characteristics and aspects that makes a show great. It showcased different supernatural cases such as the Hitagi Crab, Mayoi Snail and Tsubasa Cat. Plotwise, Bakemono surely delivered and made it an entertaining show to watch. These different stories usually panned out in 3-4 episodes, where we see some character development and background story on some of the characters. Although each story shows a different heroine, one can still say that these stories are connected together, and this becomes evident in the later stages of the light novel, which has yet to be animated. The stories are engaging, and keeps the viewers interested with new materials to showcase each time. This allows endless opportunities for OVAs and even a second season due to its numerous heroines with each a unique background and even later chapters in the light novels which have yet to be shown in the animated version.

As already stated before, Bakemonogatari has its fair share of characters. Although 4 heroines is typical in a generic romantic comedy show, Bakemonogatari is somewhat different, as each heroine has their own story that can be deeply developed and shown more insight to in the future. The characters are well thought out, and what makes the show shine is their mindless rantings and they way they interact. Hitagi, being the central heroine of the show is aware of her "tsundere" status and is possessed by a crab who takes all of her weight. Then, we have a loli girl who gets her "first touch" taken away by Koyomi, and has entertaining fight sequences with Koyomi. Not only that, we have a smart and well mannered girl who you would consider as the clumsy one in all anime. However, she is anything but ordinary, and has a completely different persona which is because of a cat! These characters are a unique touch and strives to break out of the ordinary. Bakemonogatari offers us a distinct range of characters that are all unique in its own way, and tries to enhance the show even more with the interactions between the cast.

Bakemonogatari is definitely a true highlight due to its plot and characters, but it doesn't stop there. Bakemono offers us a unique art style and animation that is just as good as its story and cast. From the moment it started, Bakemono offered us a visual treat unlike any other, and the use of lighting and colours truly brought the world of Bakemonogatari to life. The art is high quality, and the characters are drawn exceptionally well. the background is unique and uses different techniques that you don't see in a regular anime. The fight scenes are also choreographed really well, and the animation is smooth. I mean, what more is there to not like? I was absolutely blown away by Shaft's effort in the new art direction it gave us and it certainly created a visual masterpiece. It was consistent all throughout the entire season, and although some may say that the Nadeko arc was a bit rough on the edges, it didn't mind me at all. Overall, the art and animation of Bakemono was another highlight to the series, and is just perfect.

Bakemonogatari also offered us different new openings for each heroine. My favourite would probably be Nadeko's and Hachikugi's openings as they were upbeat, and the animation sequence it provided was spectacular. The musical score of Bakemono were great too, and each track was done well. The seiyuu's did a good job too, especially Chiwa Saito as the voice of Senjougahara Hitagi.

Bakemonogatari is by far one of the best animes I have ever seen. Combined with a great plot and entertaining characters, every minute was truly enjoyable. It didn't stop there, as it also presented a visually stunning work, filled with vibrant colours and the animation being generally smooth. The different openings were great, and were always a blast to listen to. Bakemonogatari is definitely something you should watch - and make sure to download it in the highest quality possible to truly enjoy this new anime by SHAFT.

Grade

Overall: A+

Story: A+
Character: A+
Art: A+
Animation: A+
Sound: A+

Pros: A great story and overall entertaining to watch. The characters were all unique in their own way and the character interactions were nice. The art and animation was absolutely spectacular; a visual masterpiece.

Cons: You are not watching it right this second.

Maybe Miyazaki was right. Maybe anime was a mistake.

I know he didn't technically say that - shut up. Bakemonogatari, huh? I implore somebody to explain the appeal of this show to me without resorting to one of these three talking points:

1) "You just didn't understand it." I like to think I'm more media-savvy than most yayhoos you could pull off the street, and I don't think Bake was just some unfathomably deep show that a mere peon like me couldn't begin to properly comprehend. The fervor I've seen surrounding this show reminds me of when Rick and Morty's popularity was at its peak. "To be ... fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Bakemonogatari..."

2) "A Westerner wouldn't understand the wordplay." Honestly, fair enough. I wouldn't. Though, as much a dumb Yank as I am, not understanding that something Koyomi said has a different/dual meaning depending on if it's written in Kanji or Hiragana shouldn't be enough to torpedo any enjoyment I could potentially find in the show. Also, imagine this in reverse. Imagine an American show relied so much on "witty" wordplay that it was considered impossible to translate effectively to an Asian market. Perhaps the majority is different, but I couldn't imagine holding that over some Japanese dude's head and telling him that, effectively, he's dumb for not getting it. Especially when a majority of his gripes aren't with the wordplay.

3) "It's not what you wanted it to be." Looking at Bake's tags on MAL, I'm told that it's three primary genres are "Mystery", "Romance", and "Supernatural". Simply put, the mysteries aren't compelling, the romance is abysmal and the supernatural elements left me, at best, whelmed.

I feel like, on a basic level, Bakemonogatari simply (and severely) misunderstands what it even is. I think words are great. I’m using them to write this review to you right now. I use them in my everyday life to describe sensations, emotions, communicate outside events, make requests, tell jokes, etc. The power of the spoken (or written in this case but whatever) word is a truly beautiful thing. With that, Bakemonogatari has too many fucking words. I know the Monogatari series is adapted from a series of novels, but even this isn’t how most literature works. People DO stuff in books. It’s not just two characters sat on opposite sides of a room talking at each other. This is how Bake feels, though.

There is seldom an unexpressed though in this show. Almost nothing is left up to interpretation, which is odd considering how much I see people describe this as something you have to pay the utmost attention to or else you’ll be totally lost. Yeah, you do have to read a fuck ton, (assuming you’re not fluent in Japanese) but characters arduously spell out motivations and themes all the time. You really don’t have to do much digging.

Bear with me because this next metaphor is tortuous and probably poorly thought out (kind of like the show). Chris Benoit’s 400th concussion probably didn’t have the same effect that his first did. After performing the diving headbutt for the 10,000th time, it probably all blurred together in a cranium-contained soup. That’s what the dialogue felt like in Bakemonogatari, akin to suffering numerous traumatic head injuries.

That’s just the effect it had on me, though. As part of the bigger picture, each line (no matter the importance) might as well have been a drop of cum in the ocean for all it mattered. At the end of episode 5 there’s a pretty big reveal concerning a main character and it had, no joke, literally no effect on me because it was conveyed almost solely through dialogue. The intended reaction was likely shock, but I just couldn’t be bothered. Most of Bakemonogatari is characters standing in a (somewhat) visually interesting liminal space talking to each other about, effectively, nothing. The more the characters talk, the less their words mean, and this phenomenon is observable by the second.

Speaking of the environments though, they’re interesting for all of 5 minutes. Then the horror sinks in as you realize you’ll be staring at the same fucking playground equipment/classroom/bus stop for the next episode and a half. 12 Angry Men this isn’t. The height of Bake’s cinematography ambitions is frequent extreme close ups on the characters faces and reusing the same establishing shot 37 times an episode. Before long, I knew not to get excited when something interesting happened because it was bound to be fleeting.

The show does play with its visuals in some interesting ways though. Live action cutouts with cool 3D graphics laid over them are sometimes a welcome change, but I feel it’s ultimately distracting from proceedings more than enhancing them most of the time. Instead of just, I don’t know, animating the main characters doing interesting things (or changing the scenery up more than once per 3 episodes) to keep our eyes entertained while they drone on endlessly about fucking nothing, the show cuts to some abstract rendering of their feelings that’s usually accompanied by an incredibly obnoxious sound effect.

The show also has this stupid ass gimmick where, dozens of times an episode, a black or red or gray frame with some Kanji character will pop up with a stupid ass sound effect to...? Apparently it’s to convey some character’s emotion. Okay. What a dumbass way to do that. Adding to that, there’s a bunch of times where, for a single frame, a wall of text will show up. Why? If I have to pause to read it, that ruins immersion and pacing and if I don’t I feel like I’m missing out on information. It’s a lose/lose situation.

Bakemonogatari feels like someone who’s only read books (no, plays) and has never seen a movie/TV show attempted to direct an anime, and every once in a while their drink would be spiked with PCP. It also feels like that person has never once interacted with another human being. The relationships in this show are underwhelming on an almost primal level (I don’t know what that means either). Koyomi and Senjougahara’s relationship simply isn’t compelling. She’s a tsundere and he’s basically a decent guy (not fucking really but I’ll get to that), so we’re really breaking new creative ground with this pairing as you can see. She bullies him, threatens him physically and belittles him at every chance she gets. He almost cheats on her in nearly every episode. I almost thought the show would do something with this, obviously, being a relationship born NOT out of any genuine connection, but instead out of trauma (Senjougahara) and apathy (Koyomi) but, alas, I was being too kind. It’s played entirely at face value. Anytime Koyomi said he loved Senjougahara, I’d think to myself “BUT DO YOU THOUGH?”

One of the running gags is literally just (ironic???) pedophilia. Anytime Koyomi sees this little girl, Hachikuji, he makes a big show of fondling her chest and trying to get a look at her panties. I’m not usually one to saddle up on my moral high horse, but seeing people in threads describe these scenes with words like “lolled at the beginning with the loli groping ^^ haha that lucky bastard” and “Araragi abusing Hachikuji was the best part” AND “Hachikuji getting rape in the beginning was lol”. Essentially, if this is what people who enjoyed the show are saying... I don’t know, maybe as a society we should rethink bullying.

And what’s the point of these scenes anyway? Koyomi never receives any substantial punishment as a result of these scenes, so as a condemnation of pedophilia it’s nothing. Is it literally just for a laugh? If we’re supposed to buy Koyomi and Senjougahara as a healthy, loving couple then why does he nearly cheat on her in every episode and why does she never get over her tsundere tendencies? Why does this show not take advantage (or only half take advantage) of being presented in an audio/visual medium? What’s with all of the dialogue that goes nowhere? What’s with the frequent sexualization of minors?

Despite all of that, Bake probably isn’t the worst show I’ve ever seen. Its art is cool (think flat, boldly colored liminality) and its music is great. It’s just filled to the brim with so much nonsense and junk that serves no purpose. The mysteries aren’t compelling as a result of being brought up, discussed, and resolved almost entirely through dialogue. The characters are as deep as they are likeable, which is to say not at all. I don’t know, maybe if I watched the 10 other series and 5 connected movies they’d be fleshed out, but I literally can’t think of anything I’d want to do less.

Scores:
Art (7/10)
Music (8/10)
Characters (1/10)
Story (3/10)
Objective (3/10)
Subjective (2/10)

This feels like a practical joke that, somehow, managed to get massively popular. I pray I never find myself on the same wavelengths as this show or its more problematic fans.

'People save themselves on their own. Nobody can ever save anyone else'
- Araragi Koyomi

To begin this review, I shall say that while there were always disagreements whether a certain show was good or not, no series was ever able to split the community like the Monogatari series does. And there will always be the ones saying that it is the best of the best in the anime world, and the ones that will see it as just a pretentious over-the top harem show. Now, before you cast of my review thinking that I'm just going to praise the show, I'll have to ask you to ... stay until the end, since I started this anime just so I could drop it because, I too, thought that it was just a philosophy for horny weebs. Let me show you what made me change my mind. I'll try my best to keep the review spoiler-free for all the people who haven't yet seen the show.

Lets begin with what I think is the reason Bakemonogatari excels more than most of the anime you'll run into: the characters. Now, if you ask any qwasy-elitist about the Bakemonogatari characters, he/she will probably tell you that the characters fall very well into the defined tropes of the anime: unassuming/confused lead protagonist, a female tsundere lead constantly insulting the MC, a bratty loli, a shy and innocent imouto trope, and so on. And on the surface, they are right. But as each of the characters develop, they restrain themselves of these labels to the point that it almost reaches the deconstruction of the certain anime character tropes. And what Bakemonogatari does so good, is the connection it constantly makes by bonding the story with the characters, making them equally progress.

So, to further explain the characters, I will base myself on the actual story. Bakemonogatari follows a 18 years-old Araragi Koyomi, who is 1/10 vampire, as he encounters various number of girls. Each of them comes with their own unique story, and a complete arc primary focusing on one specific character. Each of the characters is followed by an apparition (supernatural being) AKA aberration (unusual, unwelcome entity). They are phenomenons of supernatural nature, in which a person is involved, both as a cause and a victim. To be precise, apparitions are the supernatural creations of ones own mind, possessing the host. The story mainly focuses Araragi, with a help of Oshino Meme, the balancer, attempting to help and save those who suffer from such spiritual illness. But then why did I choose that specific quote to begin my review if it now seems incorrect?
And so we come across with what makes Bakemonogatari one of the best shows of all time: it is a metaphorical battle with one's own inner self. Each of the apparitions is carefully presented as a specific animal or a monster symbolizing the ones problem. And it is no coincidence that it turns out that each of the monsters turned out to be projected by humans. Or rather, they all seem to resemble the problems of one's own personality, the parts they try to deny and hide from the others by burying them deep inside, and metaphorically constructing a false reality and projecting them into a harsh enemy: a soul-sucking demons, apparitions. And so the only way to solve the problem is to confront them as what they truly are. the show smartly illustrates the struggle it takes to overcome your own inner pain. And no, that's not pretentious. You need to learn to separate the edginess from the actual depth.

And to explain that, lets move on to the various elements that make the series work, and how they interact. So, storytelling. Through each well-defined arc, we slowly dig deeper into the character, ripping apart the trope, and revealing what lies beneath. This compelling introspection of the characters is what drives the story. Even tho the show contains some nice well-combined comedy and few action sequences, it primarily revolves around dialogues. A well-packed, meaningful and thought-provoking dialogue, with various use. Whether it is used to serve some good laughs, develop the character or advance the plot, conversation is never there just to fill the 23-minutes of free space, which is expected from the Godlike-writer NisioisiN, who's wordplay transcends beyond just a simple rebuses.

But it doesn't just end there. The visual aspect in Bakemonogatari isn't just there for the aesthetic value. Director Tatsuya Oishi takes the whole media into his advantage, making surrealistic and abstractly symbolic visual storytelling. Using the first-person perspective through Araragi's narration, his world remains without the people he has no interest in, whether it'd be an empty street in the middle of the day, or an empty classroom. Every camera angle is focused primarily on what he is interesting in and what he wants us to see, or pay attention to. Otherwise, there is a fantastically fluent animation, incredible use of colors and a regular SHAFT's head tilt.

The music is there just to keep things alive. It never fails to bring a character motion to life and to project the certain emotion, whether it is making you be at the edge of your sit with eyes wide open as the mystery gets unraveled, or it is making your heart break apart from the sadness of the moment. Boosted with various number of melodies and instruments in soundtrack, the enjoyment is guaranteed.

To conclude:
Personally, this show has in itself everything I ever wanted an anime to have. Philosophy, abstract symbolism, depth, fast pacing, interesting and well-written characters, emotional and slightly tearjerking elements, creativity and innovation, and a weird, but unique way of storytelling. All together, an anime that everyone should see, but not everyone will like. It is not a story that will destroy your brain with lots of mindfucks, nor is it one that will ask you questions and make you wonder about the answer. This is not a show that knows everything, but it knows what it knows. It will tell you everything it can and it has the knowledge to.
But what you will do with it
is up to you.

SHAFT's chaotic experiment is certainly a welcome break in creativity for the industry, and Bakemonogatari has all the right elements to make for a great anime: a promising premise, great character design and a shot of insanity. Yet here is a great example of how deliberate attention to detail can cause directors to miss the mark entirely, resulting in a bigger picture that revels blindly in its mediocrity.

There isn't much of a story. Episodic in nature, Bakemonogatari is driven by an almost Japanese-folklore perspective on loneliness and loss layered beneath the tone of this generation's rebellious youth. Sounds clever enough, but the not-so-subtle hentai subtext ... cheapens any semblance of artistic endeavor. Perhaps it was a failed experiment at integrating pop-culture critique within its chaotic fabric, but my guess would lean towards a pathetic attempt to draw a larger audience.

But, well, critics are really going crazy for the art, so I was expecting to be pleasantly surprised. Only to be let down. Hard. Like the unmethodical and distracted camera angles, the artistic choices were made with the most pompous cries for attention. The still-scenes flicker in an epilepsy-inducing fashion, while the gorgeously rendered characters and back drop were drowned in the quickness of the scene-changes and flashes of blank screen with (unreadable) text. Moments that are meant to be mulled over pass too quickly while the more exciting scenes seem to linger with pure apathy. It's almost as if director Akiyuki Shinbo's job stopped pre-cutting-room-floor, leaving the series a chaotic mess with miserable pacing and an unspectacular storyline.

But enough about its fall from grace. Bakemonogatari may still be one of the best series the industry successfully produced in 2009. What SHAFT does well is create a highly entertaining series whose shiny surface can cover its internal flaws. The eclectic feel is enough to draw an audience, while the screenplay and writing remains surprisingly mature despite its rather unfocused story. And while certainly flawed, the artistic expression still garners appreciation for its bold step out of the ordinary. If you are a SHAFT fan, this title is unlikely to disappoint.

written for Minitokyo's Newsletter: MT-Maigetsu

Story
In total the anime is divided into 5 arcs (separate and independent stories). In each arc, the main character meets new girls, and helps them to solve their problems with "monsters". Thus problems are solved in various ways, they never repeat and therefore the feeling of secondariness doesn't arise.
At the same time it is possible to see other storylines in the background: Koyomi's relations and Hitagi I consider that it's not a bad move to let the main plot run parallel with the love storyline. Though, I think that it would be possible to develop their relationship more clearly. All of this with great battles ... underway, but more on that later.
9/10

Animation
In most of the cases, animation in Bakemonogatari, serves as an addition to dialogues between the main characters, and that certainly benefits the very anime all the more.
The picture in an anime is quite unusual - for it studio Shaft should be credited. The majority of the backgrounds in the anime is rather abstract. Although it is strange, such an abstraction goes very well with Bakemonogatari - probably because of the type of narration, which is chosen by its creators. The background doesn't distract from the subject line and all attention is engrossed by characters. And it’s with background that made in some striking colours. Not bad. Everything happening behind the characters is quite chaotic, but it starts to be pleasant to the third episode.
Even continuous flashing of various inscriptions and numbers doesn't prevent from watching this anime but only gives it charm.
Characters are traced perfectly. And they look good against the background. It should be noted that characters sometimes appear in strange poses and from some freakish point of view. It only admires the viewer. Dialogues are filled with additional inserts, because of it listening to the dialogue won't bore and there are no wish to turn away even for a second. There is everything that possible. Both bloody scenes and scenes with smart fanservice, and paranormal effects which bewitch the viewer. Fights also look very showily and colourfully. They are dynamic and realistic. Magnificent animation deserves an appreciation.
10/10


Sound
Music plays very important role in the anime. Kosaki Satoru put a lot of effort into creating a huge number of "small masterpieces" which are wonderful and catchy. Special charm to culmination points of the anime is given by different variations on the main music themes.
Each opening (there are five of them) corresponds to each heroine’s character.
10/10

Character
Characters - one of the greatest strengths of this creation. All heroes of an anime turned out unique and special. Each character has characters which aren't similar at each other and, of course, each of them they correspond their own special habits and qualities. Founders collected almost all characters existing in an anime in this anime. Each hero is thought over ideally. The main characters should be loved : )
Seiyuus of characters are picked up ideally. They very precisely demonstrate characters as a hero, which forces you to fall in love with them even more. The actor's voice perfectly fits into the atmosphere of an anime.
10/10

Enjoyment
Magnificent anime. I would tell anyone that it is a masterpiece. It's a magnificent animation, with a fascinating plot and dialogues filled with sense. I received a sea of pleasure from watching it. Bakemonogatari is an anime in an unusual format. I advise all fans the supernatural and the unusual to watch this anime. This anime really intrigues.

10/10

P.S. I'm sorry, if there are mistakes in the text. I'm not very good english ^^

Shaft is a studio well known for their weird experimental style, seemingly endless stream of anime in-jokes, and plentiful fan-service. Needless to say their work is an acquired taste and can be hit-or-miss. While this certainly applies to Bakemonogatari, it uses Shaft's signature style very well. Incredibly weird, and at times intentionally obtuse, yet undeniably intriguing and charming (albeit in its own weird way). This is easily one of the studio's best efforts.

The show follows high school student and former vampire (it's complicated), Koyomi Araragi, through a string of bizarre supernatural happenings. Each happening is centered around an individual (all girls, of course) whom somehow ... has become involved in the supernatural, and stumble upon our protagonist, who by nature feels the need to aid them. The show is divided into five arcs, each intriguing and creative on their own right, which are loosely tied to each other into a well thought out whole.

Now, this might sound like the show is formulaic, but rest assured, the show's unhinged creativity always keeps things interesting. Every minute feels fresh and engaging, even when a single conversation takes majority of an episode... which happens quite often.

It is really quite astonishing just how entertaining it is to hearing the characters banter amongst each other. Araragi is a winsome oddball with a healthy amount of snark, it is fun just to listen to him all on his lonesome, and it is even more fun to hear him play off the other characters. The insanely guarded and moody; self-proclaimed 'tsudere' Hitagi Senjougahara has a sharp tongue and a warped sense of humor. The fact that it is hard to tell when she is joking and when she is not makes her all the more interesting to watch. In contrast, the class rep Tsubasa playfully teases Araragi (and the audience). Every character has their own distinct way of talking, as well as their own reoccurring gags and catchphrases, which is exactly what makes their conversations so entertaining to listen to; add to that Shaft's usual cleaver word play and anime in-jokes.

Bakemonogatari is just as crafty with the supernatural as it is with its dialogue. The show has an uncanny way to tie the characters' issues with the weird supernatural circumstances that afflict them. Whether it is an inability to cope with reality, family problems, or jealousy; the personal problems of the characters are connected to the supernatural in cleaver, and sometimes surprising, ways. A lot is revealed about the characters through their interaction with the supernatural, fleshing out their already likable personalities. The class rep Tsubasa, in particular, gets great character development in the final arc; revealing insecurities hidden behind her playful demeanor.

Possibly the most important factor to Bakemonogatari's success is the relationship between Araragi and Hitagi. Aside from being the focus of the show's opening arc, their developing relationship add continuity to the loosely connected vignettes. This prevents Bakemonogatari from degrading into a puddle of randomness the way many of Shaft's works often do. Furthermore, their relationship gives the show a nice emotional core for the audience, and it is gratifying to see how their relationship progresses as the show continues.

Aesthetically, this show has Studio Shaft written all over it. The minimalist and bizarre visual style is not unlike what the studio has done before, in fact it is kind of expected. This, however, does not mean it is any less entrancing to watch. The color scheme is constantly being played around with, and there is always something interesting to look at. The odd camera angles and quick editing fit the show's off-beat tone very well. Character designs are well detailed, especially concerning the girls' assets; and while the backgrounds are not the most stunning you will ever see, they give the show an appropriately surreal atmosphere. Like most works form this studio, the show does get a bit carried away with visual gimmickry, but does not ever get jarringly so. The sound design is splendid; it is very successful in setting the tone, and consistently impressive on its own right. The music itself is excellent; it is especially good at sustaining the mystery and mysticism that envelops the series, and does a great job in the more tense or funny moments as well.

With Bakemonogatari, Studio Shaft has crafted a very cleaver and highly effective supernatural romp. At the same time, retaining the off-kilter charm that the studio is so well known for. The show is equal parts deranged and heart-felt, creating an experience that feels unique despite the many similarities it has with other Shaft works. It does get too wrapped up in itself at times, but overall it is still a damn good watch.