Mononogatari

Saenome are tasked with sealing spirits that possess objects and pose a threat to society. Known as tsukumogami, these spirits are generally non-violent, and saenome normally seal them after a simple verbal exchange.

Traumatized by a previous deadly encounter with a malevolent spirit, Hyouma Kunato refuses to use peaceful methods and gets into physical confrontations with all tsukumogami that cross paths with him. Deeming this behavior unacceptable for a future clan leader, Hyouma's grandfather, Zouhei, proposes that he starts living with Botan Nagatsuki, a young woman whose family is composed of six tsukumogami—lest he be excommunicated.

Determined to track down the spirit that took everything from him, Hyouma reluctantly accepts Zouhei's proposal. As unknown groups of evil spirits begin to jeopardize the balance between worlds, the young man must gain the trust of Botan and overcome his hatred for her mysterious family.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kunato, Hyouma Main

Ootsuka, Takeo Japanese

Nagatsuki, Botan Main

Takada, Yuuki Japanese

Kadomori, Tsubaki Supporting

Oonishi, Saori Japanese

Yuu Supporting

Ueda, Reina Japanese

Haori Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Kagami Supporting

Tanaka, Aimi Japanese

Nagi Supporting

Kobayashi, Chikahiro Japanese

Suzuri Supporting

Nakajima, Yoshiki Japanese

Kei Supporting

Suyama, Emiri Japanese

Kushige Supporting

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Itou, Kaori Producer

Usukura, Ryuutarou Producer

Kimura, Hiroshi Producer

Reviews

Jul 5, 2023

Hittobox

Recommended

Like a really chilled out version of Jujutsu Kaisen on a lower budget, focused more on a single character's purpose and socially awkward humor.

The premise is pretty simple. The main character Hyouma, at a young age witnesses his two older siblings die in battle with an evil spirit. He spends his youth training and sealing spirits (sending spirits back to the afterlife) in order to get revenge on the entity that killed his family. With such a hard nosed focus on this life goal, his grandfather sends him away to experience the good side of his narrow-minded viewpoint of all of them being evil.

The show ... balances between being a humorous house full of differing personalities and action. The show's main humor comes from the main character growing up isolated and sheltered away from social norms, is clueless to this and brutally honest and overly transparent. He's so steadfast in his goal of revenge, is often oblivious to common courtesies and feelings of those around him. It makes for great entertainment throughout the show, and watching his growth and the way he learns to adapt is a nice journey to follow.

It won't necessarily blow you away visually or narratively, but it holds its own ground as a subtly funny and action driven show. I thoroughly enjoyed every episode, and found often at times that side characters were some of the gems of the show as the main two can be bland and a bit too one-note at times. The way Hyouma is clueless about romance is also a key note throughout the show that is enjoyable without falling into raunchy territory that most anime tend to do. There isn't a ton of depth, but sometimes it's nice to have a show where everything is straightforward and not an overly convoluted web of story.

Overall I would recommend if a toned down and chill action-spirit hunter comedy interests you.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Oct 18, 2023

nozomiEX

Mixed Feelings

Your average battle shounen, with a tacked on forced romance component
The only interesting thing about it is the tsukumogami designs. They're basically just gijinkas for traditional japanese tools, but the way they incorporate the properties of the tool into their physical appearance, their personalities, and their combat abilities is honestly pretty creative and refreshing, definitely the highlight of the show. However, the show is extremely stale otherwise. The protagonist is a gary stu and his love interest/macguffin is the perfect mary sue to match. There's not a moment where you feel anything is in danger, the stakes are wholly nominal, ... the fights are a mere formality, everything narratively is bog standard. The show would work better as a Natsumi Yuujinchou clone, without the forced save the girl save the world crap that comprises the vast majority of the runtime. Despite the archetypal characters, in contexts removed from specifically the romance subplot, the muted slice of life comedy is actually amusing but it's not enough to justify this as is.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Mar 27, 2023

AnimeEnjoyer420

Not Recommended

Overall Impression: Mononogatari is a battle shounen/romance that follows Hyouma, a young warrior monk (for lack of a better term) with a burning hatred for tsukumogami (spirits of inanimate objects) after watching his older brother and sister get killed by one in front of him. He is taken in by Botan, a girl that lives with several tsukumogami as a family, to let go of his hatred and learn that they aren't just creatures to be destroyed. The premise sounds more interesting than it actually ends up being though, this is a pretty run-of-the-mill battle shounen with an identity crisis and a total inability to ... animate thrilling action scenes. It can be safely skipped.

+ Positives: Hyouma is an actually interesting main protagonist, and a convincing portrayal of someone whose grief has warped into hatred. He and Botan's tsukumogami have a fun rapport. The character designs are pretty solid. Very good OP and ED. The plot has some promise if they can figure out what to do with it in the already-announced second season. Botan and Hyouma's relationship is pleasant and mostly free of aggravating romcom cliches, but hopefully there's a bit more heat to it in the future.

- Negatives: Visually atrocious. The backgrounds have a horrible filter over them to make them look like faded photographs and it makes almost every scene look glaringly ugly. Poor compositing and things like characters' feet not lining up with the ground compounds the problem. Action scenes are boarded in the blandest and safest way possible and even then the animation is incapable of rising to the task. One particular action scene where Hyouma has a house thrown at him (you read that correctly) almost made me cry because of how cool it should have been on paper, and how pathetic it looked on the screen instead. The series also seems unsure of what to do with itself. Long stretches are simply boring or forgettable because it fails to identify a clear conflict or villain. While Hyouma is supposedly working his way towards destroying the paper umbrella, the tsukumogami that killed his siblings, you only ever see it in flashbacks, and a large percentage of this season just feels aimless as he screws around with random small time villains that have only a tangential connection at best to the paper umbrella. If it were a monster of the week type of series, that might be okay, but it's clearly plot-driven and it makes you constantly wonder what the point or the significance of anything that you're watching is. Hyouma's transition from seething rage machine to guileless dork is a bit too sudden. He's great as a guileless dork so the change itself is fine, it just happens too fast and leaves a lot of nuance and potentially interesting character building on the cutting room floor.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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