Bakemonogatari

**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.

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!

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.

Get ready for the bash, because I will have the unpopular opinion of disliking Bakemonogateri. Let me break it down to you:

*Characters: while they had some kind of depth, it wasn't enough to convince me they were more than archetypes with a pile of quirks.

It also pissed me off that the creators couldn't make up their minds regarding the main protag: Is he dumb or is he smart? It is one thing to have different areas of strengths and weaknesses, but when you switch between full retard and sherlock holmes in the same area of strength, then you aren't doing your character right, which is ... bad considering he's the lead...

*Plot: While I've heard it has an interesting plot, I never got to experience that myself. Either you watch the show without stopping and miss alot of important backstory from the pop-ups or you are the guy trying to read 'em all. In any case, it is not easily accessible. I was the guy who read all the pop-ups and I still ask myself if the info was enough justification for causing me so much frustration. The pop-up system might be innovative for its time, but it is a stupid one.
Other than that, it is a regular "monster of the week" anime that really doesn't stand out at all to me.

*Music: Was pretty good. It set the mood correctly, but other than that I really didn't think much about it. It was definitely above average though.

*Artstyle: Probably the strongest point of the show: It had a unique and really iconic artstyle that still holds up today. Credit should be given where credit is due.

*Overall thoughts and enjoyment: The reason why I grade the show this low is because I really didn't feel much at all for the duration of the show. I didn't sense enough depth in the characters worth involving myself with, and the story and the way it was presented was like an overpretentious slap to the face screaming "DO YOU UNDERSTAND ART DAMMIT?!".

As a piece of entertainment, it was shit, but as a show it had several good qualities
Unfortunately for the show, I value entertainment above all other aspects, and I had none while watching the show. The only thing pushing this rating so high was the artstyle, and even then I was generous.
This show was not for me, but I can still recomend it for artsy people

I found this series very hard to enjoy. I was watching the show with a good friend of mine who recommended it due to his own personal love of the show. Unfortunately it wasn't the case for myself, the story of the show follows a pattern which soon you'll come to see after the third "aberration" which for me boiled down to a mundane repetitiveness that I couldn't grasp. Essentially, A problem arises, they talk evasively about it for a good long while, until the "issue" clicks, they then consult someone who helps them with said issue and then finally, moral learnt?

But whilst this is ... all happening certain other things repeat themselves too, such as with environments. Take for example, you'll be in a playground, you'll see that same environment for the whole episode, they'll pan the camera statically about the same point for a good long while followed by making use of the environment in some way, example a swing set, then back to the scrolling background, certain sounds are then also repeated, all the while flashing text will pop up on the screen which serves to highlight "key emotions" or plot say like "anger". These flashes whilst seem cool to begin with, for me became rather irritating, its not like you can even read the messages sometimes as they flash for a second containing a paragraph, you wouldn't want to pause the show as to ruin immersion, so what purpose do they ultimately serve? Art. Well see that's the thing, the show's artistic side is one of merit, its gorgeous, nothing short of what Studio Shaft is known for. But, whilst its beautiful its also rather "artsy fartsy", for lack of better vernacular. A little TOO excessive? Maybe a little too try-hard? The show does have other highlights, which for me came in the form of breaks between large chunks of conversation. I make it sound like the dialogue is bad, but that's not the case, it is well written and genuinely engaging at times, I just wish there were less random rambles and playing around the subject at hand and more focus on A to B (If that makes sense) as a pose to A C D E F then B.

And this brings me to my overall verdict, the show aimed to be different, it aimed in some sense to set itself apart from the crowd by engaging you in cleverly written conversation. It may have also created a genre, but the question is, is this genre for you? For me, no, because whilst intelligent conversation sounds good, the shows creators know that this alone cannot carry the show, so in an attempt to keep you entertained we are served distractions, one of said distractions is the age old "fan service" which although I didn't see a LOT of, I have also read many a review about this series as a whole and to my understanding this will become a thing throughout the series, not to mention that the show's follow the patterns highlighted above. I have no MAJOR issues with mild fan-service but if it serves no point then I'm opposed. There is no action, so don't expect that. There is a lot of creative conversations, but are you willing to listen to random ramblings too? Then this might be for you.

For the above reasons, my enjoyment levels were low, I have now since dropped the show at episode 7. In a sense, I an disappointed I didn't like the show more. I consider myself rather artistic, I am a graphic designer of sorts, I totally dig the art but art alone cannot carry a concept. Get ready for conversation! 6/10.

A shallow show with a wonderfully stylish coat of paint.

There is so much to praise Bakemonogatari for and yet on the other side of the coin I find myself criticizing it for pretty much everything else. This show is stylized and incredibly so. It utilizes some of my favorite types of editing and atmosphere you can find in anime. With frequent cuts to shots of text on solid colors, atmospheric backgrounds and mood taking priority over drawing irrelevant characters, dreary music, and almost random shifts in artstyle. It's a solid array of versatile production that can be used to positively buff up the show. The ... problem therein is Bakemonogatari mostly meanders as a bland drama unfolds, the supernatural elements introduced hardly seeming to matter as all the shine this show has to offer seems to merely be a vehicle to peddle cheap eroticism and harem tropes with little actual emotional payoff.

Before diving into my gripes I first wish to speak on my enjoyment for Bakemonogatari's opening and endings as well as it's score. Personalized for each girl, these openings and the ending theme are some of the best content in the whole show. With incredible music tracks paired with gorgeous visuals with some common links between them all, including the meta comments on the OPs and ED that directly state which version of the OP/ED you are currently viewing. Each song is fantastic, especially the renowned Ren'ai Circulation which was even more delightful of a track when placed in the context of the full show. Many props to the music team and the VA's performances for each opening. Also worth celebrating is the score which is composed by the fantastic Kosaki Satoru who I recognized for having done the score to one of my favorite anime (Haruhi) as well as some other pieces I've heard around. While the full 'soundtrack' is mainly composed of ambient pieces, the bulk of these tracks hold enough atmosphere and progression in them to capture my attention often and help carry me through some of the more dulling long winded expository dialogues. Of course Kosaki seasons the score with some signature sweeping enrapturing 'emotional' tracks such as 'Classmate' as well as the arranged versions of the opening tracks. I loved the music to this show. It really made me feel something.

I wish the rest of this anime was as capable of making me feel something, especially the protagonist. Voiced by Kamiya Hiroshi, one of my favorite VA's of all time, I was incredibly interested in seeing what kind of character Araragi would be, what kind of developments he'd take if any and overall if he'd be likeable. He was nothing. Perhaps intended as a 'self insert' style character, I found him far too lecherous and uncharismatic to even slightly feel any kinship with Araragi, relate with him or root for him. And of course because this show is a 'harem-esque' he somehow manages to capture the hearts of every female lead despite being completely passe. I'm pretty detached from perversion or fan service in anime, unless I've already invested thoroughly in the show or already excessively like the character, I usually find horny gags or fanservice to just completely ruin immersion. I sit back in my chair and put my hand up like "Really?" "This is one of the first impressions you want me to have of this character? Fan service?" And it's completely true that the target of such fan service is still pubescent teenage boy viewers, which admittedly I am no longer. So while it could be accurate to say that I'm 'missing the point' of fan service, as I am considered no longer the target audience, it still completely ruins this shows chance of elevating into higher art when I find myself constantly rolling my eyes at Araragi's perverted outbursts, spontaneous groping, peeping and etc. It's not even that often, but it's still far too much for my tastes. This brings me back to my belief that the supernatural 'plot' of this show hardly carries any real weight other than to lead to more setups of getting the viewer to thirst for the female protagonists. The overarching plot goes somewhere but if we chart the path of it's direction of travel from episode 1 through 14, it barely covers any distance at all! It's such a disappointment to feel like you're watching episodes again and again where the plot is giving the viewer the runaround while merely dropping crumbs of things to actually enjoy. The bit of action we do see is fantastic, looks great, moves the plot forward and is fun, but it's a rarity while the majority of episodes wield long winded conversations and of course, low hanging fruit in the form of eroticism. There really was no need for the invisible snake scene to be sexual. Please grow up.

I know this is a long series and I'm hoping if I keep trucking through at least the Kizumonogatari film series and another series, it'll start to worm it's way into my heart, buuuut I really did want a lot more from the cast in general. It seems the only characters that were truly given much chance to fully develop were Senjougahara and Hanekawa, which should be the case given how important their roles were. Hopefully the rest will make their move sooner or later, especially Oshino. But as for the here and now, this first season of Monogatari has me leaving very conflicted but still hopeful for the future. Hopefully the fan service will either be dialed back a little in future installments or if used in a gag will ACTUALLY be funny like other series that do gag fan service. [I did think cat Hanekawa was cute though since I'm a sucker for nya puns.]

I thought it might be interesting to write part of my review of Bakemonogatari in the style of its most wearying dialogue, but then I asked myself: in imitating that self-referential style, do I need to reference my own little gimmick in order to preserve the spirit of that dialogue? And if I do, am I still really mimicking that dialogue or am I doing something wholly different by virtue of distancing myself from that idea right at the get? Also, isn't the word "self-referential" among the most totally autological words in the English language? The word "small," for example, seems autological, but one would ... need to know the length of every word in English in order to definitively say that the word "small" describes itself. On the other hand, it's unquestionable that "self-referential" is a word that makes reference to itself. There's something very strong and pure about that, don't you think?

Regardless, it's peculiar that a show so committed to developing believable psychological interiors for its characters has so much self-involved, unreal dialogue. Granted, said psychological interiors are regularly externalized as monstrous wordplay-based apparitions, but the show still seems to genuinely believe in its characters as real people. The whole postmodern self-referential spiel comes off as shallow and almost immediately becomes tiresome—though in all fairness, it's mostly thanks to Senjougahara. Hanekawa, the smart, hardworking class president, was instantly my favorite character just because she talked like a real person. When she turned up in the Mayoi Snail arc, I was at the verge of dropping this altogether, but she was such a breath of fresh air that I kept going, if only to see her story—which, by the by, was easily the best arc of the five featured in Bakemonogatari. The dialogue shines best when the show stops being so pleased with itself. The other most praiseworthy aspect of this show is its minimalistic, SHAFT-y style—it's visually striking, and the surreal scenery is complemented by the equally spare BGM. You won't find another anime that looks and sounds quite like this one. But then again, you probably knew that already; it's pretty much the one thing everyone knows about Bakemonogatari.

This show is described by detractors as a wish fulfilment harem. I would agree, with the caveat that I have no idea whose wish this is granting. Besides Hanekawa, Kanbaru was the only other character I genuinely liked, and both of them had dialogue that was at least marginally more subtle and thoughtful than Araragi's painfully predictable interactions with Hachikuji or Senjougahara's incessant babbling. Hachikuji herself isn't too bad of a character in theory, but she's executed with the subtlety of a train crash. Sengoku allegedly has more development in later seasons; here, she's fairly bland, though I admit to a few juvenile snickers whenever she started pulling the submissive seductress routine and making Araragi uncomfortable. She might have benefitted from being given some more focus during her arc, but I certainly didn't object to seeing more of Kanbaru, whose good-natured demeanor belies quite a dark, conflicted character.

Returning to the main point: I can only surmise that Bakemonogatari fans are all a bunch of unashamed masochists, because this show relies heavily on the assumption that Senjougahara is a character good enough to break up Hanekawa's arc with a date episode that completely excludes all the other girls. To clarify, it's pretty inarguable that she's a bad character, but I can't help finding her thoroughly unlikeable. "Stapling my mouth" pretty much tops my list of things that leave me with a seriously bad first impression, and even once Araragi starts dating her, there's this weird threat of physical violence pervading their interactions. After he tells her that he met Kanbaru, she gets up on the table, sticks a pen right up to his eye, and threatens to push it in and gouge out his eyeball. The usual range of explanations offered by fans in defence of her actions don't really satisfy me, either. She's had a troubled life, sure, but childhood trauma is a poor excuse; that is to say, her past might explain her behavior, but it doesn't justify it. Clearly, it isn't at the level of abuse here—she's supposedly just teasing him—but I still have to pacify myself occasionally with the explanation that Araragi is a masochist who enjoys that kind of thing. Luckily, the date episode was mostly free of violent undertones. Instead, it was just insufferably indulgent, and it's here that we strike at the meat of my problem with Senjougahara beyond any personal misgivings: frankly, no real person has ever talked like her and it makes her into this formless, jabbering nothing obscuring a halfway decent character. The idea that written dialogue can imitate real life speech is obviously flawed, but here there's no attempt to mirror it even superficially. This show wants to have its cake and eat it—you just can't mix psychological realism with such transparently self-aware, self-referential archetypes. This doesn't make a bad show, but it really hurts Bakemonogatari's cohesion, far more so than even the most puerile harem moments. It's too damn on-the-nose, and it makes what could have been a great show into just a good one.

This might all seem rich coming from a user with Louise in their favorite characters list, but she's really just an affectionate holdover from my days of being a horny teenager who didn't really care if Louise beat Saito to death as long as she kept on being cute and tsundere. I wouldn't enjoy Zero no Tsukaima if I watched it now. Given that, I suppose I've inadvertently imitated Senjougahara here in coyly refusing to address the obvious conclusion until now: Bakemonogatari is a show best enjoyed by horny teenagers.

Shaft. A studio mostly known for its comedies, lolicon fanservice and other forms of softcore pornography. I don't know why this studio is praised so much, but at least it did seem to make some effort in a select few titles in recent years.. And this is one of them.

This is a spoiler free review.

*Story*

Where do I start? In the story section I usually like starting with the setting, but in this case It’s hard to describe what the setting is like. From what I can gather though, it’s basically modern day Japan but with a bunch of random supernatural elements combined in to one ... (or what they call "oddities"). You have vampires, Gods, Devils, ghosts, curses and what not.

The story itself is basically separated in to a few different arcs. Each arc focuses on a different character that is introduced (all of which are female of course). And our self insert protagonist attempts to solve each of their problems. There's always some cool twist that's presented at some point at each of these arcs that you likely won't see coming. These twists are each heavily dependent on the supernatural elements that are introduced out of thin air, but are still cool. On the other hand, there's rarely any tension in it, since the main character is basically immortal and he heals faster than Wolverine.

Another thing is that each of these arcs have little to no relation to one another, so the story here is almost episodic in a way. Also the characters that each arc focuses on have little to no role in later arcs. Even though it obviously tries to contrive a role for them once in a while it turns out insignificant for the most part. So the whole thing plays out like a harem or a more bizarre version of Clannad or Air. You know, it's about a guy going around and solving girls' problems. How exciting!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that makes the story bad, but that's pretty much how it plays out and what you can do with such a premise is pretty limited.

On the more technical level, the story is generally paced ok, but it's far from perfect because it seems too rushed in some arcs and pointlessly sidetracks in others (the final arc). But in general it's not a very eventful watch, it's mostly just people talking (which is the appeal of the show). On the other hand, I like the way it handles and explains its supernatural elements and even the harem itself seems to be excused in a way at some point (but that excuse later turns out to be a lie, which is disappointing). Besides that though, the whole thing still seems random and the big picture is still vague. I could be wrong, but my guess is that there's no big picture here, and this is just random stuff left and right?

Even if you haven't watched this show yet, I'm sure you've heard about the witty dialogue it has, am I right? So yeah, it is witty and for me it was enjoyable to an extent. But beware, because a great deal of it is just pointless and hardly relevant to anything. It's pretty much like if I were to start talking about what I ate for dinner last night in the middle of this review and then say "but I digress" and then continue with the review. Or in the show's case, continue with plot exposition that is also pointlessly extended at times. I did enjoy it to a certian extent, but it did get a little tiresome after a while. To be fair though, it could be argued that some of this dialogue at least helps you know the characters better.

Lastly, the series ends openly without addressing a certain elephant in the room (well, it's definitely something that sits in a dark room), but maybe this part of the review will be edited after I watch the next seasons.

So overall I guess there's some sort of story going on here, but not much.

*Characters*

In order to tolerate the characters in this show you need to have a certain mindset. They basically behave in very bizarre ways, it almost seems as if they're in some sort of play or something. They don't really question any of the weird stuff that goes on in their world. They just blend in to the weirdness so I don't find them very accessible.

The main character is basically a self insert kinda guy. He's somewhere between an average joe, a loser of some kind and a pervert? I guess... I just don't know what to make of him. One minute he's being all kind and chivalrous, the next minute he randomly harasses a little girls' boobs.. So yeah, whatever.

The rest of the characters are basically harem stereotypes and fetishes, but they're very well done. you have a tsundere, 3 lolis ( 5 if you include 2 little sisters), a tomboy, a big breasted glasses girl and some weird infodumping guy who's not expanded upon much yet. Yet, they're all very quirky, eccentric and fun to watch.

All of the (female) characters have interesting backstories that are presented through narration. This is by far my favorite part of the show. The backstories are usually very dark and creepy. And even if I still can't relate to the characters, their backstories do wonders in making you more interested in them and in helping me understand the problems they face.

But like I said earlier, they don't play any meaningful role past the arcs dedicated to them, so that's unfortunate. Their presence loses its importance later on so they don't leave much of an impact on me.

Another thing I didn't like is that they took these stereotypes a little too seriously, I think they should've made fun of them a lot more, like in Shaft's other work, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. The thing is, when I started watching this show, I thought I was In for a satire of these stereotypes so I was a little disappointed that they seem to take them seriously just as often as they make fun of them.

Overall though, I still think they're some of the best made and most entertaining to watch harem stereotypes I've ever seen.

*Art*

I personally prefer a more realistic type of artstyle, but I admit that the character designs are very creative. There's a lot of variety in terms of their features and they're all very sexy looking.
In general though, whenever I think of this anime's art I think dark colors and shadows everywhere which is normally something I like. But this show isn't all that dark to begin with so I think it overstayed its welcome.
The backgrounds are very interesting and surreal, I really had fun looking at them. By far the most interesting part of the artwork for me.
Since the series has a great deal of dialogue, there's not that much to animate. However when the characters actually move, the animation seems pretty fluid and the few battles it has look pretty cool and bloody.

One thing that was irritating though is the directing. The camera hardly ever stays in one angle for more than 5 seconds, there's a lot of awkward zoom shots and weird camera angles. They also keep showing flashes of written texts on the screen too fast for you to actually read it. All of this while not much of importance is happening on screen.
Don't get me wrong it didn't bother me too much, but it still feels overly stylized and exhausting for the eye after a while.

*Sound*

The openings were relatively good j-pop songs, but they're not particularly memorable because they each last only a few episodes and most of them don't really fit the tone this show is going for either.

The ending song is a pretty good and memorable rock/pop song and did stick with me, but that's probably mainly because it was there through out the entire show.

The soundtrack, sound effects and voice acting sound great to me. No complaints here. I'm sure the voice actors worked very hard on this one as well.

*Enjoyment*

Yes, I guess did enjoy it to some degree. The supernatural stuff is interesting and some of the characters are fun, though the directing did get on my nerves sometimes and the dialouge did feel tedious a lot of the time.

EDIT: *Sequel and Prequel*

Almost all of the above also applies to the Nekomonogatari prequel. But I disliked it, since all it did was contribute a little more insight on a character who already has a 5 episode arc dedicated to her in Bake. And there was no comedy beyond the first episode, the pacing was slower than usual and it had lolicon/incest fanservice (classy!).

The sequel Nisemonogatari is just awful: It went totally overboard with the fanservice to the point it became cringe-worthy, it had a very flimsy plot that felt significantly more stretched out than usual, it doesn't contribute enough to fleshing out the characters for its length (though it did flesh out the little sisters and introduce a few more). Furthermore, some characters even seemed to behave out of character and randomly did stupid things they normally wouldn't do for the sake of more fanservice (as if there wasn't enough already), which is not a worthy cause.

*Overall*

Despite all my whining it was still a fine series. It definitely stands out and is well worth watching. Just go in expecting a well made harem, and you probably won't be disappointed.

Bake: 6.5/10
Neko: 5.5/10
Nise: 4/10

[Araragi makes a Doraemon reference]
[Nadeko makes a Doraemon reference]
Araragi: Why are you referring to the minor stuff that only shows up in movies?!
- Episode 11 dialogue
Me: Why are you referring to Doraemon in the first place?

I was planning to watch Shakugan no Shana before this. But after having looked at Bakemonogatari's character list for a few minutes, having seen the video 'Courage to tell a lie' and my love for Karen Araragi based on her picture alone, my desire to watch this simply went through the roof. Because of this, I started watching this anime with huge expectations, expecting an anime to which I could ... give a nine and place on my favorites list. The synopsis sounded interesting and compelling. In the end, though, I was quite disappointed. Why, you ask? Well, let me expand. Starting, as always with the story element.

As a whole, the storyline is quite disappointing, living up to my (low) expectations of Shaft. Instead of a storyline of some kind, the anime progresses through arcs, representing events that have little or no effect on other episodes. Not only that, but the snippets of storyline are very repetitive - find a girl who has encountered an oddity, take her to Oshino and perform some kind of ritual to get rid of it, usual with some kind of revelation in the meanwhile. There is barely any suspense. In fact, whilst writing out the storyline, I would mark barely anything as a spoiler.
Similarly, characters are introduced, stand in the spotlight for 2 or 3 episodes, then are promptly forgotten about, perhaps appearing as background characters in the following few episodes, or merely being mentioned. In fact, apart from Araragi, the characters from the arcs all get roughly the same amount of screen time, apart from Karen and Tsuhiki, who appear solely as a villain force of two teenage girls who take up violently waking up their older brother as a profession, the reason he does not wish to return home on Mothers Day and MCs at the end of episodes; and Shinobu, who does nothing except looking at men and women differently and eating donuts, helping out Araragi on occassion.
In typical Shaft style, they prefer not to show events themselves, instead showing the aftermath and getting someone, usually Oshino, to explain. What's wrong with showing them? Also, arcs are often interrupted with other story elements, mostly focusing on the romance between Araragi and Hitagi.
The element of humor, whilst not completely unwelcome, is a little forced, relying on shallow jokes, slapstick and sexual jokes - sometimes even chibis. I won't deny I laughed a few times (that's already better than the humor in Kyoukai no Kanata), but I do wish they would actually give a shot at deeper, non-sexual jokes.
There are also numerous... strange elements which don't add anything to the anime, such as an ahoge with a will of it's own and random bits of text that flash onscreen, especially 'Black'. I don't even know what section this fits into, so I'll just put it in here.
To the anime's credit, though, everything I found confusing was explained in the next episode or so. Whilst I still remained confused about certain elements, it was nowhere near as bad as the other Shaft anime I've seen, Mekakucity Actors. I am also able to say, for almost the first time in a review, that romance was not soppy. It was a bit fast-paced instead.
To conclude, there is almost no storyline to speak of, character appearances are very inconsistent and most add nothing to the storyline except a couple of episodes, the show and characters are overly sexualized and the romance is face-paced. However, elements are rarely confusing, which is definitely a very good point. I give it a 5, because frankly, it didn't impress me at all.

Watching this, I treated myself to more of Shaft's depressing animation, such as strange, alternating colors (blood turning light pink, then blue, hair becoming golden under the light, yellow skies) and inconsistencies with everyday life (deserted streets, houses all looking exactly the same). There were a lot of repeated scenes, for instance, in the driving scene of Episode 11, the same message written on the road is shown about 5-7 times. What bugged me the most though was that I felt that the producers were trying to be smart in trying to make everything look as lifelike as possible, like the strange tear ducts, eye veins and, horribly, actual pictures, mainly of scenery and in black and white. The worst of the worst was the telephone calls though - the same image every time of a REAL hand holding a REAL phone and random things going on onscreen during the conversation. This is absolutely unacceptable. When I watch anime, I expect animated art, not pictures of real life sceney and things/people. Somewhat ironically, when the scenery is animated art, it looks bland and unrealistic. Maybe if they put a little more focus on the art instead of trying to make enverything look life like, it would be better.
Despite all this, I really liked the character art. Ignoring the tear duct and especially visible nostrils, their art is quite nice - in general, I liked them, especially Hachikuji and Nadeko.
Overall, I give art a 6.5, because it is too good for a 6 yet not good enough for a 7.

The music is undoubtedly one of the stronger elements of the anime. There was a lot of it. Unfortunately, most of the tracks were very repetitive and they often felt out of place. I really enjoyed the ending theme and the different character openings.
I give sound a 7.

Surprisingly, the characters were the saving grace of this anime. Ultimately, they are likeable, their quirks and characteristics are unique (between themselves at least), memorable and enjoyable. Despite this, I came to realise that they are very stereotypical (luckily, I haven't seen much anime so it wasn't all that bad for me).
Some characters are much better than others. My favorite character was definitely Hachikuji - she is not only adorable and extremely cute, but her personality is fun, fresh and entertaining.
Araragi felt a little stale - he was pretty much the typical male anime protagonist. Despite this, his character was still rather enjoyable.
Hitagi is a character I don't quit understand. She is one of the most popular characters, yet her personality is so off and confusing. At first she's mean, as soon as Araragi helps her she, all too soon, becomes a girl in love, sometimes jealous, her personality swinging around a lot. She is called a tsundere, yet she sometimes becomes a kuudere, sometimes even something of a yandere.
In general, the characters were quite strong, though as I mentioned earlier on in the 'story' aspect, some of them get way more screen time than others, and all the girls are overly sexualized. I mean, Nadeko didn't have to take off her bra when showing Araragi and Nadeko her scale marks, did she? Kanbaru didn't have to take every opportunity to strip. Araragi didn't have to ask Hachikuji (even jokingly) to show him her panties either. Hitagi insisted too much on the fact that Araragi is a virgin. All this is needless, and drew away from the pleasure of the characters.
I give characters an 7.

Overall, I can't say I really enjoyed this anime. After hearing so many positive things about the show, I started watching it with high expectations, hoping this would be an anime I could add to my favorites list. Perhaps I set the bar too high. I was very disappointed with the uneventful, repetitive storyline which is organized in seemingly unrelated arcs, shallow humor, sexual references, characters that are introduced then almost forgotten in following episodes, the art, and some of the characters (whether it's as a whole or just parts of them which are unnecessary in my opinion). Upon telling this to my friend, she told me "Shaft tends to concentrate on the art and not the storyline." I disagree - they seem to focus on neither.
I give enjoyment a 5.5 because although I can say that liked the anime to a certain extent, I was very disappointed and would recommend to my friends not to watch this.

To conclude, this is not an anime which you can start watching with a serious complexion, looking into things and trying to find ulterior motives, particular reasons for actions and whatnot. It's something you've got to be really light about, never delving below the surface, because once you do, you'll realise just how simple and bland it really is.
In one word: Meh.

Story: 5/10
Art: 6.5/0
Sound: 7/10
Characters: 7/10
Enjoyment: 5.5/10

Overall: 6.2/10 (rounded to a 6)

If you found this review unhelpful, please take two minutes to advise me on what you did not find helpful so that I can improve my reviews :3.

Bakemonogatari is a Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei clone. The only difference is that Itoshiki is now no longer depressed and is a eager-to-help highschool student instead of a pessimistic teacher.

Seriously though, it's as if someone just slapped a different sticker on SZS and said "Hey! This is a new series that we've made!". Of course it was easy to predict. Both series were made by the same studio, although in the case of Bakemonogatari aniplex was helping out too. But that doesn't change the fact that the overal feel is the same, the main character in this anime thinks and acts in practically the same way ... as the main character in SZS. I'm sure that if you watch this anime first then you'll most likely enjoy it (since I enjoyed SZS) but for me this is nothing more than a repetition of something that has already been done in the past by the same bloody studio. It's like scraping off the logo off a BMW, repainting it and saying it's a Volkswagen. It's bound to fail in the worst imaginable way.

The characters are the same, however Itoshiki is now called Araragi and the girls have gotten even weirder. Instead of sticking sticks in animal anuses they're now messing around with invisible crabs and twice-as-long-as-anaconda snakes. But the overall weirdness and epic love triangles and sexual innuendos are still there. However, instead of accidentaly rolling into a girl's bed, Itoshiki... ops sorry Araragi is now resorting to more agressive tactics. Say... like groping a 10 year old girl on a playground?

Art is not similar. It's the SAME. Same weird censure here and there, same witty jokes written all over the fricking place and changing so rapidly you'd have to have the agility of a fly to read them, not to mention that an IQ of at least a thousand would help to actually understand them too (translation or not).

Unlike in SZS, the sound in this series is so amazingly average I even failed to notice it at all. I thought that the whole series was actually silent, devoid of any kind of sounds whatsoever. I turned up the volume but all I could hear was the truck outside my window which came to collect the rubbish.

Enjoyment, I seriously didn't get any. Bakemonogatari is just a poorer version of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. 5 points.

It's overwhelming that Bakemonogatari has turned amazingly popular over the years. Sure, we got the general harem that broke over 10k sales every now and then but Bakemonogatari was the first time it got a massive wide appeal. And as far as harem goes there generally is no better alternative Bakemonogatari. The 5 arcs each have an interesting story to follow through each week. Every new girl, whether it be Senjougahara's playful attitude, or Tsubasa's transformation, are great to watch in action at first glance.

Now, listen up, because I want to make this straight up front. Nisio Isin, comparing to other writers in this industry, ... can write extremely well when he wants too. That's the drawback though, he doesn't want to. While watching various scenes in Bakemonogatari his writing jumps the shark and his jokes, if he wants to consider them that, completely falls flat. Half of the time it feels like he is showing off and is targeting only for people already into anime. These type of jokes have no effect on me, and often can leave someone scratching their head if they aren't deep into the culture. A major offender for me is that most of the time the characters he comes up with have no impact on Araragi's life. This leaves for most of the time a lot of disappointing arcs. (And one that should have been completely scrapped.)

Somehow, it also leaves an impression that Shaft is also at fault here. This can't be confirmed though because I haven't seen any of the other anime Shaft has produced. That's not an excuse for Shaft though, because their visuals half of the time they are on the same big joke. It feels like Shinbou and Nisio are holding side by side, drinking and thinking they are having a really good time. When in reality the viewer on the outside is watching a mess. Their so called prose and directing often damage the product more than it should be.

It's a shame too, because many of the characters have some excellent scenes chocked full of tremendous dialogue. Hitagi Senjougahara and Araragi Koyomi bickering back and forth made it seem like they were really in a relationship. Senjougahara herself is an absolute treat to watch, and seeing Araragis reaction as the straight man played off very well. Another well-done scene that showed Nisio Isin range is Araragi fighting with Mayoi Hachikuji. When Araragi declares that he has beaten up Mayoi and feels bad about it, you can't help but leave a chuckle at it. If I had to pick one standout point, and this is why I would recommend this episode, would be episode 12. The climax on Senjougahara and Araragi's relationship is brilliantly done. Their story wraps up very nicely to the point that I felt like crying.

That's why I feel like Bakemonogatari indeed does deserve a watch, even though all of my harsh words on the series. It's rare that you can see few seconds of dialogue so good. Not really many anime can compare to what Nisio can write. It's just a shame of what it could have been.

God I love Shinbou Akiyuki and Nishio Ishin. The first one as a director, for the way he has to film sequences, the beauty of each scene, the vertigo sensation everytime, even in dialogs moments. And the second one as a writer, because he's an incredible author. Father of my favorite show ( Katanagatari ) his dialogs are unrealistic, funny and often stupid by the way. Maybe he's a genius who's criticizing the brand new anime community in placing lots of nonsense in his writtings, maybe he's just a moran, good at makes weebs production, I don't know. But what I know is that these ... two guys really fit well together, do they ? Both of them are the fathers of what we're talking about, the well known Bakemonogatari, part of a long saga. So let's stop talking about them and focus on the anime.

Well, before you guys say a thing, I want to warn you. First, as you can see in my introduction, my english is pretty terrible so sorry If my review is a bit approximative in term of language. Second, the grade I gave to, six, isn't a normal six. You see, I'm a bit "strict" and so this grade is maybe equivalent to a 8 or 7 in a "normal" list. Because yes, I love this show and It was a true experience.

Disappointing me at the beginning, Bakemonogatari has finally charmed the stupid elitist I am. Like I said before, this is pretty stupid but this isn't bad stupidity and let me explain why you don't have to take that show at the first degree.

Bakemonogatari is, I think, a critical lampoon about the modern japanimation industry. Fast-paced action, fan-service, bland dialogs and scenes and I pass... there's clearly a lot of reccurents problems, and by the way of exageration, Nisio and Shinbou are not only trying to show us panties, boobs and ass, no, mostly deliver a message. "Do you want some bitchies on your dick ?", "Was the 6728th last fight satisfying ?", "People are killed if they die ?" and that kind of stuff I'm talking about. But at the end, I'm still sceptic about that way of process because It can just be a classical weebs show with his clichés too. That's why I prefer to see Bakemonogatari as "melting pot" anime, where everyone can pull what he wants from, and there's no right thought. I'm not a big fan of ecchi nor hentai but it's still cool to watch because I can think what I want of.
But hold it there, I'm not don yet. Lot's of people are yelling at the fans, spitting on the serie 'cause it's just a "retarded weebs show", "pure nonsense" or even "stupid" and yes it is, for the stupid part. The anime is just a following of randomly generated-like sequences with stranges characters and strange story. So what ? I didn't see the point here.
This anime is clearly crazy and I've already give my advice about why. Bakemonogatari is trying to get the f*ck out of the crowding average mass, get up to a higher level. It's dangerous, because tons of people hating that kind of stuff but for the ones who like it, this is heaven.

But enough talking of the "sense", it's time to talk about the anime in itself.

Story - 5
Well ... the story is ... well.
It surely be a pain in the ass to tell the entire plot so let me do a quick summary in few words. Vampire lolicon guy saves a purple haired tsundere girl who doesn't weighs anything and then, a blond old man with an hawaiian jack try to exorcise a crab spirit out of her.
So yeah kids, drugs are bad. When I was talking about strange story, It wasn't a joke for the god sake. But it's there, precisly there that I see Bakemonogatari as a special show. If it was normally structured, with normal filming, normal characters, normal dialogs, it probably would be bad. And why is it good then ? Because of Akiyuki. The way he has to realize is perfectly fiting with that kind of plot. Thanks to him, the anime reveals all his potencial.
Anyway, after the first weird encounter ( and severals unrealistic dialogs scenes later ) we get to met the others characters. I'm gonna talk about them now ( Savin' this for later ) but wow, my mind. Spirit haunting, curse, monsters, you got everything here. Every god damn story is good, great, fantastic ! And ( warning, you're entering the mediocre philosophical zone ) I'm thinking of these stories like some rapports of the person in the modern society. For exemple, in the second story, we're following the adventure of a "lost snail", a girl who can't get back to her home. And strangly, when the protagonist is with her, he can't get back too. Honestly, it could describe a type of mentality like "You're gonna loose everythign if you stay with me" or "Some people needs to be alone". That's what I'm talking about, morals. Morals about behavior in the society, morals about people who doesn't respect others and I think the main character is representing of the society and the girls are various morals like madness, sadness, jealousy and others type of feelings.
And maybe not, maybe it's just a stupid story with randomly generated plot, maybe it's just a fan-service endless hole, maybe. But you can see it as you want, no ?

Art - 8
God, this is gorgeous.
If my eyes could cum, they would to.
For a 2009 anime, the graphism is exceptional. The animation is fantastic, the art is fantastic, every god damn thing in these drawings are fantastic. The landscapes are orgasmic for the retina. That's why SHAFT is my favorite studio, you're always sure about the graphic quality, no shit Sherlock.

Sound - 6
The OST is good, made by the guy who compose Haruhi, so yes.
And then, I didn't like any of the OP, badly.
BUT, I'm falling in love with the ending, it's absolutely awesome. And it's by- ow, supercell ... do they produce bad music sometimes ?

Character - 9
The best part, characters.
Bakemonogatari is the best show for character development in my opinion.
Arararararagi, the protagonist, is surely one of the best character of japanimation.
Character, character, character, character.
And each of the girls have their own personnality, their own way to react, to think, to do, they are not just copies of a classical archetype, no, they are cool.
From the cold tsundere to the athletic lesbian, passing by the annoying loli and the nymphomaniac childhood friend, all of those guys are really original.

Enjoyment - 8
Yeah, 8, because this is fun as hell.
In the first and second episode, I wasn't sure about but when I see what could be done in a climax situation, gosh I started to love it. Bakemonogatari is a double or quits series, you're gonna love it or hate it, there's no medium.

Overall - 6
So I'm giving a 6. You're gonna yell at me like "Y A SIX IF YOU LOVE IT NIGG ?". First, I already told you that a six is actually a good grade for me and after, because of the story. The plot isn't that good, yeah, and despite of all the good sides, I cannot stay deaf at all the defaults. It's an excellent anime but there's a way too much fan-service and nonsense, and even if it's made on purpose, it doesn't makes the thing good. But forget it, some great stuff here.

Do yourself and watch some trailers for this show before you even start thinking about watching a full episode.

The art direction actually made me physically ill. I felt like someone was sticking needles into my eyes and woke me up with a hangover.

The story seems good, the characters seem good. The sound is top notch.

But the art. Ugh.

Characters look like, animated well. No issues. But the colour palettes and the scenery is just dreadful to my eyes.

... At times entire scenes are bathed in a monocoloured lighting, at other times entire sections of the scenery are completely missing, replaced by said monocoloured background.

It feels like you're at an abstract art show and you're being told that this art style is awesome and you must like it because it's so bloody awesome.

Well, it's not. It feels sloppy, artsy for the sake of being artsy without any purpose behind it. It doesn't add anything to the show, only takes away.

Same can be said for the art direction. There's no smooth scene transitions or well animated traveling scenes for the characters. Nope. Inbetween the actual anime scenes you get countless flashcards thrown into your face. It's impossible to read the text because they only show for a fraction of a second. Yet pausing the anime to read them gives irrelevant information. So you're screwed either way. You either get epilepsy and be incredibly annoyed by the useless noise, or you keep pausing the anime, piss yourself off that way, and still obtain nothing of use.

Watching this show is one of the few times I got legitimately angry, because I feel like a good potential story and good characters are absolutely ruined by the art choice and direction. It's like picking up a good book only to find that it's written completely in Comic Sans and every other page has a different coloured background. That's what it literally feels like.

Watch at your own risk.

To put it bluntly, this anime is a harem that tries to position itself in the supernatural category. This could have been a great anime because of the overall idea but the execution seemed very lacking. The story is very long and drawn-out, and eventually bores the watcher with half-heartedly done characterization that forces itself into you. This animation style tried to be innovative, but all the episodes ended up turning into was frame-by-frame exposition that is illegible without pausing the video and lots of unnecessary dialogue that is easily forgotten. Many times during this anime have I seen dialogue run on for over half ... an episode without having so much as a word that helps the plot move forward. However, despite the fact that this anime was poorly directed, the story eventually moved forward and gave itself some meaning, however drawn-out it might have been.

To sum it up, the story and idea behind it was better than average.

The Art was not terrible and was somewhere between mediocre and above-average.

The Sound was average compared to other anime. Nothing terrible but nothing exceptional, either.

The Characters were all poorly designed and were just melting pots of ideas put together without much thought.

The enjoyment kept me long enough to stay until the end of the anime, but I was tempted to drop this many times while watching.

Overall, this anime is a 5/10.

This would be a good anime. It really would, if it focused more on the cool story.
It's like a partial SoL where your typical NEET gets all the girls for no reason and all the main characters aside from the NEET are hot girls who fall in love with him. Even a lesbian at one point more or less. Like, really?
It also tries too hard to be artistic. It's full of text that disappears so fast you'd need to advance frame by frame to read it, weird art where for no reason the people will like, turn into food or something random. Not part ... of a mood or playful scene or anything, it'll just be random. Flashy annoying art, art that's hard to figure out what the hell is going on, etc.
Otherwise it has a very nice story to it... which you come into part way through and have to piece together what happened before then... and then it ends leaving you still wanting more.

It's worth watching despite my harsh review, but it's nothing special. I recommend this for either people who like lots of fanservice lovey dovey stuff, and for anime fans that have watched all the good animes already.

Bakemonogatari is part of the monogatari series written by nisio isin. I believe that a lot of people heard about this show and so I wanted to share my honest opinion.

We begin the show with our hero Araragi koyomi. Although firstly he seems as your regular harem hero we discover very fast that he is a part vampire, which show us the supernatural element of the series.
The story in monogatari is focused on how Araragi help girls who encountered supernatural beings and add them to his harem. This formula gets repetitive and tiring very fast-He sees a girl in trouble, help her (because as usual ... our hero is very nice with high moral values) and add her to his harem. I got tired of this really fast and the ways to solve the problem, although sometimes original, wasn't very interesting. Except from one episode, the story was very weak (and this episode wasn't really connected to this story).

However, while the story is weak the main focus of this show is characters. It's very character driven and the real interest is the dialogue and the unique, fun conversations about basically nothing. Sometimes the show gets serious but quickly return to this silly tone, in a very natural way and good balance between them. The sad things is that in shows like that to have the maximum enjoyment from characters gags you need to get used to them, and bake only show you very little from them, so the real fun begins in the Sequels.

Aside from the characters the other strong point of this show is the art and visuals which I sure you all heard about. The fun, unique style of shaft, the pleasant character design and the general feeling are all enjoyable. The soundtrack is okay, I don't remember something that I really liked, but the openings are all nice and the great thing about them that each arc they change-so if you didn't liked one, you might like the others.

In conclusion I will say that I expected too much from this show. I heard so many good things on it and how much "deep" and "totally not about echii" that was, but it was my mistake to listen I guess. Another thing that had major effect on my enjoyment was the main girl, and although the best episode in the show centered around her I still disliked her and the fact she got a lot of screen time bothered me. So if you look for a deep story with a large focus on plot-don't look this way. If you want to see something that is fun to watch with great dialogue, go watch now.

Part 1 English
Part 2 Bahasa Indonesia

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Well, hello there. Today, we're talking about Bakemonogatari, or as I like to call it, the anime that's impossible to pronounce. Seriously, try saying that five times fast.

Now, this anime is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, the animation is absolutely stunning. It's like watching a work of art come to life on your screen. On the other hand, the plot is about as confusing as a Rubik's Cube in a tornado.

The characters are all quirky and interesting, but they don't always make the most sense. It's like trying to have a conversation with a drunk octopus ... - you're not quite sure what's going on, but it's kind of entertaining nonetheless.

And don't even get me started on the dialogue. It's like a never-ending stream of puns and wordplay, delivered with a deadpan seriousness that's both hilarious and baffling.

Overall, I'd give a score of 7/10. It's a beautiful mess of an anime that's sure to leave you scratching your head and chuckling at the same time. Just don't expect to fully understand what's going on, and you'll be just fine.

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Baiklah, hari ini kita membicarakan tentang Bakemonogatari, atau yang saya suka sebut sebagai anime yang sulit diucapkan. Serius, coba ucapkan itu lima kali dengan cepat.

Sekarang, anime ini agak bercampur aduk. Di satu sisi, animasinya sangat memukau. Seperti menonton karya seni menjadi hidup di layar Anda. Di sisi lain, alur ceritanya sebingung Kubus Rubik dalam tornado.

Karakter-karakternya semuanya unik dan menarik, tetapi mereka tidak selalu masuk akal. Seperti mencoba berbicara dengan gurita mabuk - Anda tidak terlalu yakin apa yang terjadi, tetapi cukup menghibur.

Dan jangan sampai saya memulai tentang dialognya. Seperti arus yang tak pernah berhenti dari permainan kata-kata, dikemas dengan serius yang datar yang lucu dan membingungkan.

Secara keseluruhan, saya akan memberi skor 7/10. Ini adalah anime yang sangat berantakan tetapi indah yang pasti akan membuat Anda menggelengkan kepala dan tertawa pada saat yang sama. Jangan berharap untuk sepenuhnya memahami apa yang terjadi, dan Anda akan baik-baik saja.

Overall rating: 6, further review below

Turns out... I may have overbloated my expectations of the Monogatari Series...

Can you blame me? When the biggest detractors of the show on MAL call it fetish bait for pedophiles and a glorified harem anime, the only thing I could think was: "This shit's right up my alley!" Well, you can now look at me and laugh. But in all fairness, the anime does have a bit of promise, if only by its structure. By that I mean the barely used in anime, incipit in media res, or basically, shit happened before, and we'll talk about it later. That ... leaves a small layer of mystery that might be the only reason I even remotely care about this show after watching its first season.

Now for what the anime is actually about. Well there's this dude named public class Araragi(); who goes around heping his public string friends; who are haunted by public class Entitites(); who don't really have an explanation as fo rwhy other than they are somewhat related to random, mostly Japanese monster tales. The rest is left to the watcher's imagination until they watch the rest of the series

Its characters, now not to be mistaken, every single character is different and overall pretty well written. But there's a massive problem, and Araragi and Senjougahara are the biggest culprits, when it comes to general intreractions, the characters feel more more like self learning AIs (thus the bad programming joke, don't blame me, it's been years since I last touched code) with a very well written backstory than actual characters. And even when they try to fix the issue by adding comedy, it just doesn't work when your main brand of comedy is garbage meta humour and jokes relying on Japanese folk culture. And unlike Gintama, I can't find any fansub to explain me most of the jokes so I have no idea if it would be funny with context, although probably not. And if only that was the only big problem.

Character issue not helped by the faxct Araragi sounds like a damn narrator.

Also, what the hell Shaft? A production couldn't be more pompous unless I watched a lobster flavored champagne in a fancy glass spinning in a random pattern and somehow called it art. The panels, which I thought would be endearing turned out to be annoying, and after a point, I just ignored them all. I don't know if the source material was required to be adapted this way, but if that was the case, I'd rather be blind than having to watch an anime like that. It turned a perfectly serviceable anime into a flawed production. And if that's Shaft's biggest flex, they might be condemned to mediocrity. A shame, character desingns were plenty good, made me want to put my dick everywhere near the cat.

Yup, not holding my breath for the rest, but still a watch.

If I pet a dog on the street, I'd be living. If I could get off my vehicle and offer a candy to the poor kid, I'd be living. If I buckle up and confess to my four year old crush, I'd be living. But all through my life, living feels extensively circumstantial to how I like to define it. I may have been at the right place and time to discover that I have often taken infatuation for love, polarity of opinions as disrespect and insecurity for defence, I may have been a second late or uttered a word more to hurt the people ... I have. But why does all of this need to happen if I could have easily fixed them? The border drawn between life and existence comes to effect. We dream towards an objective reality while constantly ignoring the subjective standpoint, or, in simpler frames, we choose to run away what (really) is. From the very beginning of the show, Bakemonogatari puts all of its skill in exploring this very border. The weight deficit, I think, is allegorical to the parents' negligence and incapability of confrontation dynamically inheres within the product as cowardice and irresolution. It's this cowardice that surfaces and impacts on Senjougahara's persona as desire for solitude. Her fear of embarrassment distracts her from seeking help. But as Araragi-kun says "you're the only one who can help yourself", but often a hand lent in favour can make chivalric a despondent heart. Only when acceptance supersedes Hitagi's own fear, she is able to see life in a new light, that is, from her standpoint instead of being afraid of revealing the lost 'normality' — a metaphor, hinted throughout, for the invaluable piece of splendor identity is.

This, fantastic parallel drawn between the two extremes in the first two-three episodes, made me reflect and appreciate the depth put into the show in large magnitudes. Thoughts are told through flickering cards, the emotional gap of the medium was bridged by distinct cuts of reminiscence. Bakemonogatari was like a spontaneous and sexy daydream ready to trade eminent escapism for the banal blemishes of my own life. But this kind of polish does not stay put. As I made it through further episodes, the imperfections grew in significance. The stylish dialogue was shaped into gross loli humour and mechanical blueprints started to eat up its steadiness. The nomadic existence of the thematic representation and execution, which the show once held proudly, was isolated into ridiculously drawn caricatures (I'm looking at you, Tsubasa Cat and Nadeko Snake) which would (often) forge unsettling side arcs to mock their own passive survival. Romance is precisely well done at some (ep 12, my favourite of the 15) and it is again assembled into a portentous cliche at the terminals.

For a dialogue driven show, Bakemonogatari has its script proofread. The show breaks the fourth wall like it has the copyrights reserved, and it does so avoiding convention and embracing creative pursuits. The music is again, a riveting addition to the drama, Staple Stable is simply enchanting. Although when it goes out of its comfort zone to address themes such as farewell, reliance, it floats with a lot of baggage. Sometimes it mistakes warmth for pedagogy and tries to interpret simple events as something beyond its thematic perimeter. It loses out on animation too on occasions where the scenic impact bore great value. But the sublime consciousness and molded creativity, though in uneven amounts and periods, exceeds its aforesaid shortcomings. If loli humour can be gross, the finesse in dialogue can be sensational. Bakemonogatari emerges as a raw gem of brilliance tarnished and toned down by suspended disbeliefs. If it could've stayed on track, I'd be looking at one of my favourite entries in anime. For now, it's wonderful mirage that I'd revisit amidst coming years.

It's very interesting and different story wise. But I cannot get over the fact that this anime is basically a flimsy MC that basically goes around fixing problems for people... again and again. That doesn't hold attention very well. It's like doing something repetitively and expecting something different each time. Also, he doesn't

Music was pretty average and somewhat out of place at times and at other times it was well put. It's really good when the music pulls you into the mood which it didn't quite do.

But the way the scenes are shown definitely gave it the "mysterious" vibe with the quick walls of ... text, I'll give it that.

Near the end, it became a story instead of just "running around fixing problems rpg game style".
That I was definitely happy with, but maybe a little too late.

No, I don't cover many aspects in my reviews and neither is it perfect. You won't die