Bakemonogatari

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Ahh Bakemonogatari. I wanted to like this show. The concept behind it sounded like it would be an interesting anime. I was told that this would be a harem with intelligent dialogue and supernatural elements by a competent staff. So I settled in, put the show on and prepared myself for a wonderful ride.

Episode one begins and the first thing that strikes me is the art style. Words flash on screen too fast to be read that would usually describe an emotion a character is feeling or what they are thinking. The lighting and backgrounds also have a quirky touch to it, giving me a ... feeling that this could be fun and interesting.

First we meet Araragi; the "average" protagonist, then Tsubasa; the class rep, and finally, Senjougahara; the "tsundere". These are regular characters in the harem genre, but that doesn't suggest anything is wrong, yet. The rest of the episode focuses mostly on the supernatural and I can say the show has grabbed my attention.

Then the first scene of episode two happens and it becomes clear the direction Bakemonogatari is taking. Fan service galore, girls only existing to fill an anime character trope and to flirt with Araragi without having any reason to like him, plots that have no interaction nor lead to any development for Araragi and no other male existing other than Oshino who is only involved in the supernatural side of things.

Bakemonogatari is generally praised not for the supernatural side, but for its take on the harem genre where the dialogue is described as "witty" and that there's "great wordplay". I disagree. The supernatural side is what seems to be the most competent part of Bakemonogatari's storytelling. The dialogue though is childish. The girls don't flirt the same way a normal person would; instead they are completely openly sexual towards Araragi. The dialogue is especially flawed when the girl would be naked in front of Araragi yet acting like she's not interested in him and for some reason he believes that she isn't interested. Either he is braindead or they couldn't think of a better way to portray flirtation. Don't get me started on the amount of times Araragi would be called generous or caring when he's clearly doing things that no one in a monogamous relationship would ever do.

The art style had potential in this series but never really added anything once the show got going. The female characters are all drawn exactly how you'd expect a fan service anime would portray its women. It was amusing that the girls didn't just have beautiful bodies, but their skin was actually shiny. The backgrounds and settings were interesting to look at though; generally having weird lighting to give a unique feel. What was most prominent though was the SHAFT awkward body positions and head tilts.

The soundtrack does its job in attempting to give a quirky feel to each scene. You get the feeling that the show's creators wanted this to complement the many jokes throughout the show, but it falls flat when the dialogue is poorly written. The openings and endings aren't remarkable. The voice acting is done decently well enough to portray each character trope.

I watched this anime because I had heard Nisemonogatari and Monogatari: Second Season were must see animes. In the end though I gave up on Nisemonogatari a few episodes in because it had the same flaws as Bakemonogatari. I understand people enjoyed this and I can see why. If you're into fan service and simple dialogue, you will enjoy this and I have nothing against that. But if you're looking for something more intelligent, with actual witty dialogue in a romance type anime, watch something like Spice and Wolf instead.

Utterly unintelligible garbage.

I have never found myself so confused as to all the hype and praise surrounding an anime as I have in the case of Bakemonogatari. This is the only anime I have ever tried hard to finish and been unable to. The issue is this: the script only makes a vague amount of sense; one never knows exactly what just happened or why it’s happened, only a general gist, much like watching a movie in a language you don’t really understand. To further add to the frustration, text appears constantly in flash frames, that is to say, in single frames of nothing but ... text and a solid background interspersed for “artistic effect”. It would appear that these do not add anything at all to the plot or the development, but are instead simply reflective of what is going on at the time; sadly these writings are also cryptically vague. They also have the added irritation of forcing completion-ists (like myself) to pause the damn video repeatedly every few minutes to try and read the stupid things.

In fairness, I have often wondered if perhaps it is the sub translations that I used that caused the thing to make no sense, but I have a few friends who have continued to watch the series and have been left equally confused. The premise does seem interesting, but without being able to understand what is going on, it gets infuriating really fast.

The music in the show is passable, but the long gaps in the soundscape leave awkward holes that add absolutely nothing but disorientation to the overall feel. The art, on the other hand, is beautiful in its simplicity. Honestly, this is Bakemonogatari’s only redeeming feature.

Utter garbage.

This is Twilight for older Japanese men.

It is a fantasy for many older Japanese men to live out.

First off. Araragi is a self insert character for the viewers. His appearance is generic, his personality is bland, and his entire character just screams "typical Japanese male."

Now I can say a lot more things about this subject. But I'll move on.

... The show is based off of dialogue and Japanese puns/humor.

So exactly what type of entertainment can be derived for non-Japanese people?

Absolutely none.

The jokes are absolutely terrible and cannot be translated to an American audience very well. Proof of this is the lack of a dub for the show. Many popular Japanese shows are quick to be licensed and dubbed. But it was only recently that Bakemonogatari was licensed, and it is speculative(and unlikely) that it will get one even with the licensing.

Now I'll get to the actual animation/art of the show. At first glance, you might say "this looks beautiful!" And you're absolutely right. But as you keep watching the show, you'll realize the animators didn't actually take the time to animate the whole thing and put in slides with words.

The story in this show seems to be nearly non existent as well. But I admit, I've only seen 5 episodes. It seems the premise of the show is about a boy who was once turned into a vampire(and regaining his humanity later) helping out girls with problems that are supernatural. The show is based off of arcs where he "helps" a different girl each time, but there doesn't seem to be a focus.

The characters are the just worst I've seen in any anime.

Bakemonogatari has quite possibly the worst character in all anime/manga.
Just an awful, spiteful, vile, wretched, selfish, cowardly, ungrateful, loudmouthed, overdramatic, angst filled little ***** named Senjougahara Hitagi.

Her presence alone can kill even the best of series. Now add her to this already terrible show and you can understand what kind of a horror this show can be to watch.

5 episodes was far too much for me to watch.

This is legitimately THE worst anime I have ever seen.

If I had to pick a word to describe Bakemonogatari, it would be “bad”. And I don’t mean that in a positive way.

Basically, Bakemonogatari is a Harem show. There is nothing special about it. It is just like every other harem show out there. We have Araragi, our protagonist who’s exactly like every other harem protagonist other than the fact that he’s a vampire, has a meaningful backstory, and doesn’t get into stupid perverted situations with girls who act irrationally for the sake of comedy. Minus all the things that set this apart from other harem shows, this is nothing special.

The characters in ... this show all fall into certain archetypes: We have the sexual assault victim who seems to be a tsundere but really is just bad at communicating with others and is using it as a defense mechanism. She even has the stereotypical broken family with a mother who, just like all anime mothers, got sucked into a cult and disowned her daughter. We have the loli who’s actually dead and is bratty because she doesn’t want people to get hurt by being friendly with her and whose parents are divorced just like all anime parents. We even have the sporty girl who is, like most sporty girls, a lesbian and hates the main character because he took away her love interest. Most of them are simply used to deliver unfunny jokes that don’t make sense unless you put in the effort to actively listen. And we all know just how awful that is. A lot of time is spent on meandering dialogue that isn’t important to the plot at all except for all the times that it is and only serves to throw jokes at the audience that aren’t funny because I didn’t think they were funny. The characters are also constrained to their own “arcs”. Each one only gets a few episodes before moving onto the next boring archetype character. This is inherently bad, no matter how well executed it is or how much story and character development is put into just a few episodes. Not that there’s any character development anyways. After all, all the characters are cliche archetypes and this is just a normal harem anime.

So what makes Bakemonogatari unique? Well obviously the art, since everything else is pretty standard.

Bakemonogatari is animated in a very strange way. This isn’t surprising. After all, it was animated by Studio SHAFT, who are, at this point, famous for their bizarre animation styles. In this show there’s lots of times where there’s real life photography and walls of text that go by so fast you can’t read them unless you pause (and god forbid you have to pause). Aside from all the times that the characters are animated, there’s very little animation to be found in this show. In fact, I can think of a lot of times where there’s just static images. I can think of lots of times where there’s actual animation as well, but those don’t count.

The art is certainly interesting. However, there are times is was obvious they were just saving money. In fact, you can calculate how much each scene costs, with precise amounts such as “a lot” and “not very much”. It’s a lot more effort than pausing to read the walls of text, but it’s harder to complain about, so I’ll play it off as a game I played during this incredibly generic, boring show.

While the backgrounds are unusual, the character designs are very normal for a harem anime. Honestly, name me one harem anime that DOESN'T have a monkey girl in a raincoat. As a generic harem anime, the main draw is the cute girls and not the plot or intricate character relationships. The supernatural elements aren’t that interesting either since they were obviously there to trick the audience into thinking that this wasn’t a generic harem show. While this show does have slightly odd directing, the girls are all attractive and in generic harem positions such as being constricted by invisible snakes while wearing a school swimsuit, or ripping apart the main character with your monkey arm while wearing a raincoat in the creepiest way possible.

The show breaks the fourth wall a lot, with the main female lead, Senjogahara, calling herself a tsundere. At times they question the fact that they are characters in an anime. Most people would use this and say that it’s proof that Bakemonogatari is “self-aware”. While they’re right, I’m going to be edgy and different by trying desperately to prove them wrong.

See, Bakemonogatari isn’t really ironic. It just pretends to be in order to protect itself from criticism. It’s saying “see we’re poking fun at ourselves, therefore you can’t criticize us for our use of tropes. This is not irony for the sake of humor. It’s simply a way or utilizing anime archetypes and creating a cast of one-dimensional characters that aren’t fleshed out or sympathetic except for all the times that they are. It’s just proving how lazy the author was. He didn’t feel like creating complex characters so he decided to use stereotypes and then poke fun at them. This obviously took no effort at all. The author needs to learn how to make believable, sympathetic, well rounded characters like Kirito.

The heavy use of self-aware humor has several downfalls. First of all, it is hard for simple people like me to understand it. Second, it’s easy to make fun of and trash-talk. It also seems to think that the audience isn’t going to notice that it’s relying on the same cliches it’s making fun of to stay afloat. I cannot think of a single scene where it was held up by it’s intriguing story or interesting characters because all of them are so cliche. I mean honestly, I haven’t seen a single harem show that doesn’t involve a girl who was almost raped when she was 12. The series feels very empty because, aside from charming characters, entertaining dialogue, and interesting art and story, it had nothing to offer besides cliches.

In closing, Bakemonogatari is just a bad anime. It tries to sound smart and avoid criticism with interesting art and faux-ironic jokes when really it relies on nothing but cliches and tropes. If you want to see an anime that doesn’t rely on tropes, cliches, or deus ex machina, AND has well rounded, interesting characters, check out Sword Art Online. It’s the best anime ever made.

Bakemonogatari. If you spend at least an hour aimlessly wandering on the internet you'll probably hear about it or come across one of the characters as someone's forum avatar. This is what got me. I saw Hitagi, I saw Shinobu, and I really took to their designs. I'm a figure collector, and when I see a figure I like, I feel the need to watch or read whatever the source material is, both so I can really know the character I'm spending money on, and because having figures I don't know the stories behind leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I saw Shinobu's Nendoroid and ... bought her without hesitation. No regrets there, she's one of my favorite figures in my pretty big collection (I got the premium goodies as well, those were neat). A few months before that, I got around to watching the first two episodes with my boyfriend, and both of us were far from impressed. Still, I gave it another chance when I returned home for summer break, because now I had Shinobu and of course I needed the others (such is the life of a collector) and because I'd heard that it got better with time. What a lie.

I can't say I understand the massive hype surrounding this show. The first thing I want to make clear is that it's pretty damn boring. It's essentially just fifteen episodes of two characters having very dull conversations, with the oh so hi-larious Koyomi getting bullied or verbally outwitted by the members of his haunted girl harem.

I can't emphasize enough how much I hate Koyomi. He's your typical perverted harem protagonist with a heart of gold, willing to valiantly give up his useless life for anything with a pair of tits. His hobbies include staring at ass, popping boners over the slightest amount of female contact, and groping little girls. What? That last part? Groping little girls? That's right, groping little girls. Mayoi, the little fifth grade girl, is the repeated target of Koyomi's disgusting, grabby hands, and he is genuinely shocked when she fights back. Koyomi's got a pretty latent case of pedophilia; besides squeezing the chest of a fifth grader, he also gets an erection from touching a middle school girl's (Nadeko) MACHINE WASHED swimsuit and bloomers. This boy acts like he hasn't had an orgasm in three years, which is odd, considering the amount of masturbation material shoved at him every day.

Koyomi, unfortunately, is part vampire, so he's virtually immortal and heals quickly. He gets the ever living shit beat out of him a lot, which is pretty satisfying, but not quite as satisfying as it should be, knowing that even though he got a hole kicked in his abdomen, he'll be a-okay in the next scene. I was stupid for thinking that somehow, maybe the entire female cast wouldn't fall head over heels for him. Very stupid indeed. Every chick in this goddamn show wants to suck his nasty dick because he's their savior and is...no, that's it. Your typical damsel in distress scenario. Also, did I mention how ugly he is? If you're gonna have a harem of chicks vying for a dude's cock you better make him attractive. I can't say anything nice about this asshole.

Hitagi, his "girlfriend", is almost as bad as he is, the "almost" is purely because she isn't a pedophile. She is, however, a massive bitch. She treats Koyomi like the piece of shit he is, but it's not in any way satisfying because she's a bitch to everyone and her life is awful so we're supposed to feel bad for her. It's probably the most generic tragic backstory for a female anime character ever: she's a sickly girl who was great at everything (smart, athletic, popular), she used to be rich, she got sexually assaulted, and her mom is a nut who donated all their money to a shady religion cult.

I'll admit I pitied her at the end of the second episode and even shed a tear or two, but even though one of her massive problems was solved, she still acts like the world owes her everything. It's very hard to believe that her and Koyomi are even dating; she doesn't give a single shit about him. She pulls that edgy "if someone kills you i'll kill them" bs with Koyomi all the time and it somehow becomes a plot point more than once, but that's the extent of her affection. In one scene, she claims to have no interest in sexual activity due to her assault (understandable), but minutes before she was rubbing the inside of Koyomi's thigh, licking his ear, and whispering unintelligible, presumably dirty things in his ear...while in the backseat of the car her father was driving. What can I say? These two deserve each other.

A whole lot of emphasis is put on Hitagi's "tsundere" personality, but I'm only seeing tsun and no dere. She is entirely a bitch and her "sweet" side doesn't extend past death threats.

Any time not spent straight up ignoring Koyomi is spent verbally berating him and firing off one unfunny insult after the other. This shit is honestly, genuinely supposed to be funny, so it happens in every goddamn episode where Hitagi shows her ugly, scowling face. Koyomi acts as only a reactionary, taking the insults like the little bitch he is, which is also supposed to be funny, but it sincerely isn't. It's so painfully unfunny.

In short, the two main characters are the most unsavory of the bunch. They're your generic harem male lead and tsundere bitch girlfriend with very little thought put into either. Their quarrels are intended to be funny and witty, but I found myself sitting through these scenes either completely straight-faced or just rolling my eyes at the money wasted on this mess.

As for the other characters, besides their appealing designs, there isn't much to them. You've got your cute yet sassy fifth grade girl, your sporty, "lesbian" chick, your shy childhood friend girl, and your generic smart, sweet, big-tittied honor role student. All these characters are are flat reactionaries with one or two oh so quirky personality traits that serve as Koyomi's arm candy and fanservice. This show isn't an ecchi, I can tell you that, but the ass and boob shots are so out of place in this *~*occult avant-garde mystery*~* that it's just embarrassing. "I'm a monster that's possessed your friend and I kill people to relieve stress, but I'm also a sexy kitty with big boobies, nyahaha!" That fucking laugh made me wish I was deaf.

I enjoyed Mayoi's character at first. I appreciated her hostility and hesitation to trust Koyomi, and her arc had an awesome opening theme. I cried a bit at the end of her arc as well. This admiration soon transformed into disappointment as she gradually became another one of Koyomi's bitches, losing basically ever bit of integrity she once held for me. She gets angry when being groped and retaliates as expected, but as soon as she discovers it's silly Koyomi's doing, it's alright! Also, the "I flubbed your name" thing got old, but she is a fifth grader, so I guess I can let it slide.

Suruga, the athletic one, quickly became one of my favorites. She's cute, she's personable, and she knocks Koyomi's lights out twice! And get this: she's gay, so she won't want to suck Koyomi's chode! Awesome!

...Haha, so naïve. She's not gay. I mean, she is, for Hitagi (god knows why), but after being saved by Our Lord and Savior Koyomi Araragi, she insists on stripping down when talking to Koyomi and pretty clearly want to ride his shriveled dick into the sunset. Honey, you're not gay. I know, it was hard for me to accept my bisexuality too. You'll get through it. It's really infuriating to realize that even though these writers /could/ give us a gay character, they wont't, because apparently writing a female with no romantic or sexual attraction to men is literally impossible. I don't care if she's bi, in fact, that's great! Just don't call her gay.

Her arc was probably my favorite, though. That scene where she stands ominously in front of Koyomi near the train tracks at night? Genuinely scary. That awesome, fast-paced fight scene? Fantastic! I loved that. Too bad it only lasted like, four minutes. Then she turns into another notch in Koyomi's belt. They had the chance to make a good character, and they didn't take it.

Nadeko is the reserved, quiet, childhood friend of Koyomi and his sister. Gonna cut right to the chase: she loves him too. Boooring. Not much to say about her, except that despite her age--no, wait, especially because of her age, Koyomi still wants to bang. Her backstory is...confusing? Why did her friend curse her? Because Nadeko said no to the boy her friend liked? Wouldn't that make things easier for the friend because she has a chance with the dude? I don't get it?????

Tsubasa's the perfect, sweet little cat girl with a rough home life. You want to like her because there really isn't anything to dislike about her, but the fact that she's another sweet smart pretty big tittied girl with a thirst for some ugly protagonist dick nulls any positives for me. I feel bad for this chick, but I just can't like her.

Meme is a badass. He's the only decent male character, which isn't saying much, considering there's only two. He looks sleazy, but he's a cool guy who doesn't hesitate to help out someone in need. Half of me wishes he got more screentime, but the other half isn't sure what that time would be used for.

Shinobu doesn't say a word at all. She sits there with Meme, eats donuts, drinks Koyomi's blood, and eventually does do something important. Not much at all can be said about her unless you watch the following seasons.

Besides his two sisters who don't do anything until Nisemonogatari and Hitagi's dad, whose face you don't even see, that does it for characters. Literally. There are no background characters. Other people, like Hitagi's mother, is mentioned, but never shown. I did actually like this, it made the town feel entirely empty besides the main characters, which gave it a more lonely and spookier feel.

The art is lackluster. It's not GORGEOUS like people make it out to be. Hajime Ueda's art, the stuff during the credits, was the most enjoyable part for me. It actually made it feel like an enigmatic monster story, which Bakemonogatari apparently is not. I can't be the only one who didn't appreciate those goddamn flashes of text, either. Entirely pointless, distracting, and seems like a cop out to cut down on animation costs. From what I can tell, in Nisemonogatari, it gets cut down significantly, which is nice.

The music is pretty good. Each arc had its own opening theme, and I found myself listening to them almost every time. The ending was enjoyable as well, both to listen to and watch. I can't pick out any songs during the show that I loved, but most of it was alright.

I can't say that I enjoyed this show that much. It's loaded with out-of-place fanservice, initially interesting characters that melt into puddles of affection for the MC, annoying flashes of text coupled with just average art, and long, long periods of boring dialogue and quips between Koyomi and one of his bitches. I found myself bored watching this, and you could probably afford to skip most of the dialogue parts because the plot is easy to follow. I'm sincerely hoping Nisemonogatari turns out better, but my hopes aren't high.

Unfortunately, being the sucker I am, I'm still gonna buy the fucking figures.

I was so confident that I was going to enjoy Bakemonogatari. Like most other people's introduction to the series, I was promised an insightful, complex story that would change my outlook on anime FOREVER. What I got was... quite the letdown.

Sure, I enjoyed the intertextual references constantly thrown about, it definitely added depth; it connected characters to more expanded upon ideas so at least there was substance in that regard. However, when placed in the show... every characters' interactions with Araragi were, quite simply, exhausting. Now, it's probably a stretch to call Araragi '(ex)Vampire Kirito' but it's just so tiring to watch the same short-black-haired-high-school-student ... aloofly stroll around picking up every girl in eye's reach. Seriously! Those girls can hardly walk around without Araragi's help, please, give them some autonomy. For a show that is praised for its characters, most of them just exist for Araragi to fix then throw away. What a savior...

I did genuinely enjoy the style the show presented though, if you can ignore how poorly the characters are treated by the narrative, it could definitely be called interesting at the very least.

Unfortunately, I just couldn't look past it. Furthermore, the veneer of pretentiousness that the show tries to use to cover its lacking story (yeah, I get it, "it's not lacking, it's just abstract! You wouldn't understand!") turns markedly more distasteful when you consider the fanservice elements. I don't think it's entirely fair to blame the long-prevailing ecchi culture on one show, but it's pretty uncomfortable watching the gratuitous fanservice plaguing like, every scene. While I do agree that voyeuristic elements can be incorporated to help provide whatever commentary a show is trying to convey, the fact that Araragi is allowed to act- quite frankly- creepy as hell, without any pushback from the narrative implies that this behaviour is perfectly acceptable and meant to be celebrated.

Bakemonogatari, more like Half-bakemonogatari; put it back in the oven.

I do not usually write reviews, but for this show (along with some behind the scenes incentives) I kind of must. Bakemonotgatari was honestly one of the most painful experiences I had to sit through and the unlikable characters, story structure, and the religiously presented exposition were the prime contributors to such an underwhelming show.

Characters

It is obvious that this anime was designed to be a character focused show with their personalities and qualities driving the show forward. Unfortunately, Bake presents us with characters that have illegitimate issues that are hard to buy into with extremely unlikable ... characters. It was increasingly difficult to care about the Monkey, Snail, and Snake's (I will be referring to them by there Zodiac sign) issues when they were all of a sudden introduced out of nowhere and all of their issues were solved by some deus ex machina BS.

Araragi and Senjou are both easy to hate as their relationship had no chemistry and I struggle to see why they continue to be together. Senjou is just a bitch; not a baaaaaadd bitch; but just a terrible person. Araragi was just a generic MC and I fail to see what differentiates him from the multitude of other MCs. He is not unique in anyways.

Only salvageable character were Hanekawa because it is easy to care about her because she is present for so much of the story so when she gets her moment to shine, it is far more deserved. Meme Oshino is the ultimate bro and the character that should have been the MC in another timeline.

Story

Story is tied to the characters but the structure and style of this show was abysmal. The amount of times I wanted to punch my screen by all of the goddamn "Black Scenes" and "Red Scenes" is actually ridiculous. It is absolutely immersion breaking and adds absolutely no value whatsoever to the show. It is one of the most pretentious and frustrating elements this show tries to force down our throats. The "flash cards" or the scenes that RANDOMLY highlight a COUPLE of words to show EMPHASIS grew OLD really fast.

The structure of the show where 90% of the episode is just lifeless exposition makes the show feel like an over glorified podcast. I do not want to see 2 characters just talking the whole time and then we maybe get a godawful fight scene that feels completely out of place. The supernatural concept of this show had potential, but execution was flat out abysmal


Art and Sound

The silver lining for this show is the artstyle, but at the end of the day its just icing on top of the cake if the cake was made of cow dung, spinach, and orange peels. As in it is to say it does not save this nightmare of a show. The decision to literally not include ANY background characters made the world feel devoid of any life and bland. I don't want to here that it was "art", it feels lazy and uninspiring.

OPs are pretty cool and a different one for each girl was a nice touch. My favorite ones were the Snail and Snake ones while the others didn't click for me in the slightest.

OST was solid for the most part and the "Cowboy" harmonica music was utilized well and probably one of the best tracks. The piano was used way too much during those calm scenes though.


Conclusion

This show had to be one of the biggest disappointments I have ever seen, and I cannot fathom how this could be so many people's number one show. Not to compare it to Bunny Girl Senpai, but that show blows Bakemonogatari out of the water in literally every single aspect (and I thought Bunny Girl was pretty underwhelming). This show was one of the biggest chores to get through. This show was beyond a failure for me.

I dont appreciate when they cant afford to put in 100% , countless times they forgot to put in scenes. it constantly give u siezures because of the bad editing. which is unforgivable.

i thought this was supposed to be about vampires and werewolf? where is that? all i saw was a half naked female with a stapler and a pedofile. he creeps up to this school girl and then for like 30 episodes tries to take her home. what is this a documentary on how to hang out a playgrounds to pick up children

it should have said this show ... is horror because i was horrorfied. and i dont like pun with girl that had crabs, bottom line is this show is insenstive and doesnt need all the talking. and if you see a child at a playground, you run away. apparently they do not have chris hansen in japan.

I've tried completing this series multiple times but could not endure watching more than 4 episodes. The biggest flaw of this anime is the poor animation directing. There were numerous scenes where characters were talking extensively in a still shot or where the full shot was motionless with minimal repetitive movements such as the movement of the characters' mouths. I also thought the random ecchi scenes were distracting and entirely unnecessary. I did not find this type of directing innovative and think the experimental directing and art style failed to entertain its audience because the viewers were stuck with experiencing an entirely 2 dimensional world. ...

Also as far as the characters go, I found Senjougahara to be super annoying. How can any person be so egotistical yet extremely self conscious at the same time?

Bakemonogatari is a series where I feel like I'm missing something crucial that everyone else appears to see. The series is applauded by many as being clever, creative, and entertaining. However, to me, it was none of these.

The concept of the show is that our main character, Araragi, became involved in dealings with the supernatural after an incident involving vampires. After this he meets various girls in his life who are haunted by supernatural entities, and Araragi must help them solve both their personal and supernatural problems. An interesting concept, but the execution completely falls flat.

To put it simply, this is a boring harem show. ... Araragi has the harem protagonist cliche of just having all of the women in his life throw themselves at him for no real reason. In fact, I'm really not sure how I'm supposed to feel about Araragi here. It's extremely hard to sympathize with someone who does things like sexually harass an elementary school age girl, but at the same time he's not downright evil enough for me to truly hate him. He comes off as simply a pervert, jerk, etc. without any truly redeeming qualities.

The other big issue I have besides the poorly handled harem aspect is that the show is just plain boring. I hope you like talking, but this show is about 95% characters standing around and just talking. When I was reading about the concept of the show, I expected to see the characters actually, you know...dealing with supernatural creatures. Instead they drone on and on about both the creatures and tons of other irrelevant stuff. When they do finally shut up, their "solution" to every problem is always the same: go see Araragi's friend Oshino so he can tell them what to do. I'll admit that there is sometimes a good payoff, such as the climax of Kanbaru's arc. However, it's not even remotely worth the pain of everything that came before it for a few minutes of something that actually turned out to be entertaining. Had I not heard such praise of the show, I would have dropped it during the second arc, when one episode was almost entirely three characters standing in a park just talking about Mother's Day. Seriously, 22 minutes of boringness.

It's not a show completely devoid of positives, however. The art is pretty unique and quite nice. The characters all have a "soft" feel to them that I liked a lot. The show does do some pretty strange things visually, such as flashing "Red Scene" and "Black Scene" text up on screen seemingly at random, sometimes throwing up giant walls of text that you can't possibly read without pausing, and sometimes showing real photography. And of course, sometimes the characters are shown in very strange and exaggerated poses (the "Shaft head tilt"). It's all just weirdness for the sake of weirdness, not adding anything to the show.

The music, however, is good. I enjoyed a lot of the soundtrack and the openings. It's nothing outstanding that I'd download and put on a playlist, but it works well and I liked it. Not much to say about this.

Overall, Bakemonogatari was an absolute bore. The characters talk about doing things while rarely actually doing anything. It looks and sounds nice, but no aesthetics can save the horrible pacing and boring harem setup of this show.

Bakemonogatari is what is frankly called an unfinished tale.It gave me the feeling of nothingness perfectly.The series has no aim,no fixed story line,hushed relationships that make it seem like the makers were in a hurry to end the show right after it started.The series is actually made by borrowing bits and parts of the content from several other anime.

The animation is good enough but what really makes this series stand out is its awkwardness.

To start with the many flaws,oddities are not explained even once.Characters are introduced and then they suddenly disappear so that it keeps one wondering whether they had any significance or not.Character developments ... are not placed properly only except in senjougahara's case.

The theme songs are just okay but the ending theme has a nice and cheerful tune to it.The biggest drawback of this anime is the lack of an aim.After all the travelling,it seems to reach nowhere.And just when you think something's about to start,it ends abruptly.

Hachikuji could have played a bigger role and the worse part is that Oshino,the savior, has been totally left out.We don't get to know any history behind him,nor any touching background theme as to why he became a professional in oddities.It would have been very good if more information was provided about Oshino because throughout the anime one will feel Oshino to be more of a hero than the main character.

Araragi koyomi's character is that what you get to see in every other high-school anime,i.e, an honest,extremely timid and humble boy who attracts all the ladies with his innocence,never seems to have any clue of what's going on because he's too kind to suspect anything and is complete with secret fantasies which the girls fulfill for him gradually and eagerly.So,it might turn out to be a boring persona for some. But overall the anime is okay for a light watch and also if you are looking for some high-school teen fan service because its got quite a bit of that and doesn't disappoint in that sphere.

One notable point is that it draws references in most episodes from various anime like Dragon Ball Z,Doraemon etc. and also from some classic pieces of literature like 'The Monkey's Paw' by William Jacobs and such which comes as a pleasant surprise for those who have seen those anime or read the books.

The fourth episode has a different opening theme which is cute and lovely both to hear and watch.A disappointment is the ending story of the Tsubasa cat.It us incomplete and the last episode is nothing about the cat oddity which is awkward and strange.

But there are a few funny moments as well,like when Koyomi tries bribing Hachikuji and she blatantly falls for it and when Senjougahara throws her cruel sarcasms at Araragi and some more.

So in colclusion,if you are looking for a short,mindless anime with a pinch of tsundere,action,paranormal mushi-type creatures sprinkled with a bit of light comedy which won't take up too much of your time,you can give this a try but if you are looking for meaning,content,uniqueness and depth this is definitely not your cup of tea.

It is the most painful show I have ever watched. it's so boring, I can't sit with this shite for 24 minutes.
There is no story. It's just random events forcefully made to happen by the author.

There is no art. It's just a PowerPoint presentation. there is a slide of pictures and they just keep talking over it. The pictures in the slide show are meaningless. they share no information about the plot or story. There is barely any animation here.

characters are complete trash. they pretend to be smart and logical but none of their talks makes sense. None of them have something meaningful to say. ... The protagonist wants to save "girls" but why? no motivation is explained.

in the first couple of episodes, the show is like "rape is bad" but then continues on objectifying underage girls for the pervert fans of the series.

Harems are usually dumb but others are dumb fun. Bakemonogatari is just dumb.

Monogatari is one of those series that people often praise as a deconstruction of its genre. Well, that's what it may look like to some, but when I watched and analyzed Bakemonogatari, I realized that it doesn't have anything that sets it apart from any other series of its genre beyond superficial elements.

Since I have very few things to say about it and I want to make this review as short as possible, I'll just name the two biggest flaws I found in Bakemonogatari right away.

1. Uninteresting story. It has no main objective, no main conflict, no message, and no overall plot. The entire season ... feels like nothing has happened since most of the time is wasted on fanservice and pointless conversations. In other words, it lacks content.

2. Terrible characters. To begin with, the main character does not have a personality or a goal to make him interesting (as you would expect from a generic harem lead). If that alone weren't enough to make the entire show a waste of time, there's also the fact that all the girls are harem archetypes with nothing particularly interesting about them. Their backstories are basic as hell and their interactions are simply boring (especially those pointless conversations that have nothing to do with the nonexistent plot). Not to mention that the girls are also used in many fanservice scenes (and no, just because those scenes have visual symbolism doesn't mean that they aren't just fanservice scenes).

In conclusion, if you're just looking for interesting visuals, cute girls and pointless conversations, you may like this show, but if you're like me and you care more about the story and characters than anything else, you should stay away from it.

I got this anime recommended to me almost a year ago by a very dear friend.

Normally, I am not a huge fan of today's mainstream anime market seeping with hypersexualized fanservice and I thought that since my very dear friend is a huge fan I'll be able to overlook that just this once and focus on everything else that was presented to me. But it honestly proved hard when one of the first things I saw mere seconds into episode one was a pair of panties zoomed right in my face. The entirety of the episode wasn't anything impressive either, practically your average anime ... (vampire lolis and everything).

Safe to say I hated it and I am not interested in giving it another shot. Everything from the story to the art seems mediocre.