Bakemonogatari

Koyomi Araragi, a third-year high school student, manages to survive a vampire attack with the help of Meme Oshino, a strange man residing in an abandoned building. Though being saved from vampirism and now a human again, several side effects such as superhuman healing abilities and enhanced vision still remain. Regardless, Araragi tries to live the life of a normal student, with the help of his friend and the class president, Tsubasa Hanekawa.

When fellow classmate Hitagi Senjougahara falls down the stairs and is caught by Araragi, the boy realizes that the girl is unnaturally weightless. Despite Senjougahara's protests, Araragi insists he help her, deciding to enlist the aid of Oshino, the very man who had once helped him with his own predicament.

Through several tales involving demons and gods, Bakemonogatari follows Araragi as he attempts to help those who suffer from supernatural maladies.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Senjougahara, Hitagi Main

Saitou, Chiwa Japanese

Araragi, Koyomi Main

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Hanekawa, Tsubasa Main

Horie, Yui Japanese

Hachikuji, Mayoi Main

Katou, Emiri Japanese

Kanbaru, Suruga Main

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Sengoku, Nadeko Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Oshino, Shinobu Supporting

Oshino, Meme Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Araragi, Karen Supporting

Kitamura, Eri Japanese

Araragi, Tsukihi Supporting

Iguchi, Yuka Japanese

Iwakami, Atsuhiro Producer

Kubota, Mitsutoshi Producer

Hariu, Masayuki Producer

Ooshima, Miku Assistant Producer

Reviews

Jan 14, 2026

Kevin_has_knives

Recommended

No matter how many times I meet the characters and rewatch the ending, it'll always give me that warm, gooey feeling. pure happiness, maybe, or is it what a stereotypical high school experience is like in the most non-stereotypical way possible? Mainly, you can sum it up to someone manning up and taking responsibility and growing more into the person he's meant to be. Really shines through if you continue to watch the series, and only gets better the more you watch. This show is such a big investment, but by Zoku Monogatari (leaves you in a good place, but leaves room for off/monster continuation) ... I promise you'll love it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Feb 1, 2026

Outarel

Mixed Feelings

Can’t really say anything about this one other than “not for me.” I’ve seen the whole season, and I might even say I don’t mind it, but I have zero interest in watching the other seasons.
It’s not that the show is bad; it’s stylish, sharp, and clever in its dialogue, but for me, it’s way too heavy on talking and not enough stuff happening.
I can see why people love it—the aesthetics and tone are unique—but personally, I just couldn’t stay engaged for long.
There’s stuff to appreciate, but it never hooked me emotionally. I respect it, just don’t enjoy it

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Oct 27, 2025

Shiota

Not Recommended

Funny

Well-written

Let's play a game. Imagine a show hailed as a modern classic: a surreal, dialogue-heavy “deconstruction” of the harem genre with unparalleled artistic direction. Sounds intriguing, right? Now, imagine that show is also a masterclass in padding, featuring a protagonist whose defining trait is being a passive creep, wrapped in an aesthetic that often feels like style for style's sake.

Welcome to Bakemonogatari, the anime that broke my brain not with its complexity, but with its relentless, self-satisfied tedium.

I didn't hate it. But after years of hearing it praised as a pinnacle of the medium, actually watching it felt like showing up to a legendary feast ... only to be served a beautifully plated, technically impressive, but ultimately flavorless meal. It's all technique, no soul.

The Structure: A Formula Wearing a Disguise

On the surface, the plot is simple and repetitive. Boy meets girl. Girl is afflicted by a supernatural "oddity." Boy gets the crap beaten out of him trying to help. A solution is found, often by someone else. The end.

This "Monster-of-the-Week" structure is a classic for a reason, but Bakemonogatari tries to hide its repetitive bones under layers of stylistic fat. Each arc is less about solving the mystery—the solutions are often abrupt and deus ex machina—and more about using the "oddity" as a heavy-handed metaphor for the girl's psychological trauma. The Crab represents weightlessness and isolation. The Snail represents being lost. The Monkey represents a suppressed rage.

It's a clever idea, but the execution is so on-the-nose that it loses its subtlety. The show is constantly winking at you, saying, "See? See how deep we are? This isn't just a show about a ghost; it's about the psychology of being haunted!" It's intellectualism for the sake of appearing intellectual, and the formula becomes transparent after the second or third iteration. You're not watching a story unfold; you're watching a statement be illustrated.

The Protagonist: Koyomi Araragi, The Beating Heart of the Problem

Koyomi Araragi is the centerpiece of the entire series, and he is, without a doubt, the most exhausting part. He's a self-proclaimed "loser" with a messiah complex, a guy who will throw himself into a fight he can't win to save a girl he just met, all while delivering a 5-minute monologue about the etymology of her name.

His self-deprecation isn't endearing; it's a defense mechanism. By constantly putting himself down, he preemptively deflects any real criticism. The narrative never truly punishes him for his hypocrisies—most notably, his creepy, persistent sexual harassment of a literal elementary school ghost, Mayoi Hachikuji. The show frames this as a "running gag," a quirky character trait. In reality, it's a jarring, uncomfortable flaw that the story seems to endorse, or at the very least, excuse.

Araragi doesn't feel like a person; he feels like a collection of writerly tics. He's a vessel for Nisio Isin's love of wordplay and a convenient plot device to make all the female characters orbit around him. His relationship with Senjougahara is the one element that feels grounded, but even that is born from a dynamic that would be toxic in any other context.

The "Shaft-iness": A Double-Edged Sword

There's no denying that the production, helmed by Studio Shaft, is unique. The show is a visual and auditory feast. But like a rich dessert, too much of it can make you sick.

The direction is relentlessly stylish. We get quick cuts to text cards, surreal background art, dramatic shifts in color palette, and characters staring directly into the camera. For the first few episodes, it's thrilling. But eventually, a sense of fatigue sets in. The style stops serving the story and starts overwhelming it. A simple conversation can't just be a conversation; it has to be a dizzying montage of head-tilts, screen wipes, and symbolic imagery.

It creates a barrier between you and the characters. Instead of feeling Senjougahara's pain during her confession, you're distracted by the fact that the entire scene is taking place on a spinning, abstract rendition of a playground. The artistry becomes a wall, not a window. It's as if the directors were afraid that if they let a scene breathe naturally, the audience would realize how thin the actual plot is.

The Verdict: A Worthy Slog, But a Slog Nonetheless

So, why does anyone, including myself in a strange way, have a begrudging respect for this series?

Because it tries. In an industry filled with safe, marketable tropes and isekai rehashes, Bakemonogatari is a bizarre, uncompromising vision. It's a show that demands your attention and refuses to dumb itself down. The dialogue, while exhausting, is genuinely clever. The character designs are iconic. The music by Satoru Kosaki is phenomenal. When the show does decide to have a genuine emotional moment, it lands with surprising force because you've had to work for it.

Watching Bakemonogatari is like visiting a modern art gallery. You'll walk past pieces that look like nonsense, you'll roll your eyes at the pretension, and you'll question what "art" even is. But then you'll stop in front of one painting—one perfect, understood-it-instantly painting—and in that moment, the entire frustrating experience feels worth it.

Is it a masterpiece? For some, undoubtedly. But for me personally, it's a beautiful, flawed, and profoundly exhausting experiment. It's a show I'm glad exists, but one I rarely feel the urge to revisit. It's less a story and more a spectacle; a brilliant and often irritating circus that you only need to see once.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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