I must open this text by saying that this is not a review written with those in mind who have not yet seen Bakemonogatari. It is a series so remarkable that it merits a discussion on its workings the same as any worthwhile composition. As such, reading this review will be more meaningful to those who are able to recognise in my descriptions those remarkable qualities and consequently, find themselves in agreement or otherwise, and so continue their thought on the subject.
To begin.
The overarching genre of visual media "anime" is for the most part bound tightly to the concept of entertainment, incurring through this
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relationship many restrictions and characteristics. The jargon we use when talking about anime is for a large part due to this relationship. Only very rarely is the creator of a series given complete freedom, and when it does happen these works often become something other than "anime" in the previously mentioned sense of the word. They become completely, art. Bakemonogatari, to my mind, is not one of these. Art, though not denied the use of the commonplace, exists outside of it, acquires its nature and value by compressing into itself the many things unsaid, unsayable, and lacking in shape or definition, be it to the individual, the interpersonal or the cultural. These works of "complete" art do not require popularity, or mass review because they retain themselves.
One of the great strengths of Bakemonogatari -and the necessity of all these grandiose definitions I have just given serve as evidence for this- is that it fills with art to maximum capacity an anime that is placed firmly within the confines of the entertaining. There is, as they are in their basic elements, very little about the main characters, or the setting of the series that is new or unsettling. We have all seen the harsh and intelligent, yet kind woman. We have all seen the schools, the uniforms, the outsider and the vagabond. We have all seen these characters placed in extraordinary situations through contact with the supernatural. We have seen it over and over and over again. Even so, nothing in Bakemonogatari stays in these commonplaces. In the end they serve only as the soft and comfortable bedding from where the creators of the series have been able to stretch and play with the genre.
It is probably one of the greatest compliments to say that they have expanded the possibilities of anime.
All this having been said, the manner in which they achieved this still needs to be expounded. That is to say: the concrete visual, aural and narrational aspects of the series I have yet to treat.
This is of course a difficult thing because it is the work as a whole that induces effect, and with a series so tightly woven in all its facets, a separation of these different aspects will do it no justice. But this being a review I will try to keep them interconnected while still describing them in necessary detail.
For the moment not taking into account the story as a whole, it is likely to be true that in most anime the main body of content consists of the animation and the story as voiced by the characters. These two elements give us a physical, emotional, psychological and theoretical framework to place the world and events, the story as a whole, of the anime in. Usually the two exist next to each other. The voice is, in a way, subservient to the logical restrictions of the animation, the visual world created, be it knights in a vaguely mediaeval world or an insecure girl walking from school to her home (cherry blossom leaves falling around her of course). In Bakemonogatari the two are differently linked. They are mutually influential. While the animation in itself is of a very high standard (movement is fluid, characters are distinct, colours are vivid and yet blended beautifully) it is this fluidity caused by mutual subservience that truly makes the animation great, because it allows for an amazing amount of freedom. Inner dialogue, monologue and dialogue between characters are punctuated with all sorts of abstractions, mutations and cut-aways. Abruptly interjected frames, illustrate what is said and at once adjust the meaning of the words. The surroundings are constructed out of symbols, formalised everyday objects and composition. The spoken words ebb and flow and change the colours and shapes of the visual world presented to us. Everything seems to be in a continuous state of transformation.
And while this animation is brilliantly creative, the writing and voice acting are on par with it. There is an incredible amount of distinction to be found amongst the characters, not just in the characters' voices themselves or between the different voices, but also in use of cadence, subtlety of displayed emotions, the playful back and forth and semantic sensitivity. It is because of all this that the series is at its best, not at its moments of high drama, during battles or good byes, but when things are slow, when conversation can linger between slapstick laughter, superficial philosophy and philology, and quiet hallucinations, when movement is slowly juxtapositioned against foreground and background, when all combined the different qualities of the series are allowed their gentle interplay, their ebb and flow and their surreal quirks. The music in the series contributes to these qualities too. It is never overstated and usually no more than a slightly atypical repetition of tentative chords. The few moments of high drama are in fact the only area of the anime that is sensitive to criticism because, due to its very nature, the things that make it great necessarily retreat at these moment, and it becomes somewhat too much like the commonplace anime that it usually so cleverly avoids becoming.
The story, consequently, is of the least interest. Even though through it we are given some nice character development and depth, it remains to me almost like an excuse, a method of display, and it fulfils this function to satisfaction.
As mentioned earlier, I believe this anime to be one of the greats. It rises above the frivolity of much of SHAFT's other work, at times equals some of the narrational depth and intensity of Aku no Hana, has artwork as good as Mononoke, though in a completely different style, and yet manages to remain truly humorous. While a viewer won't be swept away by villains or traumas of shadowy days passed, the same viewer can let himself sink away into an animated world wherein the illogical formulates its own rules and becomes coherent in the subconscious, and the experience of the everyday becomes something wholly beautiful.
Jul 16, 2014
Bakemonogatari
(Anime)
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I must open this text by saying that this is not a review written with those in mind who have not yet seen Bakemonogatari. It is a series so remarkable that it merits a discussion on its workings the same as any worthwhile composition. As such, reading this review will be more meaningful to those who are able to recognise in my descriptions those remarkable qualities and consequently, find themselves in agreement or otherwise, and so continue their thought on the subject.
To begin. The overarching genre of visual media "anime" is for the most part bound tightly to the concept of entertainment, incurring through this ... |
