Hey there!
Here's some tips/a summary if you're about to watch and are a "tl;dr"er:
o) This is a mix of supernatural/romance/action and it gets rather intense at parts;
o) tiny hints of ecchi - the rating is 17+ for a reason;
o) there are weird perspective moments;
o) 70% of the characters are moe girls of different ages;
o) everything moves really quickly;
o) DON'T pause to read the text on the flashy screens;
o) If you're the type of person who checks the ending of the book to know if it's worth reading, rest assured, the ending is happy.
...
The Review:
*sigh* Rating this is really difficult. It's twisted, but simple, very different from the usual... And yet it finds it's own unique, non-standard way of being amazing. Overall, my critique on it is very self-contradicting.
At first, I thought the art was relatively poor, because more often than not it focused only on the things that were important and left out the least important things, the details. I often wished there was more detail added to the settings, because we're used to any image - be it painting, photograph, sketch - depicting a feeling on its own. However, there were also moments where I was thankful that it wasn't very detailed - this would be a rather gory horror anime if that were the case. But, even more importantly, I realised this: Bakemonogatari doesn't focus on the art, because it adds the feeling with dialogue, text and the actions of characters.
The dialogue and the message of the story in general was very well thought out, at least that's what got to me. They often said lines (I'm going to avoid spoilers here and not give any examples, sorry) where I had to pause and think about them for a moment in order to comprehend; some of them were pretty deep, especially the things Senjougahara (Hitagi) and Oshino (Meme) said. That's probably why I liked Oshino so much: he comes off as a lazy, creepy, blunt pothead (shirt with flowers, excuse me for assuming) but is actually really knowledgeable and experienced, and doesn't mind "lending a hand" to those Araragi brings to him.
The plot in its details was messy, but not very difficult to follow. Despite that, you could spot a very certain pattern as to how the plot works - the very base is close to a harem anime, or, at least, that's what they WANT you to think. If described vaguely, the way the story progressed was even cliché (guy gets many girls one by one but in the end has to choose one between them because that's how life works), but not in the way it was presented here: with Senjougahara's death threats (and very believable ones, I must say), it's pretty clear that there won't be a harem ending, while everything else points to otherwise. That's one of the two things that kept me there until the end.
Another thing that I really appreciated and would like to specifically point out is this: with the amount of horror movies and scary mangas and a great deal of other things, the believability of the likelihood that the main character is really, actually going to die is significantly decreased. It's come to the point where, if one of the main characters die, you need a sole confirmation that they're really dead (for real), and even then you can't be sure if the writer won't find a way to make them magically come back to life. That's why I think Bakemonogatari deserves praise for being one of those animes that do have you on the edge of your seat, especially in the last episode.
The technique of the animation had a noticeable amount of awkward movements and poses as well as a lot of scenes with strange perspective, heavily focusing on the eyes and the directions the characters were facing. But I can't say they were misplaced - it's just what gave that twisted feel to it.. ..and yet, it definitely was a little bothersome; maybe even unnecessary at some parts. It's the same case with the flashy frames of text - sure, if you're quick enough to catch some words from them, it's a very good way of putting you in the characters' skin, showing you what they're thinking (note here that thoughts are much quicker than words and, as opposed to a lot of animes that don't illustrate this, actually happen parallel to actions and/or words), but, on a more personal level, I'm the kind of person that would pause it and go back to read what the whole thing said, just because. And as for the white/black/red frames, sure, they're good for replacing left out parts of dialogue or scenes, but there were moments where I was left asking, "why are they there?!".
I have to admit, though, - no matter how I want to nitpick at multiple things, the composition and overall impression was really good. Maybe it's because I like romance stories, maybe because I like happy endings, maybe because the characters were awesome, maybe because the creators did their research on mythology for me, but, either way, I can't wait to watch more. :) This might even be one of the very rare occasions on which I'd re-watch an anime.
So, in the end, I'd like to thank you for your patience reading this, and I hope you enjoy/enjoyed Bakemonogatari. Cheers!~ ^-^
Mar 24, 2013
Bakemonogatari
(Anime)
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Hey there!
Here's some tips/a summary if you're about to watch and are a "tl;dr"er: o) This is a mix of supernatural/romance/action and it gets rather intense at parts; o) tiny hints of ecchi - the rating is 17+ for a reason; o) there are weird perspective moments; o) 70% of the characters are moe girls of different ages; o) everything moves really quickly; o) DON'T pause to read the text on the flashy screens; o) If you're the type of person who checks the ending of the book to know if it's worth reading, rest assured, the ending is happy. ... |
