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.
