But after each series I enjoyed more and more of it and before I knew it, I was hooked. It was a HARD journey.Episodes and episodes of dialogue, confusion , and the use of wikipedia followed but the stories got better and I expected for the next series to get no better or worse. UNTIL I SAW THIS MOVIE
Kizumonogatari II is part of a trilogy of movies that takes place at the VERY VERY VERY beginning of everything in the monogatari universe; before Kanberu, before Mayoi , and even before Hitagi. There was only Shinobu, Hanekawa, and Arararararagi. These three movies are pretty much a depiction of the first 86 seconds of the first episode of Bakemonogatari.
Arararagi is just walking, gets a nice upskirt shots of Hanekawa and runs through a freaking wall literally to pick up some stuff.Next thing you know, he stumbles across this vampire with no limps, freaks out , and eventually gets bitten by said vampire and now is a vampire himself, and if that wasn't enough, he gets caught on fire and gets attacked by these vampire hunters who apparently stole the vampire's limbs.He now is on a quest to take back those limbs and save Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-blade and return her back to her original form.
What I really like about this concept is the way it's executed.Between each battle, Araragi is either talking with Hanekawa, or with Kisshot and Oshino but whats different about this series instead of the others in the monogatari series, its that this movie fixes major problems I had while watching Bakemonogatari, IT WASN'T BORING! At no time during the movie did I feel bored or sleepy.Even during the dialogue because at this time of the show Araragi wasn't talking with five different other people.Also at times that didn't have to do with the story, my attention was still had because of SHAFT's spectacular animation and awesome music.
The animation is another thing I had a problem with in Bakemonogatari
, not because it wasn't good, but only because SHAFT only showed the good bits of it on Bluray which is expensive as crap.BUT this movie was theatrically released so SHAFT couldn't do that and OHH MY GOODNESS THIS MOVIE LOOKS FREAKING AMAZING.I may sound bias, but I think that this show trumps over Your Name when it comes to animation. Don't get me wrong,Your Name looks beautiful but Kizumonogatari II is more exaggerated and insane with their animation and it fits the craziness of the movie.The over the top fights and character movements looks like so much effort has been put into it to showoff SHAFT's abilities.Also with the artsy fartsy style, unbelievable architecture, and sooo many shades of red, you can already tell what studio made this.
The reason why the soundtrack is awesome is because it's different. The soundtrack is made up techno, jazz, and beautiful vocals.I honestly don't remember the last time I watched a show that used so much jazz.I can't recommend enough to listen to the soundtrack if you can.
The characters in this movie are.......very different. Hanekawa, I don't why, but she does a good job at being a comic relief character, a damsel in distress,and a heroine at different times in the movie.Araragi is still funny, awkward and perverted but there are times in the movie where he loses it and becomes a badass its very nice to see.There is Oshino and Kisshot too, but they don't really do anything in the movie because they're not supposed to yet.I like how after each fight Kisshot starts turning more and more hotter. These villans are some crazy villians too just by their names alone.Dramaturgy, Episode,and
GuillotineCutter. I really like their superpowers and stuff two. Like Dramaturgy is this muscled vampire with knives for hands , Episode carries this huge cross, and GuillotineCutter has.. a book.
.In the end,Kizumonogatari II was funny action,packed , well animated and has a great soundtrack.What's weird about this movie was that it was some of the first events to occur but was also one of the latest to be released. But you should definately give it a go since this starts off the monogatari story chronologically.There are also two other movies.
The first one was a bit boring and the third one hasn't come out yet, so hopefully it won't let me down.
Years from now when I look at examples of amazing animation ,this would definately be one of the first to stand out from the rest.Once the bluray comes out I will try my hardest to pick up a copy and love it forever.I think this is absolutely a staple that stands out in SHAFT's works and really deserves praise.
Overall-10
If your mad over me thinking this is better animated than Your Name, WATCH THIS MOVIE and see what i'm talking about.
