Kizumono I is the beginning of the Monogatari Series (aka Haremonogatari). As a person who likes to see a story in its chronological order, Kizumonogatari Part I is the only, so far, installment in the franchise I have seen. I especially did a lot of research in order to find the correct order to watch Haremonogatari and after finally finding the order, I decided to watch with my roommate the three Kizumono movies.
The story is not something over-complicated, but it is not exactly the most amazing concept you will see. In terms of plot progression, there is close to zero progression and things have not got real yet. It is true that Kizumono I is a dialogue movie which means that if you do not like movies with close to zero action, this will not be to your taste. What I have heard from the Monogatari series is that they are filled with dialogue and that is the main point with it. And to the most part, I did not find myself bored since the mannerisms of the characters kept me interested above the minimum level.
Speaking of characters, they are actually the weakest point in the whole movie. Araragi is at least interesting as a character but the way they did some scenes were so over-the-top that the character starts to lose credibility about his personality. However, the shafty visuals helped bring more realistic expressions to his character. Hanekawa is barely introduced in this movie and she will be a main love interest in the future. Her reaction is totally pretentious since I do not think a girl would normally react like that if a boy stared at her panties. As for the vampires, the only one that stands out is Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-under-blade (Kiss-shot for short). She is suprisingly snarky and manipulative to a certain degree and learning more about her would interest me a lot since we barely are introduced to the characters in this movie.
As for art and direction, Shaft shafted like the never shafted before and brought this gorgeous yet weird art-piece. I do not get yet the symbolisms in the way the directing is done but I love it. I really like the character designs and the integration of CGI with 2D animation gave it a more realistic look. The background art was beautiful and eerie and it looked to me that the people had devoted a lot of work to make the visuals as shafty as possible.
The soundtrack overall, is really good, but I found it for the most part, unmemorable. Very few songs stood out to me when watching the movie and when I listened to the ost online, only then did I realise how well done the audio was. The voice actors were pretty good at their job as expected and specifically Hiroshi Kamiya who tried to bring life to the character of Koyomi Araragi.
This movie overall was enjoyable but my complain about it was that it was short. One hour is not enough for a series like the Monogatari series to develop characters and progress the story to the juicy parts. A good watch for people not knowing what the hell is going on with the series and a bit more rewarding for people who have seen the other installments that came out earlier.
Overall: 7.66/10
No alternative recommendation, since this anime is in a category of its own.
