Reviews

Wow. You don’t see something like Kizumonogatari I every day. It is essentially Monogatari on steroids. Kizumonogatari I is like adding lighter fluid to the Monogatari series fire. I don’t even know where to begin talking about something like this. Let’s start with the obvious I guess: how it looks.

I’m surprised to see that Kizumonogatari I is made by the same studio that made the rest of the Monogatari series. It is uniquely different. Kizumonogatari I is still clearly Monogatari, but mostly by feeling now. The awesome cuts, shot composition, directing, pacing, and attention to detail are all still there, but everything, absolutely everything is ten times more stylized and dramatic. Kizumonogatari I looks exactly like what you would expect Monogatari to look if you threw an endless pit of money at it. Kizumonogatari I looks like if they threw the rest of Monogatari, Devilman Crybaby, and The Animatrix all in one of those Alchemy Pots from Dragon Quest. Kizumonogatari I looks ridiculous.

What do I talk about next? The plot? Kizumonogatari is 30 minutes of shots of Koyomi Araragi freaking out intertwined into 30 minutes of story. It feels more like an episode of a weird arc than a movie. All I can say about it is that it is an astonishingly simpler plot than what you’d expect from the Monogatari Series, at least so far.

I don’t even know what else I could say about Kizumonogatari I. It is quite literally like trying to review the first episode of an arc. I think this is all I can say about it. I’ll see you on my review for Kizumonogatari II.