Bakemonogatari

Koyomi Araragi, a third-year high school student, manages to survive a vampire attack with the help of Meme Oshino, a strange man residing in an abandoned building. Though being saved from vampirism and now a human again, several side effects such as superhuman healing abilities and enhanced vision still remain. Regardless, Araragi tries to live the life of a normal student, with the help of his friend and the class president, Tsubasa Hanekawa.

When fellow classmate Hitagi Senjougahara falls down the stairs and is caught by Araragi, the boy realizes that the girl is unnaturally weightless. Despite Senjougahara's protests, Araragi insists he help her, deciding to enlist the aid of Oshino, the very man who had once helped him with his own predicament.

Through several tales involving demons and gods, Bakemonogatari follows Araragi as he attempts to help those who suffer from supernatural maladies.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Senjougahara, Hitagi Main

Saitou, Chiwa Japanese

Araragi, Koyomi Main

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Hanekawa, Tsubasa Main

Horie, Yui Japanese

Hachikuji, Mayoi Main

Katou, Emiri Japanese

Kanbaru, Suruga Main

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Sengoku, Nadeko Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Oshino, Shinobu Supporting

Oshino, Meme Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Araragi, Karen Supporting

Kitamura, Eri Japanese

Araragi, Tsukihi Supporting

Iguchi, Yuka Japanese

Iwakami, Atsuhiro Producer

Kubota, Mitsutoshi Producer

Hariu, Masayuki Producer

Ooshima, Miku Assistant Producer

Reviews

Feb 15, 2025

goldknight151

Recommended

Bakemonogatari is divided into 5 story arcs, each introducing a different girl that the protagonist Araragi interacts with. Each arc explores a fantastical physical phenomenon that manifested from some internal emotional distress in each girl.

Being an adaption from a novel, there are moments where the show can feel dialogue/monologue heavy, but the show does a good job of pacing that out with action-packed sequences. In addition, the dialogue itself can be quite intense with its humorous fast-paced exchanges. Furthermore, there is heavy usage of wordplay (in Japanese), providing another layer of depth in the commentary.

The visuals are also quite unique and immersive with its ... minimalistic touches. For example, no matter where Araragi is, whether it is the school or the neighborhood, there is absolutely no one else present except the relevant characters.

On the surface it may seem like the show is catered towards male otakus, due to each female character matching an archetype, such as tsundere, loli, etc. While there is arguably some self-indulging fan service throughout, the work explores the backstory behind them, allowing each to transcend the cookie-cutter template that they were based on.

Even if Bakemonogatari is not your cup of tea due to some hit-or-miss character arcs, know that it is only the introduction to many works in the same universe. If there is at one least one character arc that you enjoyed, you can skip to a series that focuses more on that character.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Mar 21, 2025

Zaphodb2002

Mixed Feelings

A complicated thing, this. Expect to put in some effort with Bakemonogatari, it expects you to keep up. There's art in here, no doubt, and the craft is impressive; I'm still not sure if I like it.

There are a lot of reviews out there of Bakemonogatari, and I'm sure if you're even at the point of seeking out this show you know all of the usual stuff people talk about when they talk about this show. Yes, it's like 95% dialogue. No, you probably won't get like half of the word-play unless you speak Japanese. Yes, it's got some weird ... fanservice that feels, uh, not so good. And yes, it's disjointed and mostly makes no sense.

I think it does all of these things very carefully, though, and with purpose. The show is unrelentingly surreal, with every scene set in dreamlike, liminal spaces. No one seems to live in the world of Bakemonogatari but the victims of monsters, and the monsters themselves. There is an overwhelming sense of emptiness and melancholy through a lot of the show, often in stark contrast to the mile-a-minute deadpan comedy banter. The world is dark and scary and complicated. The show is not completely devoid of humor or lightness, but it's always got an edge to it. There are very few action scenes, but when they do them they are kinetic and stylish, honestly a few are quite impressive. Ultimately the way the show looks and feels is maybe the most divisive thing about this show; you'll know pretty quickly if you can tolerate it or not.

The other big divisive issue with this show will be the "fanservice" of the girls in the show. The show literally starts with a panty shot, and includes some pretty intense sexual themes as the show goes on, and while they don't always land, the show usually feels like it's using these scenes to actively make the viewer uncomfortable. The show is often about our underlying emotions, and they're a bunch of teens. I get it, and if it serves the plot, okay, fine. There's actually not that many scenes of it, either. This show sometimes feels like it's pushing a bit too hard when it does though, especially with the very young characters. Again, I think you're meant to feel uncomfortable. Success, I guess.

I think that your interest in the artsy fartsy stuff and your tolerance for the uncomfortable bits will determine how much this show does for you, but it's hard to argue that it's not unique and interesting. I watched all of it, and I'm probably going to move onto the sequels, because it's just so strange. If you can bring a critical eye and can handle some discomfort, I think there's a lot of reward to be had here.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Mar 13, 2025

MaiDeNaBysS

Not Recommended

Series about facing psychological issues: "Instead of being sad, just be happy!"
Bakamonogyatari: The Shameless Self-Insert Pedo-Harem Romance Autistic Conversation Visual Novel: Use transference and Stockholm Syndrome to coerce girls into your harem when they aren't already in love with you for no reason.
The author pompously recommends watching this in achronological order to save face since he wrote the books haphazardly like that, however achronology in the anime adds nothing but spoiling what happens in the prequels without any purpose.
Some think this story/dialogue is deep because they don't get it, but really it's extremely simple and boringly juvenile. There's very little depth and mostly just pointless ... garbage.

The entirety of what I could bear to watch can be summarized as:
Tons of unrealistic rambling self-contradictory dialogue with barely any purpose beyond filler and redundant self-narration, and (self-congratulating over) pointless in-your-face wordplay that is lost in translation since they don't even give translation notes (but thank god they waste your time diligently conveying pointless font types, scene numbers, and redundant narration by flashing colored frames). The sexually abused girl immediately throws herself at you because you were the first person who was nice to her, and she won't even stop liking you if you do it with other girls too (conveyed through dialogue sperg). There isn't any romance here, it's romance bait that goes nowhere and mostly just kids bickering. It isn't even supposed to be romance really, they're supposed to be kids who don't know what love is. It's horny harem garbage instead.
pedophilia. MC is a generic lolicon pervert who sexually assaults little girls many times. The girl characters are sexualized in almost every scene. The entire plot effectively exists as a vehicle to contrive ways to sexualize children: from backstories of SA, to accidentally falling on the MC, to fantastical aberrations that just cause lewd situations, to near constant pedo "fanservice" camerawork.
And occasional brief action scenes and actual (repetitive) plot to wrap up the fantasy oddity's arc while avoiding any consequences before doing it all over again every arc (if you've seen 1 you've seen them all, it does not get better). This is not a mystery series, it is a SoL autistic dialogue ramble before exposition dumping the supernatural issue of the week followed by exposition dumping the solution followed by doing the solution. As much mystery as reading a thesaurus about these supernatural tropes.
That's it. For those who don't speak Japanese, that means the show is practically nothing but a vehicle for pedophilia. This is effectively pedophilia written by a pedophile and adapted by pedophiles to be enjoyed by pedophiles.

Characters:
MC has no character beyond being a generic horny pervert in a harem anime where all the girls want his dick for no real reason. He also has vampire-nonvampire regeneration powers that equate to plot armor so he can get splattered against the wall a bunch pointlessly with no consequences.
Both main girls are practically identical (even down to their backstories) aside from sub/dom.
Beyond 1-note catchphrases/acts beaten like a dead-horse, all characters overlap with barely any distinction since the author cannot stop self-inserting, thus they are all: into pedophilia/girls as well as the author's self insert mc (even the BL-oriented "lesbian"), otakus, obsessed with wordplay, etc.
Main girl immediately gets into a cliched beard relationship with MC as is the trope for half-assed romance-bait harem as an excuse for the author to do all the pedo-harem trash with his self-insert MC without having to actually follow through with the issue of actual sex and romance because conservative Japanese culture and because it is beyond him.

The art/animation is high budget (no matter what anyone says, though I suppose I should clarify I mean the Blue Ray version which has many scene improvements over the initial version), they put way more man-hours into this adaptation's world/character design, storyboarding, and cinematography (live-action filmwork/rotoscoping and multiple custom OP/ED songs) than most any of the seasonal anime where trash production companies give a pittance to the actual product's animation budget to shit it out understaffed in no time at all. Unfortunately that means all that effort is wasted on polishing trash.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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	Chronological order experience _KuRo_NeKo - Mar 24	27 replies	by pastel-itami »» 7 hours ago
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