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

Jun 27, 2010

8thSin

Recommended

"To be blunt, I just enjoy talking to you... so I want to talk with you more."
"If our opinions clash, let's talk it over." (Dialogue from episode 5)

'Bakemonogatari', cleverly translated as 'Ghostory' or 'Monstory', is about five not-so-normal girls that Araragi Koyomi, a vampire himself, encounters and attempt to save from oddities possessing them.


CHARACTER:
The main characters of 'Bakemonogatari' are among the most unique and complex I have yet to encounter.
Heroine Senjougahara Hitagi is a tsundere like half of all modern heroines in anime, but she is also 「ドS」, a sadist to an extreme degree, which is more common for side characters and rare for heroines. ... Our protagonist, as expected, is rather on the masochist side who takes constant verbal abuse from Senjougahara.

What makes the couple extraordinary, is that Senjougahara is often boke while Araragi is tsukkomi. Traditional Japanese stand-up comedy consists of a duo: One takes the "boke" role who says something stupid while the "tsukommi" role points out the flaws in boke's argument, often with a violent slap in the head.

Yes, that's right. Boke is masochist by nature and often not very intelligent, while tsukommi is sadist by nature and often more observant.
The leading couple in this series, on the other hand, take turns with the roles. It is particularly interesting when the sadist and intelligent Senjougahara purposefully take on the boke role and overwhelms tsukkomi. Such as making insulting statements that sound flawed, but when Araragi tries to make a comeback, he realizes what she said was true. Or Senjougahara makes a blatantly flawed statement just to hurt Araragi, and his comeback fall into deaf ears. And of course, plenty of intentional boke or tease spoken with so much authority that Araragi just gives up and let it slide.

The unlikely toggling of comedy roles were delivered extremely well, and this back and forth interaction between the leading couple is a key part of this show's appeal.

The remaining four main characters are not as complex as the leading couple, but they all have their own unique issues that drive the story,each with distinct personalities that made them memorable.
There are 6 main characters in this series, and total of only 5 side/peripheral characters (Meme, Shinobu, two sisters, and Senjougahara's father) in the whole series. The limited character headcount made thorough character development possible despite being an arc-based series.


STORY:
Simply put, half the show is about the romantic relationship between the Senjougahara and Araragi.
The other half is about a constant argument between two values: The rational vs the idealistic, with Araragi as Mr. Nice Guy seeking happy end for everyone. Solution of supernatural oddities as the topic of the argument.

Hachikuji, Kanbaru, and Hanekawa's arcs developed the relationship of leading couple while offering new topics to the story.
The only flaw in the story in my opinion, is that Sengoku's arc was pretty much by itself, and contributed very little to the whole series other than loli and moe fan service.
Each arc is an incident focusing on a different girl, but all the arcs combine to show a whole picture of Araragi and Senjougahara closing their personal distances.

"Bakemonogatari" is essentially a verbal performance with visual support. Story is driven by back and forth debate on various issues.


SOUND:
With verbal performance playing such a big role in this show, voice acting is taken to a whole new level in this series.
Every characters' voices fit perfectly, and not only that, distinct tones and nuance of speech establish unique impressions for every single character. The characters speak so fast in this series with lots of tongue twisters, but the seiyuu cast had done a wonderful job in keeping up. I don't think it's an exaggeration to describe voice acting in this series as epic.

Music score in 'Bakemonogatari' has a generally consistent ambient feel to it with a nice flow. Other than intense music for action scenes, they don't particularly set the mood or enhance drama as what I usually consider to be strong BGM for anime, but the usually upbeat sounds in the background set the quick pace for dialogue, and make conversations all the more engaging.

OP song "Staple Stable" is one of the best anime opening theme song by a seiyuu, ever. Really memorable tune accompanied by great vocal and lyric by meg rock was simply amazing.
The other four OPs sang by seiyuu of each arc heroines were nowhere as impressive as "Staple Stable", but offers refreshment value to the OPs, and fits each character perfectly.
ED song's lyric made little sense at first, but its meaning was unveiled in a conversation between the leading couple in a certain episode, and it turned out to very suitable for the series. The two Senjougahara theme songs (OP1, ED) were masterpieces.


ART:
Animation in 'Bakemonogatari' mainly serve as a visual aid to the verbal performance, and it proved to be very effective.

Visuals for the anime got somewhat of an "art house film" treatment. There were many abstract and surreal scenes, unconventional cuts, and intriguing camera angles that made the viewing experience very pleasant. It's the perfected form of SHAFT's signature style.
Character designs were attractive, and main characters had visually shown a wide range of emotion that further portrays the character's state of mind.

The only complaint I have with the animation is the use of photographs/videos of real-life imagery. At the risk of sounding like a super-otaku, I would say 3D images do not belong in the world of 2D.


ENJOYMENT:
As a fansubber and having seen thousands of hours of fan/professionally translated works, I can tell you that at least 10% of the meaning is lost in translation, no matter how well translated. In conversation/narration driven series filled with wordplay and metaphors, at least 20% of the meaning, therefore enjoyability, will inevitably be lost to non-Japanese speakers.
Still, 'Bakemonogatari' is a true masterpiece with experimental production that actually worked. Attention was paid to the tiniest details, and a story well-told. Truly amazing direction by Shinbou Akiyuki left us with so many memorable scenes, and this will definitely be a series to be remembered.

The 8-month wait for the final three episodes were excruciating, but the ending was so satisfying that it almost made it worth the absurd wait. Given the commercial success 'Bakemonogatari' has achieved, I will be hoping for the remaining novels in the series to be animated. Possibly 'Kizumonogatari' OVA/film and 'Nisemonogatari' as a sequel season.


To be blunt, I just enjoyed listening to them... so I want to listen to them more.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Nov 18, 2014

Link_of_Hyrule

Mixed Feelings

**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**

You don’t have to be a member of the anime community for long to know that the Monogatari series is very, very highly praised. Inevitably, I gave into the hype and tried it out for myself. The result? Well… I walked away entertained, but FAR from impressed. Yes the characters are amusing, yes the dialogue is witty, and yes the visuals are beautiful, but make no mistake: Bakemonogatari is just a harem. It exists only for comedic gags and fanservice. The characters are shallow and have little to offer beyond their archetypes and their dialogue, not to mention that the “plot” is loose ... and unimpressive to say the least. I guess I have very mixed feelings about this anime; I’m happy I watched it, but the people hailing it as a masterpiece need to check themselves.

Synopsis: Koyomi Araragi, our harem lead, gets himself involved with all sorts of supernatural stuff, including vampires, spirits, myths, ghosts, and other apparitions. Being the overly selfless, and unreasonably nice harem lead that he is, Araragi meets a series of girls, each of which with their own problems. He finds a way to solve those problems, thus making essentially all of those girls fall in love with him until he has his very own harem.

Now, you’ve probably heard that sort of plot premise many times before, and that’s because there is nothing unique about this show’s plot what so ever. Even the supernatural thing has been done before. It’s quite simply a show about a boy helping girls with their problems one by one, a-la every visual novel ever made (even though this show is not based on a VN). There really isn’t much to say about it except one thing: Holy shit is there dialogue. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing; lots of my favorite anime are considered dialogue heavy, but Bakemongatari is essentially “Dialogue: The Animation”. Granted, it's usually very witty and well-written dialogue, but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't lose interest on more than one occasion. I really enjoyed the action scenes because of how incredibly animated they are, but they were few and far between to say the least. You can count them on one hand. In short, this plot is just a bare-minimum narrative framework for the show to conduct comedic gags and show tons of fanservice all the while attempting to incorporate every otaku fetish ever conceived. Needless to say, the plot is NOT the reason to watch this show…

The real selling point for Bakemonogatari is the characters: They are praised to no end for their likeability and depth. The former I can get on board with. The latter, however, I must wholeheartedly refute. The cast of characters is simply shallow, and I don’t think that’s debatable (I’ve been told they receive more depth in later seasons, but for now, they are shallow). Senjogahara, everybody’s obligatory “best girl”, may be amusing with her witty remarks and constant insults, we never get to know who she really is as a person. The romance between her and Araragi has its moments, but it comes across as unrealistic and misguided more often than not. Araragi claims to love Senjogahara but... does he? It doesn't seem like it at all. She constantly berates him, constantly puts him in uncomfortable situations, and is clearly mentally unstable. Senjogahara’s love feels very unreciprocated, making it quite difficult to empathize with their relationship. Speaking of that love, the show also doesn’t bother to flesh out why Senjogahara loves Araragi in the first place. As the anime itself manages to point out, it seems like she's just a mentally unstable, lonely girl who would fall in love with anyone who showed her the slightest bit of kindness a-la Yuno Gasai. That person just so happened to be Araragi, making the entire relationship based upon coincidence rather than legitimate connection on a psychological and/or spiritual level. The question is simply this: Is the show making fun of these tropes, or merely utilizing them? Who knows, but in the end, it doesn't really seem to matter since nothing profound is ever actually discusses and no commentary is ever made. For that reason, I just can't get into them as a couple; I don't like the confusing and round-a-bout way that it was handled. The other characters don't receive any remarkable depth either. They come and go at random intervals in between episodes; uncomfortably blurring the line between minor and major character. Our protagonist, Araragi is the prototypical overly generous and generic harem lead, with the exception of his tendency to create situations with unfathomably sexual undertones (even more so than an average harem). Don't get me wrong, the characters are witty and entertaining; they had me laughing multiple times, but there is an obvious problem with depth. They are funny, but shallow and archetypical.

I would be doing the show a disservice if I didn’t mention the beautiful animation, which was easily the best part of the entire anime. Bakemonogatari’s beautiful, experimental art style and orgasmic uses of shot composition and lighting are the real reason you should watch this show. Any fan of animation owes it to themselves to bask in the glory of this genius art direction. There are a FEW shots that don’t really work, but as a whole, stupendous animation. The music was good as a tone setter, but a tad underwhelming as a whole with the exception of a single track: The ED; AKA my new favorite anime ED of all time. My god is it increadible.

In conclusion, Bakemonogatari consists entirely of witty humor and fanservice in a beautifully animated and surreal setting. It has lovable characters and great dialogue, but it seriously lacks depth and originality in the departments of plot and characters. The plot isn’t memorable at all, and if the characters are memorable, it’s for their humor and boobs rather than their motivations and complexity. While I totally understand why fans of harems consider this to be the pinnacle of anime, it’s quite clear that Bakemonogatari is not worthy of that title. I think the show is worth watching, but don’t let the ridiculous hype surrounding the series ruin it for you. Remember: At its core, this is just a harem.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 24, 2015

D-ohnuts

Not Recommended

THIS REVIEW IS FOR ALL SEASONS, AS SUCH, IT CONTAINS SPOILERS

Monogatari takes place in a city populated by about 20 people, cardboard cutouts, and kanji characters, and follows the story of Koyomi Araragi as he meets girls who have supernatural oddity-related issues in their lives and tries to help them.

I am not a fan of the Monogatari anime, but I will get into why later in this review.

The characters are all pretty much what you'd expect from a harem anime. There's the selfless main character, the Tsundere girlfriend, the shy Moe girl who turns out to actually be psycho and manipulative, the smart girl who ... wears glasses (for a brief time anyway), the little sister(s), the athletic girl, the lesbian, etc.

However, most of them are written with more nuance than what you'd expect, as in, they get backstories, but on a basic level, I don't feel like it's any deeper than the character backstories from any other anime. But they do have a bit more depth than what you'd expect from a harem show, meaning they are not in a round-the-clock quest for the main character's dick. I'm not a fan of the characters (except for Kaiki Deishuu and maybe Meme Oshino), and don't think they're very noteworthy, but I do give the writer credit for that.

The dialogue is also the same as what you'd expect from an anime. Talking about motivations, delivering exposition, and bantering whenever there's nothing going on. The difference is that most the show is just that, talking, with nothing else going on. However, I don't have that much of a problem with that aspect and some of the dialogue is occasionally funny. Nevertheless, even then, the dialogue often tends to go in circles and isn't strong enough to carry the whole show in my opinion, but more on that later.

When it comes to the story, however, a lot of the story arcs start out with potential, but then they end up focusing more on the dialogue rather than doing something interesting with the premise, and then end unmemorably.
In my opinion, the biggest example of this is in Monogatari Second Season's Mayoi Jiangshi arc. In that arc, Koyomi time travels and prevents something from occurring in the show's backstory. Because of this change he made, a character was unable to help him during the events of a previous story arc in this alternate timeline, which leads to the extinction of humanity via a vampire zombie invasion. I was genuinely pleasantly surprised at the premise of this story arc because it gave new meaning and importance to previous arcs and character interactions. But guess how the story arc plays out. Lots of talking, of course.

Surprisingly enough, despite the first scene of this show being a 15-20 second-long panty shot, there isn't actually all that much fanservice. However, when there is, it's rather unappealing.

Two running gags with Koyomi include going out and molesting Mayoi, who is 11, and planning on tricking his little sisters into being molested by him, and he suffers no real comeuppance for it. I'd say it's refreshing to have a subversion as a change of pace from the typical harem humor where the main character does something perverted by accident and gets beaten up for it, but I don't think child molestation or incest are funny.

That's not to mention the rape snake from the Nadeko Snake arc, and two extended scenes from Nisemonogatari, in which Shinobu, who is over 400 years old but is physically 8, bathes with Koyomi, as well as the infamous scene where he brushes his little sister's teeth and it looks like they're having oral. I have read an essay analyzing the fanservice in Nise, of all things, and apparently it's supposed to represent teenage sexuality, or how the girls want to be seen by Koyomi. Okay, but that doesn't mean that I have to feel it's worth waxing philosophical about this aspect. Might as well apply that same logic to every ecchi harem out there.

The biggest problem I have with Monogatari, however, isn't intrinsic to the series in general, since I've read some of the light novels and think they're okay, despite having these flaws.

The animation looks nice and clean (despite the obvious low budget resulting in all these still frames), however, it is also its biggest flaw (besides the fanservice).

Shaft has been using the same visuals for every Shinbo-directed show for several years (10-11 years as of the time of this review), but I feel that when making Monogatari, they rely on their visuals too much.

A lot of the time, during the dialogue scenes in Monogatari, they keep cutting to Dadaist visuals, text screens, weird camera angles, and extreme closeups, which wouldn't be a problem, except that they focus on them for so long and so often, that it detracts from the experience. They go too overboard with those and fail to build up a good momentum for the pacing.

I don't judge a show based on the animation, as long as I'm interested in the story and the characters, but this is one case where I have the opinion that it detracts from everything else. In this case, I feel like the animation department is too busy showing off what I already know that they can do while not advancing the story in a significant measure in each episode with little pay-off, and that aspect is what I actually care about in a show. I've already seen this exact same type of animation in multiple other Shaft shows previously, so it doesn't do anything for me anymore, I'm not going to give it extra points.

Imagine if someone made an adaptation of a book, and instead of adapting the events of the book in a visual format, the adaptation entirely consisted of watching some guy sitting there, reading the book out loud. That's what watching Monogatari feels like.

In conclusion, I think that the Monogatari light novels are okay despite their flaws, but that Shaft's direction makes the anime boring to watch, and that I would have likely enjoyed the show more if it was made by another studio, or if Shaft hadn't gone so overboard with the animation to the extent that it detracts from everything else. The only reason I continue to watch it is just because I'm waiting for the moment where it finally lives up to its potential.

Monogatari is a love-it-or-hate-it show, watch it if you want, maybe you'll like it, but if you end up not liking it, I recommend watching Monster or Mushishi as preferable alternatives.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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