Bakemonogatari

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'Bakemonogatari' is, without a doubt, an interesting interpretation of Nisio's works. Some diehard fans will be disappointed with its somewhat lax interpretation of some events (both in terms of LNs or the anime). Others won't mind it, as they're open to a more novel take on an already experimental series.

I belong to the latter, but I'd completely understand if you were in the former camp. The manga does take some adjusting to how the arcs are explored. Sometimes you'd get some slight, nuanced differences. Sometimes the changes imposed on the reader are rather...significant and can even appear confusing.

What obviously makes these otherwise glaring differences smoother ... is Oh! Great's art. Were it not for it, I'd put the manga at 8/10, but considering his talent I can't score anything less than 9/10.

'Bakemonogatari' is significantly more shonen-esque than both the LNs and the anime. More focus is put on fight sequences, and they're definitely flashier. In some cases, even filled with more gore too.

If you've itched for [MINOR SPOILERS] Koyomi growing some wings and joining the heat of battle like a half-vamp [MINOR SPOILERS/], you'll get that. I didn't particularly want to read something like this, but it worked out nevertheless.

(Don't worry, the shonen-esque approach doesn't detract from the verbal soup and verbose give-and-take we're accustomed to seeing. This works perfectly fine in the manga adaptation too.)

As far as character designs go, some of them are slightly more different than what you'd see in the anime. At first, I didn't like Kanbaru's slight differences, for example, but they grew on me. And considering I've always enjoyed her banter with Araragi, in some scenes the manga did an even more hilarious take on their ridiculous conversations.

In the end, 'Bakemonogatari' is a fresh and slightly altered take on its source material. I suggest you give it at least 15-20 chapters before you decided whether it's your thing or not. It took me around 10-12 chapters to get in the groove, and it was a very pleasant read after that.

5/5 art - 2.4/5 plot

This is if not the best work by Oh!Great visually speaking. The mastery of brush patterns and contrast, the technical level of detail, the astonishing use of japanese folklore images … the most one can make use of simply black and white.
This is the latest, the manga with the best art currently.

The plot. Compliments first. The highlights of this manga are Hanekawa, the conversations between Hanekawa and Araragi and Oshino and Araragi, Koyomi Vamp and Tsubasa Cat arcs and the way the characters’ feelings are orchestrally expressed.

The down sides: I’m really not fond of some imagery and jokes involving super young ... looking girls here.
In between reading the manga, I read the kizumonogatari novel and didn’t notice anything borderline criminal and then I tried to watch the movies and saw some of that stuff there. I want to try reading the first bakemonogatari novel to prove my point that the animators and fandom are the ones that link this stuff to the franchise or if the author himself is the one who adds this stuff to his books.

Either way Ogure simply did his job as an adaptor, and an amazing one if I speak so!

First and foremost: I really do not like this adaptation of monogatari and it pains me to not like something like this. The art is fantastic and Oh! Great did a great job with some of the panel work and art direction. Maybe minus kissshot's design. But I just can't get over how bad of an adaptation of the original story this is. Some may not have an issue with how things have changed. But for me there are so many little differences in story beats and characters that I just can't stand it. And see this as nothing more than some glorified fan fiction.

[Warning: ... some minor spoilers for monogatari in this next paragraph]
One of the biggest offensives for me is right in the beginning. Senjougahara is afflicted with having essentially no weight. This is due to her having a crab god remove her emotions, as she couldn't handle the things in her personal life, mostly her mother. This meant that Senjougahara was cold and stern with everyone she encountered. Because she simply did not feel anything towards anyone. So, why do I mention all of this? Well because in this manga version of the same story, we see multiple times that Senjougahara is flustered with Araragi and shown to be blushing. All of this before she was given back her emotions. I think this completely undermines her character development as she is meant to start off as a girl who doesn't know how to control her emotions and ends up being maybe a bit too harsh on Araragi at the start. But as the series goes on, she is meant to be shown more and more loving towards Araragi. Or I guess we could just shove it in the face of the viewers by showing Senjougahara is flustered by Araragi's face being equally shoved into Senjougahara 's crotch. Which, by the way, never happened in the books or the anime. Just extra fanservice for the sake of it, I guess? Ugh.

Again these changes might not seem like a big deal to some, but for me this is one example of how the story is changed from the original. Shaft may have took some liberties when making the animes, but it seems Oh! Great has created a whole new set of characters that just share the names from Monogatari. With some of the story beats added in there. This reads more like fan fiction than it does an actual adaptation in manga form.

Now, I have only read through to ch.8 before I dropped the manga. After all why keep reading something if I'm not enjoying it. So, who knows it might have gotten better over time. But I seriously doubt that the *little* changes to the story are ever going to stop.

Some may even wonder why I would write a review on something like this. Clearly people tend to enjoy this adaptation and my view is quite a niche one. I just wanted to write down my own thoughts on this and give a clear conscience to anyone out there that might be feeling the same way about this manga.

If you like this adaptation, I am happy for you. I just worry if this is anyone's first interaction with the series, and they go to the books or anime, they might be in a for a surprise to find things different from what they are used to.