Bakemonogatari - Review

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Anime Name :-

Bakemonogatari /  Ghostory

Japanese: 化物語

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Details :-

Type: TV

Episodes: 15

Status: Finished Airing

Genres: Mystery, Supernatural, Romance, Vampire

Duration: 24 min. per ep.

Producers: Aniplex, Kodansha

Licensors: Aniplex of America

Studios: Shaft

Source: Light novel

Introduction:-

The Monogatari series revolves around Koyomi Araragi, a third-year high school student who is almost human again after briefly becoming a vampire. One day, a classmate of his, the reclusive Hitagi Senjōgahara, falls down the stairs into Koyomi's arms. He discovers that Hitagi weighs nothing, in defiance of physics. Despite being threatened by her to keep away, Koyomi offers his help and introduces her to Meme Oshino, a strange middle-aged man living in an abandoned building, who cured him of being a vampire. Once Koyomi helps solve Hitagi's problem, she decides to become his friend.

 

Plot/Summary :-

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.

Quotes :-

“If praying does not work, and words are ineffective... what's left is to fight.”

“But being optimistic isn't a bad thing, is it? It's not like you're doing anything bad. It's also not like you're cheating either.”

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Story :-

To describe Bakemonogatari’s plot simply: it’s a harem anime. The show features our ~mysteriously charismatic~ hero, Arararararagi-kun (sorry, my tongue slipped) as he somehow manages to charm a whole load of girls – whilst, at the same time, he battles with the supernatural to sort out their problems. Minus the ‘supernatural’ aspect (which seems kind of like a cheap gimmick, to spice up this ‘harem’ style story we’ve surely seen countless of times before), there is nothing special about Bakemonogatari.

 

The characters all fall into certain archetypes (harem lead / sporty lesbian girl / bratty loli / cool and aloof tsundere-type / intelligent and reserved student council president / moeblob), and none of them seem multi-faceted or particularly interesting. A lot of them are used as vehicles for jokes and ‘witty’ dialogue, but that’s about it. When their back stories are revealed, they’re brushed right over, and no time is spent on them at all – but a great, great deal of time is spent on meandering dialogue that tries to throw as many jokes at the audience as possible (using wordplay, repetition, common straight man / the clown routines, etc, etc), hoping at least some of them will be funny. The characters, also, are mainly constrained to their own scant few-episode long ‘arcs’, and don’t really do all that much outside of their own allotted time period – which makes it feel a little mechanic, like these girls are just being cycled through; right, we’ve finished the storyline with a loli-girl, now onto the lesbian…! Keep throwing pretty girls at the audience so they don’t get tired…! So, I didn’t think all that much to characters; they’re pretty standard – and although there were a few entertaining exchanges and jokes, these are lost amongst the deluge of random stuff that just keeps coming from everybody’s mouths.

Have you ever watched an anime and said to yourself, “Wow… that was by far one of the strangest but awesome series I have ever seen…”. Well, if you’re yet to say something like that then you’re in luck, because I’ve got a series that is guaranteed to make you say that line to yourself over and over again!

 

 

Bakemonogatari is the first season of the Monogatari series. Bakemonogatari revolves around Araragi Koyomi, who seems like your average human but is actually a half-vampire. One day at school, a classmate of his, Senjyougahara Hitagi, falls down the stairs unconscious. As he catches her fall, he notices that she is very light, with literally no mass. He later discovers that she is victim to an Oddity; a supernatural spirit that haunts people and causes that person to bear many different supernatural traits. Despite declining his request, Senjyougahara is introduced to Oshino Meme, a supernatural specialist who cured Araragi from his vampire problem. The story follows Araragi as he helps many different people (girls) through different problems and strange Oddities.

 

So, what makes Bakemonogatari so ‘unique’ – if not the plot or the characters? Well, that would obviously have to be the art.

 

Bakemonogatari is animated in a very odd way, which is kind of expected of Shaft – but it seems to have been taken into extremes here. Odd camera angles are used, placing the characters far away in the screen; strange colours; real-life photography is inserted here and there; there are frequent split-second cuts to large walls of text that are impossible to read unless you pause; and there is very little actual ‘animation’ to be found – instead, the show keeps jumping around to numerous, static cuts (static save mouths flapping open), in a very indecisive way that sometimes gets irritating to look at.

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This first season contains 12 episodes (+ 3 ONA’s) and aired during Summer 2009 Anime Season (July 2009 – September 2009). The series is based off an ongoing light novel series written by Nishio Ishin (who is best known for creating the highly acclaimed manga series Medaka Box). The series is animated by Shaft Studios, who is best for its use of unique animation techniques and has created such well-known series as the Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei series, Arakawa Under The Bridge and Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

 

The anime is known for its wide range of well-known voice actors and actresses including Kamiya Hiroshi who voices Araragi Koyomi (and is also known as the voices of Trafalgar Law from One Piece and Levi from Attack On Titan), Katou Emiri who voices Hachikuji Mayoi (and is also known as the voices of Kagami from Lucky Star and Hideyoshi from Baka to Test to Shoukanjyuu), Sawashiro Miyuki who voices Kanbaru Suruga (and is also known as the voices of Inaba Himeko from Kokoro Connect and Beelzebub from Beelzebub) and other fabulous actors and actresses including Hanazawa Kana, Horie Yui and Sakamoto Maaya and Sakurai Takahiro.

 

Definitely the stand-out of this series is the wonderfully strange and unique animation technique that Shaft Studios are best known for, but also the way in which the story progresses in general. The majority of the Monogatari series involves talking between two or more characters, but it is the fabulous dialogue written by Nishio Ishin that is both quirky, hilarious and very entertaining that makes this series stand out from other anime series of its genre. It’s even difficult to say that last part because its really difficult to find an anime series that can fit into the genre that the Monogatari series falls into. If you’re looking for a really unique and interesting series to watch then I highly recommend this anime and the following series of the Monogatari series, because they are all absolutely awesome and wonderful!

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The art in Bakemonogatari is certainly interesting – but at times, it seems clear certain methods were used to save money. The slideshow like effect, of jumping between static scenes frequently, looks pretty cheap – regardless of how ‘odd’ and ‘unconventional’ it is. In fact, it’s easy, when watching this show, to calculate how much each scene would have cost. If there’s actual movement on your screen, then probably, this was more expensive than most of the other scenes (this is a fun game you can play when watching it – ‘I wonder how much this cost…’) And the fact the characters are often placed at the side of the screen, very, very small, feels a little alienating.

 

Furthermore, although the backgrounds might be unusual in the anime, the character designs are all very, very standard for harem anime. The girls are all conventionally pretty and attractive; the main lead looks like an average guy. Unlike the anime of Satoshi Kon, or Masaaki Yusa, which often use somewhat odd imagery but also feature characters that are not conventionally attractive (some of them are very old, some of them have large chins, some of them are overweight, some of them look like gremlins), Bakemonogatari is actually playing it far, far safer than people seem to be giving it credit for. As a harem anime, the main draw to the audience is attractive girls – and, although Bakemonogatari does have slightly odd directing, the girls are all attractive (and often seen wearing swim suits / in the shower / their breasts pressing against the back of the main character / etc), and all meet ‘typical harem standards’. If Bakemonogatari really was as ‘daring’ and ‘edgy’ with its art as people seem to assume, surely they would have tried to give some variation the girls’ character designs? But, of course not – this is a harem anime, and pretty girls sell. So, even if the art does look unusual, I feel this is pretty superficial, because the most important aspect of the art – the character designs – is very, very typical.

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Conclusion :-

Regardless, I found Bakemonogatari a rather prickly and unpleasant show, that isn’t necessarily ‘trying hard to be clever’, but, by the use of its own jokes, constantly seems to undermine itself – often making me think ‘what’s the point in watching this, if even the show itself acknowledges it’s cliché, overdone and unoriginal?’ If you want to watch an ‘artistically interesting’ anime, then watch something like The Tatami Galaxy of Paranoia Agent – but not this. Although you might be fooled by the odd art direction and the long streams of dialogue, it’s really nothing new at all.

 

Recommendation :-

Of course -,  Its an Amazing anime.

My rcommendation is 9./10.

I strongly recommend it for Supernatural, Romance, Vampire lover.

 

 

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