Review of Bakemonogatari

The monogatari series has to be one of most unique and interesting of any anime series (not including fate for obvious reasons.) Everything from the random flashing text, to the monologues that never get boring and everything in-between is near perfection with only a few hiccups throughout the entire series so far. If you like a good mystery/fantasy/action story then this anime is for you 100% And for those of you wondering Bakemonogatari is where you should start the series: don't watch the prequel movies until the end of your monogatari journey. With the introduction out of the way lets start with the story, shallwe?

Story:

The story in Bakemonogatari is cut up into 5 main small arcs all directly adapted from the light novels, the arc names are as followed ( no spoilers) Hitagi crab, Mayoi snail, Sugura monkey, Nadako snake and Tsubasa cat. Each arc deals with one character and there iterations with certain curses and... other things. We follow our main lead Koyomi Araragi, a "typical" boy that is a loner for the most part and cant resit helping people if they are in need. He also just so happens to have certain powers he obtained into the prequel story. One day he sees a girl falling slowly down a staircase who seems to have no weight as if she was gliding, he catches her and just like that the first arc and a love interest in the first 2 minutes. The girls name is Senjougahara and she is a very important character in the series as a whole. That is the brief synopsis without spoilers, the arcs are all about Araragi helping different characters and building a sustainable friend group. Seems typical right? but watch then you'll understand just how perfect the plot really is.

10/10

Characters:

For the most part the cast is good, the problem is that most characters don't get much screen time after there designated arc due to the nature of the anime; being adapted from a light novel and all. And while 90% of every episode is just talking as its all very important it really hurts some characters like Sengoku in one of the last arcs as we end up with like 10 minutes of her on screen. However for the time the characters are on screen all of them are unique but not to annoying, have dark stories to tell but its not overdone and really good voice actors and designs. For a arc about a singular character to be good you have to make that character likeable, have a interesting backstory or both. And this is not an easy task by any means however i can safely say Bakemonogatari delivers here with each character having an entirely different story and personality's that are all really mysterious even after Araragi helps them. The characters defiantly get better as you go down the story past Bake but get used to being confused and not knowing characters motives, this isn't a bad thing in fact it shows how well written the story actually is.

8/10

Audio/visuals:

As per tradition i have to address the op's first otherwise I'll get carried away. They are good, and the fact that there is a new op for every arc really makes them so much better. The songs are memorable and fit the main side character in there respected arcs well in both song choice and visuals alike. Really no complaints apart from the second to last arc as i am SICK of it!! Overall really solid set of op's with the first one called "staple staple" being my personal favourite. Now the voice actors are really solid here for the entire cast apart from Sengoku but that's because i cant stand loli voices lol. As for the visuals, they are really, really unique as sometimes a character can go through 5 different art styles in 3 seconds (not a joke) and the visuals are what sets monogatari apart from every other anime out there. Oh and get used to pausing a lot because every few seconds a flash of text directly from the novel flashes on screen and you can actually piece together what happened in the prequal without even watching it through this!! its genuinely amazing how they pulled it of without it getting annoying. And for all my dub scrubs reading, there is no dub so read the text for once :). I cant praise the visuals enough so ill let you formulate your own opinion after watching. It can hurt your eyes on the first few episodes but they quickly stop whining and soak up everything the visuals have to give.

9/10 (because of that stupid op)

Overall:

Confusing, complicated and hard to get into are all valid things to call Monogatari however the more you watch the more of the puzzle gets put together without the show even telling you which is really impressive to pull of for a anime. Just stick with it until nisemonogatai and it will alllll come together. Im not leaving a watch order here as i already have one up so ill leave you instead with a messege

FUCK OP 5