Review of Bakemonogatari

Throughout my near decade being part of the community, from when I got into it, to this day, I have never failed to hear this on a regular basis: “Nothing is original anymore.” Gotta admit, for the longest time I agreed and waved that same banner of hatred like my contemporaries are doing now. However, now I adopt a different belief: “Nothing is original - and that is a great thing.” Following the previous notion, I have often been criticized for comparing in-constant Japanese animation to other works of art, such as western literature as well as films, etc. This is something I’ve never reallyunderstood and at this point makes me chuckle. Making claims that anime is not original, but you also don’t want it to borrow traits from sources outside of Japan for inspiration? It creates such a paradox so amusing that the ouroborus itself would blush. All art from its very inception has taken and cannibalized itself, don’t believe me? Just look at our mythology and esoteric theology, you’re gonna find similarities everywhere, from The Hero’s Journey being presented in Star Wars, to figuring out that The Wizard of Oz is a film that revolves around occult philosophy - shocker, right?

My prime example as to why we as fellow tourists in this darling medium should embrace outside sources has for the longest time been: Bakemonogatari. This show, and indeed its source material, is a monogamous cornucopia of various ideas that root their inspirations from genius’s in other mediums, from Kubrick, to King. Bakemonogatari is painfully difficult to write about in depth for nearly anyone with an instinctual, dare I say, carnal lust to break down and analyze anything they enjoy to a decent degree. I can tell you what Bakemonogatari is about, but I can’t tell you what it’s “really” about, and that’s its saving grace. It treats the viewer as a cheshire cat, chasing its untraceable tail across an endless vista. Sure, I can tell you that it’s a story of a teenager trying desperately to help terribly broken people. . . but there’s also vampires, possessive spirits, and a catgirl. I can tell you that it’s a coming of age story filled with quirky characters, but at times it will focus more on the side-cast than our actual character. Is this, despite all the fluff, a harem anime hidden in disguise? That presents another series of questions.

Bakemonogatari is like trying to study Hannibal Lecter, he doesn’t want you to figure him out because he knows once he’s been cracked, he’ll be tossed away and forgotten, a blight that unfortunately looms its way over to the sequels of this franchise as time goes on.

To be basic, the story of Bakemonogatari focuses on Araragi Koyomi, a highschool student who meets a girl named Senjougahara, literally falling down from the heavens as she weightlessly lands into his arms. The first arc of the series centers around Araragi both figuring out how Senjougahara became this way, and how to fix it. This formula follows with each other (waifu) character he interacts with throughout the series.

While this sounds laborious and can be at times, the show goes to great lengths to give each character that appears a reasonable explanation for their personality, and a strong motivation for how they became and no longer want to be this way, this is shot to the audience in mountains of dialogue that can spew exposition at you just as quickly as it can fire-off cathartic and amusing humor that is most of the time taken word-for-word from Isin’s light novels, which brings me to another herculean task; talking about the writing. Love it or hate it, it’s a non sequitur, what we can all agree on, I’d like to believe, is how unadulterated and shamelessly Monogatari’s characters interact with each other, the dialogue puts the viewer in the state of a fever-dream, constantly questioning and contemplating what has been said and where the next line will lead to in a way that no other anime can, one minute they’re cracking jokes to Araragi about his own perversion, and thirty seconds later questioning his ideals and moral codes as a human being.

What weighs and anchors this down is Koyomi himself, I’ve heard him at times whipped at by contemporaries that he’s a self insert for the viewer, and while I can certainly see where those people are coming from, I find him to be more of a narrative tool to keep all of these volatile personalities together. In many respects, I’d call him a decently “realistic” portrayal of a male teenager. On this topic, I have to praise to the heavens themselves for the amount of care taken into this show by SHAFT, adding on little touches that were not even in the light novels. For instance, my favorite addition by far is the camera flash effect in Araragi’s eye when sexually ogling his peers, an obvious nod to pornography and the “male gaze”, which begs. . . a very funny question. Are the girls even this attractive, or are we, someone seeing these characters from Ararargi’s lens, more sexualized than usual? The questions pop up again and again as the show goes on.

Where is this town? Where are the other people? If you think about the setting of the franchise itself more, nothing really makes sense logistically from a geological level. The town is massive it seems, but there’s rarely any cars. Thousands of houses, but seldom anyone… anywhere besides our main cast and some cardboard figures. You will start to wonder if our characters are trapped in some Silent Hill-esque-purgatory (which are theories I actually have heard). You’ll get one note here, an inkling of information there, but most of the time you’re left out in the rain in terms of specifics. This not only keeps us engaged, but saves time on superfluous details of the world that sadly many writers get caught in the trap of.

The color palettes of Monogatari along with the expert camerawork make the show chokingly intimate and uncomfortable to watch for extended periods of time, especially when a few specific scenes can get particularly aggressive in one way or another. The character designs are solid, clean, even if basic and paper thin. SHAFT has gone to great lengths to make this show pleasing to look at, what helps them out as well is that most of the time, there doesn’t need to be a lot of action going on from the very nature of production and the work itself, so when they actually need to have characters moving at a frantic pace from an action scene here-or-there, you can put money down you’re about to see a spectacle.

Something to point out about this art style is the show’s nuanced take of presenting information about the state of every character or the world in general to us, such as cutting to a real-life-photograph, or having a quick frame of venomous text from a possessed character or demon. I have a feeling this was not due to budgetary concerns, but on purpose by SHAFT to assault us in every-way they can, every chance they get without it becoming too tasteless.

The sound fairs the same, while I’m not a fan of the openings to the show, I will say that the OST is mesmerizing and at times, skin-crawling when placed with a tense scene, yet can be uplifting and calm a moment later, repetitious as I’ve sounded already attempting to explain why this show just. Works. The ambience composed by Satoru Kosaki is one of the things that has kept me rewatching this show through the years, coupled with the near-perfect voice acting from medium-staples - looking at you, Hiroshi, and can a show be any less perfect?

Yes. Yes it can.

There is a fair amount of exposition that can be taxing when watching the show in excess and when it does border upon this point is thankfully, and most of the time counterbalanced by other departments in the work, such as the OST and cut to a different angle, as well as the voice actors themselves doing their best to strike a tone change when they can feel that something, maybe a line here not flowing right, needs adjustment, such as a little more or less energy, but I won't lie and say this can be a chore at times. The fanservice, *sigh*. Bakemonogatari is my best example of saying: “I like fanservice if it contributes to the story.” It truly is, doesn’t stop it from graining on you when it doesn’t follow the rules it has set. What I’m saying is: Bakemonogatari has established that the fanservice is from Araragi’s male gaze, so during practically all the scenes where he’s not aroused, well, what’s their point? I too play by my own rules, and refuse to let it get away with this when it does start to drip into tasteless territory. Also… hate to tell you, Isin, but molesting an elementary school girl isn’t fun, and has always rubbed me the wrong way.

Bakemonogatari can occasionally be riddled with tropes seen again and again in the medium, but that doesn’t stop Isin’s writing from breathing so much, let’s not call it “life”, but hedonistic indulgence from them being at play for so long so masterfully, though gags will grain on you eventually. Yes, Kanbaru, I understand, you’re very flirtatious and horny - I know that comes back later to haunt you and give you character development in a sequel of this work, but at times I do not want to be beaten over the head with it.

Overall, that’s as few flaws as I can point out, and it’s telling that the only faltering ligaments of the show are due to its own gluttony, obsessed and narcissistic about its own unique grandeur. Luckily, SHAFT’s direction is precise enough to have these stumbling moments, a seldom affair. Bakemonogatari is not an anime, for everyone, that’s why the split between it is so black and white, quite honestly, I’m highly confident it depends on the specific personality of the individual viewer that determines the show’s worth. You could either see it as a nuanced take of adolescence, or a slog so arduous you may want to pry your eyes out by the end of this. What you get out of Monogatari, perhaps, isn’t up to you, maybe it’s predestined by some queer hand of fate if you’ll love or hate it?

Well, it’s a good thing I don’t believe in fate. I don’t think you should either. You owe it to yourself to give this girl a whirl, and see what you get out of it. Personally, I love this, not show specifically, but franchise, and champion that idea that everyone needs to watch it just once.

So, Dear Reader, if you came here looking for a: “Should I watch it or not”, stop reading this, and tackle this gem you probably put on your plan to watch for five years, because you have your answer.