Review of Bakemonogatari
Bakemonogatari - Lemme start by saying that this entire show has been a fun ride from beginning to the end. It is quite possibly the best slice of life anime I've ever watched. And I enjoyed (almost) every minute of it. The show is very funny, constantly teetering between high brow social commentary, to surreal meta humor, to slapstick nonsense. It's just so goddamned funny and that's the one aspect I enjoyed most out of Bakemonogatari. It's lighthearted and overall cheerful and fun all around. Usually I'd dismiss light novel-to-anime adaptations, but this show really works well as an anime, more so than as a light novelthanks to the surreal animation courtesy of Shaft. The constant switching of artstyle per episode and the freeze-frame cuts randomly juxtapositioned in strangely fit the scene depicted onscreen really well. And the surreal atmosphere is perfectly portrayed by the unnatural character animations and backgrounds. Fantastic stuff.
The characters in this series are all genuinely enjoyable, while Nadeko and Hanekawa_(human) are a bit too cliched for my tastes, te rest of the cast is very well written. The protagonist in particular is a lovable idiot who sticks his nose in place where it don't belong. While in other animes I'd abhor characters like this, Bakemonogatari makes it work by making him a foil to almost every other character he meets, making it an excellent story telling technique.
Senjougahara in particular I believe to be quite possibly the best characterized character in the show, being an unusual tsundere character as far as tsunderes go, and overall being very likable due to her witty banter with Araragi.
I do like the structure of a short story system in which different episodes focuses on different stories with an arc tying all of them together. It makes for a very relaxing pace and it's a nice break from the usual "protagonist gets thrown into complicated scenarios every episode except in one or two" animes I've been used to.
The music is very excellently composed. The very relaxing contemporary lounge like music fits the lightheartedness of the series very well, in particularly the piano tune that accompanies most comedic moments and the spaghetti western-esque leitmotif of Oshino Meme, both of which I consider to be the most memorable themes in the series. And the OPs are all catchy and fun too, Renai Circulation on one hand is very evil in the sense that it can't leave your mind ever.
I wasn't too fond of moments where the anime got too serious, not really a fan of how they handled serious scenes, they tend to be too ordinary or too normal for my tastes. It somewhat betrays the lightheartedness and surreality of the rest of the anime IMO. Of course they had to be there for plot purposes, but at times I wished Araragi wasn't that much of a white knight type of character.
The fanservice moments I didn't mind. The main protag is portrayed as a pervert anyway, so fanservice somewhat makes sense in terms of plot, and they aren't intrusive.
Still, Bakemonogatari is highly highly enjoyable and one of the best animes I've the pleasure of watching.
8/10 Better than the regular Madoka series.
In terms of character short stories :
Mayoi>Hitagi>Kanbaru>Hanekawa>Nadeko
(My goodness all the names are weird)