Review of Bakemonogatari

To my complete surprise I was actually blown away by this series. This was a show that I had thought was ostensibly about a high school student who is vampire. Yes, a vampire! And with all the negative preconceptions about them due to The Twilight Saga I wasn’t sure if I should be watching this show. But my, how wrong I was! I should have watched this show way earlier. And I really need to talk about this. Bakemonogatari was fascinating, to say the least. Here we are presented with a character who is both despicable and sympathetic at the same time - sincere about wantingto save everyone and even ready to sacrifice himself for others like the best of us while nearly molesting and groping a grade-schooler like the worst of us.1 Also he is shown to be powerless against every female who is his social equal or better.

So let’s start. The series started more like a shock to the me as a viewer throwing me entirely off guard. Although I believe this scene was meant to tease the viewer, I later realized it was quite important as it’s a show which cannot we watched effectively with preconceived notions. Next you see a girl falling from those really gorgeous staircases.

After some talk we see the same girl who fell from those staircase actually stapling Araragi’s mouth. And quite ironically we get to know that Senjougahara wants to gain weight. By the end of this arc you realize connection between feelings and weight. The 2nd episode made sure that I am going to watch this show as the show is quite deeper than it looks while also cementing the fact Araragi wasn’t just your average schoolboy pervert and that Senjougahara was more than her looks would suggest.

Now that you might be interested in the show, go on and watch it.

What? Already done? Anyway I’ll put forward my take away from the show. You could say I am overanalyzing things, but hey where else is the fun? I do not claim anything to be right now as I personally have no experience of any sort of such relationships and am interpreting from whatever I know from seeing and reading things around.

The show really felt “smart”, subtly illustrating how often there is a power dynamic to relationships. The show focused on the need for authenticity in our dealings with the people whom we care about. Except for Senjougahara all other girls surrounding Araragi are in some way inauthentic. Senjougahara is direct and reveals everything she withhelds, she reveals on her own terms. In some way, episode 12 was the best episode of the entire series and also ends up being my favorite character from the show. Eventually we see a story of friends and friendship with Senjougahara representing romantic love. Also the cinematography and the text dump slideshows were really well done. After Madoka and now Bakemonogatari, Akiyuki Shinbo is certainly now among my favorite anime directors. Nothing in the show seemed without any reason - even the complete lack of anyone else other than the named characters - no traffic, no parents nothing - showing how disconnected the people are in any large city with nobody noticing anyone else.