Review of Bakemonogatari

Bakemonogatari is one of the most difficult animes I ever tried to rate/review. Like many pieces of art, loving or hating them is sometimes a question of choosing a day to watch them. There were episodes which made me put this show on hold, there were episodes that made me want to watch the next one. This anime is heavily focused on character development, the supernatural element of it is there just to create the drama. This isn't an Action anime at all. First I think its important to understand that sometimes reviewers focus too much on character archetypes. Most of the times rightfully so, however, inthis anime, I think its unfair to do so. Almost all characters ever fictionalized belong to a certain archetype for the simple reason that there's a limited amount of screen-time to build them up, therefore the archetype characteristics tend to stand up. So sure, the characters in this show fall into their own archetypes, but, there's just so much more depth than normal to them, they have an uniqueness that makes them interesting in a way that most shows can't accomplish. This is the strength of this anime, I would say, the only strength.

Another good characteristic of this anime is that it uses a very particular and stylized way of telling the story, it had very good details to it. Some will like it, some won't, but one can appreciate when someone tries something different.

As for bad things, I really didn't like the harem, it felt out of place, it turned a somewhat mature anime into a cheap love triangle story. At least the main character was, in his own way, interesting, which makes it less bad, as opposed to those animes where the guy is a pathetic waste of space and somehow everyone loves him.

The art was ok but very barren. However I do understand that this was a consistent artistic choice. Despite the emptiness the anime doesn't feel cheap.

In conclusion, this show wasn't for me but it can easily be for you.