Review of Bakemonogatari

Nisio Isin is a master at subtly subverting popular takes on popular genres, and the Monogatari Series is a great example. This review is for the series as a whole. Story (9): The series is achronological, which presents a lot of unanswered questions to the audience - many people are turned off by this since it can be incredibly confusing to follow the plot. While it's a great stylistic choice that adds a sense of mystery, it also makes the series incredibly niché and hard for a lot of people to follow. The themes are as abstract as the art is, and while that adds tothe rewatch value, it makes me wrack my brain a lot more than I'd hope to while watching anime. Dialogue is witty, puns are abundant, and every spoken sentence covers layers of subtext. This is one of the few anime where I can listen to hours of dialogue and still be entertained. One of the biggest strengths is how Nisio Isin uses a soft-magic supernatural system to enhance the story with many mysterious yet meaningful metaphors.

Art (9): The directing is amazing, and the visuals tell as much about the characters and story as the dialogue does. The iconic Shaft-style that Bakemonogatari introduces is an abstract style that only animation can pull off, which makes it original, entertaining, and gives the series even more depth. You can tell that every scene in this series is imbued with intention and well-thought-out stylistic choices. Sexuality and fanservice is also presented meaningfully; while it can get pretty intense in this series, Nisio Isin's fanservice makes contextual sense and serves a purpose in conveying messages to the audience about its characters - this isn't seen very often in harem series. However, Bakemonogatari specifically is a 2009 anime, and the art is not as detailed as the following seasons.

Sound (10): The soundtrack adds considerably to the atmosphere, and the OPs and EDs reflect the vibes of each character and the general story. The first Bakemonogatari ED by yanagi nagi and Supercell is iconic, and possibly one of my personal favourite Jpop songs.

Character (9): Each character is a subversion of your typical harem tropes, and it only gets better throughout the series. Like Konosuba's main girls, typical cute and enjoyable harem character traits are presented as actual flaws, which is refreshing. The tsundere's borderline psychotic personality is contextually explained and creates conflict and tension. The eccentric, energetic characters actually cause problems when they overstep boundaries. The cute obsessive little sister characters are subtly batshit crazy. And most of all, the righteous, self-sacrificing morality of the protagonist is constantly challenged. The downside is that the development is slow and you won't see all of this happen in one season.

Enjoyment (10): I could rewatch this multiple times and find something new to appreciate every time - that's how much depth this series provides.

Overall (10)