Review of Bakemonogatari

I attempted to watch Bakemonogatari for the first time almost a year ago, but stopped after the second episode. Sure, there was something charming in the art style—mainly in the colors, lighting, and editing—but stylistic choices alone wouldn't be enough to hold my attention. Figured I'd give it another go. My major issue with the anime is admittedly a somewhat subjective one because I feel like it has to do with one of Bakemonogatari's stylistic decisions rather than its writing (more on this at the end). Bakemonogatari's biggest flaw, in my opinion, is its pacing. And this doesn't have to do with its writing because its pacingis highly stylized. The dialogue between Araragi and Senjougahara is usually downright brilliant and clever, but I always felt like I didn't have the time to fully absorb or appreciate the content before the show forced me to go elsewhere. Bakemonogatari seems to prioritize style over narrative depth, which can be both its strength and its weakness. It has a script that's delivered in a quick, back-and-forth fashion, likely to optimize the delivery of comedic gags, and the overarching structure of each episode reflects this cadence as well: a mystery or oddity is discovered, the oddity is fleshed out slightly, Araragi jokes around with the character of the arc, there is a moment of "horror" as Araragi comes to some realization, Araragi jokes around again with said character—rinse and repeat. However, the comedic timing that some may praise the show for is one that I actually take issue with.

The gags in Bakemonogatari aren't quick one-liners, but smaller scenes in of themselves, and they serve as narrative interruptions, for better or for worse. At times the comedy is almost a nuisance, cutting into the intrigue and disrupting the mood, perhaps because the topic I was always more interested in was never the subject of the joke; I just didn't care enough to want to be interrupted in the first place and was almost always disappointed when I was. Once the comedic moment ends the show launches the viewer back into the mystery, but the moment has already been ruined.

Comedic timing aside, another one of Bakemonogatari's major flaws is how it paces its character arcs. New characters are introduced with promising arcs, before being relegated to existing solely for comedic gags or plot convenience. Oshino and Shinobu are additional examples of characters who are intriguing upon first glance but are never able to become satisfactory characters. We never get to the meat of who they are until Tsubasa Cat—the final few episodes of the series—despite that they were distractingly more interesting than the characters that the show *did* invest some of its time on. But even then, these aforementioned characters seem to matter only in their respective arcs before the show discarded them (except when it's convenient to bring them back for the sake of plot, but not character development). Even Araragi doesn't truly differentiate himself from a classic self-insert harem hero until later in the season. The only golden nugget is Senjougahara. She was the only character who had a satisfying arc, and the only one who didn't fall victim to Bakemonogatari's inconsistent and borderline spastic pacing.

Still, the art is incredible, and the romance one of the strongest parts of the show. There's an artificiality to the art that suggests that the world of Bakemonogatari is some fascinating alternate dimension, while also dramatizing the mood in all the right places to make the experience of solving each mystery all the more entertaining. The art/animation of action scenes are extremely fluid, and somehow interrupting action sequences with intertitles of the character's thoughts actually makes the action more exciting and suspenseful (this is an example of when interruption of the narrative is a plus and is executed well). And I was pleasantly surprised that Araragi had a character arc at all, even though the pacing of his development was a little slow. His simple nature is challenged by both the dangerous situations he's put in and by the characters around him in an interesting and nuanced manner, even though I don't find his self-deprecating/masochistic mannerisms to be particularly original.

Bakemonogatari also takes the time to explore “edgy” topics in an honest, mature manner that makes *sense*. Too many anime series cherrypick edgy struggles and stuff them into the show for the shock factor, or delve into the problem in a way that feels lazy, as if the writers didn’t do their research and don’t really understand what they’re writing about. But with Bakemonogatari, it's different: one of its major strengths is in how it introduces and presents sensitive topics. However, it never adequately explores one topic before moving onto the next one—which is yet another example of the way in which the series creates something promising, only to fail to deliver on that promise. In general, Bakemonogatari can be described as a show that teases the viewers with beautiful gems, before suddenly pulling them away to focus on something less dazzling. Again, this could be a stylistic choice that just doesn't mesh well with me. After all, to some this pacing could feel quirky and fresh and ironic, paralleling the show's own art style, while simply being part of what Bakemonogatari is trying to achieve on an aesthetic level.

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Story (7)
Art (10)
Sound (7)
Character (6)
Enjoyment (7)
Overall (7)