Review of Bakemonogatari

FIRST PART OF THE MONOGATARI SERIES +notes to self in order to compare with other Monogatari animes because comparisons Bakemonogatari gets it right in several aspects. An excellent starter for the Monogatari series, witty and extremely ironic, I'd say that the most interesting thing is its deconstructed view of itself. It sees itself as an anime and acts accordingly, as a form of art and as a fictitious medium; it's not surprising to see blatant surrealism, symbolism and an eclectic usage of audiovisual elements to convey a message or even self-referential wall-breaks that feel all too natural. Is there fan-service? I guess so, but even that isadequately woven as part of the story or at least of the development of the particular scene. And also, when done right, you can get past almost anything if you're being ironic. Bakemonogatari knows this all too well and uses it all too often.

Story - slowly built but concise; no fillers and usually motivations and consequences are logic and not just plot-driven and rather mechanical-feeling. They are fairly simple and heavily reliant on dialogue though, hence why not 9 or 10 but 8.

Art - extremely eclectic and rather experimental in many aspects. Similar to Mononoke.

Sound - the series' strongest point. The usage of subtle and minimalistic songs in the very precise moment they are useful is perhaps my favorite thing here, and it features what I consider an extremely iconic song in all of anime OST, the jazzy piano Suteki Meppou.

Character - well structured and well built. All of them do have a personality; some, more than others, naturally - air-time is important - but the relationship among themselves and how they act is pretty fulfilling accordingly to their roles. However, I feel they were not as deepened as they could have been.

Enjoyment - initially it was a bit uncommon, but eventually, I grew used to it and enjoyed it as hell. Especially during the second arc, which I deem by far as my favorite (so fun).

Overall - really great series. Both in terms of subjectivity as of objectivity I'd say it's more than worth a 9

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(Just to say i didn't delete this.)

Metalanguage: The Anime

I'm sure we've all seen fourth wall breaks often. Sometimes we were thrilled and sometimes we were bummed. But when it's well done, it's awesome. Therefore, Bakemonogatari is awesome.

By "metalanguage" I don't refer to simply understanding they make part of a fictitious story. It goes much, much beyond. You see, Bakemonogatari is quite an experimental anime. Unsurprisingly then they go much further beyond breaking the fourth wall... they pretty much dissolve it. It doesn't exist. Characters live in the anime world and they are aware of it with absolute naturality. Just like you're okay living in our reality. They don't overdo it, they don't make it a big deal; they just accept that fact. And that naturality makes the constant references and call-out to tropes so much tasty because they feel genuine, not forced. That's what makes fourth wall breaking fulfilling. And they do it right.

Invisible walls aside, one must acknowledge the eclectic art. It fits the occasion and so it's constantly reshaping quite nicely. They're not afraid to abruptly paste together two incompatible styles to bring an awkward feeling; in fact, it's likely they do so. Live action still images? Of course, you'll have it. But what I liked the most is that at least as far I remember it was never random or just for weirdness' sake. There was a reason to it, and thus the animation fits like a glove. I feel it's fair to compare to Mononoke. However, Mononoke is strict and "static" with its style (not as if it's less of unique or ingenuous) but Bakemonogatari is much more... wild.

And the sound? My god. The whole point of this review is so I could talk about the sound. I'm gonna cut the crap: the sound is my favorite part of this anime and undoubtfully it has my favorite soundtrack, even better than Akira.

It is the first time I have been so thrilled with an anime's soundtrack within the show, rather than ops. There are very few songs and they ambient, minimalistic and within a droney scope, almost always offering a single instrument. The songs are surprisingly quirky though, with odd time signatures and catchy tunes. There is the "mysterious" or "unsettled" ticking sound (as of a metronome) playing in x/8 (something in the lines of 13/8 or 17/8, haven't figured). There is a jazzy piano. There is a happy moody piano. Yet, even in their simplicity, it manages to be more than sufficient to spice up the moments. You don't need anything more than a cheerful couple of piano notes to create a happy scene; the oddly timed metronome-esque ticking is sufficient to make a scene feel wrong at some aspect. No need for bombastic orchestras or for anything overproduced.

(and for anyone wondering, the happy/jazzy piano is Suteki Meppou. Seems to be a classic.)

And of course, the ops are also excellent. For the first time I actually bother reading the lyrics because they do have a connection with the anime rather than just "heart love danger fight we will make it bla bla" stuff that for some reason always seem to be the norm. And they sound really nice, too (and look nice! They are so unique). The fourth op is just sweet. Kinda like jazzy, I guess? But a cheerful jazz. Yeah.

Well, bla bla bla a bunch of words. Okay, here's the deal - Bakemonogatari is quirky. I wasn't expecting that, and it was quite pleasant - even if unsettling at first - to discover it. I was thrilled to begin the Monogatari series and I'm pretty glad that, right off the bat, I'm presented with such quality.

This is gonna be great.