Review of Bakemonogatari

•"Oddities are the world itself. They're linked to the world, unlike living beings. Science alone cannot shed light upon them, as there will always be people who'll be afraid of vampires. Although all forms of darkness could be lit up, darkness will never cease to exist." •Bakemonogatari bluntly translated means "Ghostory" or you could say "Monostory" as Monster story which already gives us a hint about this whole anime and what we can expect. This anime, summed up in 15 episodes, gives us some supernatural action imbued with some mystery with good romance ornament as a cherry on top of it. When I saw romance andvampire tags with its name I thought this will be similar to some vampire basic drama but that is not the case with this one.
Okay so, the story begins with 18 years old student Araragi Koyomi (voiced by Kamiya Hiroshi) who survived vampire attack but still regained his human life, he is not a vampire anymore but he still has some traits and powers like fast healing. His life isn't ordinary but not because of his vampire side but mostly because many supernatural situations and obstacles he deals with mostly for other people sake.

Even tho at the first glance he looks like lazy, laid back and cool-headed person ( which he kinda is tho) he is an incredibly kind and good person and super soft-hearted. He is the kind of person who would help and risk his life not just for his closest ones, family and friends, but for anybody who needs help really. His character in manga appears to be much more described and with all his inner thoughts we can see how intelligent and perverted he really is. With a combination of all this, we have an extraordinary boy who disappoints us all the time but never in a negative way and that just is part of his charm. So I really think you can't help it but like him...you just can't.

Anime starts with him saving beautiful girl, Senjougahara Hitagi (voiced by Saito Chiwa), who falls down from the stairs and Araragi saves her. Her name in Japanese means "battlefield". Slowly her story turns to be a scary one, she is cursed, monster, ghost or what they call them "oddity", in this case, a crab made her almost weightless and sick. After hearing all that Araragi without thinking twice helps her to be normal, old Hitagi again. After seeing how kind and "noble" he is Senjougahara falls in love with him, and after some time we can see that Araragi loves her too.

Senjougahara is tsundere, sadistic one, she insults Araragi from time to time, but despite that, her character is well developed. Talking about her back story, seeing how much she is happy with Araragi and with little bit tsundere and sadist ornaments her character really caught my eye and I am sure I'm not the only one. From the beginning and especially in the latest episodes with them going on a first date we can see how much, despite her cool tsundere side mixed with all insults and unique personality, she really cares and loves Araragi. Let's just say she is one fine lady.

"Right now, I'm afraid of losing you. Although my life hasn't been very fortunate until now, I'm glad if I caught your eye because of that misfortune. Because of that, I was able to fall for you. So we'll definitely do something, but I want to wait just a bit. So, right now, the last thing I can offer you... Is this starry sky." -Senjougahara to Araragi on their first date.

Later on we see our perv boy Araragi helping others. In these 15 episodes, he saved 4 girls more, and slowly anime gets some harem vibes but our MC is loyal to Senjougahara! A class president who whenever is stressed her oddity, cat, jumps out and tries to ruin the source of her stress and sadness, Hanekawa Tsubasa (voiced by Horie Yuri) is smart, pretty girl who knows everything, is also in love with him.
Or rather if you ask her "I don't know everything, I just know what I know."

We have little ghost girl Hachikuji Mayoi (voiced by Katou Emiri) who is an energetic and cheerful fifth-grade student. She doesn't trust strangers and is ready to fight them if they want to interact with her in any way. Except for Araragi of course, who helped her even though no one asked him (nope not surprised that's him). She is really cute and her huge pink backpack is so adorable ^^

And two girls who were also saved by Araragi are Kanbaru Suruga (voiced by Sawashiro Miyuki) and Sengoku Nadeko (voiced by Hanazawa Kana). These two were interacting with Senjougahara and Araragi in their past, when they were in primary school. And both of these had really serious oddity cases on their bodies that were super dangerous and really hard for Araragi to solve and remove.What I like here is that all of these little stories about girls and their oddities had their backstory that was brought up and showed to us really good, leaving us without any questions. And every backstory is equally interesting and fun to watch. Which is what makes this anime complete and clear to us in every part of it.

Now, some noise for my favourite character in this whole story!
Oshino Meme! He is, let's say, a guy from the shadows who helps these kids with his knowledge and tricks to solve their mysteries and fight against oddities. He never pursued his career as Shinto priest but even so, Meme is capable of exorcising and solving many paranormal mysteries. He, in this story, is Araragis informant, helper and you could say teacher. At the end he leaves the city after helping to all these kids, saying farewell without a goodbye because it's not his style heh. He is cool mentally and visually and you have to love and adore him in some weird way.

•"If praying does not work, and words are ineffective... what's left is to fight."

He loves Araragi and his sense of justice, even tho sometimes he doesn't understand how far his kindness goes he still admires that part of him. Sometimes he charges for his services and pieces of information, sometimes he does not. But we all can say he is doing it because of his good nature.

"I'm not going to save you, just lending a hand. Only you can save yourself."

And with him you can see little vampire girl, who by the end when Meme leaves, stays in Araragis shadow. That girl is Oshino Shinobu, she was named by Meme. Her names kanji suggest heart under blade which actually matches with her personality.

To return to his human form Araragi has to kill her, but he by the end of the anime says he will never do that since he sees Shinobu as part of himself because she is the one that gives him his powers and is ready to save him whenever needed.

Koyomi Flower, Mayoi Snail, Suruga Monkey, Nadeko Snake and Tsubasa Cat are the mystery oddity cases Araragi and others had to face in this anime. Every each one of these had good development and story that is quite amusing so you can't say these mysteries weren't a big complex and just for show. I personally enjoyed every episode and every supporting character as well. Tsubasa Cat as the ending one was really entertaining and my heart went doki doki through it's finishing episodes.

I think every character was credibly showed and presented to us so good that you can't avoid emotionally attaching to them which is, in my opinion, what makes anime great.

ɴᴏᴡ: ᴀɴɪᴍᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ᴀɴᴅ sᴏᴜɴᴅ!

This anime aired in summer 2009 so while watching it 10 years after, I didn't expect high quality because we all know how much animation has improved trough all these years. But, surprisingly studio Shaft did their thing. Let's say this animation suits the whole story and atmosphere very well and it is pleasant to watch. Many camera angles like the sky, scenery, their clothes and hair are pleasing to the viewer's eyes.

Ah and sound...last but not the least. Music, openings and endings are amazing! I literally love how good and catchy they are. They suit the whole storyline very well and have some addictive vibes tbh.

Ending is my favourite thing so be my guest and listen just how good it sounds and looks.
And while talking about sound, you probably noticed that I named every voice actor of these characters? Why? Because their voices fit characters so perfectly and they did a great job so I had to praise it. They did really good job there, if you had to take a look at every character and try to imagine their voice, sound, way of speaking you would not be wrong! I find it very pleasing and I think the team should be very proud of their work here.