Review of Bakemonogatari

Cold, barren backgrounds are occupied by surreal architecture. An avant-garde home resembling an art museum more than a living space harbors an impossibly large washroom; a sprawling staircase seems to reach up to the very heavens. Blink-and-you-miss-it typography and graphics are made up of unreadably long excerpts of text and multimedia elements. A camera ranges from stretches of stillness for minutes on end, to a spectator, rotating wildly within three-dimensional spaces, becoming a separate character in and of itself. Bakemonogatari is an adaptation of Nisio Isin's novel of the same name, and its transition from literary work to animation stands out as one of the most uniquely successful adaptationsin recent history. The directors at Studio Shaft, namely Akiyuki Shinbou, Tatsuya Oishi, and Tomoyuki Itamura, are among the best in the industry, and nowhere is their stylistic flair more apparent than here. Bakemonogatari's outstanding presentation forms the perfect backdrop for series protagonist, Koyomi Araragi: a savior complex-ridden vampire undergoing a five-part journey about guilt, escapism, and, above all, acceptance.