To you from me: Bakemonogatari

[simmeh]

[Preamble]​

Aaaaaaaaaand 15 months after I promised to do my next review, I'm here to deliver it! Only not!

I decided a while back that if I were to continue reviewing anime, I would have to drop the notion that I would release the reviews in the same order that I watched the shows in. While a nice thought, this premise also meant that I would be reviewing shows that I had watched years ago, and often had little to say about them even at the time. And who really wants to read a review from a guy who can barely recall the material and was only somewhat interested to begin with? So I'll instead talk about a show that I finished just yesterday and has given me loads to talk about.

Bakemonogatari was a show I discovered on a whim. I was browsing through a page of anime reviews on a different site, when I clicked on the link for it. I was curious about what the show might actually be; you can often tell at least the genre of a show just by its name, but with a name like , it's hard to tell. It had a favourable review and a short-ish run, so it seemed like a good fit for the time I had available to me. If anything, it looked like a nice change of pace from what I had been watching before.

[Characters and Setting]​

A wild Harem appeared! Harem used Shatter Expectation! It's super effective! Skeptic fainted!​

Talking about Bakemonogatari's plot is a bit difficult for one reason: there really isn't one - or at least, there isn't an important one. For what it's worth, it stars a young man named Koyomi Araragi, an average highschool kid living in (what appears to be - more on that later) modern Japan. The plot is broken up into small arcs wherein Araragi helps in each a different girl with a problem that she has.

Now, this sounds like the recipe for 'just another horrible harem anime', but Bakemonogatari neatly sidesteps this issue by making the show about something else entirely: dialogue. Much like how the giant robots and impending rapture of the venerable Neon Genesis Evangelion served only as a vehicle to drive its character studies, the plot of Bakemongatari seems to be meant solely to put the characters together so that they can talk about life and joke with each other. If I had to liken it to anything, I'd say that it's most similar to Spice and Wolf, with its whimsical banter and witty jokes.

For what its worth, the show does have some sort of continuity. The show's biggest conceit isn't the whole 'guy helps pretty girls with their problems' rigmarole, but instead the fact that the problems are all supernatural, and in each arc parts of why Araragi acts the way he does, plus explanation of his own predicament (he used to be a vampire, and has retained the magical regenerative powers that came with that even as he's now an otherwise normal human being). Additionally, each of the girls continues to be a part of the show even after their arc has concluded, which keeps the show from feeling too disjointed.

You and me both, buddy.​

Those other girls are the kinds you'd expect from a show with this premise. We first get to know Hitagi Senjohara, one of Araragi's classmates. She's a sharp-tongued, cool-headed tease whose initial job seems to be only to push Araragi's buttons every chance she gets, but later adds the role of primary love interest to her name. Following her are Mayoi Hachikuji, a gradeschooler who can't find her way home, Suruga Kanbaru, the school sports-star with a mysteriously bandaged arm, Nadeko Sengoku, a tortured young acquaintance of Araragi's youth, and Tsubasa Hanekawa, another of Araragi's classmates who is holding in a monumental amount of stress. The token 'responsible adult' is Meme Oshino, who is the supernatural guru in town and is generally there to provide the deus ex machina to sort the problems out. He is accompanied by a young girl named Shinobu, who has some sort of inexplicable link to Araragi.

And that's it for characters. Other than Araragi's sisters and Senjogahara's father who all make cursory appearances in an episode or two, what you see is what you get. It's because of this that the show is able to keep a tight reign on what is going on and keep errant plot threads to a minimum (I can only think of one off the top of my head). It's a stark contrast from shows that pack each episode with more bit players and one-notes until the cast resembles a football training camp, and it serves the show well. We get a good amount of time with each character, with plenty of time set aside for the characters to just banter back and forth.

[Presentation]​

This is one show where the presentation is one of the stars. Visually, it bounces around with reckless abandon, using non-standard camera angles, rapid cuts, jarring changes in animation style, and some completely weird scenery to make it a visual treat.

The soundtrack is no slouch either. The main opening and closing themes are great and suit the show really well. Also, each of the arcs has its own opening theme that plays at its beginning, each one sung by the voice actor who plays the girl who is the focus of that arc.

To my knowledge, no English dub exists, but I would be hesitant to watch one. Many of the jokes made are puns in the Japanese language and writing, and likely would not translate very well into English. There is also a lot of cuts to solid-colour screens with text (i.e. instead of flashing a black screen, a grey screen with the text 'Black Animation' is flashed instead), and in my experience a lot of dubs neglect to translate text like this.

[Opinions​

Bakemonogatari is a rare breed of show. There is a lot to love here, but that is highly dependent on your tastes. Some of the things that I and others love about it could also be seen as detriments.

Possibly the biggest point of contention is the dialogue. Now, I love anything that has great dialogue. Give me a book where two characters go at it for pages at a time over a book that describes every detail of the delicacies at a feast any day of the week. This stretches into anime as well; two of my favourite series are Spice and Wolf and Crest/Banner of the Stars, both of which feature heavy loads of dialogue between characters who seem perfectly content to talk about whatever is on their mind rather than the story. Some people won't go for this, and that's fine. But for those of you who, like me, love banter and off-hand jokes and cleverly inserted puns, Bakemonogatari is a real treat

Another gripe one may bring up is how it sometimes feels like some hauteur monument to indie arrogance, like it's trying desperately to be different from its peers. And while I will admit that it does sometimes feel like its trying to be a bit too edgy or quirky, it never really felt intrusive to me. All the crazy camera angles and bizzaro-world scenery didn't feel pretentious at all, and instead just added some great visuals to go along with the fantastic dialogue. The show is chock full of subtle (and not so subtle) visual teases, like Hanekawa's mysteriously misshapen shadow or how Araragi's lone strand of unkempt hair reacts to changes in his mood and libido.

One could also bring up the issue of fanservice. Once again, I'll concede that these could be seen as detrimental even if I don't see them as such. While the show isn't necessarily exploding with T&A, it does layer it on very heavily at certain points (including very early in the first episode), I wouldn't go out and call this show an exploitation - in fact, I'd say its far from it. The fanservice here lacks both the patent ridiculousness of your average harem show and the crushing irony of your average spoof. Instead, the fanservice serves dual duty as both eye-candy and to reinforce certain notions, like Senjogahara's self-confidence. On a lesser note, there is some rather graphic violence at times that could also turn off some viewers, but those moments are even fewer than the fanservice ones.

I do know a few people might take issue with Araragi being a bit of a pushover. He seems a lot like just too nice of a guy, and Senjogahara wastes no opportunity to emasculate him or make him feel very uncomfortable. To me, though, it just made him who he was, and towards the end of the show this really started to drop off. And really, how would you react if you were an average highschooler who suddenly found himself the object of affection of a beautiful, mature-beyond-her-years classmate?

The start of something beautiful​

Speaking of Senjogahara, I really enjoyed how the romance between her and Araragi played out. Rather than walk the tired old path of having a few sparks at the beginning and slowly kindling the fire of romance until it culminates in the last episode to the tune of swelling orchestral music during some sort of weather oddity on the eve of the greatest challenge the heroes will face that could very well separate the two lovers for all eternity etc. etc. cherry jam, the show instead just skips very quickly to 'the confession', and then spends the rest of the show developing how the two leads deal with their feelings, rather than having them try and discover those feelings to begin with. It's very refreshing to see a well-built romance that acknowledges the sexual tension outright and has none of that passive-aggressive flirting that plagues teenage romances.

I've heard it said that Bakemonogatari is a deconstruction of everything you've come to expect from shows like Clannad and Kanon and Air. While I haven't seen the first two, I can tell you with 100% certainty that this is true when comparing Bakemonogatari and the first half of Air. But while this series is quick to place the lampshade with one hand, it's also embracing its roots with the other. It deftly manages to mix the comedy inherent in spoofs with the feel-good nature of its source material in a way that makes such a feat almost look easy - and then goes above and beyond and makes it look fantastic.

Finally, the show ends on a very good note. Because wrapping up story arcs is inherent to the design of the show, and because the show is focused on dialogue rather than building setting and plot, it can bring about a satisfying with all parties accounted for adequately - something which a lot of shows can't claim. While I was sad that it was over, it was because it had ended, and not because something felt like it was left undone. I finished the series feeling very satisfied, like I had witnessed something truly special. Would I have liked more? Sure, but I can live without it as well, and to me, that's just another mark of a great show.

The new 'unforgettable female lead'. Haruhi who now?​

[Outro]​

In his review of Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, MovieBob said that while you may not like the movie, you will certainly remember it. Bakemonogatari is the same way. You may not like the heavy amounts of dialogue or the blatant fanservice or the way the characters act or the out-in-left-field presentation, but you will certainly not soon forget it. If you can handle the sometimes jarring violence and fanservice (including a few squicky shots), I highly recommend you at least give it a try. As for myself, I think this quote sums it up nicely:

One final note, Bakemonogatari is one of those extraordinary animes that only come along every couple years that manage to revitalize your worship for anime all over again.

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Spoiler: Other anime reviews by me

Shuffle! [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.190015-My-journey-through-animeland-Shuffle]
Dragonaut: The Resonance [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.191895-My-journey-through-animeland-Dragonaut-The-Resonance]
Linebarrels of Iron [ http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.194019-My-journey-through-animeland-Linebarrels-of-Iron]
Love Hina [ http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.195762-The-journey-continues-Love-Hina]