Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
TheGOF
Monogatari is a series that flatters to deceive at times. Nisio Isin undoubtedly has a unique style, but large parts of his Monogatari series are frustrating both to read (as a light novel reader) and to watch in its anime adaptation by Shaft. These are light novels that are, let's face it, fundamentally unsuited to the anime format.
The heavy focus on dialogue is both Nisio Isin's greatest strength and weakness. When he finds a compelling human drama to base his dialogue in, the series becomes must watch. Other times, Monogatari descends into an exercise of watching characters waffle on and on about very very little, punctuated by patchy humour and endless loli-isms. Shaft's only solution to Monogatari's wall of dialogue is to punctuate it with visual flair. Their typical aesthetic, incl…
Read at the sourceDaydra96
Owarimonogatari is a series that proves that true horrors often hide not in monsters, but in the gray world of human emotions, memory, and trauma. The first part of this season, dedicated to the story of Sodachi Oikura, is an emotional gut punch that immediately reminded me why I watch anime - for the incredible depth of storytelling that, I feel, rarely occurs in live-action films or series. This is an incredibly heavy, melancholic, and stylistically distinct story, one that deviates from the lightness of other entries in the Monogatari series.
This arc is not about battling a supernatural phenomenon. It is Araragi's and Oikura's battle against themselves, against memories, guilt, and repressed emotions. The real conflict unfolds entirely in the psychological sphere.
What is most striki…
Read at the sourceCruzer969
The story of Sodachi and her relationship with Araragi was one of the best parts of the entire Monogatari series.
It's a shame that the whole thing wasn't kept in this tone - no fanservice, but well-handled, non-obvious puzzles. The best (or worst) thing is that I just realized how much this series has a problem with exposition - the characters just monologue for 5-10 minutes, explaining everything to the viewer, but the non-chronological narrative and the rather convoluted way of telling the story, straight from NGE or Serial Experiment Lain, make it take a lot of attention to figure out what's going on.
Read at the sourceJastereich
Shaft's anime series, which debuted in 2009, is part of the wider Monogatari franchise based on the light novel series by Nisio Isin. The franchise includes several shows that have aired out of sequence, with the latest installment "Owarimonogatari."
The show kicks off impressively, unlike any other anime you have seen. The entire look and feel of the show are that of a stage play with fixed locations, a few characters, and lengthy dialogues or monologues full of obscure references and wordplay. The action's pace is slow as each show heavily focuses on unraveling a mystery with supernatural overtones. The show can be unconventional, creepy, disturbing, and sometimes downright weird.
In season one, there are two story arcs. In the first arc, the central character, high schooler Koyomi Ara…
Read at the sourceUsapz
No spoilers. (at least not big big one)
English is not my native language, sorry.
Owarimonogatari is by far my favorite monogatari season. It has my three favorite arcs of all the monogatari series:
1: Sodachi Lost
2: Ougi formula
3: Sodachi riddle Adaptation of Owarimonogatari 01 by Nisio Isin
The artstyle and animation is just stunning. It's studio shaft in his golden age. The soundtracks are also really good, and feats the anime well. The anime also has this stressful atmosphere since araragi is faced with the hatred of sodachi which he hasn't understood for 3 years. He slowly begins to raise question about his life that he tried to hide from himself because it was too painful to remain. The new character Oikura Sodachi is pretty good. It felt like all characters until now, liked ara…
Read at the sourceBabyGirl06301
Now it's all starting to come together. It took me this long, but everything I've seen so far is finally making me feel attached to these characters and the direction they're heading in. A lot of that is because I saw, for the first time, a long-term story happening in Monogatari. Yes, I've been undereducated about this series prior to now, so you'll have to forgive me, but it was such fun watching this season and realizing that all the seemingly random pieces fit somewhere--that they mattered beyond developing these characters and their relationships bit by bit. This first season of Owarimonogatari is where it clicked for me that the characters are pushing a true story--not an arc, not a seemingly trivial LN adaptation, but a story--forward.
I'm not sure I can break down what I loved mos…
Read at the sourcetechmo77
8.5/10. I give the first half - the Sodachi parts - a very very solid 9, I really loved the new mystery angle and Ougi is so captivating. Shinobu Mail went back into the typical monogatari formula: apparition, dialogue, the human nature of fear and not waiting to face the unpleasant reality, joke etc. Which is still great stuff mind you, but the mystery aspects with Ougi and development on Araragi was far more enjoyable.
Overall everything here is seriously great. Soundtrack is awesome with varying renditions of melodies fitting the theme greatly. Openings and endings are amazing; it’s a real shame Shinobu’s voice actress refused to sing openings.
The animation is superb with its eccentric presentation and very far from linear storytelling. I’m very happy with the quality of this insta…
Read at the sourceKararagi
Owarimonogatari Season 1 continues the progression of the Monogatari series into a darker and more mature direction. It is decidedly less "fun" than all the earlier seasons. There is much less humor and fanservice, and there's barely any action. The first two episodes take place almost entirely inside a single class room. This season is Monogatari at its most analytical and introspective. It is a character study of Koyomi, Shinobu and new character Sodachi Oikura.
The first three arcs, Ougi Formula, Sodachi Riddle and Sodachi Lost, all center around Koyomi and Sodachi. The three arcs tie together in a way that makes them feel more like one 6-episode long story arc rather than three separate stories. Koyomi is forced to face his past and we find out why he became a bitter loner who did not…
Read at the sourcekflm
The first half was extremely awesome. It was like ordinary monogatari but all the fan service changed with math fan service which makes the anime perfect to watch for me. Even just seeing all these math references felt like pure satisfaction. I simply love tertacube or blender-made looking torus or op called 'mathemagics'. I didn't see any major wrong explanation about mentioned math topics. It has almost everything for being math-themed anime. Sodachi was pretty much the math stereotype i wanted. She knows her own psychological situation and explains what she ignores this is what i call pro mathemagician move.
And the second half was OK.
Read at the sourceTheAceAttorney
Owarimonogatari, literally "End Tale," is exactly that: a story regarding the events nearing Araragi's last year in high school. Owari tackles his repressed memories and how he's forgotten 'what makes him." This is especially emphasized in Sodachi Lost.
The first half of Owari is based on Volumes 1-2 of the Light Novel, which follow the arcs Ougi Formula, Sodachi Riddle, Sodachi Lost, and Shinobu Mail. All of these arcs relate back to this conflict.
Ougi Formula (8/10) is the first time that Ougi becomes a main character. Previously, Ougi had few cameos during the Second Season (Particularly, Kabuki and Otorimonogatari) and was clearly a mysterious individual. Here, Ougi's full personality is put on display. She comes off as manipulative, omniscient, and even menacing at times. Needless…
Read at the sourceFlexySpagoot
Owarimonogatari was a nice riddle to experience. It definitely wasn't my favorite part of the Monogatari Series, but it was still a pretty enjoyable show. This season mainly focused on Ougi Oshino, a character I had been dying to know more about, and while Owarimonogatari didn't fully deliver, it definitely gets me more curious about who the hell she is.
The arcs of Owarimonogatari gave a little bit of insight into Araragi as a person, and while it wasn't anything too remarkable or crazy, it was still a much needed insight into his character. It also reveals the other side of the events of some of the arcs in Monogatari Series: Second Season, although it hasn't fully reached a conclusion on that front. It has the same great style and sound of something from the series, so no problems ther…
Read at the sourcehexashadow13
tl;dr: A really strong first half that is a very strong change of pace from previous arcs, followed by a second half that felt somewhat lackluster.
Owarimonogatari quite simply means the ending of the story. The novels extend past this ending, but there is some level of significance to this season of novels being considered as an ending. And as such, the first season of Owarimonogatari is the beginning of the end. This has two pretty distinct portions.
The first half while still focused on Araragi like Tsukimonogatari, focuses on him from the opposite direction. Instead of highlighting how different he is from how he was in the beginning, it instead focuses on conveying how he became the anti-social person he was at the beginning of the series. In doing so, it gives his personality more…
Read at the sourceRackyJackie
Honestly I shouldn't be surprised anymore on how good Monogatari can get.
Owarimonogatari is probably my favorite season thus far; It's honestly comparable to Bakemonogatari in terms of quality. There wasn't a single moment in this season that had be bored, even when episodes were just two characters having a discussion. But at this point into the series, that's not that big of a surprise either.
The characters interactions and writing were superb, and the humor was just fantastic. The jokes in previous installments had me going with a nice chuckle, but the gags in Owarimonogatari made me actually laugh out loud.
The story gets quite darker around this season, as I and other's have noticed. There's also a lot of character building for Araragi in Owari, which is nice seeing him be the…
Read at the sourceRailgun82
I'll start off by saying that I initially had a higher opinion of Owarimonogatari in the first hour or so after I finished it. While I still really enjoyed the series overall, my impression weakened after I gave it a bit more thought. While many reviews break this show up into 3-4 mini storylines, there are really only two true arcs. The first one revolving around the mysterious background of Oikura Sodachi was far superior to the second arc centering on Shinobu and the reincarnation of her first kin, and I'll explain why in my story breakdown.
Story: 8/10
Starting with the Sodachi arc which was broken down into Sodachi Riddle and Sodachi Lost, I must admit that I was very surprised by the extremely dark direction this anime took. I really liked it, however. It went into a territory that…
Read at the sourceVeiledEdge
Owarimonogatari is the telling of two stories. The first one is about Oikura Sodachi, which is a long lost friend of Koyomi Araragi; the other is about Shinobu Oshino.
The Sodachi arc of Owarimonogatari is one of the top 2 best arcs in the series. For one, extremely surprisingly, it does not feature an aberration. The Sodachi arc is a straight drama; one giant emotional rollercoaster. I don’t even know exactly what to say about it other than it tugged at my heartstrings as very few other anime have before. The plot is the best of any arc and is developed masterfully. The Sodachi arc plot is handled and executed like a tragic mystery, and resolved elegantly.
The Sodachi arc features Ougi Oshino, who we have met before, yet Koyomi hasn’t (chronologically speaking) and Tsubasa Hanekawa; t…
Read at the sourceInjenss
What else can be said about the Monogatari series at this point in the game? It's been around for what feels like forever, presenting one of the best examples of dialogue, character and story-driven excellence in anime. Owarimonogatari is literally just a handful of prolonged conversations. The action within it can be summarized with one slap, a retaliatory punch, a brief fight with a samurai, a face grab and a touch to the chest. That's it. If any other anime that is supposed to be a mystery/action show tried getting away with that, it would be panned as boring. But, that is the strength of all of the Monogatari series, even those with more action.
The dialog is so excellent, so engaging, they don't really have to do much in the way of action. You find yourself glued to the screen readi…
Read at the sourceitsCmac
Well well thought I'd actually do a review for once so lets talk about Owarimonogatari one of the 30 thousand seasons of the monogatari franchise. Gonna break it down into the two big chunk chunks of the season. So first we have the Sodachi half and the Shinobu half.
THAT JUICY PLOT: Alright so lets begin with the stronger half by far. the Sodachi riddle and lost arcs were just fantastic arcs. The mystery aspect and the introduction of a new character was a nice change of pace. Ougi is newish too but Sodachi isn't a complete mystery.
Now the two arcs have Araragi unraveling his past to discover his relation to Sodachi and leaving out spoilers just know its amazing. The interactions and discoveries are just wonderful and the arc ends beautifully and conclusively which is rare in this ser…
Read at the sourcerapo1
Tiring.
I believe that the problem with writing a light novel series heavily based on witty dialogues is that, after twenty something books, you kinda run out of things to say.
As the anime series is almost a word by word adaptation of the novels, it reflects them by taking forever to just get to the point between endlessly idle chatter and the necessity of reminding the viewer what the story's about every 2 minutes or so like we have some kind of mental disability to grasp what the characters are saying the first ten times they said it, so they have to recap everything again! Even if it isn't as bad as the necessity of the author to remind us what a goddamn vampire is each two paragraphs like in Kizumo, it's still pretty annoying.
At least we were told an excelent story on the Sodachi…
Read at the sourcekassnicxo
When it comes to this series, as I've mentioned in my other reviews, the time line is one of the only things that makes it hard for me to watch. As im enjoying the story and seeing how they all come together, i find myself thinking more about where it fits in the timeline, but that's just me.
On another note, out of all the ones in this series, i found myself enjoying this one the most. It had me thinking and wondering, and trying to piece together the mysteries on my own, along with Koyomi.
Finally putting the Shinobu chapter together, by the end of it I felt a sort of completion. I was like "ahh, okay now this makes sense." Overall, I enjoyed this one a lot.
Read at the sourceFalseShepherd13
::Alright here's a quick summing up of my thoughts. Consider it a short review. No need to waste your time with long-ass pretentious writing that doesnt cut to the chase::
So I just saw Owarimonogatari. And it was quite the fun time. The writing is just as impeccable, and it goes without saying that the franchise still is able to maintain my undivided attention despite 65 episodes of conversations stretched across several cours.
Ougi Oshino proves to be a surprisingly interesting character. Back when I first started Bakemonogatari and I saw the front cover for Owarimonogatari, I thought Ougi would just be another member of Koyomi's harem, who would essentially be "the Weird and Quirky one". Ougi is a surprisingly intimidating character for someone who looks so unassuming (for lack of a…
Read at the source
