Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Ryan_the_Bread
Maybe Miyazaki was right. Maybe anime was a mistake.
I know he didn't technically say that - shut up. Bakemonogatari, huh? I implore somebody to explain the appeal of this show to me without resorting to one of these three talking points:
1) "You just didn't understand it." I like to think I'm more media-savvy than most yayhoos you could pull off the street, and I don't think Bake was just some unfathomably deep show that a mere peon like me couldn't begin to properly comprehend. The fervor I've seen surrounding this show reminds me of when Rick and Morty's popularity was at its peak. "To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Bakemonogatari..."
2) "A Westerner wouldn't understand the wordplay." Honestly, fair enough. I wouldn't. Though, as much a dumb Yank as I am, not…
Read at the sourceLuvGangster
Filled with gorgeous shots of underaged women, inventive fourth-wall breaks, and highly detailed PowerPoint slides, Bakemonogatari single-handedly redefined what it meant to be a pretentious anime at the time of its release in a way that no anime since has been able to capture the essence of. It is an incredible feat that a harem anime manages to get across so little humor and emotion with so much ostensible effort. Perhaps if I was steeped in Japanese culture, I would understand that the tsundere girl talking to the viewer about being tsundere was actually a post-ironic meta-commentary reference about the overabundance of meaningless fourth wall breaks and not just a waste of time so that SHAFT could save a few extra yen to work on another frame of Zetsubou-Sensei. Alas, I do not have tim…
Read at the sourceliteraturenerd
Author's note: Please don't take this review too seriously. This is merely describing my own painful experience with this show. I'm not personally attacking Monogatari fans! Thank you.
Overview:
Bakemonogatari is generally hailed as a masterpiece for being bold, innovative, challenging, and overall an unforgettably unique experience. While all of these things are certainly true, it is only a partial truth. Those above listed traits would all describe Tatami Galaxy and Mushishi, but Bakemonogatari is QUITE different from those series. Tatami's philosophy, comedy, and characters can transcend the language boundary. This is also true for Mushishi with its amazing visuals and atmosphere. Bakemonogatari though, is a series in which full mastery of the Japanese language is an absolute necessi…
Read at the sourceAestheticOnion
'People save themselves on their own. Nobody can ever save anyone else'
- Araragi Koyomi
To begin this review, I shall say that while there were always disagreements whether a certain show was good or not, no series was ever able to split the community like the Monogatari series does. And there will always be the ones saying that it is the best of the best in the anime world, and the ones that will see it as just a pretentious over-the top harem show. Now, before you cast of my review thinking that I'm just going to praise the show, I'll have to ask you to stay until the end, since I started this anime just so I could drop it because, I too, thought that it was just a philosophy for horny weebs. Let me show you what made me change my mind. I'll try my best to keep the review spoiler-free…
Read at the sourceSpaceEnjoyer
ENGLISH IS NOT MY FIRST LANGUAGE, SORRY IF I WRITE SOMETHING WRONG
Spoilers! (kinda)
✧ Introduction/the story
Bakemonogatari, A story of a guy that casually meets different types of girls throughout the episodes. Coincidentally, all of those girls are possessed by a curse that resembles an animal.
✧ The characters
The protagonist is a guy that wants to help every single girl he meets, even if he met her only 5 minutes ago, just like your typical self-insert protagonist. Like a male lead in every harem out there he is bland, boring, and doesn't know what to do with his life.
The story just introduces female characters that are all very archetypal, but they want to "hide" this fact through the pseudo-intellectual dialogue. Most of the time, their role is diminished to flirting with the pr…
Read at the sourceD-ohnuts
THIS REVIEW IS FOR ALL SEASONS, AS SUCH, IT CONTAINS SPOILERS
Monogatari takes place in a city populated by about 20 people, cardboard cutouts, and kanji characters, and follows the story of Koyomi Araragi as he meets girls who have supernatural oddity-related issues in their lives and tries to help them.
I am not a fan of the Monogatari anime, but I will get into why later in this review.
The characters are all pretty much what you'd expect from a harem anime. There's the selfless main character, the Tsundere girlfriend, the shy Moe girl who turns out to actually be psycho and manipulative, the smart girl who wears glasses (for a brief time anyway), the little sister(s), the athletic girl, the lesbian, etc.
However, most of them are written with more nuance than what you'd expect, as…
Read at the sourceaikaflip
There’s some debate about whether or not Bakemonogatari (pr. bah-keh-moh-no-gah-tah-re) is an ecchi-harem. A mere six seconds into the first episode, one of the female leads is introduced with a panty shot, and several shots of panties, boobs, and butts are dispersed throughout the series. Aside from two other characters that appear in a few episodes, the main character, Araragi, is the only male, and he’s usually surrounded by females who’ve developed a fondness for him after he helped them in some way.
Is it an ecchi? Most likely. Is it a harem? Probably. Regardless, what distinguishes this series from other ecchi and harem anime is that this one could still be entertaining without the ecchi and harem elements. It’s not an ecchi with some story, but a story with some ecchi.
Bakemonogat…
Read at the sourcePoeticJustice
It is very rare to see such a successful marriage of a director’s vision and an author’s material. Bakemonogatari’s existence is an anomaly especially in present day where adaptations are subpar when compared to the source. However, there has never been a more potent combination than Nisio Isin and Studio SHAFT’s Akiyuki Shinbou. Shinbou’s quirky, and imaginative art direction greatly compliments the fast paced dialogue and witticisms that Nisio is known for. The end result is a tour de force of both visuals and prose. Bakemonogatari is a meticulously crafted tale that never ceases to maintain the viewer’s attention and titillate the imagination.
Story- Bakemonogatari is a broken into individual arcs, each focusing a certain character dealing with a supernatural “Oddity.” There is an over…
Read at the sourceLink_of_Hyrule
**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**
You don’t have to be a member of the anime community for long to know that the Monogatari series is very, very highly praised. Inevitably, I gave into the hype and tried it out for myself. The result? Well… I walked away entertained, but FAR from impressed. Yes the characters are amusing, yes the dialogue is witty, and yes the visuals are beautiful, but make no mistake: Bakemonogatari is just a harem. It exists only for comedic gags and fanservice. The characters are shallow and have little to offer beyond their archetypes and their dialogue, not to mention that the “plot” is loose and unimpressive to say the least. I guess I have very mixed feelings about this anime; I’m happy I watched it, but the people hailing it as a masterpiece need to check themselves.
Syn…
Read at the sourcemyronator
Ahh Bakemonogatari. I wanted to like this show. The concept behind it sounded like it would be an interesting anime. I was told that this would be a harem with intelligent dialogue and supernatural elements by a competent staff. So I settled in, put the show on and prepared myself for a wonderful ride.
Episode one begins and the first thing that strikes me is the art style. Words flash on screen too fast to be read that would usually describe an emotion a character is feeling or what they are thinking. The lighting and backgrounds also have a quirky touch to it, giving me a feeling that this could be fun and interesting.
First we meet Araragi; the "average" protagonist, then Tsubasa; the class rep, and finally, Senjougahara; the "tsundere". These are regular characters in the harem genre…
Read at the sourceqewqwe33123
"Did you know every time you sigh, a little bit of happiness escapes?" - Senjougahara Hitagi, Episode 6
Well, you won't be sighing anywhere in this anime.
Bakemonogatari from the start can give the wrong impression to the viewer. They must be wondering, "Why is this rated so high, if it all it is, is just random words popping up on the screen?" However, it is a really good anime in its own weird way, and you're probably going to have to appreciate it that way as well.
Character: Usually, I'd start my review with the main part (story), but I believe the most important part of Bakemonogatari is its character development. You have Koyomi Araragi, who interacts with 5 different girls throughout the story; the tsundere Senjougahara Hitagi, the cute and small Mayoi Hachikuji, the tomboy Kanba…
Read at the sourceRusk
Some people say Bakemonogatari is a big milestone in the anime history. And they're goddamn right, because before this one came to being, the anime industry hasn’t been known what the ultimate shit is. And now it knows, we all do now. This show is the very standard of ugliness, boredom, tastelessness, hackwork, the national team of all shounen cliches. From now on the lowest mark on the "Quality" scale has a material incarnation - Bakemonogatari. So, with no doubt, it is really a great milestone in anime history.
Well, i do understand that i have to be more specific. But what can write about here? The plot? What plot? There is no plot. Yes. There. Is. No. Plot. Narration made of identical and disjoined arcs. Because of this Bakemonogatari has no outset, no outcome, and no common climax (on…
Read at the sourcebangyo17
So it's time to review the one of Monogatari series, Bakemonogatari.
And yes, my general opinion about Bakemonogatari is :
"The interesting thing is not about its story, but its SHAFT-styled story-telling and character development."
That makes every character seems real, as if they are really exist IRL. Let's start from the main protagonist, Araragi Koyomi. Koyomi's character was rather unique, despite his ordinary circumstances for being surrounded by girls, like other harem animes. He was a perverted man, but very wise and willing to try his best to solved his friends' problems. Sounds ordinary though, but in this review I'm talking about SHAFT. Yes, since this anime was developed by SHAFT, the audiences will definitely have new experience after watching this one. For example, pausing…
Read at the sourceNeverKnowsBest26
Shaft is a studio well known for their weird experimental style, seemingly endless stream of anime in-jokes, and plentiful fan-service. Needless to say their work is an acquired taste and can be hit-or-miss. While this certainly applies to Bakemonogatari, it uses Shaft's signature style very well. Incredibly weird, and at times intentionally obtuse, yet undeniably intriguing and charming (albeit in its own weird way). This is easily one of the studio's best efforts.
The show follows high school student and former vampire (it's complicated), Koyomi Araragi, through a string of bizarre supernatural happenings. Each happening is centered around an individual (all girls, of course) whom somehow has become involved in the supernatural, and stumble upon our protagonist, who by nature feels the…
Read at the sourcececropiamoth
This anime seemed to have a lot of mysteries in it, but the biggest mystery it presented to me was why I took such a violent dislike to it even though it has been favorably discussed by intelligent viewers. I stopped watching it early on, out of simple irritation. To me it was marching straight down that wrong road we are warned against in the aphorism, "Don't gild the lily."
It's episode number 2, and an interesting "exposition" conversation is taking place between the anime's Girl Number 1 and the hero. It presents a considerable subsidiary mystery--why is this girl acting in this unusual and unpleasant way? This viewer would have liked to watch the interchange closely to try to find that out. But I couldn't! Or at least I couldn't do so with full real comprehension, because it was jus…
Read at the sourceInkwave
For every medium, there are few masterpieces that transcend the genre and become something special. Since I consider anime, as a genre, to be just as legitimate an art form (despite the bad rep it often gets), I will also review Bakemonogatari as a work of art, and it is irrefutably one of the special few anime series that fully capitalize on the strengths of the anime medium.
STORY
People have complained that the story is too episodic, too disjointed. However, the virtue of Bakemonogatari's storyline is that it is so minimal. In all senses, this anime is a character-based experimental, and an elaborate storyline would actually detract from that experience. There are plenty of anime out there that thrive on plot twists and progression that keep the viewer on their seats, but Bakemonogatar…
Read at the sourceMoonlith
Finally giving in to the hype, I picked up Bakemonogatari, the most discussed anime of '09, on the very first day of this year. The show's appeal was lost on me during the first few episodes, but after a while the reasons for this anime's charm on so many became apparent. As to whether that charm worked on me as well, that's something I'm going to explain a bit more thoroughly further on.
The story of Bakemonogatari may at first seem confusing with the odd events of the show's beginning. Soon, however, the plot's structure comes clear enough as new characters (all female) are introduced, with each of them having their own arc consisting of a few episodes at a time. Amidst the weirdness of Bakemonogatari's characters, artwork and animation, a simple storyline like that is a welcome asset.…
Read at the sourceWilio
Winner of the 2009’s popular vote for Best Anime of 2009 on Animereactor, Bakemonogatari is yet another anime that Shaft can add up to their collection. To make it short, Bakemonogatari is overrated. Overrated in a sense that the animation style has nothing to brag about, the story isn’t unique in any sense and that the characters aren’t even special in the first place. However, it doesn’t change the fact that Bakemonogatari is still a very good anime to watch and it is among my favourites of 2009.
Bakemonogatari is structured with five story arcs, with the fifth one being aired solely online. For those who are Shaft followers you will see no difference in how the story is told in this anime. Just like most of their work, Bakemonogatari’s story is driven by the dialogues rather than the…
Read at the source8thSin
"To be blunt, I just enjoy talking to you... so I want to talk with you more."
"If our opinions clash, let's talk it over." (Dialogue from episode 5)
'Bakemonogatari', cleverly translated as 'Ghostory' or 'Monstory', is about five not-so-normal girls that Araragi Koyomi, a vampire himself, encounters and attempt to save from oddities possessing them.
CHARACTER:
The main characters of 'Bakemonogatari' are among the most unique and complex I have yet to encounter.
Heroine Senjougahara Hitagi is a tsundere like half of all modern heroines in anime, but she is also 「ドS」, a sadist to an extreme degree, which is more common for side characters and rare for heroines. Our protagonist, as expected, is rather on the masochist side who takes constant verbal abuse from Senjougahara.
What makes the…
Read at the sourceBenatron
The story follows third year high school student Araragi Koyomi; a past vampire. Over his spring break he was attacked by a vampire thus turning into one. With the help Meme Oshino, an expert in the field of oddities: Who helps Araragi become a human again with payment. The series has a set of chapters, with a heroine in each chapter being induced by an oddity. This show is full of word play, which is the author's strength in his writing of the light novels.
The art in the series is nothing less than spectacular. The lighting, the animation, the colors is just all so beautiful. The scenes that would be plain have some sort of interesting aspect and life to it. This is done by Studio Shaft (one of my favorite studios) so it's very familiar to those that have seen Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei or…
Read at the source