Prior to watching Monogatari

The Monogatari Series in my eyes has always been a fascinating franchise that I know little to nothing other than the extremely "perverted" nature of the anime. It's always had a huge reputation for being fan-favorites by many anime enjoyers, including a few of my friends. So going into this anime is basically like discover a whole new hobby and learning about it for the first time. I myself have watched anime for over 4 years now and I can definitely take on excessive fan-service cause personally, It doesn't bother me, I felt like it was time to dive into the Monogatari series.

I quickly checked and re-checked that if I got the CORRECT watch order or not, and after I was sure, It was time to start Bakemonogatari. My expectations were really high cause I had a feeling Monogatari could enter my top 10 favorite anime of all time, and thank god, Bakemonogatari delivered as it serves such a great introduction to the franchise.

Themes and Dialogues

There's just something very endearing and captivating about Bakemonogatari's dialogues. It's smart, witty, dynamic, and I guess I could say that it was thought-provoking. Araragi's interaction with each and every one of the cast is very fun and while it might be hard to keep up with the heavy dialogue sometimes, I had my eyes glued with the conversations throughout the anime, its casual yet rich, only a few anime come to mind when I think of excellent yet similar dialogue to Mono's (Evangelion, HxH, Fruits Basket, Fate, etc.)

The Message and Themes of each arc are also really well-written, now I know why people call Bunny Girl Senpai as "Discount Monogatari" cause they did everything MUCH better. After watching all 5 arcs, I think the one core theme of Bakemonogatari is Self-love and To move on. From Hanekawa's conflicting feelings to Kanbaru's jealousy, obviously I could go in-depth with all of the arcs but that would take a whole lot of typing.

Animation and Directing

I ADORE EVERYTHING ABOUT THE DIRECTING. Soundtrack, Framing, Colors, everything technical, Shaft poured their ENTIRE soul for this project and it shows. The Cinematography and shot choices were so unique to the anime industry at the time I would assume, Why can't we get more anime like this ?? I see Isekais and Fantasies (specifically under Kadokawa) that all look pale and boring, basically slop being churned out for fans to consume that its honestly sad to see anime these days fall into that boring feel where they just adapt the source 1:1, which ISNT a bad idea, its just that I appreciate it if the anime has the balls to step out and do something different to the project.

Closing Statement

I'm extremely looking forward for what's to come for the series, I LOVE Bakemonogatari and if I'm just only scratching the surface now, then I can't imagine how masterful the other monogatari shows are. For now, 9.1/10, ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED, but only if you're a veteran in anime.