Kizumonogatari Part 2 is a perplexing in just how it ends up being worse than the first movie. It offers itself as a disappointing follow-up to its predecessor. While the first movie set a low bar with its peculiar visuals and poorly shown storyline, the second instalment fails even harder.
One of the most glaring issues with the movie is its handling of the characters. Even compared to the first movie they feel rather off and their whole personality in this movie feels nothing like what i'd expect for worse not better. They feel like a different character altogether with no reason lore wise as to why this would be the case. Now even if you believe i should talk about the characters without mentioning the rest of the series, simply for this movie and this movie alone in a standalone sense they're so very boring and bland. They are not at all interesting without considering the rest of the series as the only interest i have for them is because i know what they're like in the rest of the Monogtari series. This goes for pretty much every character. The three that hunt Araragi, Oshino etc. Every character feels so boring and is rather forgettable. This especially goes for the characters that don't show up again in the series. Hanakawa is annoying, Araragi is not at all as cool as they're trying to portray him and the others are simply mind-numbingly boring.
fights are a let-down in this movie. The animation i find to not be very good albeit not terrible. The animation is secondary however to how unbelievably terrible the choreography is. Every fight is terribly boring and lacks any substance. This is especially the case for the final fight against the Human Vampire Hunter as his "fight" with Araragi not only is terribly boring and ugly to look at, it also makes absolute no sense the way he is defeated. The movie has the opposite problem to a lot of other anime. Where in some anime the fights last too long and should be shortened, this anime needs them to be stretched out. That being said if the people behind this movie are really talented, then in the time allotted i do think you could make something far more interesting in the short space of time.
While the environmental design shows slight improvement compared to the first movie, it still falls short of expectations (read my first movie review please). However the rain-drenched fight with Dramaturgy stands out for its superb animation and atmospheric setting despite the film's shortcomings in the environmental design department. This particular scene manages to shine, offering a brief glimpse of the series' potential. Maybe however this is simply due to the fact that i love the rain whether it be in anime or real life. Thu maybe i'm rather too biased here. But the way it is animated looks pretty good and the start of the film teasing the fight in the rain is a pretty good introduction i do believe. It just sucks that the fight was a big let-down in general. That being said the Dramaturgy fight is the best of the three easily, albeit still rather poor.
One of the most peculiar aspects of this film is its pacing. While the movie doesn't drag on unnecessarily, it feels so very rushed and may have been helped with a longer runtime. Moments that should have been explored further are glossed over, leaving you longing for a more substantial experience. The time is mora than enough as a single episode of Bakemonogatari has more substance and garners more interest than the entire movie. A single episode of that show being slightly over twenty minutes. But maybe if the movie was thirty minutes to an hour longer it would have come out better. Maybe showing all three fights in the movie helped in making it feel so very rushed.
I really am struggling to come up with a single positive to mention in this review as the movie is so poor. Considering it's worse to me than the first movie of which i gave a 3/10, i am struggling for any positives i can give the movie. One i could mention would be the voice acting. The voice acting throughout the movie seemed rather good, but also take into account that i do not speak fluent Japanese thus i am looking at it from a non-fluent pint of view.
Overall, Kizumonogatari Part 2 fails to live up to the first movie of which i also thought was poor. From its mishandling of characters to its utterly boring action sequences and uneven feeling pacing, the film struggles to engage you and ultimately feels like a extremely disappointing entry in the Monogatari series. Although not unwatchable garbage, thus a 1/10 feels too harsh. The movie is simply carried by the fact it is part of a great series. If the movie wasn't a sequel to a great series i firmly believe it would be unwatchable as it's that that carried me through the runtime.
HotHamlet - 2/10
70.5 out of 132 users liked this review
