Bakemonogatari

Before watching, I felt like I already knew what was coming, but there is quite more to it and it has been an enjoyable ride throughout.

Bakemonogatari centers around Koyomi Araragi, a high school student, who first comes of as a generally lazy and lackluster type of person, and his journey of helping others that are plagued by aberrations, spirits that influence the life of those that they have bonded with.

The story and pacing of Bakemonogatari is just right, every character gets their own arc, composed of 2 to 5 episodes, focusing on them, their backstory, their struggle and the way to the solution. While this might sound like the perfect setup for a scheme all arcs follow through, it doesn't, each of them is handling a unique problem and you might just get hit with an element of suprise, learning about their personality and deeper reasoning behind actions.

The cast of Bakemonogatari are a lovable bunch, where each of them comes with their own personality, complementing each other. While some might seem plain and predictable at first, over the course of the series not just they, but their relationships, develop and unexpected traits might uncover. One element showing this are the interactions between the characters, which range from serious and philosophical to snarky and humourous, not being limited to a certain pair, but being reflected by all of them, while of course some relationships are mainly focused on one of those types.

The dialogue between characters is captivating, aside of the traits of characters where some situations might radiate danger and others bliss, it's always believable in this otherwise otherwordly scenario. An interesting element are characters repetetive dialogues and answers, which might seem like a negative thing, but is quite the opposite, as the situations are quite funny and memorizable, especially when your greeting consists of stuttering the name of the person you are greeting. Also, while it is just slipped in a few times, some characters also break meta with referencing certain things at times, unexpectedly considering some of the topics handled.

Visually, Bakemonogatari has it's own unique style, bold lines and a use of color in a way that displays the feeling and focus of the series, using combinations of monochrome and bold colors. In some situations, Bakemonogatari completely switches the artstyle drastically, conveying the current emotion and feeling of a character in a bold way. The representation is accompanied with a set of text-only frames, used for Araragis thoughts, monologue and sometimes even dialogue. Usually rather quick, but that's how the mind works, floating from one thought to another.

On terms of sound, there isn't much to say aside of it being fantastic. The music, just like so many other elements of the show, gets feelings and situations across and complements them perfectly, not being out of place or jarring. The different themes of the series, which are sung by the voice actresses of the main cast, accompanying their respective arcs are a nice addition and great detail as well.

Overall, Bakemonogatari is a great anime and something I can definitely recommend anyone to at least give a try!