A soon to be collection of my public work, In this case reviews only available in the Anilist Community.
(Yes, there is a private one.)
Intro
| Disclaimer, I haven't written a proper review in well over a year, So sorry if this is a little messy. Was inspired by several reviews I read which led me to make one. |
I put off Bakemonogatari for almost a year in a half, Which is when I initially watched the first episode. Which in turn never led me to touch the series or the franchise again. Until 2018- 2019 and I still come at myself for not having seen it before then. Bakemonogatari has all the things a "masterpiece" should have in-fact it's the exact definition of that, Great writing, Phenomenal Storytelling, Flawed Characters and not to mention several great openings.
When I originally watched Bakemonogatari, I instantly put the show off seeing as it was part of the harem genre which typically has a plethora of horrid shows, But I would never mention Bakemonogatari as one of those "shitty harems" hell it isn't even in the same league. It excels in ways that most harem genre-esque shows normally wouldn't which is something that I feel completely got me hooked and immersed into the show.
But then again, there are people who would disagree with me. Others who rate the show poorly would actually disagree with my first statement about the show "not even being in the same league" as a "harem" that it essentially doesn't stand out one bit compared to other "harem" anime. Those opinions could most likely be due to the stereotypical cast and the overall design of the show's structure. If you just look at it from a point-blank perspective then "yeah" it's easy to think this, There is the imouto, tsundere, loli, athlete, modest lead and then there's Tsubasa Hanekawa she's considered "perfect". The reason I say this is because as each arc unfolds these labels kind've loosened up and don't even end up defining the character under the same archetype as they are defined at the beginning of the show, Watching this show and dropping it at the beginning, for this reason, is a very "HUGE MISTAKE". Watching 1 or 2 episodes, won't definitively show you the changes that are present seeing as they are very minuscule towards the beginning. It's what happens to them that changes the way they look at things but as the chains holding these labels together begin to rust and loosen they ultimately end up breaking apart entirely not really being definable under a stereotypical format.
This show's just how people shield themselves from the consequential things happening within one's own life or outside one's own life, Bakemonogatari is one of a kind but it isn't like that just for the purpose of it and as much as the franchise itself is very popular a lot of people I know say it's "overrated" or "isn't all that it's made out to be" and I get that by any means Bakemonogatari is not for everyone and I think it was intended to be that way If you're someone that likes shows that get straight to the point with lots of heavy action. Then Bakemonogatari isn't for you. So to perhaps sway your mind into maybe watching the show, Let's take a profound look at this series elements and how they ultimately work.
Review
| Disclaimer: Minor spoilers do appear throughout this review, I don't necessarily think it will ruin your watching experience but if you don't like to be spoiled on a show at all then simply avert your eyes from this reivew. |
The story follows Araragi Koyomi, A third-year student. Who is partially vampire. In which he encounters a sequence of aberrations starting from a crab that steals your feelings stopping you from dwelling on any moments that you'd like to forget in your life. All the way to a Sawari Neko or just a 'cat' that carries the burdens of stress and helps you to cope with them and she can also steal life energy but there is nothing philosophical about that. Araragi essentially tries to save people that suffer from these supernatural aberrations with the help of none other then best girl of every year Senjougahara Hitagi. Over the sequence of every girl's arc, you see this kind've fake mind frame or mindset slowly fade away revealing their true motivations. This is what drives the story forward for the entire series, Along with a couple of action scenes, and a few nuances brought about comedically certainly helped drive the story as well they just aren't as important as the main driving force that I initially stated at the start of this sentence. If it wasn't for these minuscule things this show would just blatantly be boring. The dialogue throughout the entire show contains this meaningful impact that you just can't get enough of especially if you're trying to figure out what you are going to do in life. Every single detail of this show is important down to the conversations characters have to the subtle movements and postures that they do.
The Japanese references to someone like me went over my head after initially watching the show which is fine, Seeing as the dialogue is always there and is pretty easy to understand as long as you're paying attention and not to mention shaft absolutely nails the visuals and the overall aesthetic for the show that ultimately carries over to every single adaptation other than Kizumonogatari. The symbolism in Bakemonogatari is everywhere a perfect example would be the way Senjougahara views the world and the people around her and how it changes over the course of the show. It's also not really much of a coincidence that most of the problems the characters face throughout the show are all due to their own personalities the secrets they keep buried deep within them re-creating a kind've false mind-frame of showing the aberrations as "evil, menacing" and so on but all that is inevitably fixed by addressing the main cause of the problem. The show delves deep into how it creates these kind've characters and how people would actually act. Nisio Isin illustrates this perfectly by showing Hitagi Senjougahara as an emotionless character not caring about the world or people around her only caring for herself and her own well being, Upon meeting Meme Oshino she has a ritual performed on her that shows her receiving the emotions from the aberration that she tried to desperately hide in order to protect the people around her. Due to her own emotions causing and getting in the way of her family's issues. It's a sad story overall seeing as she ultimately locked up her own feelings into this aberration or crab as a result of her blaming herself among all the other factors that led to the incident. All around what I enjoyed the most was Araragi and Senjougahara's relationship which worked beautifully and is by far one of my favorite couples in an anime ever, Especially giving us the best episode in the series, the emotion-filled episode 12 showing you what it means to "love someone."
Araragi initially comes off as your typical harem "boring" main character, But it surprisingly changes when you see how he takes the pain of others and just dumps into all onto himself which in turn makes it hard to comprehend the feelings of those who really care about him. It really shows how helping people by destroying oneself only does more harm than actual good but to Araragi what he is doing is "right" it's what he strives for he can't help it, So does that necessarily make it wrong. Yes, to the people around him but if he thinks it's right who is anyone to tell him it isn't. That is his "ultimatum" something he lives for and strives to achieve so in a sense it's wrong but in his mind it isn't by the end of the series he is the same hero he was at the start always willing to sacrifice himself to make oneself feel better, Which is something i can very much relate to and i'm pretty sure a lot of you reading this can relate to as well. Overall all the characters change minimally except Senjougahara who has almost a complete change where you'd think it was a different person. Even though they took care of their aberrations the problem ultimately still looms over them never really setting them completely free. Nisio Isin really put quite a lot of thought into each girls aberration, Senjougahara has a crab which holds all her burdens and emotions so she doesn't have to deal with them, Kanbaru gets a demon's hand which manipulates her and slowly consumes her with jealousy turning her into someone she never really wanted to be, Hanekawa receives a cat which shows her ignorance towards the things that bother her ultimately allowing the cat to do the things that she wishes she could under her "perfect mask" all of them have to do with a false projection of oneself to protect them from "reality" because "reality" is harsh at the end of the day. Not many can just deal with it, The show does a great job by showing these issues as aberrations as opposed to just an issue in one's head it really helps you understand the situation a lot better therefore the issues can be addressed without any of the characters actually needing to subdue them. With the aberrations completely gone it's easy to live in their world without ever forgetting those memories but nothing ever really works out that well, The TSUBASA Cat arc is a perfect example of this. Hanekawa is what you would call the "perfect" type so in doing so she never really faces her own problems but instead keeps them in which leads to massive build up of stress within her, Which she keeps to herself in order to not worry anyone and keep to her "perfect persona". The cat or sawari neko is a perfect representation of when her stress builds up to the point where she can no longer contain it, Having the sawarineko lash out as opposed to her lashing out. Hanekawa purely demonstrates the amount of weight a "perfect persona" or personality carries as a result or keeping all your stress and emotions within yourself not only is it unhealthy it's impossible for her to continue living this way due to black hanekawa always coming back, If she ever wants to get rid of this she will have to learn to lose the "fake perfect persona" and just be herself projecting her feelings and emotions on to other people of whom she can trust.
In this Bakemonogatari is just the beginning of a much larger story, The series introduces us to these characters for the first time and their issues helping them one by one but never really solving them. Bakemonogatari still has a lot of questions that were left unanswered but its simply the start of s journey but i do know that Bakemonogatari isn't just a "harem" it's a beautifully crafted show and more than just your typical "masterpiece". Bakemonogatari embodies what it is to be a "masterpiece".
| Editors Note: This was modified before being taken out of my private corner, sorry if there are any spelling erros you can't catch them all. |
