Bakemonogatari

-Details-
Genre: Drama/Comedy/Romance
Company: Shaft
Format: 15 episodes
Dates: 3 Jul 2009 – 25 Jun 2010

-Visuals- 9.3/10
Shaft seems to have a talent of using minimalistic artwork and animation to their advantage. Shinbo Akiyuki, the director of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei directs this show with his usual flair. Text overlays and typography are the norm and changing animation styles occur with no warning, including a very surrealistic scene in the first episode. The color usage is brilliant with bright vibrant colors mixing perfectly with dark subdued colors. In a sense, that matches perfectly with the actual story of the show. As with Akiyuki's previous work, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, static scenes are quite common, and this time it hurts the show some what. That being said, Bakemonogatari is a very dialogue driven show, so the static scenes can be forgiven with the exception of one episode in which it is simply stills of animation. At first I thought my video was freezing up while my audio was still playing, but it is the actual show. This put a sour taste in my mouth, however, the rest of the show is animated brilliantly.





-Sound- 10/10
I honestly cannot find a single fault in the sound. The voice acting is top notch and the music is a perfect fit for the show. You have your quirky pieces for those random comedic scenes, suspenseful music, as well as some good rock tunes. All in all, the music sets the mood perfectly and adds to the show immensely. Each story arc has a special opening sung by the voice actress for the character that is the subject of that arc, and these are sung very well.

-Characters- 9.5/10
Deep, complex, multidimensional, all of these describe the characters. Each character is very well thought out and easy to understand. Through flash backs and the actual spiritual ailment that possesses them (more on that in a bit) we come to understand their motivations for acting the way in which they do. Senjogahara Hitagi is one of the most fascinating characters I've seen in anime. Almost impossible to describe, but she is an extremely interesting character with her very witty dialogue and sarcastic nature. Our main protagonist, Araragi, too is a deep character. We are privy to his thoughts in this show and that helps the viewer understand why he seems to want to help everybody and anybody, even those who may want him dead. The weakest character of the bunch is only weak because she get's so little screen time, which is a shame. The snippets of her past seem like they would have made a great back story, but alas, we are stuck with snippets. As for the romance, it's not rubbed in our faces the entire show and feels realistic. We don't see Araragi and Hitagi telling each other how much they love each other all the time, instead we are treated to Araragi being verbally abused (in good nature) by Hitagi but then a scene or two of how kind she is deep down. In fact, this tsundre type of personality becomes a running joke throughout the series.



-Story- 9.5/10
Based of a light novel series, Bakemonogatari tells of Araragi, a teen who his half vampire, and his encounters with other people with some sort of supernatural ailment, such as a cursed monkey paw, or a weightless crab. The five story arcs each introduce a new character to show, with the exception of the fifth, and in my opinion, the most powerful arc. The story arcs are based off a Japanese myth or ghost story and Araragi takes it upon himself to help those afflicted with the ailment, often putting himself in harms way to help. Despite the comedy and quirks of the show, it still is charged with compelling drama and character interaction. The ending left something to be desired and was anti-climatic, but this does not detract from the overall greatness that the story is.

-Overall- 9.7/10
I am going to go ahead and give it the highest score I have ever given to an anime. It really is the best anime I have seen to date and will be hard to top. The animation is brilliantly done and certainly uses a unique style while the sound matches the whole show perfectly. The story and characters are top notch and make this show a masterpiece. It really is something all fans of anime should watch.