Bakemonogatari

Koyomi Araragi, a third-year high school student, manages to survive a vampire attack with the help of Meme Oshino, a strange man residing in an abandoned building. Though being saved from vampirism and now a human again, several side effects such as superhuman healing abilities and enhanced vision still remain. Regardless, Araragi tries to live the life of a normal student, with the help of his friend and the class president, Tsubasa Hanekawa.

When fellow classmate Hitagi Senjougahara falls down the stairs and is caught by Araragi, the boy realizes that the girl is unnaturally weightless. Despite Senjougahara's protests, Araragi insists he help her, deciding to enlist the aid of Oshino, the very man who had once helped him with his own predicament.

Through several tales involving demons and gods, Bakemonogatari follows Araragi as he attempts to help those who suffer from supernatural maladies.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Edit

Background

Bakemonogatari adapts the first two volumes of NisiOisiN's Monogatari Series: First Season.

Episode Videos

Edit

Related Anime

Adaptation:	Monogatari Series: First Season
Summary:	Bakemonogatari Recap
Sequel:	Nisemonogatari
Prequel:	Nekomonogatari: Kuro
Other:	Nisekoimonogatari, Minna to Manner wo Manabou
Side story:	Koyomimonogatari
Alternative version:	Manga "Bakemonogatari" Shaft Seisaku Tokubetsu PV

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Senjougahara, Hitagi

Main

Saitou, Chiwa
Japanese

Araragi, Koyomi

Main

Kamiya, Hiroshi
Japanese

Hanekawa, Tsubasa

Main

Horie, Yui
Japanese

Hachikuji, Mayoi

Main

Katou, Emiri
Japanese

Kanbaru, Suruga

Main

Sawashiro, Miyuki
Japanese

Sengoku, Nadeko

Main

Hanazawa, Kana
Japanese

Oshino, Shinobu

Supporting

Oshino, Meme

Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro
Japanese

Araragi, Karen

Supporting

Kitamura, Eri
Japanese

Araragi, Tsukihi

Supporting

Iguchi, Yuka
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Iwakami, Atsuhiro

Producer

Kubota, Mitsutoshi

Producer

Hariu, Masayuki

Producer

Ooshima, Miku

Assistant Producer

Edit

Opening Theme

	1: "staple stable" by Chiwa Saito (eps TV Broadcast: 2, 6-7, 11-12, BD/DVD: 1-2, 12)
	2: "Kaerimichi (帰り道)" by Emiri Katou (eps TV Broadcast: 4, BD/DVD: 3-5)
	3: "ambivalent world" by Miyuki Sawashiro (eps TV Broadcast: 8, BD/DVD: 6-8)
	4: "Ren'ai Circulation (恋愛サーキュレーション)" by Kana Hanazawa (eps TV Broadcast: 10, BD/DVD: 9-10)
	5: "Sugar Sweet Nightmare" by Yui Horie (eps TV Broadcast: 14-15, BD/DVD: 11, 13-15)

Edit

Ending Theme

"Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari (君の知らない物語)" by supercell; performed by nagi (Gazelle)

Reviews

Jun 27, 2010

8thSin

Recommended

"To be blunt, I just enjoy talking to you... so I want to talk with you more."
"If our opinions clash, let's talk it over." (Dialogue from episode 5)

'Bakemonogatari', cleverly translated as 'Ghostory' or 'Monstory', is about five not-so-normal girls that Araragi Koyomi, a vampire himself, encounters and attempt to save from oddities possessing them.

CHARACTER:
The main characters of 'Bakemonogatari' are among the most unique and complex I have yet to encounter.
Heroine Senjougahara Hitagi is a tsundere like half of all modern heroines in anime, but she is also 「ドS」, a sadist to an extreme degree, which is more common for side characters and rare for heroines. ...

Open

Gift

Nov 18, 2014

Link_of_Hyrule

Mixed Feelings

**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**

You don’t have to be a member of the anime community for long to know that the Monogatari series is very, very highly praised. Inevitably, I gave into the hype and tried it out for myself. The result? Well… I walked away entertained, but FAR from impressed. Yes the characters are amusing, yes the dialogue is witty, and yes the visuals are beautiful, but make no mistake: Bakemonogatari is just a harem. It exists only for comedic gags and fanservice. The characters are shallow and have little to offer beyond their archetypes and their dialogue, not to mention that the “plot” is loose ... and unimpressive to say the least. I guess I have very mixed feelings about this anime; I’m happy I watched it, but the people hailing it as a masterpiece need to check themselves.

Synopsis: Koyomi Araragi, our harem lead, gets himself involved with all sorts of supernatural stuff, including vampires, spirits, myths, ghosts, and other apparitions. Being the overly selfless, and unreasonably nice harem lead that he is, Araragi meets a series of girls, each of which with their own problems. He finds a way to solve those problems, thus making essentially all of those girls fall in love with him until he has his very own harem.

Now, you’ve probably heard that sort of plot premise many times before, and that’s because there is nothing unique about this show’s plot what so ever. Even the supernatural thing has been done before. It’s quite simply a show about a boy helping girls with their problems one by one, a-la every visual novel ever made (even though this show is not based on a VN). There really isn’t much to say about it except one thing: Holy shit is there dialogue. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing; lots of my favorite anime are considered dialogue heavy, but Bakemongatari is essentially “Dialogue: The Animation”. Granted, it's usually very witty and well-written dialogue, but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't lose interest on more than one occasion. I really enjoyed the action scenes because of how incredibly animated they are, but they were few and far between to say the least. You can count them on one hand. In short, this plot is just a bare-minimum narrative framework for the show to conduct comedic gags and show tons of fanservice all the while attempting to incorporate every otaku fetish ever conceived. Needless to say, the plot is NOT the reason to watch this show…

The real selling point for Bakemonogatari is the characters: They are praised to no end for their likeability and depth. The former I can get on board with. The latter, however, I must wholeheartedly refute. The cast of characters is simply shallow, and I don’t think that’s debatable (I’ve been told they receive more depth in later seasons, but for now, they are shallow). Senjogahara, everybody’s obligatory “best girl”, may be amusing with her witty remarks and constant insults, we never get to know who she really is as a person. The romance between her and Araragi has its moments, but it comes across as unrealistic and misguided more often than not. Araragi claims to love Senjogahara but... does he? It doesn't seem like it at all. She constantly berates him, constantly puts him in uncomfortable situations, and is clearly mentally unstable. Senjogahara’s love feels very unreciprocated, making it quite difficult to empathize with their relationship. Speaking of that love, the show also doesn’t bother to flesh out why Senjogahara loves Araragi in the first place. As the anime itself manages to point out, it seems like she's just a mentally unstable, lonely girl who would fall in love with anyone who showed her the slightest bit of kindness a-la Yuno Gasai. That person just so happened to be Araragi, making the entire relationship based upon coincidence rather than legitimate connection on a psychological and/or spiritual level. The question is simply this: Is the show making fun of these tropes, or merely utilizing them? Who knows, but in the end, it doesn't really seem to matter since nothing profound is ever actually discusses and no commentary is ever made. For that reason, I just can't get into them as a couple; I don't like the confusing and round-a-bout way that it was handled. The other characters don't receive any remarkable depth either. They come and go at random intervals in between episodes; uncomfortably blurring the line between minor and major character. Our protagonist, Araragi is the prototypical overly generous and generic harem lead, with the exception of his tendency to create situations with unfathomably sexual undertones (even more so than an average harem). Don't get me wrong, the characters are witty and entertaining; they had me laughing multiple times, but there is an obvious problem with depth. They are funny, but shallow and archetypical.

I would be doing the show a disservice if I didn’t mention the beautiful animation, which was easily the best part of the entire anime. Bakemonogatari’s beautiful, experimental art style and orgasmic uses of shot composition and lighting are the real reason you should watch this show. Any fan of animation owes it to themselves to bask in the glory of this genius art direction. There are a FEW shots that don’t really work, but as a whole, stupendous animation. The music was good as a tone setter, but a tad underwhelming as a whole with the exception of a single track: The ED; AKA my new favorite anime ED of all time. My god is it increadible.

In conclusion, Bakemonogatari consists entirely of witty humor and fanservice in a beautifully animated and surreal setting. It has lovable characters and great dialogue, but it seriously lacks depth and originality in the departments of plot and characters. The plot isn’t memorable at all, and if the characters are memorable, it’s for their humor and boobs rather than their motivations and complexity. While I totally understand why fans of harems consider this to be the pinnacle of anime, it’s quite clear that Bakemonogatari is not worthy of that title. I think the show is worth watching, but don’t let the ridiculous hype surrounding the series ruin it for you. Remember: At its core, this is just a harem.

Open

Gift

Dec 24, 2015

D-ohnuts

Not Recommended

THIS REVIEW IS FOR ALL SEASONS, AS SUCH, IT CONTAINS SPOILERS

Monogatari takes place in a city populated by about 20 people, cardboard cutouts, and kanji characters, and follows the story of Koyomi Araragi as he meets girls who have supernatural oddity-related issues in their lives and tries to help them.

I am not a fan of the Monogatari anime, but I will get into why later in this review.

The characters are all pretty much what you'd expect from a harem anime. There's the selfless main character, the Tsundere girlfriend, the shy Moe girl who turns out to actually be psycho and manipulative, the smart girl who ...

Open

Gift

More stacks

Interest Stacks

Best of the 2000s part 3

by marcosocram2004

50 Entries · 27 Restacks

Anime for Adults

by hamidio1998

50 Entries · 576 Restacks

Cultural References and Memes

by Cestlavie_

50 Entries · 613 Restacks

More recommendations

Recommendations

View All

More news

Recent News

NHK Announces Best 100 Anime

To commemorate one hundred years of Japanese anime history, NHK has announced a list of 100 Best Anime on Wednesday at NHK BS Premium. The list is based on the audi...read more

May 3, 2017 7:07 AM by tsubasalover | Discuss (548 comments)

2015 April Fools' Day Collection

Each year, April Fools' Day gives a chance for creators in the anime, manga, and games industry to showcase their creativity. With the popularity of social medi...read more

Apr 1, 2015 9:41 PM by arsonal | Discuss (74 comments)

More discussions

Recent Forum Discussion

Poll: Bakemonogatari Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Fabrice - Jul 17, 2009	357 replies	by kagamiiin »» 6 hours ago
Watch Order 2024? GoCrayzee - Jan 27	25 replies	by HeshamJohnny »» Apr 13, 8:40 PM
Poll: Bakemonogatari Episode 15 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) loghneckbeard - Jun 25, 2010	517 replies	by Murky304 »» Apr 8, 12:05 AM
Poll: Bakemonogatari Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Fabrice - Sep 4, 2009	275 replies	by artemis-cr »» Apr 2, 5:39 PM
Poll: Bakemonogatari Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Fabrice - Sep 25, 2009	687 replies	by 94jf »» Apr 1, 8:39 PM

Recent Featured Articles

Bakemonogatari: Characterization Through Aberrations

A decade of exquisite storytelling began with five ordinary girls and their five extraordinary problems.

by MAL_Articles

42,967 views

Spoiler

Good Vibrations: The Undervalued Artistry of an Anime’s Soundscape

Sometimes we get so caught up in the visual spectacle of anime that we completely forget about the equally important sounds that come alongside it.

by MAL_Articles

68,212 views

Spoiler

Bakemonogatari

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Episode Videos

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Senjougahara, Hitagi

Araragi, Koyomi

Hanekawa, Tsubasa

Hachikuji, Mayoi

Kanbaru, Suruga

Sengoku, Nadeko

Oshino, Shinobu

Oshino, Meme

Araragi, Karen

Araragi, Tsukihi

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

Recent Featured Articles

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Bakemonogatari

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Episode Videos

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

Recent Featured Articles

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-