Bakemonogatari

Part of the Monogatari Series

Gernre(s): Supernatural, Seinen, Ecchi, Psychological, Mystery, Romance

Age-Appropriateness: 17+ (Profanity, Violence, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes)

Platforms: Crunchyroll, Funimation

Episodes: 15 (Final three episodes available only on Funimation)

TheAwersome Rating: 7.8 / 10

Premise: Koyomi Araragi, a third-year high school student narrowly survives a vampire attack with the help of Meme Oshino, a strange man who lives in an abandoned building. Now (mostly) back to normal, Araragi tries to carry on as a regular student, but he keeps encountering girls with their own supernatural maladies and tries to help them.

TheAwersome’s Thoughts: I really liked the first installment of this series. Bakemonogatari uses a lot of interesting and unsettling visuals that are reminiscent of the game “Detention” and the Madoka series, so I wasn’t surprised to learn that the artist responsible for Madoka’s visuals worked on half the episodes for this season. As a whole, this series is very philosophical, and the dialogue is the meat of the content. There is a crap-ton of wordplay, much of it kanji-based, and a lot of references to Japanese cultural spirits, etc., so I was in the dark for a lot this.  You’ll want to head into this with the mindset that it’s an art piece, because it defies a LOT of conventions, which I thought was interesting and fun, especially thanks to Inu Curry’s visuals (he did the “witch” scenes in Madoka).

Be aware that this is an ecchi series, and ergo not for everyone. There are frequent bizarre camera angles, (read: upskirt) and overall behavior of many of the characters is unrealistically okay with a pervy protagonist.

NOTE: Be sure to watch the final three episodes on Funimation, they aren’t on Crunchyroll and they are critically important to the series.

TLDR: Very artsy, good first season.