Review

I went into this hearing how confusing the monogatari series can be, and at the start I even tried to pause every second to read everything on the screen but quickly gave up on that. Also the very early panty shot really set the mood for the rest of the series. I wasn’t expecting this much ecchi but I don’t mind it much, as the story and the characters were just so intriguing that the ecchi is an after thought. Everything about this show be it animation, art style, music, direction literally everything was amazing.

The characters are actually complex and well written, it’s not often that I come out of an anime liking every single named character introduced and not disliking a single one. I really loved the relationship between Senjougahara and Araragi, so much so that if I had to pick a favorite episode I’d have to say Episode 12.

Relationship Spoilers

Getting a Confession in Episode 5, and slowly seeing the relationship develop as each of them grew was really nice too. And as I started to wonder to myself that we hadn’t gotten enough of Senjougahara we got blessed with Episode 12. The conversations in the car between Senjougahara and Araragi, Araragi and Dad and everything that followed after was just absolute cinema.

Some characters were also quite quirky ahem Kanbaru, I remember being stunned knowing that:

Kanbaru Secret

the mountain of books in her room was all yaoi

yet I wasn’t turned off by that even though I usually hate quirky characters but I wasn’t here as her character was way more than just that quirky aspect. The only one that wasn’t explored fully is Shinobu as I’d assume we get to know more about her in whichever part the past:

Araragi Past

where Araragi becoming a vampire

is shown. It was also pleasing to witness Araragi grow as a main character, quite often you’d see MCs that try and save everyone and they do end up doing just that but it is nice(?) change to see an MC who goes out of his way, putting himself in danger to save everyone he can but even then he has to realize that not everyone can be saved.

Sengoku Arc Spoiler

Him trying so hard to save the boy who cursed Sengoku, eventually failing and then continuously regretting that he couldn’t save him and feeling bad whenever Sengoku thanked him because he tried to save the person who put her through hell.

The show was also very dialogue heavy which I assume is indicative of how the light novel is, and for a show that is so dialogue heavy I wasn’t expecting such fluid animation like in Episode 8 and throughout the entire show even. Another aspect I really liked was how the OP changed with each arc, and ofc I have to mention peak called “Renai Circulation”. I knew it was from the monogatari series but I wasn’t expecting to get treated to it in the very first entry. Speaking of famous things, I also didn’t expect the cat tongue twister to have also originated from this show.

The entire premise of the show with apparitions, accepting your past, human relations, the verbal battles between characters all of it added so much character to this show that I don’t think I’ll ever forget a moment. Overall, if I haven’t said it enough I loved everything about this show, all the witty character interactions, one of the OSTs which always makes me think my phone is ringing, Senjougahara best girl, Renai Circulation. I will say this too, I 100% plan to watch the rest of the monogatari series probably during the off-season. I would’ve overachieved if the aids aids didn’t have such a short deadline. If you want to stalk my progress with that, my Anilist is always available. Fair warning I suck with words and even if I didn’t I don’t think I’d be able to explain how good this show is and how much I liked it. My review doesn’t do the series justice and everyone should watch this rn

Score: 10/10

Notes

• How much shit does this woman have?
• A lot of fanservice lmao
• Also I like how the number in the opening change with each episode
• Damn her backstory got dark quick
• They doubled his weight
• Confession in episode 5??
• Violence in Episode 6
• Bro saw heaven
• The outburst of feelings
• That entire mountain of books was FUCKING BL?!?!?
• Episode 8 was cinema, fighting
• Ok I knew renai circulation was from the monogatari series, but I wasn’t expecting to get treated in the first one.
• I was wondering if that was what was going to come when we saw Sengoku cause she reminded me of the girl from that op
• Nice lesson in Episode 10, that you can’t save everyone and sometimes… some people aren’t worth saving
• Car scene is peak, episode 12
• Omg the famous cat tongue twister is from here, episode 14