15-07-2010, 02:39 PM
Bakemonogatari ended, of course, with disappointment.
The first half of the season was an intensely popular 14 episode run of somewhat over-stylistic goodness. Then when the second half was supposed to air (months later), episode 15 was released as the "end". Boo...
That aside, Bakemonogatari (I think it means monster story, or... oddity story) is about this half-vampire guy who has to deal with "oddities" all the time. The show calls them oddities, but basically they're various forms of demons/possessions.
Having said that, it's a bit of a comedy.
Let me explain the "Half Vampire" thing... Never heard of a half-vampire before? Neither had I. Basically the guy became a vampire... but then someone half-reversed the process. So now he's a normal guy with:
- super healing
- highly enhanced senses (this is funny because he commonly has to pretend to not be able to read distant signs, so as to not give his secret away)
Yeah, he's basically wolverine.
So various oddities somehow... show up to him. Supposedly because his vampireyness makes him more sensitive to the paranormal. Anyway, he's always trying to save someone from being killed/un-souled by a demon, and that usually involves some kind of whatever... Yeah, vague I know, sometimes he has to fight a demon, sometimes break a statue or lead a ghost back to its house, it's always different.
Anyway... they do a special closing or opening theme for each of the new characters they introduce in the style of that particular character. It's pretty cool actually.
Now, as for the rest of the style, I thought it was a bit stupid. For whatever reason they made the series look like a half-edited old schooley film, but not all the time... So, every now and then they'd have the dialogue continue and have a red screen that says "red". Or there's some beating drum and words blast all over the screen too quickly to read (I read fangoriously quickly). Other times they put the "set direction" notes on the screen instead of the picture like "[apprehensive]", yeah, it's new and style-ish... and semi-cool... but I thought it was plain annoying.
I give it a 6.5/10 because although I really liked the characters (especially Hanekawa...!!), and thought the story was good, the dumbness of the overall style and abrupt ending bugged me.
The first half of the season was an intensely popular 14 episode run of somewhat over-stylistic goodness. Then when the second half was supposed to air (months later), episode 15 was released as the "end". Boo...
That aside, Bakemonogatari (I think it means monster story, or... oddity story) is about this half-vampire guy who has to deal with "oddities" all the time. The show calls them oddities, but basically they're various forms of demons/possessions.
Having said that, it's a bit of a comedy.
Let me explain the "Half Vampire" thing... Never heard of a half-vampire before? Neither had I. Basically the guy became a vampire... but then someone half-reversed the process. So now he's a normal guy with:
- super healing
- highly enhanced senses (this is funny because he commonly has to pretend to not be able to read distant signs, so as to not give his secret away)
Yeah, he's basically wolverine.
So various oddities somehow... show up to him. Supposedly because his vampireyness makes him more sensitive to the paranormal. Anyway, he's always trying to save someone from being killed/un-souled by a demon, and that usually involves some kind of whatever... Yeah, vague I know, sometimes he has to fight a demon, sometimes break a statue or lead a ghost back to its house, it's always different.
Anyway... they do a special closing or opening theme for each of the new characters they introduce in the style of that particular character. It's pretty cool actually.
Now, as for the rest of the style, I thought it was a bit stupid. For whatever reason they made the series look like a half-edited old schooley film, but not all the time... So, every now and then they'd have the dialogue continue and have a red screen that says "red". Or there's some beating drum and words blast all over the screen too quickly to read (I read fangoriously quickly). Other times they put the "set direction" notes on the screen instead of the picture like "[apprehensive]", yeah, it's new and style-ish... and semi-cool... but I thought it was plain annoying.
I give it a 6.5/10 because although I really liked the characters (especially Hanekawa...!!), and thought the story was good, the dumbness of the overall style and abrupt ending bugged me.