So I finished the second season of Monogatari and I decided that it was worth updating my original post. I made my original after finishing Nekomonogatari (and part way in s2) and I feel like this is one of the best anime I've ever seen, but it would have been significantly better with a bit cut out. Monogatari translates to story and as such the show is a series of stories (arcs). Most of the arcs build on eachother and are good in their own right, but there are a few weaker ones that can (and should) be skipped.
Here's my original post:
- Spoiler:
Monogatari (season 1: 7.5/10 ; season 2: 8.5/10 (so far))
The Monogatari series revolves around Koyomi Araragi, a third-year high school student, who's almost human again after briefly becoming a vampire. One day, a classmate of his falls down the stairs into Koyomi's arms. He discovers that Hitagi weighs nothing, in defiance of physics.
- Spoiler:
this series is hard to do justice. the overall premise of it is standard and somewhat boring. the main character is justice driven but not entirely in an obnoxious way. in fact, the entire cast comes from one archetype or another, but still manage to be refreshing and thoughtful. the show kinda presents them as "yeah here's there archetype but they're more like people resembling the archetype than defined by it." that doesn't really get it either but its the best ive got
anyways, the show is gorgeous. its animation style is different than anything ive ever seen. it does this really cool mashup between stream-of-consciousness narratives and typography
its the kinda-subtle details like that which make the show good, rather than flashy fights or huge twists.
the lore of it is also really good and interesting:
human emotions and beliefs (from all times) take form as "oddities" which are something like gods
All of that said, the show has a few really strong points. If most / all of these seem bleigh than you probably won't like it.
- It is beautifully animated. Characters, typography, gestures: the show and it's really gets another full dimension from it's art style alone. If you like how Hayao Miyuzaki stuff is animated, you'll probably like how this is too.
- Character development. The characters actually face really interesting personal dilemmas that are well thought out and are really smartly realized. on top of that, most of the characters and issues aren't black and white at all. it's actually got depth. whoa.
- Most anime aren't consistent in that once you start to examine it nothing makes sense. This one on the other hand has characters that feel like actual characters and events that aren't isolated to their respective arc. It's still an anime, though, so you can expect a jokingly perverted main character -- but even that ends up being better than usual
- There aren't that many action scenes (probably around 0-1 per arc early on and then 0-2 per later on), but the few that are there are have you involved in a way that most action anime don't. But maybe that's not how you feel, in general after the 3rd powerup fight in an action anime I just stop giving a shit.
- Things end where they should. Characters, relationships, broken hearts, sanity etc all end where they should given who the characters are.
- A lot of philosophically interesting elements.
I generally marathon anime but I wouldn't advise it for this one. It's better to enjoy the small details of it and usually when you marathon anything you get antsy and stop appreciating that.
Bakemonogatari [good and definitely don't skip; 8.5/10]
First story: 1-2
Second story: 3-5
Third story: 6-8
Fourth story: 9-10
Fifth story: 11-15
Nisemonogatari [this season adds backstory to Koyomi's sisters; the first story is pretty good but the second less so; 8/10, 7/10]
First story: 1-7 [good but can skip, the stuff later on is better]
Builds on the fourth story of Bakemonogatari, provides some back story for the fifth story of Monogatari Season 2
If you liked the anti-villain of the fourth story in Bakemonogatari (Kaiki) you should watch this. Also, the downside to skipping it is that the final arc of the season 2 won't be quite as good. if you get bored, you can probably skip the middle of this arc and still follow along
Second story: 8-11 [not bad but not great either, definitely can skip]
Follows the previous story. Sets the stage for the fourth story of Monogatari Season 2
Nekomonogatari [this season shows the events of the first Golden week -- Cat time; 6.5/10]
Skip entirely, the series is summarized by episode 6 of Monogatari season 2 and this season is way weaker besides that
Only story: 1-4
Monogatari Season 2 [9.5/10]
First story: 1-5
this is a really strong arc and has a lot of interesting components
Second story: (6) 7-10
Episode 6 summarizes the Nekomonogatari series, but this arc draws from the entire series and the summary is only really enough if you've watched the first season, "Bakemonogatari". This arc is just as strong as the first and has an interesting bit on time travel
Third story: (11) 12-15
Episode 11 summarizes the first and fourth story of Bakemonogatari. It doesn't do a good enough job to skip them, but it also means this ep is very skip-able.
Fourth story: (16) 17-20
Episode 16 summarizes Nisemonogatari and the fifth story of Bakemonogatari. Worth watching if you skipped Nisemonogatari, but otherwise skip.
Fifth story: 21-26
I used the actual episode #'s, but depending on the source you use to watch the eps of S2 they'll leave out the summary eps and number the rest lower. i switched sources after watching ep 6 (the recap) and then ep 7 on the new source was really ep 8- Spoiler:
I'm still not sure how I feel about the season finale. It was really amibitious in how they resolved it, and they certainly laid the groundwork for it, but I'm still not sure I buy into the antagonist being insane enough for it to have worked. The final arc (5th story) was awesome though. Following Kaiki's internal monologue as the typography component of the arc + watching how he interacts with other people was really cool -- his character is actually the embodiment of deceit. At the end of the day, you're left still unsure of who he is. Blue hair makes an almost compelling argument that he's really a sorta-good guy... but almost none of what she says adds up with Kaiki's internal thoughts, but it still adds up with his external actions. I still can't decide who he is, but maybe that goes with the "embodiment of deceit" thing.
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Subject: Monogatari 
