Anime: Kizumonogatari 6ie4g

Ah, fucking finally, the one entry that chronologically starts it all, and it focuses a lot on Araragi and Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade, who so far remained mostly a good hearted pedophile with some serious incestuous tendencies, and a tryhard moe donut eater with a seemingly interesting backdrop that was only teased throughout the previous seasons.

It is well known that it should have been released much sooner, since the adaptations pretty much follows the order of the light novels, which also jumps in time a lot. I don’t know why it took them so long to adapt this story but it ended up working for the better, because:

1-It came out after Koyomimonogatari, the absolute worst entry in the franchise, thus the huge leap in quality by comparison works in its favor.

2-If it came out after Bakemonogatari, it would feel like information about the characters was missing. By 2016, Koyomi, Hanekawa and Kiss-Shot were more or less explored or had their backgrounds revealed, especially Tsubasa, so it doesn’t feel like the movie trilogy it’s incomplete. Whatever it covers brings a proper closure of the past of the main cast just fine.

3-It also allowed them to adapt the arc the way they wanted. The entry feels pretty unique within its franchise because of that.
Leaving a proper release date aside, I also have to compliment the format. Although stuff from the novels is missing according to some fans, having the season being three and half hours among three movies feels like the right amount of length, not too short nor too long like some of the previous entries. Plus, the plot structure was very well thought of and distributed when you think about it, with the first film being the introduction, the second the conflict, and the third one the conclusion.

In of the actual content, Kizumonogatari has easily the best premise, since it covers the beginning of it all and how some characters are introduced and come to know each other, while it also fleshes out those that desperately needed it.

It is also the one with the most focused plot and pacing thanks to both the limited runtime and the material that’s shown. No meandering, no stupid conversations, no secondary characters stalling the story, and since neither Nadeko nor Hachikuji nor the Fire Sisters nor Ononoki are around, no incestuous nor pedophilic scenes. Everything serves the story or builds up the dynamics among the cast without stretching anything for more time than needed.

It is also the one with the most unique animation. I don’t know why the studio decided to go with something completely different this time, but I welcome the change, as I watched seven seasons of polished but quite same-y visuals. The artwork, coloring, special effects and character figures are distinctive from the rest of the franchise yet just as polished, with the only problem being that Koyomi and Hanekawa should look a bit closer to how they do in Nekomonogatari: Kuro and Bakemonogatari for consistency. In of motions, since Kizumonogatari is the most action heavy series of them all, it’s easily the best in that regard, something that expands to even the moments of talking.

Speaking of the action, the sequences are far more violent than what was shown thus far, but thanks to the directing it comes off more as quirky and trippy than edgy. The final fight in the third movie in specific feels like what Madhouse and Yuasa tried to do in Kemonozume, particularly in its ending, yet for some reason they didn’t.

What’s perhaps not as good as it was in previous entries, but still very good, is the backgrounds which are far more normal looking than the surreal ones that we were used to see, and there are not nearly as many quick cuts as there were before. Personally I prefer it this way, I find the directing and overall visuals less pretentious and they don’t give me a headache, while I can more or less guess a reason for the backgrounds in-story, since all the crazy stuff hadn’t happen in the town, school and houses yet for them to be as weird looking.

As a whole I don’t have a single complaint regarding the visuals, besides the characters looking very different than they do in the next entries in the chronological order, and the shadows that sometimes can be seen in their eyes.

What didn’t change at all was the audio department. There are some themes in it that seem to belong in a horror anime, but there are also some pretty common and forgettable ones that bring down the overall quality of the soundtrack, thus still no entry it’s on the same level of Tsukimonogatari in that regard. There is an ending throughout the trilogy which is good but definitely comes off as repetitive for how long it is. Voice acting and special effects are as good as they always were, with the only noticeable difference worth mentioning being the cartoony ones used during the final fight. They fit the quirkiness of the whole thing while somehow not clashing with the overall tone than the season goes for.

Speaking of which, despite some silly and relaxing comical moments here and there, it is the second most serious in the whole franchise, only after Hanamonogatari, although here it is better excused for the events that take place. Plus, the humour is not as in your face as it used to be in previous entries, even during the moments where the artstyle changes for something more chibi or retro like. The reason is simple, there are no references nor fourth wall breaking in here.

The plot is simple but focused and ever moving and without time leaps. This way it doesn’t feel as mysterious as the ones from some previous entries, but it’s alright because it is chronologically the first season of all, thus it is not about making you ask yourself what might come next, but rather just show how it all began in a properly straight forward way.

It shows how Kiss-Shot, Araragi and Hanekawa came to meet and know about each other, and the more complicated aspects of their relationships are finally explained and shown, nor told or referenced vaguely. Now we actually know how close and dependent the first two are from each other, and how screwed the third one truly is, and why and how the protagonist feels so indebted to them and vice versa.

But what’s it about? Araragi gives his own humanity to save Kiss-Shot and fights three executioners that are after her, before he, for plot reasons, fights her and becomes one with her at the end. Unfortunately the antagonists don’t really pose a challenge, but at least there is some battle choreography and planning during the fights.

Aside from that, it also shows a little more of the backdrop of Kiss-Shot than what was told in Second Season, and also the most dramatic dimensions in her character. It also focuses on making clear how Araragi screws up by trying to help, and ends up making everyone carry a burden, while it also makes him grow from an antisocial loner to the kind hearted harem lead that he would be during the rest of the franchise, all while perfectly connecting everything with the next entries in the series.

I overall think the manga version does everything better and it shows it better than this trilogy, but overall it is still pretty good on its own. But I also want to make perfectly clear that it is no masterpiece in the least, since it is still an unrealistic and unbelievable story where a guy with no fighting experience can best three veterans at his first try, characters fight throughout the whole city while breaking everything yet no one notices them, Oshino still appears out of nowhere to save the day, and there is no tension whatsoever since the main characters are immortal and the outcome is known before the beginning thanks to all the previous entries. And although not as much in quantity and not as disgusting as they were before, there are still ecchi and comical moments that could be taken away, improving the whole.

In conclusion, this is the only season in the Monogatari series that I enjoyed and the one with the best executed and most focused plot so far. Going by numbers alone, and heavily influenced by my own enjoyment and the visuals, it would rank at the top of them all, but I still won’t call it the best, because it doesn’t have the messages, theme exploration, psychological aspect and level of characterization of Second Season, which I would rate higher than this one if not for Hachikuji’s arcs. But it is still far better than most of them and a pretty good second place. I rate the first two movies with a 6/10 for doing a decent job at setting up a concept and presenting a conflict respectively, and the third one with a 7/10 for having the most and best content while also doing a good job in connecting the entries with the rest of the franchise.

This is a part of the Monogatari Series. That should be enough for most people who are acquainted with the said series.

Really the only actual faults of this part of the anime is problems with the plot and the fan service, though I do not think either are detrimental to it in any significant way. The motivation for most of the characters seems lacking. Though for Araragi and Kisshot it is generally well rounded, other characters have far less exposition to explain their actions, but their motivation is still clear. Araragi at times seems to come to weird and overly dramatic conclusions, but it is not really a problem. The fan service has a large presence here even compared to other parts of the anime. They do work it in rather well as in it separates otherwise gloomy or overly serious scenes and themes as well as rather nice scenes that have vibrant colours. It seems to be like Shaft's wild card play. Some don't like it, I personally think that it derails the plot often but the contrast is welcome. The direction is very good like all of Monogatari.

The author's also use a generous amount of irony and other interesting tricks used in writing. I could not help but smile at the dialogue when Kisshot offered Aararagi to spend the rest of his days with her, only for Araragi to unconditionally reject said offer. The irony is that from the ending (spoiler) and onwards into the main series, Araragi did just that.

The animation is seriously different here than in other parts. For this reason, I would recommend that for anyone watching Monogatari, to start with Kizumonogatari, as it takes a while to go from older Shaft animation to this as opposed to vice versa. The reason for this is a completely different set of gammas and colours being used on characters especially, as well as a generous use of decent cgi. The animation is decent and only people who have seen other parts of Monogatari will really find fault with it, although they seem to reduce quality rather suddenly at times. But generally speaking, its Shaft, and I saw P.A. Works and White Fox in the credits. I assume that the latter two assisted in animation. Needless to say, with 3 such serious studios, the animation is more than sufficient. The cgi is about as good as it gets, although they overuse it.

Probably the single biggest grievance that Shaft brought upon us with these movies is the absence of an OP. There is not a single OP in Monogatari that is unpleasant in any way. OPs are really among many of this series' strong points, and yet all we get is an ED in French, which ain't bad, but feels somewhat underwhelming. The soundtrack is rather typical for movie length projects, in that it is generic, but not bad. It bears little resemblance to either older or newer soundtracks from the series.

Despite all of this, the main reason that this part of the series got decent reviews has more to do with the fact that it is part of Monogatari I think, but it almost pulls its weight too. I will say that like with other parts of this series, this is a great watch, but its intention is to lead into something more, and it does this well.

The Good:
Darker than usual, but incredibly important to understand several of the main characters.
Here we finally learn:
* how crazy Hanekawa really is,
* why Koyomi keeps insisting she saved him,
* the complicated core of his and Shinobu's relationship,
* how strong and absolutely dedicated to balance Oshino is
* and what's been going on with all the weird "Red Screen"/"Black Screen" cuts in the series...possibly?

In many ways this story is both the origin but also the culmination of everything else we have experienced so far and unquestionably a must-see to understand the series as a whole.

The Bad:
The downside is that, while it clearly had a bigger animation budget than previous installments, it actually looks... well not worse but noticeably more generic.
* Gone are the surreal but beautiful backgrounds, replaced by generic cgi-renders.
* Gone are the hectic cuts that perfectly control the pacing, replaced by slow pans that do nothing but show off their new walk cycle animations.
* Gone the haunting, characterful musical scores, replaced by music that could come from any random action/drama film and out-of-place sound cues to tell us we're supposed to laugh or feel tension.
* Everything is drawn and animated ever so slightly differently from the series, which creates an off-putting dissonance.

It quite simply feels less well-crafted in all technical areas than every previous entry in the series, it certainly doesn't have the attention to detail in each and every shot that we've become used to, where pretty much everything we see serves a purpose and nothing is wasted.
And while it might not bring up the ecchi stuff as often, it leans into it way more heavily when it does come up, which might irk some people.
Aaaalso no amazing OP/EDs. :P

These are comparatively minor gripes (as should be evident in my score), but ones that made for a noticeable shift away from many things that make the series stand out.

Conclusion:
All in all a small but noticeable step down from the rest of the series, but when that step down is still a 9/10 you'd best pay attention.

How this pretentious half baked piece of animation got such high reviews, is beyond me, BUT if You like:

- panties (apparently creators figured that flashing enough of them would win enough votes from certain geeks);

- big(I mean really big) boobs;

- flashing French words(basically NOIR);

- ridiculous plot;

- even more ridiculous script;

- very powerful vampires fighting other very powerful vampires;

- very powerful vampires with stupid names;

- cliché anime characters;

- cliché anime situations;

- cliché anime dialogues;

then by all means, watch this show. Otherwise if You search for decent vampire anime, check Blood:The Last Vampire or Hellsing(not ova).

Most of things mentioned here are self explanatory as they are trademark of most low level anime, but since there were some "stout defenders" of this "masterpiece", I will elaborate some of my points. Warning, spoilers ahead:

The plot is about yet another schoolboy who struggles with...whatever, they always either struggle with present, or have some shady past, this loser is no exception, but he has some classmate with huge boobs, who of course has some unrecruited feelings towards him. Anyways, the guy one day after school goes to metro, which is totally empty, lolz, in Japan, but oh well, so he finds there a decapitated vampire chick and she offers him to die so she could live. Guy runs away, considers the offer, struggles with reality, because he does not want to die, but still comes back so she could suck...his blood of course. Yay, this is totally possible, I mean if some monstrous guy, who is lying on the ground and almost dying would ask me to die for him I would gladly...run away. So, as is expected, this schoolboy does not die, he becomes the fledgling vampire and the chick... Becomes a girl, because she is weak now, need suck more blood and recover. And while at it she tells him a story about how she was ambushed by 3 or 4 other powerful vamps and they have basically butchered her. Ah, yes, then she says he has to finish them off. So the new guy goes and meets them.

Frankly, the scene where he waits for them to come and kick his ass was somewhat nice, it showed how each of them comes, how cool they are and so on - after all, they are very capable, because by ganging on her they managed to defeat the vampire chick. And now they will face watered down her protege.

Guy gets his ass handed to him and I got bored from watching this bs.

So yeah... Plot is ridiculous 1/10, soundtrack is forgetable 3/10, animation is pretty nice 8/10, characters and their motivations are stupid 1/10, same is for dialogues 1/10. Maybe there is some depth to be found after watching all series five times while drunk or on LSD, but otherwise dont waste your time.