My current pick for new favorite anime from the Summer 2009 line-up is the eye-catching, heart-stopping Bakemonogatari. Four episodes in, even a jaded anime enthusiast such as myself is excited and looking forward to watching more.
Bakemonogatari is a rather playful turn of phrase on the Japanese words bakemono, meaning monster and monogatari, meaning tale or story. This superb series of “monster stories” is the brain child of the amazingly talented NisiOisin and features a series of predicaments suffered by various humans resulting from personal tragedies and encounters with supernatural entities.
The protagonist is Koyomi Araragi, a third year high school student who once had such an encounter and had become a vampire for a short time. This has left him with residual vampiric abilities and an acute awareness of others in similar situations. At the beginning of the series, he crosses paths with the antisocial Hitagi Senjōgahara who threatens him with much violence after he inadvertently discovers the truth of her circumstances. Despite her hostility, he offers to help and introduces Senjōgahara to the enigmatic transient, Meme Oshino, who had helped Koyomi to rid himself of his vampirism.
The art of Bakemonogatari both sharp and surreal and well suited to the very complex and touching story unfolding about the raw beauty and feral nature of the world in which we live. NisiOisin depicts a constantly evolving landscape; how humans despite their best intentions, fall victim to tragedy and unfair circumstances – all the while teetering on a tightrope between euphoria and despair.
I think this anime’s most appealing quality is the almost unapologetically clever dialogue. It helps to pay attention and know your Japanese pop slash anime culture to get some of the references, otherwise the sheer wit of this story might go flying over your head. The trippy plot-line rife with brain-teasers, sexual innuendo and an almost poetic sassiness, alternatively commiserates with and pokes fun at genre trends, tradition, issues of morality and society, in general.
