Bakemonogatari [TV]

Third-year high school student Koyomi Araragi barely survives a vampire attack, thanks to the help of Meme Oshino, a strange man who lives in an abandoned building. Despite being able to save his humanity, several powers from vampirism remained in his body as side effects. With the help of their class representative and close friend Tsubasa Hanekawa, Araragi tries to live a normal life with his newfound abilities.

After catching his female classmate Hitagi Senjougahara from falling down the stairs, Araragi accidentally discovers her secret – she is weightless. Although Hitagi threatens Araragi to stay away from her, he insists on helping her, and eventually convinces her to visit Meme Oshino, the man who cured Araragi from his vampirism. Realizing that Araragi wanted to help, Hitagi decided to make him her friend.

Watch Koyomi Araragi as he encounters other girls with supernatural oddities, and his adventures involving all kinds of mysterious creatures.

About the Show

Bakemonogatari is an anime adaptation of the fantasy light novel series written by Nisio Isin with illustrations by Vofan. Produced by studio Shaft, the series aired a total of 90 episodes (divided into 3 seasons), between July 2009 until present. A game was also created by Namco Bandai Games for the Portable Playstation.

Characters

Koyomi Araragi
Koyomi Araragi is the main protagonist of the series. He is a third-year high school student who is close to failing all his subjects except math. During spring break, Araragi was attacked by a vampire and was infected with vampirism. However, Meme Oshino helps him regain his humanity, but several powers from vampirism remained. This includes his ability to see well in the dark and increased regeneration speed. Despite knowing that he is not a vampire, he remained scared by the sunlight.

Hitagi Senjougahara
Hitagi Senjougahara is the main character for the Hitagi Crab arc. Before entering high school, Hitagi encountered a giant crab who stole her weight, resulting in her supernatural weightlessness. Since then, she became reclusive and anti-social, fearing that someone might discover her secret. Whenever someone would accidentally discover her curse, she will threaten them in order to keep their knowledge a secret.

Mayoi Hachikuji
Mayoi Hachikuji is the main character for the Mayoi Snail arc. She is the ghost of a fifth-grade elementary school girl, who met a traffic accident while trying to reach her mother’s house. Her ghost can be seen by anyone who doesn’t wish to reach their destination, and was seen by Koyomi in a park on Mother’s Day.

Suruga Kanbaru
Suruga Kanbaru is the main character for the Suruga Monkey arc. She is Koyomi and Hitagi’s underclassman, and is star player of the school’s basketball team. Having accidentally discovered Hitagi’s secret, she was threatened just like the way Araragi was. During her years in elementary school, she inherited an object which she thought was a monkey’s paw. After making her third wish, a monkey-like paw started growing from her left arm.

Nadeko Sengoku
Nadeko Sengoku is the main character for the Nadeko Snake arc. She is a very shy girl who has her bangs covering her eyes, which are always casted downwards. She met Araragi after his siblings invited her to play at their house. This is where Araragi discovered that she was cursed to be strangled by two invisible snakes. The first snake was placed by a girl who liked a boy that Nadeko rejected, and the second snake was placed by the boy himself.

Tsubasa Hanekawa
Tsubasa Hanekawa is the main character for the Tsubasa Cat arc. She is Araragi’s classmate, and is described by him as “class representative of all class representatives”. Due to the stress caused by her family, Tsubasa was possessed by a demon cat. Although her curse was cured, it resurfaced sometime later due to the stress caused by her feelings for Araragi.

Karen Araragi
Karen Araragi is the main character for the Karen Bee arc. Despite being younger, she taller than her older brother Koyomi. Due to her reckless attitude, she was stung by a bee that caused a fever lasting for 3 days. She is secretly in love to his older brother. Together with her sister Tsukihi, they both went to get boyfriends that resembled their brother, in an attempt to make Koyomi jealous.

Tsukihi Araragi
Tsukihi Araragi is the main character for the Tsukihi Phoenix arc, and is also Koyomi’s younger sister. Just like her sister Karen, she secretly admires her older brother. She and Karen were supposed to be born as twins, but Tsukihi was born a few months later after a phoenix fused with her body. Being a reincarnation of a phoenix, she is immortal and can only die by old age.

Shinobu Oshino
Shinobu Oshino is a girl who lives with Meme inside the abandoned building. She appears as a very young girl, but was actually a vampire that lived 500 years and lost her powers.

Ougi Oshino
Ougi Oshino is an enigmatic girl who claims to be Meme’s niece. However, Meme Oshino is has no known family, making her claim suspicious. She appears to be responsible for some of the troubles that Araragi and his friends have encountered.

Sodachi Oikura
Sodachi Oikura is the main character for the Sodachi Riddle and Sodachi Lost arc. She is considered to be a beautiful girl, and excels in mathematics. However, she despises Araragi, possibly because he is better in math than her. She was accused by her classmates of cheating on a math test, making her not attend school for two years.

Quick Review

If you love watching harem anime with an episodic nature, then you might just enjoy watching Bakemonogatari.

The artwork in this series is excellent, everything is drawn with great detail and the sceneries are colorful and beautiful. Along with the amazing animation, is its great music quality that perfectly syncs the visuals, without attracting too much attention or overlapping its role.

The main attraction however, are the characters of Araragi and Senjougahara. They develop an interesting and sometimes hilarious love story throughout the series.