Today on Crunchyroll, I’m embarking on another two-parter, this time cataloging the shifting art design of Monogatari. I’ve collected so many damn images of this series that at this point, it’s fun just to sift through my own personal galleries, picking out the best representations of all of Monogatari’s myriad visual styles. This article only gets through the Oishi Monogatari material, but there’s certainly more than enough to dig into there!
Why It Works: A Monogatari Art Exhibition, Part One
Kizumonogatari is back, and holy crap this second act. The original novel was already as violent and sexually charged as anything in the series, but transposing that to film resulted in one of the most gloriously over-the-top sensory experiences imaginable. It still seems absurd that this film exists at all. I’m so happy it does.
You can check out my megasized review over at ANN!
So yep, turns out I got to see Kizumonogatari just a little bit ahead of schedule. AND IT WAS SO GOOD. God damn this movie was great. An utter change of pace from what the current television series has become, but a very compelling alternate interpretation of what the series could be. Tekketsu spins a very sparse number of plot events out across vivid, atmospheric minutes, creating a sense of being trapped in Araragi’s head without actually saying a word. It’s a remarkable feat of execution, and I am extremely excited to see the next ones.
You can check out my very thorough review over at ANN!
So now I’ve finally read some Monogatari in its “original” form. I was actually pretty worried I wouldn’t like this, and that the stuff I didn’t care for in the anime would be overwhelming in prose – but as it turns out, the opposite was true. Kizumonogatari is almost entirely the unfiltered good stuff, with its occasional dumb jokes eased by character voice and not slowed down by anime timing. I do like the visual world the Monogatari anime creates, but Kizu still “feels Monogatari” in almost all the ways that matter. I really enjoyed this read, and am eagerly looking forward to complaining about how the source material is better.
That was a joke, I’m not gonna do that. Don’t worry.
ANYWAY. You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my chapter notes below!