the blink times

The more anime a fanboy watches, the harder it is to get captivated at the first few minutes of a new title. This one, however, was a surprising exception. Episode 1 of Bakemonogatari (化物語) was indeed love at first sight but with the rusty prose, I’m not sure if the review will be enough to capture my thoughts about it. In any case, I’m moving on with the positive blabber, so all of you will have to bear with me tonight.

The key winning point of Bakemonogatari is the abstraction of simple themes and characters. Koyomi Araragi catches a falling girl named Hitagi Senjōgahara and reminisces about how light she really was. Right after he steps out of a classroom, she plunges a penknife and a stapler into his mouth. Hitagi reveals the truth about her weight (which is due to a mysterious crab) and warns Koyomi not to tell anyone about it.

Herein lies the twist: Koyomi is no human, but a reformed vampire mentored by an urban shaman named Oshino. Believing that Oshino will be able to resolve Hitagi’s problem, Koyomi takes her to him and their meeting paves the way for the other 11 episodes of the series.

Bakemonogatari’s simple, yet engaging plot is also layered with beautiful art. The interplay between shadow and sunset adds a warm touch to the scenes, while the character designs have an intensity that can be traced to Shinichiro Watanabe’s Samurai Champloo. The series also presents an in-depth portrayal of the feminine tsundere—a concept that has gained critical interest, due to the animated image of the “tough girl”. Kudos to anime studio SHAFT for the brilliant blend, because I’m definitely hooking up with this for quite a while.

For those still blinded by doubt, allow me to further entice you with the opening shots…