So this article got extremely long.  I’ve split it up into 3 parts so it’s easier to read.  You’ll be able to tell when I’m wrapping up by the title of each one.  I included the intro paragraph in each of these articles too in case you decide to read one, but not the others.

What will probably end up as my favorite anime of 2009 is Bakemonogatari.  I enjoyed every minute of this series.  The direction was appealing, the vector art was done very well, the characters were all unique and human, the story was always interesting, and the dialogue was probably my favorite aspect.  The story centers around Araragi Koyomi, who we learn is partly a vampire due to circumstances that are pretty much explained in the first episode that happened prior to the series.  Anyway, the rest of series follows Araragi as he tries to help people (girls) deal with certain ‘oddities’ that are plaguing them.  The anime is structured in arcs of 2-3 episodes as Araragi runs into new ‘oddities.’

About the dialogue, I’d have to say that it pretty much consumes almost the entire anime.  Granted, this anime is based off a bunch of light novels, but still.  The amount of lines is absurd compared to some other anime I have watched.  This is by no means bad though, as the dialogue is very amusing most of the time.  There is a lot of wit and banter between the characters (I probably mentioned this in my first impressions post), while there is also the heavy portions of the anime when the characters suffering from the ‘oddities’ explain how they were received.  I think it’s pretty clever how each of the ‘oddities’ can be explained by the circumstances in the characters’ lives.  Events that could happen to anyone are taken as a literal physical representation somehow and affect the character.

Wrapping up now though, since I’ve already spent too many words on Bakemonogatari, I really hope that there ends up being 15 episodes.  I saw on wikipedia that the show was scheduled for 15 and the last 3 will be released on the official website.  I need someone to keep subbing it! >_<  Oh yeah.  And Senjougahara Hitagi wins Tsundere of the Year (she’s in the screenshot I put there).

Up next is Hayate no Gotoku Season 2.  This time the series focuses a lot more on staying loyal to the manga.  Don’t worry though, it still has tons of parodies and allusions to other anime/manga/otaku-ism.  The arcs in this season, however, end up focusing more on the relationships between Hayate and Hinagiku, Ayumu, and Nagi.  Of course, probably due to overwhelming popularity, Hinagiku gets tons of attention this season – she even gets her own ending theme song!  Is this popularity well-placed?  I’m not really sure, but for some reason she keeps drawing tons and tons of fans.

I think one of the wiser decisions of Hayate no Gotoku S2 was dropping the episode count from 52 in the first season to 25.  I remember it taking me a very long time to finish the first season due to the sheer length of it; I’m not always in the mood for parodies.  I am, however, well-versed enough in anime to understand around 95% of the jokes that go on (I’m not sure if this fact should be depressing or not).

So what do I think of Hayate no Gotoku in general?  It’s definitely one of your love-comedies, except a lot more focus on the comedy than the love part.  At least for now.  This is one anime that you can definitely take your time and watch leisurely.  The episodes don’t always leave you with a cliffhanger, and even if they do – you’re not enticed to watch the next one immediately (or maybe you are!  Who knows?).  Anyway, if you want to watch some just good-humored, well-natured anime and are knowledgeable in popular anime, then I can recommend this to you strongly.  Will there be a season 3?  I would say probably – and if there is, I hope that it will keep staying loyal to the manga.  I like reading the manga quite a bit in my free time.

So I realize I just posted about Bakemonogatari, but the ending single disc came out today.  That means I had to grab it, listen to it, and post about it.  I think I mentioned this in my previous [Bakemonogatari] post, but the person who composed this is Ryo from [supercell] who features the singer Nagi (who is also known as Gazelle on [nicovideo] for her fandubs of certain Hatsune Miku songs).

I was pretty excited for this release since I had instantly taken a liking to the ending theme. I really like the sound of Nagi’s voice in this as well as the usage of piano throughout the song, ‘Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari.’

The other song, titled ‘LOVE & ROLL’, isn’t quite as good in my opinion; sounds more like your typical techno-ish anime music.  The emphasis on Nagi’s voice is still good though, so I’ll probably listen to it for a while.

There is also a last song called ‘theme of ‘concoroll.”  It’s only about a minute and a half long, and it doesn’t feature any vocals whatsoever.  It’s worth a listen to since it sounds interesting, but I feel like I would tire of it rather quickly.

Overall, I’d say the ending single is pretty good, but only because of the strong opening song on it.  I’ll probably end up listening to ‘Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari’ pretty exclusively in the end.  I hope that the Supercell and Nagi combination keeps going though.

Back onto the anime though, if you watch it, you will immediately notice the use of a lot of vector looking art for the backgrounds and the interesting perspectives.  You’ll also notice that the anime cuts to a lot of pages where all there is, is nothing but words.  Bakemonogatari focuses a lot on dialogue in the interaction between characters – usually one on one as I have seen so far.

Again, the camera angles are different, but I think they’re designed so that you keep focus on listening to the characters speak.  Also, the image on the screen changes a lot.  This seems usually to be employed when the characters aren’t doing anything interesting except maybe having a conversation.  It’s pretty unique and the fact that the style is almost always different makes it fun to watch.

Sometimes I find it hard to keep up with all the witty banter going on, but it’s very entertaining.  I think I can attribute this to Nishio Ishin.  There seems to be a lot of puns and word plays that happen, even when the characters are having a serious conversation.  Each character also feels like they have a different style to them as well.

I’ve also noticed that there’s a lot of repetition in the environment in Bakemonogatari.  It makes it feel as if the world the characters are in is sort of dull, but at the same time, the story focuses on oddities.  These oddities (which mainly stem from Japanese mythology and folklore seemingly) are what pulls all of the characters together too, since the main character Koyomi Araragi is always running into them and can’t leave them alone.

Another example of a change in style.  A lot of times when characters are explaining something from their past that is significant, it will constantly scroll through the art style on the screen and the way it’s produced changes as well.

And then at other times, it’s just for fun.

Maybe it’s just me, but sometimes I feel like even though the background was made to be bland purposefully, the characters are what doesn’t stand out as much.

The use of color in this anime seems to be huge as well.  There are very few times when an object will have more than one color (other than the characters).  As you can see, the entire house is the yellow/brown, while the steel structure around it is red, and the birds are all blue.  I haven’t noticed many difficult colors either – they all seem to be pretty basic.

I know I’ve been talking a lot about the art, but the animation is also pretty good as well.  The story of Bakemonogatari is separated into 2-3 episode arcs.  Each arc introduces a new character with a different oddity and the characters from the previous arcs seem to always play a roll in the new arc for solving the oddity.  I think in this way, it makes it easy to remember individual characters.  I can never seem to remember names when 10 characters are introduced at once.

The ending song for Bakemonogatari is pretty good too.  It’s actually sung by Nagi, who is pretty popular on Nico video for her voice.  It’s composed by Ryo from supercell who did a lot of music for Hatsune Miku (the vocaloid).

This series is definitely worth watching.