Your Guide to Noob-dom

Description:

“My name is Araragi Koyomi, a 3rd year high-school student. I am also an ex-vampire. There is a girl in my class by the name of Senjougahara Hitagi who frequently misses school, ostensibly due to a weak constitution. One day, while ascending a flight of stairs, I saw Hitagi falling down from above, and caught her. Imagine my astonishment when I discovered that she weighed a mere 5 kilograms! I suppose no good deed goes unpunished, as Hitagi threatened bodily harm should I reveal her condition to anyone. Undaunted, I convince her to meet with Oshino Meme, the man who had cured me of my own condition.”

Source: Animenfo

The anime series was announced in April 2008 and started broadcasting in July 3, 2009 on Tokyo MX. The series is part of Kodansha’s Nisio Isin Anime Project and is produced by SHAFT, directed by Akiyuki Shinbo with an assistant of Tatsuya Oishi, written by Fuyashi Tou and featuring a character designs by Akio Watanabe based on VOFan’s original concepts. The music for the series is produced by Satoru Kousaki under the supervision of Yota Tsuruoka. The theme song for the series, titled “Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari” (君の知らない物語, lit. The Story You Don’t Know) is produced by Supercell with a scheduled release in August 12, 2009. The series is scheduled to be 15 episodes long but will broadcast only the first 12 episodes. The remaining episodes will be distributed on the official website.

Bakemonogatari centers on Koyomi Araragi, a third year high school student who is almost human again after briefly becoming a vampire. One day, a classmate named Hitagi Senjougahara, who infamously never talks to anyone, falls down the stairs into Koyomi’s arms. He discovers that Hitagi weighs next to nothing, in defiance of physics. After being threatened by her, Koyomi offers his help by introducing her to Meme Oshino, a middle-aged homeless man who helped him stop being a vampire.

The series tends to introduce only one new heroine per chapter, each involved with a different “apparition”. The events of the previous chapters play an important role in the subsequent ones. The series primarily focuses on conversations between characters; it contains a fair number of parodies of other series, as well as NisiOisiN’s trademark wordplay and metahumor.

Koyomi Araragi (阿良々木 暦, Araragi Koyomi^?)

Voiced by: Hiroshi Kamiya

Koyomi, the main character of the story, is a third year high school student who is close to failing every class except math. Shortly before the novel begins, he was attacked by a vampire during spring break, and became a vampire himself. Although Meme Oshino helped him become human again, there are a few lingering side effects; he can see in the dark, and he heals faster than the average human. He is still scared of morning sunlight even though it no longer has any effect on him. He started dating Hitagi at the end of Mayoi Snail.

Hitagi Senjōgahara (戦場ヶ原 ひたぎ, Senjōgahara Hitagi^?)

Voiced by: Chiwa Saito

Hitagi, the main character of Hitagi Crab, is a weak-looking girl with an “incurable disease”. She is in the same class as Koyomi, but he has almost never heard her speak. When she was in the first year of high school, she encountered a mysterious crab, after which she became weightless. Ever since, she has avoided contact with everyone else, threatening everyone who discovers her secret. She called herself a tsundere and always speaks in an abusive style. At the end of Mayoi Snail, she admitted she has feelings for Koyomi.

Mayoi Hachikuji (八九寺 真宵, Hachikuji Mayoi^?)

Voiced by: Emiri Katō

Mayoi, the main character of Mayoi Snail, is a fifth-grade elementary school girl. She always carries around a big backpack, wears a hair-band, and has her hair in ponytails. Koyomi met her in a park on Mother’s Day and offered to help her find her mother’s home. She later reveals that, due to a Snail, they can never reach their destination and will always be lost. She makes a lot of spelling mistakes and has a habit of misspelling Koyomi’s name. Her family name before their parents got divorce was Tsunade (綱手^?).

Suruga Kanbaru (神原 駿河, Kanbaru Suruga^?)

Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro

Suruga, the main character of Suruga Monkey, is Koyomi’s underclassman, ace of the school’s basketball team and one of Hitagi’s acquaintances from back in junior high school. Immediately after she entered senior high school, she became aware of Hitagi’s secret and was threatened by her, just like Koyomi was. She’s an admitted lesbian, fujoshi, lolicon and masochist. Back in elementary school, she inherited the Monkey’s Paw from her mother. She started stalking Koyomi after she discovered he was dating Hitagi.

Nadeko Sengoku (千石 撫子, Sengoku Nadeko^?)

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa

Nadeko, the main character of Nadeko Snake, is Koyomi’s sister’s friend back in elementary school. She always wears a waist pouch; always cast her eyes downward, have her bangs covering her eyes, not talk much and can be easily amused. Koyomi plays with her a lot whenever she visited his house after being invited by his sisters. Her friend put a curse on her over a love affair, and was going to die until Koyomi found out and offers her his help.

Tsubasa Hanekawa (羽川 翼, Hanekawa Tsubasa^?)

Voiced by: Yui Horie

Tsubasa, the main character of Tsubasa Cat, is Koyomi’s classmate and the class president. Koyomi describe her as “the class president of all class presidents”. Prior to the novel begins; she was possessed by bakeneko during a Golden Week due to stress over her family. Although it has since been resolved with the help of Shinobu at a cost of her memories, the problems emerged again right before the school festival because of different stress.

Meme Oshino (忍野 メメ, Oshino Meme^?)

Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai

Meme is a middle-aged man who lives in an abandoned building. Koyomi calls him “psychedelic aloha guy”. Being an expert in apparitions field, he solves Koyomi and others’ problems, although with compensation.

Shinobu Oshino (忍野 忍, Oshino Shinobu^?)

Voiced by: Aya Hirano

Shinobu is a girl who lives with Meme in the abolished building. She appears to be an eight year old girl, but she was originally a beautiful vampire who had lived for more than 500 years. After the events at the end of Koyomi Vamp, she was left in a weakened condition with no powers or traces of her original personality and therefore have to abandon her “Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-blade” (キスショット・アセロラオリオン・ハートアンダーブレード^?) name. She was named Shinobu by Meme at the beginning of Hitagi Crab, suggesting her kanji name Shinobu (忍), having “heart” (心) under “blade” (刃), matches with her original personality.

Karen Araragi (阿良々木 火憐, Araragi Karen^?)

Voiced by: Eri Kitamura

Karen, the main character of Karen Bee, is one of Koyomi’s sisters. She’s older than Tsukihi and always doing outdoor activities.

Tsukihi Araragi (阿良々木 月火, Araragi Tsukihi^?)

Voiced by: Yuka Iguchi

Tsukihi, the main character of Tsukihi Phoenix, is one of Koyomi’s sisters. She’s the youngest of Araragi family. Unlike her sister, Karen, she is always doing indoor activities.

Other Media:

Light novels

The series was first created by Nisio Isin as a series of short stories for Mephisto magazine. While his previous Zaregoto series featured large casts of characters, each Bakemonogatari story tends to introduce only one new character. The previously published stories, and some new ones, were eventually collected in two volumes as part of the Kodansha Box launch titles on November 1, 2006 and December 1, 2006. The first volume contains three stories titled Hitagi Crab (ひたぎクラブ^?), Mayoi Snail (まよいマイマイ^?) and Suruga Monkey (するがモンキー^?); the second volume comes with two newly written stories titled Nadeko Snake (なでこスネイク ^?) and Tsubasa Cat (つばさキャット^?).

A prequel to the series, titled Koyomi Vamp (こよみヴァンプ^?) was published in the first issue of Pandora magazine, it was later released as a separate volume on May 7, 2008 as Kizumonogatari (傷物語^?, “Damaged Goods Story”). The first volume of Nisemonogatari (偽物語^?, “Impostor Story”), a sequel to the series, was released on September 2, 2008 and contains Karen Bee (かれんビー^?). The second volume, contains Tsukihi Phoenix (つきひフェニックス^?) was released on June 10, 2009.^[1] Two more books Kabukimonogatari (傾物語^?, “Slope Story”) and Nekomonogatari (猫物語^?, “Cat Story”) are planned to released in 2010 and will contain Mayoi Jianshi (まよいキョンシー^?) and Tsubasa Family (つばさファミリー^?) respectively.

Source: Wikipedia

Bakemonogatari 2nd Trailer

Review:

This anime is AWESOME!!!!! First episode and I got hooked. The way the whole thing is told is so graphic and completely unique. Different in every perspective. I would watch this over and over. And the addition of Hitagi Senjogahara as a character, that was OMG. Self obsessed and truly tsundere, in a good way. She just makes me moe even if she isn’t that type of character, still. Even if you’re not an anime fan, you should watch this. I completely absolutely recommend this.

other reviews:

otakureview

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