Bakemonogatari is the second series of the five I will watch this summer to air, and certainly has gotten reviews already from around the aniblogosphere (and I have no idea how they managed to watch it, probably streaming or something, someone enlighten me). For me, I already read the first episode’s summary via Random Curiosity and so could watch it raw, and here are my impressions based off my own experience.

Senjougahara Hitagi, our female protagonist, if that is to be believed at this point.

The story is pretty straightforward – Araragi Koyomi saves a girl called Senjougahara Hitagi from a fall one day, only to discover she is extremely light. He also knows she is in the same class as he is, but little else until he talks with his class representative Hanekawa Tsubasa. After that, when he leaves the classroom to help a certain Oshino, Senjougahara immediately confronts him outside the room with a cutter to his right cheek and a stapler to his left, threatening him to keep his mouth shut about her weight. She explains how it was taken away, and when he agrees, she still staples his cheek anyway and then leaves the scene.

Araragi chases after her and despite her pulling out her “weapons” (stationary of sorts), he surprises her by showing that he has no wound from the staple she put through his cheek. It turns out Oshino helped him return from being a vampire to an ordinary human, though he retains the somewhat beneficial consequence of healing fast from minor wounds and the like. They meet Oshino and he agrees to help Senjougahara, explaining as well what she might have faced in the past.
 

The first thing I noticed is how the OP seemingly does not exist. At least, right now, that is what I am led to believe from both RandomC and looking at the OP animation. It just seems to be music so I am not sure if there will be a song in the future, or if it will keep changing each episode to keep up with the story. Also, one wonders what is up with the pantsu shot in the first minute or so of the episode, though it seems to be Hanekawa’s.

In any case, the next thing that can be pointed out is how visually awesome this episode was. I also wonder if it can be kept up throughout the series because even though the rhythm of the images and everything else being shown was weird in a sense, it gave off that kind of dark vibe surrounding a mystery story.
 

Araragi Koyomi

The music is nothing awesome, but not shabby either, keeping up with the story’s pace and change of scenes to reflect the mood. The ED itself is sung by supercell, titled “Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari” (The Story You Don’t Know About), and is, at this point as a TV-sized version, pretty good for me, enough to make me want to pick it up when it gets released.
 

Scenes such as this are common in the episode, and I expect they will be throughout the series, hence the need for subs despite me being able to read most of the Kanji here.

Instant recognition of seiyuu voices were again apparent – Horie Yui plays Hanekawa Tsubasa, Kamiya Hiroshi stars as Araragi Koyomi (he is perhaps more famous as Natsume Takashi of Natsume Yuujinchou series), and Sakurai Takahiro plays Oshino Meme, an interesting role for him considering his previous and recent roles (Suzaku of Code Geass series and currently Faldio Landzaat in Valkyria Chronicles). Surprisingly, I forgot who voiced Senjougahara Hitagi, and it is indeed interesting that Saito Chiwa can play such a tsundere voice as her, for I only remember her as Hayami from Minami-ke series and Lavie Head from Last Exile.

Other notable names that have yet to appear include Kitamura Eri, Katou Emiri, Sawashiro Miyuki and Hanazawa Kana.
 

Oshino Meme

I expect the story to, like ANN’s summary for it, move in a series of interconnected or continuing stories explaining other types of monsters, as the title goes (Bakemonogatari literally means Monster Stories or Stories of Monsters), and since I am also interested in the supernatural and other folklore, and with the great animation and seiyuu work so far, it is quite likely for me to finish this, though watching it raw is impossible.

Related posts:

1. Bakemonogatari 13 – Return of Fetishes
2. Bakemonogatari 06 – In Your Face Part 2
3. Bakemonogatari 02 – 01 OP Explained
4. Bakemonogatari 12 – Hitagi X Koyomi
5. Bakemonogatari 05 – The Lost Snail