Finished Bakemonogatari, my thoughts...

So, hot off of episode 12 of Bakemonogatari (or GHOSTORY) I figured I'd leave my thoughts. First off, the series hasn't concluded yet; it is scheduled for 15 episodes but only 12 episodes would be aired... the last three will be distributed online. Overall, this was a series to remember and now holds as place as one of my favorite anime series. The title first caught my attention, being a portmanteau of the word bakemono (meaning monster or ghost) and monogatari (meaning story, tale). At first glance, it's exactly what you'd expect from a title like Bakemonogatari, a story about monsters. But what really held my attention was the complexity of the characters within the story.

The story revolves around a boy named Koyomi Araragi, prior to the series it is shown (in a series of fast moving only barely discern able scenes that he was made into a vampire during Golden Week and with help provided by Meme Oshino, a man well versed in the world of apparitions, Koyomi is able to regain his humanity and become human again (with a few side effects of being a vampire still evident... with the heightened healing factor). In his day to day Koyomi is surrounded by 5 heroines who play the focal point of each chapter. The first chapter revolves around Hitagi Senjougahara (pictured) who ends up being more like the secondary lead in the story... after being helped by Araragi, she confesses her love for him and ends up playing a role in almost all the other heroines' chapters. The next chapters involve Koyomi (with the help of Oshino) helping the other heroines much like how he helped Senjougahara... from a lost little girl, a freakishly strong kohai, a cursed childhood friend, and a fellow classmate who turns into a cat... uh yeah.

Overall, the series was very satisfying and I hope the group who is fansubing the show will continue if they can get a copy of the web distributed raws.

An interesting this about the series is that it features multiple OPs. While the main one (Staple Stable sung by Chiwa Saito the voice actress of Senjougahara) is evident through most of the episodes, the heroine of the chapter gets a song too like Kaerimichi (ep 4), Ambivalent World (ep 8), Renai Circulation (ep 10), and Sugar Sweet Nightmare.

I'll embed the videos following the entry... so, for those who haven't gotten into the series; give it a shot... you might just get sucked in.