Manga Thoughts: Bakemonogatari 1

I watched the anime series Bakemonogatari a while ago now, long enough ago that I did start it thinking “if I’m as impressed with it as ‘everyone else’ seems to be, as impressed as I was with Puella Magi Madoka Magica, I’ll buy its premium box set from Aniplex of America just as I did with that other series.” While that box set would have wrapped up a plot arc left hanging by the episodes made available for streaming, I fear that when I ran out of them I’d decided that whatever was so compelling to “everyone else” was whooshing by over my head, leaving me thinking most of all of ostentatious visual style and lengthy smart-alecky discussions in between the arc resolutions, letting me diminish their impact. This could just be sour grapes, but I’m afraid I’ve grown very good at bottling that vintage when it comes to Aniplex’s series; these days I don’t know just how impressed I’d have to be to buy one of them.

However, where with the other two long-running franchises Aniplex has control of I do seem to be getting through life without having seen any of Sword Art Online or the whole Fate/“whatever” cycle, I am a bit aware of how Bakemonogatari has been followed by numerous other “whatever-monogatari” stories and some people do keep bringing them up. The original novels by Nisioisin the anime was adapted from are being translated into English by Vertical, but I have to admit that the tough going I’ve found certain other less ambitious translated-from-Japanese novels had me intimidated in advance. When I heard their comics arm was releasing a manga adaptation, though, I did take notice. I knew it wasn’t going to be one of those oft-dismissed after-the-fact manga that get assigned to an artist who doesn’t seem to have a track record and struggles to get the characters looking as good as the original art.
( A bit of history )