Bakemonogatari - 01 July 4
OP Sequence
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Watch the OP! Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼
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Summary:
At school one day, Araragi Koyomi sees a girl falling down the staircase and manages to catch her. To his surprise, she’s incredibly lightweight, and he identifies her as Senjougahara Hitagi. Curious about her since he knows that she has a weak body, Koyomi asks classmate Hanekawa Tsubasa about Hitagi and learns that she was a lot more energetic back in junior high school when she was on the track team. When Koyomi leaves the classroom, he’s approached by Hitagi who wants to know what he was talking about with Tsubasa. Before he can react, she sticks a box cutter in his mouth and then threatens him further with a stapler to his right cheek. It turns out that she had slipped on a banana peel earlier, and she knows that he now knows that she’s almost weightless. Hitagi explains that it all started before she entered high school when she encountered a certain crab and had her weight taken away, and she wants him to keep silent about it.
The physical harm she’s threatening leaves Koyomi no choice but to agree, however she still decides to put a staple through his cheek anyway. Though in pain, Koyomi manages to pull the staple out of his cheek, and he ultimately runs after her. She thinks that he wants to fight, but Koyomi just wants to help her by introducing her to a man named Oshino Meme. He gets her attention by showing her that he doesn’t have a wound anymore even though she stapled him in the cheek just minutes earlier, and he explains that Oshino helped him turn him back from vampire to human, though he still retains a small amount of the immortality effects. It turns out that Oshino lives in an old building, and with him is a quiet little girl that he’s named Shinobu. Once Hitagi explains what happened to her, Oshino tells the two about the omoshikani (lit. weight crab) from folklore which may have been a god. Regardless, he’s willing to help Hitagi if she wants to regain her weight.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「君の知らない物語」 (Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari) by supercell
Watch the ED! Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼
There wasn’t a true OP this episode, and I believe they’ll be using different OP sequences throughout the entire series. The opening sequence that was here was sort of weird in that it started with a panty shot and then progressed to an action scene with many characters who haven’t been introduced yet. Having watched the episode, I assume those are shots either from the future or from back when Koyomi was still a vampire. In any case, it’s an opening sequence that gets me excited about the series, and it makes me wonder if they’ll be any significant amount of action here. The ending, on the other hand, is a nice and catchy song, and I really like the voice of supercell’s vocalist. It comes with a nice piece of artwork too, but nothing was actually animated for the ED this week (hence the same three shots above).
Preview
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Well now those were some incredible visuals. I knew they were going to be good based on the promos, but this was stunningly good. I’d forgotten how high quality of a production SHAFT can do when they need to, though of course this episode still had its share of their unique style and brand of humor with shots like this and this, plus the preview. As I said above though, I’d love to see some of this level of quality applied to action scenes, if there are any in this series. The closest we came to that in this episode was when Hitagi pulled out all those weapons from seemingly thin air, and that was only a brief scene.
Speaking of Hitagi, the way she assaults Koyomi should make her seem crazy (I didn’t think she’d actually drive a staple through his cheek), but I ended up finding her rather likable thanks to how she’s able to identify herself as a tsundere and to how Saitou Chiwa voiced her. Horie Yui was also quite pleasant here as Tsubasa, and it helped erase the memories of how much she got on my nerves in Umineko. In any case, the plot ended up being probably the least impressive part of the episode. That’s not to say that it was boring or bad, but I found myself caring more about the characters than what was happening to them. This is only the first episode though, so I expect the story to become more interesting. And even if it doesn’t, I’m probably going to keep watching this because it’s so visually impressive. I wonder if they can keep it up all series.
Amatsu at 2:41 am on July 4th, 2009
O.o pink!!
Bass at 2:44 am on July 4th, 2009
Wow, the quality looks really good. I might just give this a shot as well
Meery at 2:57 am on July 4th, 2009
The visuals indeed are quite impressive, hopefully they keep it up. I’m curious as to what level of violence/’gore’ this series includes, considering that “OP”. >_<
kanzeon at 2:58 am on July 4th, 2009
This series looks disgustingly awesome ^^.
jiv at 3:33 am on July 4th, 2009
Nisioisin is mostly about conversations, but when he gets into the action it usually gets pretty gory.
Shin at 3:46 am on July 4th, 2009
This is definitely on my list. Been keeping an eye out for it since your preview.
polymetrica at 3:56 am on July 4th, 2009
Nice summary! Hopefully they DO use different OP sequences, though I wonder why the ED was billed as the OP before the episode was shown. And holy crap that quality. Ideally they would keep it up but it is a high standard to keep up with.
Also, since supercell’s vocalist was not credited ANYWHERE for some terrible reason, her name is nagi. Great voice indeed…
Nalface at 4:00 am on July 4th, 2009
Love the artistic style. Very intriguing story so far. And I couldn’t recognise Chiwa Saito’s voice at all, compared to her usual high (Gokujou Seitokai) and low pitch (Kemeko) voices. Will be following this one.
Chimasternmay at 4:06 am on July 4th, 2009
Ever since i saw this image a long time ago http://randomc.maximum7.net/image/Bakemonogatari/Bakemonogatari%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2003.jpg i decided to watch this series no mater what it was, but what better is that this series is just the type i like, great art and supernatural, plus no useless male side characters are present, like other series. woo hoo.
Ariesboy at 4:22 am on July 4th, 2009
Cute pink panties.
ahelo at 4:23 am on July 4th, 2009
the animation and art quality are so scary good.
rlime at 4:44 am on July 4th, 2009
My love is a stapler~~
BROOKLYN otaku at 4:58 am on July 4th, 2009
@Kanzeon. well said dude, well said.
ewok at 5:00 am on July 4th, 2009
Qoute:
My love is a stapler~~
End quote
ZOMG, some1 too literally read text of the K-ON song
Impressive ability to create sharp objects from Hammerspace…
But IDK what is the premise of the whole story? Supernatural beings trying to live in human society?
Genestarwind at 5:11 am on July 4th, 2009
Is this another Ef again… :/
I can’t stand the art even though it’s beautiful.
Art should stay stagnant not becoming a moving video art x.x
Tandem at 5:43 am on July 4th, 2009
Ef has no comedy, so this isn’t like ef even though the artwork resembles that of ef. Rather, I feel that it resembles how Maria+Holic was brought about. Messy yet beautiful scenes with random words carving all over the place. The comedy and the metahumour is also to be noted.
Jaberlen at 5:52 am on July 4th, 2009
for some reason, the girl reminded me of rina satou…
would be funny if it’s her voice though XD
Annisa at 6:00 am on July 4th, 2009
Looks like this will be bloody win! Will watch when subs get out.
Also, Omni, this means you’ve dropped Umi Monogatari for sure right? Thanks.
mutio at 6:23 am on July 4th, 2009
“And even if it doesn’t, I’m probably going to keep watching this because it’s so visually impressive.”
Out of all people especialy you should know, that the quality won’t keep up. The question is here, if the story will get better - if not I’ll pass this.
What’s with Umineko btw?^^
Anonymous at 6:34 am on July 4th, 2009
Hitagi Crab story is very dark-ish and quite different from the rest of the series so probably things will get better once Mayoi Snail starts.