pbeatty - 2017-02-03 09:39:29

Without spoiling; I would have been happier with it ending after the car ride; but not as content.

aruecker - 2015-12-08 23:50:35

Do you love long winded, philosophical highschoolers monologing over stringed quartet solos? This might be for you.

dare.markus - 2015-11-10 22:16:16

This is a hard one for me. The Monogatari series, as a whole, is my all time favorite anime. No creative work has ever had such a huge or varied impact on me nor the emotions I felt going through it. I've laughed in ways I thought I'd forgotten how to. I've cried tears only surpassed by the death of my dog. I've gone entire episodes without blinking. Hell, I've even come close to blacking out. This is a show that knows exactly where to hit to make me feel anything with an unparalleled intensity. However, with how the show is constructed with very distinct story arcs, it is extremely easy to separate the amazing from the arcs that just barely miss their mark. Hanamonagatri being one of those.

My first problem is that there were so many unanswered questions in second season, making Hana hard for me to focus on while watching through in release order because all I could think of was what happened to Araragi after the Shinobu time arc and before Tsubasa Tiger. Who is Ougi? And things like that. I will stand by the idea that release order is the best way to watch as it makes for the most engaging story, but it's obvious that Hana was something just tacked on to keep our dicks wet. It could have gone anywhere. Literally. You could watch it independently of the entire series and it would make little difference. Which is good and bad. I'd rather it progress a story or develop a character in a time period that will be explored in a soon to be adapted work. With how it is, it being the furthest chronologically the series has gone to date, even surpassing the currently airing Owarimonogatari, it's hard for me to show interest as I don't know when(in the real world) any later story will be adapted where Kanbaru's character will be affected by the events of Hana, or what events took place in order to get her to where she was at the start of Hana.

Now, Kanbaru herself. Kanbaru didn't entirely feel like the Kanbaru I've grown to love(I desire to anally ravage). She was very serious and melancholy throughout most of Hanamonogatari. It's understandably because her beloved senpai's aren't around to fap over, but that's all we get. We don't get to see her cry at their graduation. We didn't get her waving them off to their first day of university. We didn't get her early days of her last year in high school trying to adjust to not having them around. We just had them gone and Kanbaru depressed. And a depressed Kanbaru isn't fap material.

But what's really bugging me is what gets taken away from any future adaptations by showing the events of Hanamonogatari first. We saw in this that Kanbaru slept with her arm taped to a post. She was so afraid of the arm taking control and attacking someone. But since we see that it's gone half way through her third year of high school, that invalidates any emotional struggles she may have had trying to cope with the fact that she would have been living with a demon inside of her well into her twenties. The writers are usually really smart about this, but I feel showing her cursed arm gets removed so early takes away from potentially good internal conflict and growth that may have sprouted from it. Unless, as someone who's yet to delve into the novels, this is the first time Kanbaru's arm comes into play chronologically since the her debut in Bakemonogatari, then that clears this up I guess.

All in all, it wasn't bad. The sound and animation are as great as you'd expect. It just didn't give me a reason to care what was going on. Maybe when more pieces of the puzzle are filled in, I'll give a damn, but right now, it's just fluff.

But dat cry tho! Kawaiiest shit you've ever heard!

jacinthe.mcclure - 2014-08-22 20:25:29

I'm assuming that if you're reading this then you have watched enough of the Monogatari series to understand some of the characters and their quirks, as well as the unique style implemented by SHAFT. f you haven't then I recommend watching Bakemonogatari before you watch any other of the Monogatari series. I have not read the novels so this will be purely based on the anime adaptation. I will also make this review relatively spoiler free.

Kanbaru Suguha hears of a devil granting wishes to those with problems, and she becomes to worry about whether she is turning into a devil via her arm all over again. She decides to research this and discovers that the one responsible for both helping those with problems and calling herself a devil is an old arch-enemy in basketball from middle-school, Numachi Rouka. The day after the meeting Kanbaru notices that her "monkey paw" is missing and her normal arm has returned. After discovering the reason the rest of the main story is free to take place.

Story:

The story is simply average. It's the standard for the Monogatari series, being that a character finds an odditie and does it's best to get rid of or fix said odditie. This time the odditie is Numachi, who has been collecting the parts of the devil for the last three years. 

Characters:

The characters in the Monogatari series are amazing, and there's no surprise that the characters in this were just as well written. A great amount of development for both the main characters, and a little bit for Araragi as well. Kanbaru becomes more confident and understanding of herself, and everything about Numachi is new and relatively original. Both characters are lesbians and due to that this series does contain some slight yuri elements. 

Art and Animation:

The A & A in this series is fantastic, as to be expected. From seeing sakura petals flip around in the wind to the most simple of transactions it ois all animated perfectly. I also noticed that they added a little bit more detail to the art than usual, however it still contained its unique yet plain yet interesting style.

Sound:

Not much to say here other than that I found the sound track to be solid. There was nothing spectacular but the sound fit in every scene.

Enjoyment and Overall:

I thoroughly enjoyed the five episodes and wished for more at the end. It was fun to watch, but then again it's almost impossible to not want more of a very well done anime. You will certainly not regret watching this, especially if you're a fan of the entire series.