Another first impressions post for the summer 2009 season, and this time it's for Bakemonogatari, a supernatural series based on a series of light novels and animated by Shaft.I bet some of you are wishing a hot girl would fall into your arms right now.Basic Premise:A third year high school student named Koyomi Araragi was attacked by a vampire, but he was able to return to human form thanks to the intervention of some homeless guy named Meme Oshino. One day, Koyomi catches a female classmate named Hitagi Senjōgaharafalling off some stairs, and to Koyomi's surprise Hitagi weighs next to nothing.Open wide!Ugh... That's gotta hurt!Brief Summary:The "OP" was a brief montage of how Koyomi was attacked by a vampire and saved by Meme, and after that it was Koyomi catching Hitagi while he was climbing the stairs. After school, Koyomi, who is the class vice president, plans out activities with class president Tsubasa, and Koyomi uses the planning session to ask Tsubasa about Hitagi. After getting the scoop on Hitagi from Tsubasa, Koyomi leaves to meet visit Meme, but he is accosted by Hitagi outside the classroom. While threatening Koyomi with an exacto knife and a stapler, Hitagi explains that she lost her weight to a mysterious crab and wants Koyomi to not to tell anyone about her secret. Koyomi agrees, but Hitagi puts a staple into the side of Koyomi's mouth anyways, but Koyomi quickly regenerates afterwards because of his prior stint as a vampire. Despite Hitagi's hostility, Koyomi offer to take Hitagi to see his savior Meme, and Hitagi reluctantly agrees after finding out that Koyomi is a former vampire.Welcome to Hitagi's mobile stationery store. What might I interest you in today?That's all the stock I have on hand. I'll have to run home if you want specialty items.Koyomi takes Hitagi to an abandoned building where Meme lives. There is also a girl there who Meme has named Shinobu. After conversation featuring the talk about the crab and Hitagi and Meme questioning each other, Meme agrees to help Hitagi recover her weight.Yum, pasta brains.... with cream and strawberries.Meme: Damn Koyomi, I didn't think you would be able to find a girl this nice.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Leave it to Shaft to weird things up with its Shaftiness. This episode was visually stimulating if nothing else, despite the fact that >90% of the episode was spent showing conversations. The animation looks great and is highly stylized a la Shaft, and there was that bizarre sequence with the degrading effects followed up by Koyomi's pasta brain. Does it make any sense? Not really, but there's no way you'll miss it. Oh, and Hitagi stapling Koyomi in the mouth was kind of imaginative too.As for the other aspects of the show, the story seems interesting enough with the vampires, weight-stealing crabs, and other supernatural thingies, although I couldn't help but feel a little bored during episode because of all of the talking. For the sake of laying out the background info, I suppose we'll just have to suffer through it. Hitagi looks quite formidable with her arsenal of hidden stationery items. I'm sure she's quite handy when you need a pen or a stapler. I'm not too sure about Koyomi though, since he hasn't done anything to define his personality. At the moment Koyomi looks pretty bland.Anyways, it was a decent premiere. I liked the animation but not the wordiness. I'll keep watching to see what happens.
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