On Bakemonogatari, Part 1 (2006)

(Reposted from Goodreads. Originally posted on Feb. 29, 2024. This is a spoiler-free review.)

This book might be the definition of "middle of the road."

Bakemonogatari ("monstory," as it were) Pt. 1 is an anthology containing the two short stories "Hitagi Crab" (about a weightless, acerbic girl) and "Mayoi Snail" (about a little girl trying to visit her divorced mother). The series this novel is a part of is lauded by many anime, manga, and light novel fans the world over for its literary aspirations, experimental style, and emotional resonance, as well as its mysterious and mythologically-rich setting.

However, my impression of Bakemonogatari Pt. 1 is that it fumbles many of its attempts at literary quality and resonance, oftentimes due to the ways in which it attempts to be experimental. Eschewing traditional formats, Nishio Ishin writes the anthology more in the style of an audiovisual or theatrical script, comprised primarily of long exchanges of dialogue and vignettes of verbal slapstick comedy. These vast exchanges are only occasionally broken up by internal monologue from POV character Araragi Koyomi, which nevertheless still reads like a collection of "witty," Wheatonian quips interspersed with vague philosophical commentary.

Much to the reader's chagrin, however, the tone of the narratives where these long exchanges of dialogue take place is often quite serious, and Ishin is unafraid to insert deadly serious subject matter into them. This characteristic of these stories immediately and furiously crashes with their proclivity to employ very long (oftentimes several pages long) bouts of vapid and occasionally embarrassing quips surrounding, usually, floods of insults, sexual harassment and pedophile jokes, and later into the novel, jokes about the main character's unwitting(?) but also unrepentant molestation of an elementary schooler. The result is a plethora of violent and headache-inducing waves of tonal whiplash which completely squander any possibility of taking the novel's serious content seriously, or to take its lighter elements with complete levity.

None of this is to say that this novel is entirely incompetent. Its first story, Hitagi Crab, is the one that suffers the most from the incessant conflict between Marvel-esque bathos and melodramatic tragedy, therefore falling almost entirely flat both when it attempts to be a Tom & Jerry skit and when it attempts to be Neon Genesis Evangelion. The second story, on the other hand, despite having its own wealth of gross, bad-taste "comedy" and long, pointless detours, deals with a much lower-stakes conflict that is better able to utilize the setting and characters without inducing nearly as many tonal whiplash moments. As such, its payoff works, though not to its full potential, and admittedly stained by some light novel melodrama.

What does one do with an anthology comprised of one half quite bad story and one half quite good story (with many asterisks and "skim-through" moments)? Give it a very generous 60%, I suppose. I can't say I would recommend this to anyone that regularly reads books other than other light novels. Even to those, I would probably only recommend Mayoi Snail. 

I fail to see what exactly has given Monogatari its stellar reputation in otaku circles. Perhaps future stories continue to improve in quality, as Mayoi Snail did itself vastly improve over Hitagi Crab. However, I am unsure whether I will stick around to find out.

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