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Apr 19, 2026
"When Marnie Was There" is a beautiful animated movie about a story of a growing child who struggles to feel like they belong, whether that be in social groups or the world in general. Something interesting about this movie is that people may come away interpreting the movie differently. For me, it handles themes of loneliness. The movie has moments that are great at delivering the atmosphere of loneliness, and it does really well at making the viewer feel those heavy emotions.
Sometimes, our only saving grace is a piece of speck that we can hold on to, found from the corner of our souls.
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But sometimes, for whatever reason, it's enough. Despite how horrible loneliness is, we learn to live with it, and we become stronger in spite of it.
This is the experiential ride-along gift that "When Marnie Was There" gives. And besides being an interesting story, it is a visual and auditorial beauty. "When Marnie Was There" stands as a reminder of how powerful and beautiful animation can be when it is used to explore the world and inner world of a person/character.
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The only thing we can really do in the face of grief and loneliness is to keep moving forward...
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Apr 19, 2026
When you're a Monogatari Series fan, it's hard not to be a fan. Especially when you're on this third Kizumonogatari movie which tells a lot of the backstory to the Bakemonogatari series. I am very much satisfied with this third movie. The only thing I didn't like was the trip to get here. The first movie was horrible. I don't know who decided to split Kizumonogatari into three movies instead of just doing a series. People (that have never seen any of the series before) who watched this with me were conflicted. But me, already having been a fan of the series, understood everything. The
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characters do what you would expect of the characters and they are as charming as ever, them in all their good and their flaws. Of course, Kizumonogatari is the events that lead up to Bakemonogatari. Unfortunately, Kizumonogatari lacked a lot of the atmosphere that you would expect from something like Bakemonogatari. The artstyle fails to give it what it deserves, because I'm sure Bakemonogatari fans have long awaited the dark, gruesome, intense, serious, and myserterious feel that was always hinted about Kizumonogatari. Kizumonogatari was a bit more straightforward than I would have liked. But I'm glad that the characters still have their identities. And the events that happen reflect the choices of the characters. Despite the flaws made by some of the meta choices in making this movie, the story of Kizumonogatari itself is one that is difficult to get wrong, because it is a story that builds up and speaks volumes to who these characters are. And it's hard to hate these characters, because they are unwaveringly themselves.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Apr 19, 2026
I don't understand how they dropped the ball on this. Don't get me wrong, you should eventually watch Kizumonogatari in its totality. But this first movie just had a whole lot of nothing going on. And it was just awful at portraying how the world of Monogatari should feel. There was a lot of just random views/art pointed at pretty much nothing (which is standard for Bakemonogatari), but this time there's a lot of that with no dialogue; nothing interesting going on. The Monogatari Series' art is great, beautiful, but not meant to stand alone. It is often paired with something interesting: dialogue, metaphorical art,
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etc. The series has been known for being great at setting the tone. Unfortunately, Kizumonogatari doesn't do well in this regard, making the world feel empty, bland, and uninteresting. The first two Kizumonogatari movies struggle with pacing, making the viewer rather bored.
Kizumonogatari has been very long awaited by Bakemonogatari fans. So I'm not sure why they decided to drop the ball on this one. Things do pick up after this first movie though. There's more going on in the second and third/final movie. These movies are must-watches for fans of the series. Kizumonogatari is the prequel to Bakemonogatari and that background is very important. But it’s unfortunate the setting doesn’t feel as rich or alive as it should; it deserved to feel like a season of Monogatari. This 3-movie format was a weird choice.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Jun 23, 2022
I don't think I've ever seen an action scene as good as the one that I've seen from here. The part that I enjoy the most is just the straight up choreophraphy. The art and animation alone, especially for an action scene as intense as this, raises my enjoyment and score so high.
This is just the prologue, and comes out with a bang. It sets the tone for the rest the series. Rin is such a likeable character and it's nice to get to finally see her side of the story while these events are happening. Archer comes off as a badass, reliable, and
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extremely likeable. As well as Lancer. So when they engage in a fight, it's epic. I still remember the soundtrack in my head because it matches so well with the scenes.
In fact this set the bar so high, that I was a little bit disappointed when Lancer and Archer inevitably fought each other again later on in the series, because that had less close-combat choreography. You can look at my score for the first and second season to know what I ultimately thought of them. But I really like this prologue, and I think it pushed my expectations a little higher than it should've. You do get some more epic scenes later on in the series, but I thought there were going to be more and on this level. For this prologue alone, I rate it a 9/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 20, 2019
This is a decent anime that has stood memorable for me. I'm actually surprised that there are so many positive reviews for this anime.
Why don't I rate it any higher? Well, I just haven't found the reasons to see why it's a particularly impressive piece of work; that's about it.
But it never felt like a bane to me to watch Boku wa Tomodachi; I enjoyed it. And I think that's an important part in why I guess the lot of us were able to enjoy this anime.
My only main gripes are that the main male is too unflawed to be fleshed out of
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a character, and I'd say that there are a bit too many female characters. Some of the girls aren't really all that important, although they may be fun to watch. The black haired girl, "Mikazuki, Yozora" plays an interesting role however, and is able to make the plot progress. For me, that's the character I care enough about to be able to say that I think she carries the show.
This is a slice of life anime, and anyone hoping to get a sermon out of this would be missing the point, I'd think. But I could be missing something. There's a good story here about a bunch of kids who lack friends being a part of this club and spending time together. And that's what it focuses on most of the time.
There is a really key portion of this anime though (an important dynamic between two characters) that I feel was never really fulfilled because it spent too much time having fun. I'm sure this aspect was explored more in its second season, but I've yet to watch its second season. However, Boku wa Tomodachi manages to show how difficult it is to not only establish but also to maintain a relationship with someone, and I was really able to feel that reality within this anime. Especially with that time gap at the end there. It goes to show that, before you know it, someone you know can suddenly disappear from the face of the earth. And you don't know if or when you'll ever see them again. There's merit in that conveyance. And so as regular as much of the aspects of this anime may be, I think it deserves a nudge for being able to do well in some of its more important moments.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Aug 30, 2018
What keeps the Dragon Ball series alive is its gigantic fanbase that has developed ever since the 1990's. Dragon Ball Z is perhaps the father of shounen. Although, the amount of popularity for a source of entertainment doesn't necessarily always infer its quality.
The more serious of anime consumers have watched hundreds of anime and spent months watching anime. And by spending months, I mean literally 2000+ hours (that would be equivalent to watching anime 3 months straight without eating, sleeping, etc) worth of watching anime. With most of them critiquing anime seriously.
By contrast, you have reviewers on here, perhaps having little knowledge of
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anime, giving Dragon Ball Super scores of 8/10 or 9/10. Needless to say, it would seem that they're Not dedicated towards fairly comprehending what constitutes something as a great work of art, and that is the process of inflating the value of good anime.
By juxtaposition, I would gauge that the overall quality of Dragon Ball Super lies within the bottom third of all anime.
There is much to say about Dragon Ball Super.
In Universe 7 (where our main characters are from), the fighters gathered for tournaments all come from Earth. The problem is that DBS doesn't feel like a living breathing world. Everything is bent and manipulated to place emphasis on the main cast. And unfortunately, it can't even do that. As we know that the main cast isn't just Goku and Vegeta, but those two are the only protagonists that are viable in battle. It'd be much better... rather than giving characters unreasonable power boosts just so that they can be somewhat relevant to the now immeasurably god-level characters... it'd be much better if Dragon Ball Super decided for moving on to explore potential characters that rival our main protagonists in terms of power and importance, with emphasis on importance.
Because while power levels are horrible, yes... at least the saving grace can still be for the characters to be well-written (development, depth, etc). Unfortunately, the writing of characters isn't on the same level as its predecessors. Endearing characters of old from DBZ have lost much of their flare and relevancy.
Although I really enjoyed Dragon Ball Z because it had many heartfelt moments (that I could name from the top of my head), Dragon Ball Super doesn't do anything great in its own right. It doesn't become a developed and improved version of its predecessor so that it could in-potential be an epitome of how great the Dragon Ball series is. And unfortunately, as nice as it is to see Goku and Vegeta strive to be the best, I am disappointed that Dragon Ball Super doesn't strive to be its best, if only at what it does.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Mar 10, 2018
One of Bakemonogatari's main purpose is the exploration of its concept regarding the supernatural. In addition to this, Bakemonogatari heavily focuses on dialogue that gives a heavy sense of social realism and realistic character traits we see in everyday humans.
For the conflicts that happen throughout the story, the lessons are meant to be learned figuratively. Things that happen within the plot feel satisfying due to unique character actions and interactions that feel realistic and understandable.
There is very little generalization upon any one character besides Sengoku Nadeko. However, this problem is washed away upon Second Season where her character blooms fully. Every other character feels unique,
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meaning they generally do not feel like other characters. Now although in wording it may sound simplistic and therefore unimpressive, Bakemonogatari handles the difference of characters in believable ways with each character holding many different set of morals, beliefs, knowledge and anything a person may possess. Time is something valuable, and Bakemonogatari uses this time wisely to not only let us bond with the characters, but to let us understand that there exists a critical dimension of personality for its characters.
This is how stories make good characters. Good is not something like a good person though... Good is how realistic & believable a character feels; and to make a character feel real, there must be little room to question the aspects of their lives that we do not see.
This anime is visually unique, possibly one of the most abstract creative artful anime. The animations may not be filled with a lot of doing, but the show may have still-shot images to fit and invoke the atmosphere of the scene.
Music-wise, the soundtracks are extremely pleasant. Not the exciting kind of pleasant, but more so on the relaxation side; you could listen to this music in any generic time, like when you are doing your homework. It's not precisely relaxing like meditative music (although that's possible), but its great for a casual life. And because of this, the music helps greatly to let yourself be at ease while you watch the show.
There are reasons why the writing for the characters of Bakemonogatari are done so well.
The characters aren't simply unique towards one another, but the major uniqueness comes from its realistic and believable characters compared to other anime. You get the sense that these characters more than likely exist; or at least someone out there would be almost identical to them in personality, beliefs and/or ideals. While watching the show, you get to experience and explore the thoughts and actions of the characters, and each and every character is mentioned often enough (whether they are on-screen or not) that it's as if the viewer will understand the sense that those characters are living their own lives, not actually being scripted, even extremely minor characters such as Senjougahara Hitagi's father.
The production's styling of the characters in relevance to the overall story is something special. It's not neither cliche nor forced; we expect to not see the end of any one road/conflict, because the characters themselves have no goal that feels generic like saving the world, defeating evil, etc. Even if that kind of concept is iterated upon certain characters, it is a mindset for the characters (to emphasize their personalities) rather than a plot's purpose. Characters are shown as if they are naturally so, like human beings living their lives without a clear end-goal.
Lastly, the show does well towards its emphasis upon the feelings of characters, more than anything else. That's where its sole objective lies: "How Do These Characters Feel as the story progresses?" And we majorly discover and discover... repeatedly discover more and more that we are wrong. That we are always wrong. Wrong about how we saw these characters in the first place, and that these characters are like real individuals; unable to be judged by our preconceived notions. This is the dimension of character complexity that makes Bakemonogatari a respectable work.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 26, 2017
Review (December 2017) on Harmonie
A 9 or a 10... It's a decision I have to make.
But Neal, why those two? Nine and Ten? A 10 is a masterpiece. Does this short film even deserve such a score? No one's going to have the same perception as that!
Whatever the case may be, I have finally decided to give my answer, one that I feel is an objectively subjective analysis, meaning that this is appropriate in my own system of principles.
Even with that being said, I am not going to talk about Story, Art/Animation, Sound, Character, and Enjoyment. Those things are simple to perceive. I could go
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on and on about these simple things, then you'd just nod your head in agreement all-so-boringly.
Is the story unique? Yes, it is. Is the visual aspect of the show high-quality? Very high. Is the sound memorable? It's decent. Are the characters realistic? Yes, quite realistic. Did I enjoy the film? I did.
But who gives a shit. These categories and boxes don't assume the entire perspective of a show/movie's meaning. That's what I've come to realize, and that's what I'm interested in conveying.
I've always been a person who attempted to judge the entertainment that I consumed in an objective-as-possible way. Of course, I let my enjoyment influence me too, but I tend to strip that down and ask myself: Is this anime realistic?
This is a completely logical way to judge the things we watch. It's a significant part of how we may mainly judge anime. You wouldn't appreciate an anime if it frequently pulled random things throughout the show. You'd be thinking to yourself, "that makes no sense," and be saying wtf in your head every 5 minutes. So yes, realism is a significant part of what makes an anime credible and gives it a fundamental integrity. But there's also another aspect that I was never truly able to understand until now. And that integral element is the Meaning of Art.
What is art? I'm sure you've heard before that art is subjective, but that doesn't tell you anything; you have nothing to go off of from that statement.
What Art is, essentially, is something that just plain information cannot do to us.
Information can tell us: "This is what happens when you do this!" But telling us logical information in a scientific manner doesn't necessarily move us.
It isn't so much about what you know, but rather how you feel about your reality after the experience. And that is the purpose of Art. The meaning that we acquire from it is why we feel inspired, why we cry, and why we hold on to our dreams dearly.
Art isn't something that attempts to make you agree with it. It's not pretentious.
It's something that makes you fall in love with it (although love doesn't always give you a positive feeling). Art is something that you can watch/see/listen to one year from now and still be moved by it.
Harmonie pulls on nostalgic feelings. It's made me realize that this movie's qualities are deeper than what I had initially perceived. To me, it's a masterpiece because it's realistic and it's art at the same time. And it incorporates both in a fashion that I'm able to appreciate. It's provides a pleasant story with realistic characters, which makes me feel nostalgia.
It's not so grand; it's not pretentious. But it's like witnessing the blossoming of a flower.
At the end of the film, a door of possibilities open and that door remains open for you to dream.
The score on Harmonie deserves much better. Give it a watch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Sep 14, 2017
This review will be about the significance of what makes this series exceptional, with emphasis on Otorimonogatari, the Nadeko Medusa arc. Basically, I will be discussing the brilliance of how this anime tells its story in a way that we can subconsciously understand. I will not be taking the traditional approach and grade the Story, Art/Animation, Sound and Character, but I do have my reasons for their score. If you are interested in them, you can message me.
Disclaimer: This review is not spoiler-free.
This is a series not necessarily concerning oddities, but more about human beings and their interactive role that deals with or produces oddities.
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And these oddities are real, so long as you believe they are. You'll find that there is a lot of dialogue.
One quote that has made me understand the Monogatari premise comes from Bakemonogatari, and it is this:
"We must be believed in, dreaded, feared, shunned, revered, respected, hated, loathed, prayed to. That's why we exist." - ブラック羽川, Burakku Hanekawa
The thing about anime is that people think it's supposed to be predictable.. That if you can classify certain characters, then those characters are suddenly defined.
Although making such judgments of the characters in the Monogatari series would simplify them, and prove to be an inaccurate representation of who they are.
You can hardly stereotype the characters of Monogatari. The Monogatari series breaks the mold, and shows us that characters can be more than and be beyond our preconceived notions.
I'm sure you understand if you've ever felt before the judgments of other people about you are inaccurate/wrong, and so you could understand... the complexity of human beings.
In the eyes of Sengoku Nadeko, we see that people are fixated on her "cuteness" more than anything. Everyone has an unchanging perception on her. But although it is common to judge someone based on their appearance, the Monogatari series shows that this character (who seemed to have no business being in the series) isn't so one-dimensional after all. Even as a character of fiction, Sengoku Nadeko has possession of her own personal thoughts, feelings, ideas and morals; whether negative or positive... it makes her character pretty damn fleshed out.
-Sengoku Nadeko writes her own manga in secrecy. Until one day, she finds a potentially different path to her life... one that dove her ideas and morals into the realization that she could bring her life of continuous dullness to cessation... If she decides to release a god.-
Thus is the premise of the Nadeko Medusa event.
The thoughts that she's had to hold in until she finally explodes in front of her classroom, expresses how human her character is. This scene was the first literary explosion of her character. The Monogatari series does well to twist our preconceived notions on its head; exclaiming that no one is simple. No one can so simply be judged.
Sengoku Nadeko's personality is strengthened realistically more by her unique emotions of her coming into terms with her one-sided relationship that she had to bear for a long time. If and when you comprehend the entirety of Nadeko's life, you then see that the depth of this character is no exception in comparison to the others.
What's interesting about the Monoagatari Series is the differing perspectives and views upon other characters in each certain arc. Each character feels different towards the main role. In Otorimonogatari (Nadeko Medusa), each characters' words are slightly altered to match the perspective of Sengoku Nadeko.
Some of you might raise an eyebrow and say: "Everyone behaves the same way that they have before to me." But if you know the premise, that'd change your whole view, as it did mine. Recognize that Tsubasa is portrayed to be insulted by Gaen Izuko (from her perspective), and Nadeko is portrayed to be disdained by Shinobu (from her perspective)... but that is not the case for other characters. When a different character becomes the main character, all the other characters will act in a way that portray how the main character feels. Throughout the show, they (Gaen & Shinobu) held an antagonist-like spotlight against the character focuses (Tsubasa & Nadeko)... even though Gaen and Shinobu are not antagonists. Its for these reasons that I believe the show is much more brilliant than people are most times able to comprehend. And Kaiki's arc proves that no one perceives Kaiki the same way as he perceives himself. With the end of Second Season, we threw out our notions of him being "the bad guy," a notion we first fabricated with when we had watched Nisemonogatari.
How things are percieved depend on who our character focus is, at any one time. Shaft's cleverness is remarkable, and Monogatari Series: Second Season is an additionally phenomenal season to the Monogatari series.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Aug 21, 2015
The anime starts off with a giant alien blob appearing on top of a skyscraper in a city where our two protagonists reside. Shortly after, these two meet when our female protagonist Yuki discovers that our male protagonist Tetsu is in possession of one of these blob alien creatures, of which he has his named as "Cenco". His creature specializes in transformation.
Cencoroll is quite an average film individually from its yet-to-be released sequel, featuring an interesting premise, but lacking in.. well.. lots of stuff. Most of the time the anime is silent with no soundtracks. People who are fond of music utilization in anime will
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realize how quiet the whole film is. However, this is left up to preference.. because the silence of the show do symbolize the mood of the film and its characters, particularly Cenco and its linked owner Tetsu.
Male protagonist Tetsu is the "go with the flow" type of character while simply doing whatever it is that he so desires. His mood seems to signify that he is devoid of curiosity or any sort of excitement or joy. Yuki on the other hand is quite the difference to Tetsu's personality, which makes it seem as though their personalities compliment one another to fit as relief.
Even though the art is nothing too exquisite, it is actually quite a pleasure to the eye in its simplistic art and smooth animation. It's especially quite nice when watching Cenco use his abilities.
The concept of this anime is unique in accordance to the alien monsters that we get to see. These monsters and their symbiotic bond with their 'owners' make the show entertaining as we get to see how the characters make use of them as well as interacting with one another during and outside of battle scenes. However, we don't necessarily get an abundance of that in this short film, as there is only one antagonist and three shown monster/creatures.
The characters do lack a lot of development as well as interaction in favor of exploration of the creatures' innovative abilities and how it plays out in combat or work in practicality. The human characters didn't have much explained about themselves to us.. any thoughts about them would just have to be assumptions based on their personalities and the actions that they take, as there is no background to any of the characters including the antagonist. There is no backstory to them and there certainly is no elaboration on what/when/where/why/how these 'monsters' came to be. And this ultimately is the sole reason why I see this film as lackluster, as there is no justice as to why this anime even deserves the praise that it gets when simple concepts and fundamentals are never even touched upon.
By the end, Cencoroll leaves you with no conclusion along with no elaboration on any of the events that have taken place in the movie. So you're left to question and wonder what was the point of the wasted 25 mins you just gave into watching this short film. It makes me a little more than confused at people who praise this anime so much given how unexplained Cencoroll is. But I will say one thing: Despite my views about this anime being highly average, its sequel -if it ever releases- may very well change the mind of many people who have watched Cencoroll including myself. That is, if it lives up to the hype.
If you have any opinions on why my review is terrible then please, share why. Thanks for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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