One neat detail I noticed during the scene leading up to Kiss-Shot’s first appearance in the film. Starting as the streetlights go out, there is a repeated beeping noise that gets gradually louder and more pronounced over the ominous music score as Koyomi follows the trail of blood down into the train station. The beeps come in the pattern “•••---•••” which is Morse code for “SOS”. A literal call for help playing in Araragi’s mind to mark the start of his Hero’s Journey in Kizumonogatari.
Great job, Oishi did such a great job adapting the novel in his own unique way. I love the entire trilogy, but I particularly love Tekketsu for its fantastic methods of implementing "show don't tell" in a series normally as narrative heavy as Monogatari.
A great video from RCAnime again as expected, and for one of my favorite franchises ever. It's crazy how many people do not understand the idea of an adaptation. Copying frame for frame is simply not utilizing different mediums, as different mediums have different set of limitations. There are advantages and limitations through different medium, and a series/feature film adaptation is to bring that to life. There will be cuts or differences from the source most likely, but just because they were cut, doesn't mean it was an unfaithful or bad adaptation. Those criticisms can come from elsewhere, but just saying what the source had doesn't exist in itself isn't an argument to say the whole adaptation was a failure.
Dellaran i think a lot of people just want faithful adaptations because it's better than an incompetent studio fucking it up. Even a mediocre studio can at least do that much
I understand criticizing a bad adaptation. However, sometimes people bash it when directors decide to use their creative freedom to free things up a bit, especially in a series where they might skip to a future part first before getting back and narrate it later. People begin to complain, but turns out it will be explained in the future episode. If it turned out as a horrible decision, then use arguments that make it a bad film and then use the source as support saying how it was done well and how that could've better translated to film instead of the failure in creativity makes it constructive. Instead, too many people start flaming and their only argument is "the source is better" without really understanding the intentions and limitations of adaptations. A film director may have a different vision from the source creator, and I believe it is crucial in an attempt to understand that first, and only criticize when that has been done. Faithful adaptations are nice, but sometimes they don't really work. In a manga, the pace can be wonky in terms that they could jump from panel to panel, creating a high pace switch for a great and strong impactful punchline execution. In film, there are limits as the voice comes in and the motion comes in, so the impact isn't as short and concise. Novels have the luxury of exposition, to explain word by word on what they're experiencing through the senses, and observations. Film has to use that through visuals and audio. There are limitations to convey things, but from those also birth advantages from other mediums. Adaptations can sometimes be greater, but can also sometimes end in utter failure. Just being "faithful" however doesn't really always work.
I just wanted to say, I find it interesting (and I can't help but think more than a coincidence) that Araragi, who in many ways is the societal reject, is a vampire who cannot be in sunlight. And the national symbol on the Japanese flag is the sun. Araragi. Japanese societal reject. Vampire. Maimed or even killed by the sun.
2:45 ...."He's already a vampire ..." Actually, the scene when the elevator doors dinged open and he opens his mouth (revealing fangs) is already a giveaway/hint.
He also had red eyes. Of course, this doesn't mean anything for newcomers to the series, but if you'd already watched other parts, you knew that Araragi has grey eyes (brownish in the movies), and that they get red when he uses vampiric powers.
"Film lacks the ability for expository writing... film must replicate that visually and auditorally..." Even prose avoids exposition that is too explicit; in either medium the purpose is still to evoke the audience' senses via the associations implicit in each beat, whether we're talking the frame or the sentence. For example, "The homeless boy ate the cake" versus "The homeless boy devoured the cake." Though the action is the same the connotations behind "devour" make the boy seem a little more desperate. Maybe he hasn't eaten in a while, so we're a bit more interested in him. We could go further and change it to "The ragged boy devoured the cake," and now that we have removed the explicit information (he's homeless) the reader is allowed to put two and two together in their mind for a more immersive experience. Basically, as in film, "show, don't tell."
Kizu was originally planned in 2012, when Satoru Kousaki was still working on the series; after Monogatari Second, Kei Haneoka took over composing duties (with the exception of the 2016 Koyomi series)
It pains me that it was never released in cinemas in my country since I've been "saving myself" for all this time since I wanted the true cinema experience. I guess I'll need to import blu-rays from overseas since the license holder hasn't even done that yet.😔
I don't think straying from the source material when it comes to visual flair or scene location is all that big of a deal. Showing vs. telling narration similarly. The problem I have with adaptations straying is when they change the story. When the source material is a tragedy but they do a happy ending in the movie. Or the protagonist is given a new love interest. Or when a character's actions are for an entirely different reason, making them less interesting. Narrative and character changes. Those are where actual problems arise, not with moving a shot from an alley to a subway.
Have you read and watched Fuuka? Anyways, that's actually not too much of a problem for me. I like changes in a story, if it's justified in the film or whatever medium it's being adapted into. As long as it retains the original themes or, at least, creates new ones that work in dialogue with the source material, I think these decisions can carry a lot of merit. When it comes to switching romantic interests, I can't think of any examples off the top of my head, but you mentioned character motivations; one real good example of a switch in character motivation can be seen (real surprisingly) in Hajimete no Gal. Granted, it's still not a very good show overall, but I respect the changes they made to Nene's character. She only gets like one or two characters in the manga and appears abruptly, her motivations and what she does just sort of are there from the get-go. The show introduces her in the very first episode and with that, gives her a clear reason as to why she becomes the character who appears abruptly in the manga. Basically, almost everyone in the manga is pretty flat in terms of personality; the show utilizes this empty canvas to give them more color. So changes in that sense aren't always bad; people just like to remember the examples of ones that may include turning a smart ego-driven student into an edgy teenager who screams like a girl and immediately tells his crush he's got a new notebook.
Without sounding rude, can you explain this again without using Fuuka as an example? I don't see "I like changes in a story, if it's justified in the film or whatever medium it's being adapted into. As long as it retains the original themes or, at least, creates new ones that work in dialogue with the source material, I think these decisions can carry a lot of merit." from your comment, but rather see more of The Hamster Alliance's comment, "The problem I have with adaptations straying is when they change the story. When the source material is a tragedy but they do a happy ending in the movie. Or the protagonist is given a new love interest. Or when a character's actions are for an entirely different reason, making them less interesting. Narrative and character changes. Those are where actual problems arise, not with moving a shot from an alley to a subway.".
I haven't read or watched Fuuka yet. Regarding Hajimete no Gal though, going from something not very good to something maybe a little better but still not very good isn't really the concern either. It's taking something already renowned and modifying it, changing what was actually good about it that's the problem. If a manga has blank canvas characters, giving them personalities isn't that big of a deal. If a manga has very clearly defined characters, not adhering to that is easily problematic. If there's a very clearly defined series of events that lead to an impactful conclusion, changing or omitting the events or the conclusion is a problem. With blank canvas characters it's really more additive, you're giving them more color as you put it. To me that hardly warrants discussion, because it's far from intrusive. "oh no, my uninteresting characters became more interesting!" Subtractive or complete mutations of the narrative are the problem, and there are plenty of adaptations that do this. Particularly the live-action ones, or the ones that try to do the tragedy to hopeful tone switch. They take the good stuff out. They lessen the qualities that made the series a hit in the first place. I don't hate adaptation, I just think if there's a reason something got popular in the first place, maybe you keep that in there. If it's because of who a character is and how they behaved, maybe they should still be that character in your adaptation. If it's because of the philosophy espoused, maybe that should be in there too. Why adapt something philosophical if you're not going to philosophize? Why adapt a tragedy if you're not going to make it tragic? If the original was hard hitting, don't soften the blow.
I agree so much with this. And in the case of Kizumonogatari movies, this makes me feel really irritated. I feel that the Kizumonogatari movies are accurate to what happens in the novel, but not exactly faithful, in the end I think for the movies its style over substance. Its a good trilogy, with amazing directing and animation... But it just feels out of place. It is everywhere, it is very exaggerated with its character reactions and experimentation. For instance, they drawn out these two long moments in the first movie during the opening scene and during the subway scene where tension and suspense just builds up as Araragi walks through long empty places... These are great moments, though Araragi's reaction dulls out the apathy of his depression during the subway scene and that makes the character less interesting, but anyway... They took a really long time doing this, but they didn't had the time to put in part of his dialogue with Hanekawa about how he views himself or dialogue with Kissshot about his vampire abilities that would make us understand how could the end of the second movie happen and not be so much of a Deus Ex Machina. Overlooked details like and tone shifts makes me think that the production team favored entertainment over narrative context and content. Don't even get me started on the confrontation in the third movie... Sure, it is great animation, you might even say it is good comedy... It just wasn't supposed to be so in this climax and experimentation and some "anime flair" were glorified instead of great dialogue with insight toward Kissshot's true nature and both her and Araragi's feelings regarding the whole ordeal. Sure, the tone changes later in the scene, towards the end of it, but the overall presentation of the climax give us an entirely different impression of Kissshot, specially considering what they ommited from her dialogue during the fight. There is a shift in the tone of this story in the movies that bothers me too much to be able to completely put into words. I know I am one of the few who feels like this, that a lot of people loved these movies, that a lot of book readers loved the adaptation... But in my case, I read the source material first and there is just no way I can be satisfied with this, specially considering the other adaptations of the series, which are all great and actually know better about what they should focus on, cut out of the narrative and how to better portray and give us insight on these characters, be it through text, dialogue or symbolism. I feel perplexed that Kizumonogatari was actually directed by Oishi, the same man that directed Bakemonogatari. If you told me these are good movies, then yes, I would agree with anyone who said it. But I don't think these movies are good adaptations or even the norm of how adaptation should be done.
I've heard that The Tatami Galaxy anime series is wildly different from its source material yet both are very well regarded. Most people will want a straight-up adaptation but I think such an altered take on a work can sometimes be a great thing. If people are already very satisfied with a manga or novel then why not take that opportunity to turn it into something new (if you ignore it as a means of advertising the source)? Adaptation is an interesting topic. Really good video, Matt - it's got me thinking.
Excellent video once again RC! I loved these movies so much, and as soon as I saw you made a video on them I was rejoiced, as you always have great things to say that add to my experience watching anime.
Kanji arts I'd personally highly recommend watching all three movies first, as there are visual spoilers for all of them. At the very least, make sure you watch number 2 first. There's a major scene in it that could be spoiled by this video.
But the book didn't build up to Kiss shot's reveal. it was supposed to be sudden and practically unavoidable. Due to its suddenness, Koyomi is forced to do what is instinctual for himself. Once koyomi sees kiss shot in the movie there is not much issue but the idea that he followed this massive blood trail so far is very questionable even for araragi. He would've called the police at that moment with his cell or pay phone
The creator of this anime also made Denpa Onna which is an amazing commentary on how people with social anxiety use reality distortion and lies they tell themselves to get through the day, while it actively makes them stand out more. Unfortunately, because it's by the same creator it's also hyper-sexualized and oddly looks like the main character's falling for his cousin. I didn't realize until I looked up why it was filmed so strangely but it's pretty obvious soon as you realize it.
I hope this is the first of several videos about kizumonogatari. I don't think this is all you can say about it and I also believe not enough people talk about this films and even fewer have the ability to explain its beauty and achievements.
I loved this movie. I love when movie adaptations take complete advantage of the medium. I watched this on a whim and was completely surprised and enthralled and binged the rest of the series.
Now that I have your atention RC, great video, Kizu was like a love letter to me and I think you pointed out the reasons why(it just moved the right cords inside my heart). I you ever make and analysis on the owari season 2, count me in :D
Hey RC. Brilliant video. Absolutely stunning. I did want to point out that in the thumbnail it says, "Adapation," rather than "Adaptation." I don't know if this is something you can change, but I just thought I'd let you know in case you haven't noticed yet. Keep up the good work. :)
Could you tell me if episode 12, the date episode with hitagi, of bake was originally the end of tsubasa cat and was moved so that there could be a conclusion of the tv portion of the anime or if it was originally placed in the middle ? This has been surprisingly difficult to find out, you give the impression this would be the kind of person to know this; I tried skimming the chapters on bakatsuki but that doesn't seem to be possible anymore, and I don't really know about buying another volume done by vertical, I don't really like their translation and it's really shawdily done.
RCAnime, I respect your views, but I feel like you're either underrating the LN, or overrating the movie adaptation. First of all, every movie adaptation worth mentioning is creative with the source material, so that's not really anything to be happy about. Secondly, the movie changed things from the novel that it shouldn't have (deleted most of the characterization of the vampire hunters), and adapted scenes faithfully that don't fit in a movie like this (breast scene). NisioIsin doesn't describe environments a lot in his novels, but when he does, it's significant. The director could've adapted it easily by being faithful to the environments described in the novel. But instead the director was in doubt, and it took him many years to finally create this end result. Obviously he didn't have a clear vision of how to portray these scenes. Adapting NisioIsin novels is just printing money if you stay faithful. The harsh truth is that NisioIsin is a genius writer, but the director of Kizumonogatari not so much. Thanks to this fact, any director can make the adaptation work, but it takes a great director to make it a masterpiece.
Dream High Animation You think he is a genius director? To me, Kubrick, Kurosawa, Ozu, Miyazaki are genius directors. Putting him next to them feels a bit unfitting.
Unarmed Well, I haven't read anything from Nisin, but shouldn't you compare him to Shakespeare, Joyce or Proust them, if you compare the director to the best ones in history?
How does the breast scene not fit in the movie like this ? And i fail to see the significance of nisio isin environmental description being better than what the director did, nisio isin is genius when it comes to characterization which the anime did capture, the changes in environment aren't that significant to the thematics of what nisio isin did in his novel. If fact the changes made enhanced from what I've heard, but I will say that if the hunters had more stuff to their characterization in the novel i will agree to that.
Ok. 2 films... 70 dollars each, and to top it off, its a US bluray and therefore I probably can't even play the disc once I get them here... Man, me deciding to not pirate media anymore really has killed my consumption of anime movies lately... because, Netflix isnt picking them up. Crunchyroll only does series... And physical discs comes with mortage payment plans... So... Or... Is there a LEGAL streaming service that shows anime movies?
Or you can watch them illegally anyway. It's not your fault they don't provide you with an easy way to consume their media without piracy. The third movie was launched in January, you should be able to watch it on Crunchy or Netflix by now. The first film can be watched in Masterani 1080p in good quality. The second and third are 720p pretty good quality in 9anime. I personally downloaded the last two in hi10anime to watch them BD rip 1080p. The download speeds are not the best, but it should take like 1 hour for each. I used direct download, I don't like to deal with torrents. If you feel kinda guilty for not paying, you can buy some merch or buy them for cheap in the future :D
I'm sorry, I got distracted around four minutes in or so. "Prose"? I mean, I get why you used that word, but it still feels like a very odd choice. When approaching prose, it is often in conjunction with verse. Prose can also be auditory as well, but you say that this isn't 'film'. So I'm guessing you're referring purely to visuals (and assumably their semiotics)? It's just a really strange placement for 'words', 'written language' 'written text', or others. I get that when you say 'language' or 'linguistics', it can also refer to the text's visuals, so I know why you used prose. It still is just, I don't know, odd to me.
I know I know, the video is fine apart from that. There's a handful of words that I'm very particular about, and prose is one of them. Congratulations on the 50k, though!
I'm totally up for it just me being in a secluded environment. The manner in which I most prominently studied prose was in my Shakespearian unit, in which I did a decent amount of prose vs poetry (verse) stuff. When I analyse language and its features in a classroom setting, prose is also identified to be a particular kind of written/spoken language, not the written/spoken language itself. It's a form. However, I'm sure it is common, and admit quite whole-heartedly my comment was very odd to post.
I'm sad not a lot of people are talking about this movie, especially with Your Name overshadowing this for the past year, i mean sure it's an original, but to get this overlooked by a lot of people who are just creaming over Your Name, i hate to say that I'm not really into movies that gain a lot of praise or popularity so I guess you can call me a hipster fag, haven't seen Your Name, but im taking it as I take with Ghibli films, which I haven't seen either, as just too hyped up, so its just like a popular anime of the season overshadowing other good anime that is a bit more on the niche, which is what Monogatari really is, and was til a couple years ago. I read the light novel a month before it came to US theatres, seeing the away it was adapted i was sweeped away from its visuals. I LOVED it. And i didnt really mind it's changes, I think in a video a long time ago you called this style something from a French style of cinema, i honestly forgot and would've looked it up but im typing on my phone at this moment, but it was a pleasant experience that was different from the anime and novel itself. Thanks again for shedding more spotlight on this amazing series Matt, I would love to do the same, but im not really tech savvy, nor have the concentration to do this kind of stuff.
I am aware. Rc was referring to him in a professional way he used isin because it was last, but the palindrome only exists in the eastern order, he actually has kanji for it too, so he should be referred to as nisio because that's the surname. in English his name would be written isin nisio which is terrible.
I honestly have a hard time enjoying Kizu for what it is. The novel was easily the best self-contained story out of the series, so much so that I had to read it a second time shortly after I got to the end. Then, you have seasons upon seasons of the (fantastic) tv show that serve as a reference to characters, tone, narration, style, pacing, etc. The movie trilogy then basically throws out everything that has been built upon for very poor reasoning. You can start with their weird animation style with hyper-clean 3d backgrounds that make many scenes look like bad green screens. Then there is the lack of narration by Araragi throughout most of the first movie. They also introduce so many inconsistencies in regards to the series, such as the cram school looking to be in pristine condition compared to its usual, run-down state (which is plot-critical later on) or how the Dramaturgy and Episode fights completely wreck the school, whereas the novel has Oshino set up the school's athletic field specifically to minimalize any damage. There were just so many creative liberties taken that above all, I was just disappointed with Kizu. It felt like it should have been the pinnacle of the series, but it's my least favorite part now. I'm thinking of having a friend of mine watch it to see if it hold up better on its own.
holy sauron Thank god the Nobel Committee is formed by 5 wise men, not by some retarded weabo that wants his fictional waifus to be acknowledged by the real world
I wouldn't go this far to call it noble prize material. This by itself is a work of fiction pleasing me and entertaining me in my free time and that's all. Noble prize should in my opinion be something benefitting humanity in its truest sense. That is just my 2 cents. PS: If people call it "trash", they just don't like this kind of work since we know the Monogatari Series is not for everyone to like. But atleast they should tell us why they do not like it instead of mindlessly trying to be not mainstream and be childish in insulting on every other thing besides their favourite work. If people like this series, i am glad, but they should not force their opinion on others :) Respect opinions . . . But thats the anime community we talk about and like every community there is always cancer. Sometimes i hate it...so fucking much.
first of all the monogatari series is probably the best light novel series ever written... Also, how are light novels not literature!? i have read a lot of light novels and american/english novels and there are MANY light novels that are up there in quality with some of the best novels ive ever read. why are you just discriminating against light novel series when a lot of them tell amazing stories?
