It's no secret that I'm also in luv with Akio Watanabe's character designs, every time his work is just so god damned gorgeous, and how shaft utilizes the choreography of character animations is great, from really comical to stupid moments, to more timely and sensitive moments, to the transiently violent scenarios, so much to gush at for me personally. Whether it's the Grisaia series, The World only god knows or the latest Kubikiri Cycle, just every time, I just find my self drooling over them, sooo good. Well of course you have to attribute the designs to the original source material content, such as from the Monogatari series with the original illustrator/character designer for the light novels being Vofan. But I can't help but notice a pattern here. Bad story or not, the character designs though are just awesome. Whether it's Oishi or Itamura directing, there's always compelling and playful visuals happening both on the foreground and background. More than any other anime series out there, it's clear the monogatari series is for the large part derived and influenced by La Nouvelle Vague - or rather The French New Wave. 
It's how they constantly play with aspects in both the foreground and background with such things as extended visual metaphors or changing the artistic medium, be it manga panels, paintings or photo's. It's also the incredibly diverse dialogue that goes on in this series, with clever wordplay and puns, and hilariously non sensical conversations that somehow end up in the strangest of places but somehow, allude to extremely important plot details, secretly disguised in all the ruckus. Probably more than any other production out there, the monogatari series make's full use of the artistic freedom an Anime has to offer.
It's even playing with the colour palette of entire backgrounds just to add some suspension of disbelief or rather to translate specific moods to a specific sequence or shot or even changing the means of production to comical, photorealistic, to the style often found in manga, be it through the animation, background/foreground or choreography of facials/body language. Credit to where's credit is due, despite taking heavy influence from this era in film, it's not like directing choices or the general film grammar of this show is recycled tropes, no, because the French new wave isn't something you can directly clone without copy and pasting and it's not something that can be materialized just like that. For example, Kelly Clarkson may have the guitars, the monolithic drums and uber bass, and may have dressed up herself and her albums with rock tropes, but you can't acknowledge her as a Alternative rock artist like she's mistakenly branded as. She's a pop artist, nothing more or nothing less, you can use the same pedals, tubes, amps or guitars, but on the most fundamental level, your just mimicking the literal materialistic and intrinsic aspects of something by proxy to homogenize it into your own product.  |
| Vofan |
Cinematography
The experimental attitude towards continuity is what defines the editing style. Like I've mentioned before, sure the Monogatari series can be picturesque and pretty with an interesting colour pallet,however the editing and the clever use of colour composition can also make episodes seem neurotic and surreal, much like how the first season of Owarimonogatari started off. If I were to describe the selection of shots and sequential editing techniques, like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei the majority of the Monogatri series has a flat look akin to portraits, which often has to do with how they actually light the scenes and give a sense of dimension, the use of cutting to exaggerated or overly comical action is testament to the house shaft sense of humour and neurotically fast paced characters. The general hues used are normally low saturation, something akin to pastels, though with more use of contrast. I really do like the soft, flat, just casual nature of the pictorial elements. If I were to describe it any further, the words I would use would be simple yet refined, edgy and lively, yet somehow maintains something of a looser form.
The character animations and designs very much differ from productions like Sayonara zetsubou sensei, being that in terms of lighting/shading really reflects the sense of dimension each series wants to portray. Much like the manga from Kumeta Kouji, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei often always has a frontal sense of framing. It's often very flat looking and simple. The anime elaborates on these idea's of course and expands on them further, also being loyal to textural use in the manga with the emulation of "Screen tones" in the animation. However the Monogatari series is more saturated, has more visual depth, and more diverse emulations of depth of field and focus. The Monogatari series also has more saturated hues, generally more dynamic lighting and larger bodies of flat colours and use of negative space.
What's similar across many animation productions from Shaft is there use of vague silhouettes that of course are designed to resemble foreground or background components such as trees, architecture or perhaps shrubbery and nature. I feel Oishi in particular is especially guilty of this. Although the Bakemonogatari series is very clever regarding shot selection, framing and general shot flow. That out of the box thinking perhaps made the animation department lazier regarding texture in more day to day scenes, the general majority of the series. The line work and general texture definitely could have been better.
At a distance, Bakemonogatari looks breathtaking and very clever, though upon closer inspection you notice how the line work, lighting and general texturing of objects are a little overly simplistic and lax. I know this is somewhat intentional for reasons I will explain later, though I can't help but feel that the early productions of the Monogatari series could have rendered a bit more detail while still utilizing a balanced amount of negative space. If you compare something from say Kyoto Ani, you'll notice the stark differences between the two's productions regarding the emphasis on the smaller scale not only on the larger macro.
A most noticeable difference would be the texturing of backgrounds and the amount of emphasis on rendering detail. There's far more basic flat colours and negative space than pretty much any Kyo Ani production past Kyo Ani's 2008's K'on. I'm not suggesting that I want the Monogatari series to be hyperrealist or photorealistic, though I do see room for improvement, which thankfully, small details such as this improved quite a bit under the helm of Itamura. The second season and on demonstrates the animation departments improvement in their proficiency in depicting more complex pictorial elements on the smaller scale on the micro and rendering more texture, detail and more defined and complex lighting. Itamura and the team surrounding him at that time displayed more use of more saturated hues and perhaps more dynamic and complex lighting as well, and better emphasis on texturing things such as woods, drywall, dirt etc. For me Oishi's style is very ambitious, atmospheric and out of the box, his shot flow is gorgeous and smooth as it just flows. However, Imamura, I feel is more capable in portraying more tense moments, regarding drama and confrontational moments, with better animation and a more vibrant colour pallet when it comes to day to day scenes. |
| Tomoyuki Itamura [Supposedly] |
I could just go on, though wedo have to remember that Kizumonogatari had years of development. When Bakemonogatari was finished, Itamura took over because he went to work on Kizumonogatari, that being around 2010-2011 I believe, and only around late 2016 in the summer did we have our first glance. 3 hours of animation, a vast budget and 5-6 years of production, I wasn't really expecting anything less for what we got and in fact I was blown away. Kizumonogatari is a special case though, despite favouring the wonderful developments both artistically and technologically in Kizu, I don't want the same ridiculously photo realistic production style applied to the main series. The reason being, is that the monogatari series originally was not geared towards realism, rather the surreal, and like I've mentioned before, because of the more casual nature around this, it gave the Shaft team a lot of creative headroom to be arty and experimental, something that Kizu, a hyper realistic, technologically cutting edge and modern take of the Monogatari series is not.
Back to Itamura though, when it comes to framing the more confrontational and ambiguous moments, I believe they've been great under his helm. Nisemonogatari and Nekomonogatari was a rough start maybe, though from then on I can't really complain, in fact I absolutely loved pretty much the entirety of his work from there on. His style to me is more dense and a bit more visually intense, just a bit, as the general pictorial benchmark for quality and diversity regarding lighting and colour palet without question rose a level or two under his direction. Keep in mind I would have to exclude Kizumonogatari in this comparison, due to the fact that, deadlines, budgets and scope were vastly different to the main Tv animation. Generally, I feel the Kizu Movie trilogy was far more of a statement product than the Tv animation is.
I also do want to mention Shaft's emphasis on symmetry here and on other productions, Sayonara Zetsubou sensei also heavily emphasizing symmetry as well. to contrast the more generally vague and simple lighting the Monogatari series usually has (This changes from Arc to Arc), as well as the simpler, flat and frontal look the Monogatari series employs. They contrast that with stark repetition and use of symmetry that's often quite striking, giving the series the illusion of depth. Somewhat akin to the Neo Realist and German Expressionism Era's in film, though of course with colour. I feel the emphasis on backgrounds with complex vertical and horizontal patterning regarding lifework gives the Monogatari series a striking aspect that usually demands your attention. Along with the La nouvelle Vague influences regarding shot selection, shot flow, editing and even common colour schemes such as tri colour and a general tertiary colour scheme, makes The Monogatari series pleasantly causal, as well as being striking, though simply soothing due to the tertiary colour pallet, as well as the use of negative space. Also the simple yet refined character designs, Shaft's ability to execute on high action animation and the general out of the box thinking make the Monogatari series a very interesting watch from the visual component alone.
For the large part, Izumi Takizawa remained a key figure in charge of colour design, up until fellow colleagues responsible for colour setting as well being Yasuko Watanabe and Jin Hibino took over. Shaft relied upon Izumi Takizawa for a plethora of their animation production as the colour designer and is an incredibly important and vital figure that had a key part in shaping Shaft's artistic identity as colour designer. working on series such as Madoka Magica, Arakawa Under the bridge, Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and even Hidarami Sketch - Suffice to say an incredibly important figure in the shaft warehouse. For the Monogatari series this was no different. Izumi's work on Bakemonogatari was great, although for aforementioned reasons, I do feel however, that her work could have emphasized better texturing and emphasis on rendering detail, and dimensional sense with better lighting. This slowly improved however, and under the wings of new series director Itamura and art director Hisaharu Iijima, colour design within the monogatari series steadily began to seem more saturated, with better rendering of textures and detail on the macro and more defined lighting.
For Owarimonogatari however, other figures such as Yasuko Watanabe and Jin Hibino, who've been under Izumi Takizawa for pretty much the entire duration of the Monogatari series now replaced Izumi on colour design. This is most likely due to Izumi Takizawa going to work on Kizumonogatari like Oishi had earlier on, when production was in it's later stages. for the first 2 episodes, as I've mentioned before, I found the colour design of the classroom colour pallet in particular to be unnerving and unsettling and it did throw me off. Was that the point though? because I do realize that the design did synergies with what was going on in the screenplay and such. Though from then on I thought both colour designers work here was excellent. Owarimonogatari was seemingly more stark and dissonant, rendered with an even greater amount of detail and texture regarding the use of positive space. Also being subliminal and relaxing when need be. Also Koyomimonogatari largely consisted of reused backgrounds and such, so as might already have noticed, I really don't think Yasuko Watanabe or Jin Hibino had much of an impact or influence due to the nature of the ONA series. In all, I do love Izumi Takizawa's work, though since both Yasuko and Jin have worked on the monogatari series project for a while already, I seemingly trust and absolutely don't mind to see what else they are capable of.
Shaft's real skill and adversity comes from their great use and creativity in framing and composing pictorial elements within their own flow. Shaft hardly uses the same slightly off centre shot/reverse shot or shot/ reverse on the look/ reaction shot that so atypical by now a guarantee you've probably seen it a thousand times by now. The most typical shots are usually either the "One" shot if the persons alone, or the "Two" shot where they're are to people, groups or entities. Despite the plethora of characters were never really put into a situation where we would have a scenario that would have to deal with them all in the same spatial continuum at the same given time. you'll never have a scene where 3 or more people sit at a table and have the camera do it's rotations regarding patterns such as Shot/reverse shot or change the line of action on the "look" regarding the 180 degree rule. like I've said, rarely are they're ever these angular shots, even though a character might be off centre, Shaft was and usually is pretty conservative regarding the types of shots. The shots are usually either profile shots from the side or more frontal shots, meaning they usually sparingly limit subjective shots and usually frame it objectively. They more or less do this because they like to play with other aspects, such as colour pallet, medium changes, cutting, so since the general shots patterns don't change often, it leaves room to experiment on the other end, regarding the art department or editing. So in the end, it will still have some sort of flow.
Along with this flatter use of framing, in normal situations we are often isolated or distanced from the character, were usually not privy to their visual perspective, and often medium and long shots take precedent, usually at least a meter or two away from the character or thing staging the action. which makes this series more sparse and atmospheric. Although of course it's not like close ups never happen, they do just a bit more sparingly in comparison. You will see more close up and intimate moments, sometimes even POV shots as well, or shots that identify with a particular character rather than the other, which is called a subjective shot, though I like to coin it as a "biased" shot. The transitions between shots regarding distance is often quite dynamic, which adds to some scenes confrontational or unnerving aspects in the general dialogue, or when a reaction shot cueing a particular feeling or clue. I do think, however series director Oishi was more subtle with this, as his style is a bit more simpler and flatter than Itamura. Whereas Itatumara used more oblique angles and dynamic shot distance transition for more testy piss and vinegar scenes or unnerving ones, though the Monogatari series still maintained it's simple, modernistic and flat look. |
| Tatsuya Oishi |
It simply can't happen within a normal studio environment for an animation production this large. The division of labour and creative responsibility is the key to what makes any production under the studio environment function, so it's dumb down argument to credit the series director as being the main creative voice. Not only that but for an outsider to attirtube who did what and find out who exactly was responsible for what is impossible. So I will continue to reference series directors and leaders within the animation department, however I will still politely attribute the credit to the "Team" of staff involved. Like they say in team sports, there's no "I" in team.
Art Direction & Animation
Speaking of animation, while not uberly fluid and perhaps as snappy as a Kyo Ani or an animated film regarding tweening and Key animation, it's still pretty great and most certainly above average and consistent. This is also where Akio Watanabe plays a key role as he also reprised a role as the chief animation director. High action animation scenes are without question phenomenal and have a great amount of edge and style, still though, day to day scenes are not as emphasized or made intimate with Sakuga as frequently as they are in say Hyouka, Hibike Euphonium or perhaps K on.
Kyoto animation is a rather special and unique studio since they have more flexible deadlines and time to buff the little things and polish everything to a shine. On most of their productions for a Tv animation, they are usually given double or perhaps triple the amount of time than any other studio, being that usually, they air episodes biweekly or perhaps monthly instead of on a weekly basis, which is pretty much the situation for any other studio. We also need to keep in mind that Kyo Ani productions are usually not too high fantasy, their staff is very conservative regarding the constancy of character animations, shot flow and selection. In fact almost everything in general about Kyo Ani is conservative.. The same character designs almost every time, almost always based largely in a high school, same analogous colour schemes and broad lighting, same sense of shot flow, same screenplays, same staff, same writers, same directors.. So by now it probably makes sense to you why they have such high quality animation, because Kyo Ani usually doesn't stick their feet too far out of thier comfort zone.
Although this has been improving recently and Kyo Ani has gone out of their way to at least try to something a little bit different, despite being able to stick 90% of their characters in the same frame and it would seem their characters are still part of the same world.. Shaft on the other hand is by far one of the most experimental group of people producing anime I've seen in quite a while. Their always doing something different, perhaps adapting unusual source material or going out on a limb to make these Arty and largely different animations. They're constantly pushing themselves and their viewers out of their comfort zones, and I love it!! Although I can't really say the same for most people. So back to the animation here, in general transient movements, regarding high action scenes are more gritty. Their also capable of great fluidity regarding use of Sakuga in particular given moments that are more intimate or focused on foreground objects or a person framing the action. Not much of it is wasted and Shaft is particularly economical about it, and as a result the animation in general while playful, is indeed consistent, and the general standards for quality are pretty high in general.
Character animations are generally flexible and very comical. Very often will characters will have facial expression's that are exaggerated, resemble emotes, or are akin to/referential to manga expressions an such. It isn't like a conservative A-1 production like Shinsekai Yori or perhaps Erased or Your Lie In April or something from Kyoto Animation. For obvious reasons, this really harks on back to what I was saying earlier, which is that the anime, in multiple ways (This being one of them), deliberately lets you know your watching an anime. In that respect, it's playful and flexible, not to mention creative. However one thing I did notice, that generally, like 90% of anime out there, when you view characters from a long shot, the consistency tends to drop, as opposed to a more normal distance. It does makes sense however, since if you've ever drawn anything in your life, you'd probably notice that recreating detail on a small scale as opposed to a larger scale is quite a bit harder. Though fret not, it's very minor, and happens so often, it's not really something to scoff over, as you'd only notice it on closer inspection. I will say that as the years go on, the animation quality has risen, so they're are less consistency issues overall as you go along in the series.
The choreography of body and facial animations and actions are pretty great none the less, like I've mentioned earlier, they can be wacky, comical or hilarious and when more serious and intimate situations call, they can be intricate, and can, in my opinion, very accurately depict a characters feelings, through general body language and facial expressions and are generally varied from character to character. Suredly above average, though perhaps maybe slightly behind something such as Anohana from A-1? Maybe I'm imagining things, though in general, I thought more intimate and confrontational character animations in that series were just drop dead gorgeous. Speaking of 3DCG, Shaft seemingly and successfully blends 3D elements with 2D elements and disguises them pretty well. Like I've said earlier, Shaft's animation style incorporates quite a bit of negative space, it's far easier for them to integrate 3D CG simply because their animation in general already has this sense of buoyancy and generally lacks weight and is simple. Simpler looking 3D CG fits in very nicely, As opposed to say Kyo Ani, where they emphasize rendering their backgrounds with far more with positive space and general texture and detail. Meaning that the 3D CG has to be really quite textured and detailed to not seem out of place when the camera moves or the 3D subject or person does, other wise it would look overly buoyant and juxtaposed with foreground as well as background components. Prime examples within the Monogatari series regarding the use of 3DCG would be in classroom scenes with desks an chairs, essentially rooms or spaces with lots of foreground objects, that are perhaps organized linearly or/and are numerous. Objects such as lamp posts, bleacher seats. Generally Shaft also utilizes 3D CG for entire spaces or rooms as well when the architecture of a building or object is rather complex.
General special FX such as particle effects, as well as lighting effects are surely done very well in Kizumonogatari, though it does vary a little bit in the main Tv animation. Though when it comes to more violent scenes of course, this is were they show their big guns, and boy is graphic and gritty. Also lighting and reflective animations are included as well, though not as much as in the Film trilogy, and general particle effect or effects in general isn't better than A-list productions say from Ufotable, like their involvement in the Fate/stay night franchise or perhaps Kara No Kyoukai. Though still respectful and amazing when they decide to turn the knob up if you know what I mean. This is generally unrelated, but I've found that production from Shaft and also from productions similar to something like the Monogatari series such as Mawaru penguin drum have developed this strange and odd trend.. care to guess? Barely any character extras.. 
Perhaps this was done for efficiency? When extra's are included they're not even full rendering of actual people, but animated placeholders. I don't know, I didn't particularly mind, since I assumed the choice was deliberate, though it does make the town seem somewhat lonely, but perhaps that's the point? going back to what I said earlier, perhaps the use of negative space, vague silhouette backgrounds, the generally low saturation colour pallet and lack of rendered sound information has to do with the fact that the Monogatari series is supposed to be a imperfect recollection of events and maybe this displays how the human mind can scotomize minor non essential details and idealize certain events or visual memories perhaps? That's my guess anyhow.. though altogether the Monogatari series experience always came off as surreal and neurotic, so things like this doesn't take it far off the mark.
The art direction and design, helmed by Hishiharu Iijima for the entirety of the Monogatari series, up until Tsukimonogatari that is when he left to go work on Kizumonogatari as art director. From there on Ken Naito took over. like I've mentioned earlier utilizes quite a bit of negative space in general, and along with the general use of symmetry and a tertiary colour pallet, the Monogatari series while striking, having beautifully clean line work and colour composition, is generally simple and flat looking. it gives the series a pleasant and casual feel, also feeling modernistic and futuristic. Reminds me of walking into an Ikea store if you know what I mean, and the general areas and streets are utopia and clean, generally free from weathering or damage - Something akin to walking the streets of Singapore I find. The backgrounds vary so much, they can be beautifully neat and cell shaded 3DCG, a single shot of a water painted mural that's panned along with narration, they can be figments of a particular characters imaginative subconscious or perhaps erie charcoal depictions of a victorian house. From Tsukimonogatari and on though, as I've mentioned earlier, the Monogatri series as a whole took a turn to have more dissonant and starker settings, that seemingly was darker, more acute and detailed, though still very much recognizable as something under the Monogatari series as a whole. But there is also definitely a parallel in his general style if you compare Owari and Tsuki to something like Madoka Magica - Where Ken Naito was also art director. A ridiculous amount of creative intent and variety. Lots of talent here.
My favourite design aspect of course would definitely be Akio Watanabe's character designs for this series, and I'll say it again, most of them are just drop dead gorgeous. Refined and striking enough lifework composition, though also the right amount of negative space and great use of colour selection. One thing I want to mention before I leave the topic is that the fashion sense in Shaft productions, particularly in the Monogatari is spectacular. You can always find characters wearing varied and stylish outfits, really a nice touch. I'm personally just sick and tired of seeing the same characters wearing the same outfits all the time for the sake of animation efficiency.
My favourite design aspect of course would definitely be Akio Watanabe's character designs for this series, and I'll say it again, most of them are just drop dead gorgeous. Refined and striking enough lifework composition, though also the right amount of negative space and great use of colour selection. One thing I want to mention before I leave the topic is that the fashion sense in Shaft productions, particularly in the Monogatari is spectacular. You can always find characters wearing varied and stylish outfits, really a nice touch. I'm personally just sick and tired of seeing the same characters wearing the same outfits all the time for the sake of animation efficiency.
