Tekketsu-hen: Beautiful and Badass.

Kizumonogatari I: Tekketsu-hen

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The movie adaptation of one of the first arcs of the light novel under the name of Monogatari Series is an explosion of visual delight that explains cautiously the story of Koyomi and Shinobu.

In this review, I want to focus on the animation, the character development, and the plot along with its importance to the series.

Kizumonogatari I starts from the top and introduces an important noticeable improvement in the animation, giving details that make it easier to get the feelings of the characters and what they think for every situation. The animation for this movie seems dark and shadowy, which matches the plot along with the uncertainness of Koyomi. Furthermore, some details such as the fire in some scenes show the good production behind this project.

On the other hand, regarding character development, Kizumonogatari introduces a normal Koyomi and Hanekawa, what they were like before the following events with apparitions. Koyomi feels like a normal student and shows better his feelings, which can be linked with the relation between being either human or vampire. The Kizumonogatari movies show the change from a human Koyomi to the one from other series. Also, the addition of Shinobu and Hanekawa contributed to show how Koyomi got to know them, especially when it comes to his relationship with Shinobu before she became half-human blooded.

Regarding the plot, this movie is more of an explanation to the whole anime series, it works perfectly for anyone who may have not gotten how comes that Shinobu is under the orders of Koyomi or how they met each other. If seen in release order, helps to come to conclusions of previously unanswered questions and affairs. Also, Hanekawa plays an important role in the development of Koyomi as the main character, giving sense to the fact that they get along so well.

In conclusion, this movie was a perfect movement from Shaft after some not-so-successful seasons. This Monogatari gives an aura from the first seasons that had been constantly fading away over many seasons. Furthermore, being a movie and not a whole animated series gave it extra credits such as engagement, this feature film can be easily watched straight because they focus on the important aspects of the story.