krofire

Shaft’s 2017 follow-on from the 2015 season one of this supernatural drama is listed as either having two, three or seven episodes. It actually has three parts in seven episodes that Crunchyroll has combined into three single episodes. These story parts are “Mayoi Hell”, “Hitagi Rendezvous” and “Ougi Dark”. The first sees Koyomi in hell with Mayoi, the second has Koyomi out on a date with Hitagi, whilst the third concerns the true identity and ultimate fate of Ougi. Of course, unless you have a working knowledge of the entire monogatari franchise and its characters this will all be pretty fruitless viewing as some knowledge is essential. Assuming you have the background knowledge how does this follow-up fair? All our criticisms of season one are valid here. The show has pretentions to be a cult classic and revels in its enigma. The conversations are whimsical and sometimes wildly off-topic whilst the settings are delivered in the fashion of a stage play. Dialogues are endless, mysterious and frustrating to any viewer wishing the story would move on. It is like the whole show is written in its own language as it is really hard to make head or tail of its meaning. It is hard to track what is going on. The animation is chock full of arty-CGI with items in backgrounds being repeated over and over as if the scenery is purely meant for artistic purposes rather than to reflect anything in the real world. It gives the whole show a spooky and other-worldly feel that is largely a matter of personal taste. Whilst remaining one of the most original and weird shows out there in the world of anime it is still a show that is very hard to like. It seems to be one vast in-joke and you are not going to be let in on the punch-line. This can make it seem pretty dull at times and its entertainment value is highly variable. A difficult show to watch or even enjoy.