TLDR at the bottom The Monogatari series is a series I hold with very high esteem. Ever since I watched the anime adaptation years ago I was enthralled immediately. I then later on bought and read all of the light novels. I find it kinda amazing the sense of character Nisioisin is able to create through the abundance of dialogue without ever losing my attention in the slightest. Every episode and chapter are oozing with that distinct style and vibe that can only be found in the Monogatari series. Personally I think the light novels the source material for the series is probably the best way to experience the series but the anime is a close second. With that being said Ive known of this manga adaptation for some time and about 2 months ago I got around to finally reading it. Heres why the Bakemonogatari manga is as of right now one of the single worst mangas Ive ever read. 300https://i.ur.com/uBlu3tE.jpg As always a brief summary. Bakemonogatari is about highschool senior Araragi Koyomi. After encountering a vampire over spring break Araragi suddenly becomes aware of the world of apparitions and other supernatural phenomenon that seemingly exist alongside human society. Over the course of Bakemonogatari Araragi meets 5 girls who all are being afflicted by some sort of supernatural ailment that connects to their psyche. With the occasional wisdom from the mysterious expert who helped him with his vampire encounter Araragi helps out these girls all while dealing with the aftereffects of his own vampiricism. I think every work has some strengths and I would be remiss if I went without sharing the Bakemonogatari mangas plus points. Without a doubt the art of this manga is the highlight. Oh Great the illustrator of this series manages to deliver illustrations that are indescribably gorgeous with an insane level of detail every chapter without fail. Its extremely impressive how consistently great the art is. Also in the art department every chapter ended with a special illustration from an illustrator some famous and some not. I thought this was a really cool and fun way to celebrate the reach of this series as a whole. Additionally just like the anime and light novel this manga makes meta jokes and references from time to time which I always found thoroughly entertaining. Unfortunately these were just about the only aspects of this manga that I enjoyed. 500https://i.ur.com/iKtzPD8.jpg For the sake of people who are reading this and intend to read this manga I first encourage you to not especially if youve not seen either the anime or read the light novels and second of all Ive decided to write a short spoiler free portion that will be followed with a spoiler filled portion with my unfiltered thoughts so please keep that in mind. To start I want to address the fan service elements. Monogatari as a whole is no stranger to fan service and up until this manga I was not really bothered by its inclusion. There are plenty of instances of ecchi elements throughout which I personally dont find all that distracting from the more serious moments. With that being said this manga adaptation took the ecchi elements and cranked it up to the absolute max. As amazing as the art is so much of it is blatantly ecchi that it is extremely distracting and I think largely distasteful. There are plenty of moments where touching and deep thematic moments for a character happen and its paired with some of the most insanely lewd image ever conceived by man. They really do make basically every excuse the could have to have the female characters be as revealing as possible. Maybe this would be a plus point to some of you guys but I at least coming off the light novel and anime was not looking for this and I found it extremely jarring. There is a time and a place and this manga clearly doesnt understand that. Personally though I thought this was the least of this mangas issues. The largest issue is the massive mess that is the story and characters. First off I want to make it completely clear that I understand that this manga isnt supposed to be a 1 to 1 adaptation. This manga is much more of a reimagining of the source material. While I dont think that adaptations like this have to stick to the plot of the source material as the manga goes on this manga takes many well defined characters storybeats and thematic elements from the original and twists and distorts them in largely illogical and confusing ways. At first these changes are very minor and as a whole dont have much of an effect but later on the events of the manga are so wildly different from the source material that a number of the later story arcs just feel like a confused jumbled mess trying and failing to tie anything together in a slightly cohesive way. Many times it completely misses the point of the events its telling while also ruining the characterization of the characters that participate in these scenes. The most egregious thing I found wrong with this was that towards the end they begin to take story arcs from different parts of the series and they then blend it all together into what should have been the final arc of Bakemonogatari and it forms about 40 chapters of complete mindless slop. Characters show up for no reason who shouldnt even be there even within the context of this mangas reimagined story and the point of the plots of all the original story arcs this part crams together are almost entirely thrown out the window in favor of random out of place and unexplained fights. For this entire stretch it truly felt like a fanfiction thrown together by some horny shonen obsessed 14 year old. It completely misses the point of the original storys pacing and carefully constructed plot. Im not saying that they needed to follow the plot 1 to 1 or anything like that. This manga is at its core a reimagining of the source. With that being said in so many instance they try so had to riff of preestablished story beats and characters from the light novel and anime just for the sake of including them. It feels largely unnecessary to what this manga is trying to be and I thought it severely damaged the narrative it was trying to push as such. This section contains spoilers TLDR In conclusion the Bakemonogatari manga while it starts as just an ok way to experience the Monogatari series completely devolves into an incomprehensible mashup of story arcs that completely ruins the all characters involved. It really does by the end feel like some sort of shonen obsessed fan fiction created by someone with no understanding of the series laced with blatant ecchi fanservice. With all this being said I know I am in the minority with the high average score that this series has and the praise it regularly receives. This of course is all purely my opinion and how I viewed the story but I cant ignore how disappointed and upset I was by the time I finished it. If I said anything here that seems like I missed the point or didnt understand Its probably on me but this is just the way I unapologetically feel. Please just read the light novel or watch the anime. Update 91524: When I first wrote this review I had dropped this manga at about chapter 175 as that is all that had been translated at the time. I checked today and saw that not only was it finished but I was only 18 chapters from finishing. As such I picked it back up and finished it. The ending is extremely stupid and far more shallow than the base series. There are numerous side characters who have their character arcs practically half finished. They introduce numerous random major plot points from portions further on in the series that didnt get included so far throwing a few major implications out there in literally the final 4 or 5 chapters that are forgotten almost as quickly as they appear. It leads for this ending to feel very confused and overly complicated for no good reason. I understand that the Bakemonogatari manga is supposed to be something of a reimagining of sorts when it comes to adapting the source materials but for this adaptation to have completely missed the point of its own story as much as this adaptation does it really just leaves me extremely disappointed. Again I implore you if you havent experienced any of The Monogatari Series yet please do read the light novels or just watch the anime. Both are consistently fantastic and if you think you will like this series I can assure you they will offer a far better medium to experience this amazing story than this manga. Score: 40 30