Recommended
Koyomimonogatari can be a hit or miss depending on how much you're into the series. Story- 7/10 Koyomimonogatari is an ONA full of stories based off of the Nisio's Monogatari series. The episodes are mostly about things that seem out of the ordinary or supernatural however after the characters look into the situation further the so called "incidents" or "abnormalities" are often times misunderstanding and turn out to be nothing of importance. The show itself is pretty decent it's not too bad nor is it too good. I personally would not recommend it to any of the die hard fans of this series though. The biggest reasonwhy I wouldn't is because the show strays away from the original story or path, along with other developments that you.. I would find in the actual story or TV series. In the shows defensive though, it is short about 12-13 minutes long so I can understand why certain things were cut out just to focus more on developing a story or in this case "stories."
Now I must strongly disagree with statements about this series being "complex" or the stories "complexity" in all honesty, this show is actually very simple, simple plot, simple stories etc. You would have to be completely new to this series to not understand what makes it a unique series. If you are new to this series then I would highly recommend you check out the main story, that way you can understand how things work in Monogatari series.
Moving along, I strongly felt that it was lacking, more specifically in the creativity department. Certain events and moments did not feel fresh or exciting, no bizarre oddities and paranormal activity. For example, and probably one of my favorite paranormal scenes was in Bakemonogatari. In the scene mentioned viewers were graced with an exciting and an emotional moment between Hitagi going up against the stone crab oddity. None of that feeling was in this series, so again, the sense of excitement I felt was pretty much non-existent. I could not find myself looking forward to most of upcoming scenes or moments. Now, the episodes were damn well-paced, like even though I found myself bored every now and then, there would be an episode that stood out. I would assume mostly because those certain episodes felt more like the main Monogatari series to me. For example the certain episodes were completely out of the ordinary, hilarious. and most importantly that good ol' fashioned Monogatari fan service.. Mhhmmm, that aside, my overall feeling for the story was that it was sort of like I was watching filler, or at the very least, rejected episodes that just couldn't exactly make the cut into the actual story.
Art/Sound- 7/10
One thing, out of the many, that I love most about this series and I am strictly speaking about the Monogatari series in general is it's art, animation & creativity. Now, here is where I think time restraints come in again. Akio Watanabe is a well known at shaft studios, he's the key animator, character designer, creator or main artist of the posters for the Blu-rays and specials, etc. Well, if you're watching Koyomimonogatari, or deciding to get into and if you are like me and love seeing HQ animation designs, cut-scenes, or character reaction faces etc then just be prepared to be let down just a little, not too much though. A lot of the "creativity" in this series, for the most part, scenes, themes and reactions sometimes feel recycled. The greatest thing about the "feeling of recycled themes and scenes" though is that When there are new scenes, they pack a punch of laughter right into my face. My personal favorite in terms of what I just mentioned is in episode 9 because you know, Shinobu, doughnuts, whats' not to love? there were only such a handful of new little skits or cutaways that had me in stitches laughing in this series so overall I was just a bit disappointed with it. The music and art still retained its' usual style and there were no major changes other than opening songs. The BGM was recycled from the OST of the other series. Going back to opening songs and outro or "ending songs" they looked pretty clean and sounded nice, it really retained that "Okay the show is starting prepare yourself" vibe.
Characters 7/10
So for the characters department, I was okay with it, there was no need for any major changes or development/growth... I noticed that our characters were still their usual selves. Kanbaru being Kanbaru, Hitagi being Hitagi, Araragi being Arararagi, (Oops I stuttered) etc. So nothing new, no big changes.
Final thoughts-
To sort of wrap things up, I was not too impressed with this installment. I think I expected a little too much from this series of shorts. That was most likely my biggest mistake watching this (expecting a lot for specials.) I do however look forward to seeing the next parts of the films, and maybe down the road next year or even better this year, there will be another release. Overall I gave this show a 7/10 because while it wasn't the greatest thing to come from Nisio's Monogatari series however the show still stuck to its' roots rather than changing everything and becoming something entirely different. It still had that sense of wonder, and unique story which always makes this series great.
