Bakemonogatari (2018)

[化物語]

Volume 2

Author: NisiOisiN
Artist: Oh!great
Publisher: Shounen Magazine Comics

Synopsis:
After Senjougahara's situation is resolved, Araragi finds himself drawn to a lost child.

Story/Characters:
We tie a bow on the Hitagi Crab arc and move right into the Mayoi Snail arc next. We have Araragi and Senjougahara's relationship develop as we then introduce Hachikuji. Araragi and Hachikuji have an interesting dynamic. Despite Araragi's assertions to the contrary, he's a massive lolicon and it's one of his scummiest traits. However, there is a genuine and honestly rather touching bond that forms between him and Hachikuji. Along the way we get some glimpses previewing the events of Kizumonogatari and Nekomonogatari (Black).

Art:
The art continues to impress with all the qualities I praised in the previous volume. We get some unexpectedly dynamic action scenes to depict Araragi and Hachikuji scrapping around. The creep factor is high, though. The skeevy faces Araragi makes around Hachikuji will make you want to stomp his guts out (even if they'll just grow back), but I guess I will credit Oh!great for portraying his scumminess to such perfection. Also, lewd suggestions made by Senjougahara are given full pictorial representation.

Other:
We get a timeline of the events covered up until now and little snippets about the first three books in the series' chronology (as opposed to their publication order).

Conclusion:
On a narrative level, I like the story quite a bit, but Araragi's shameless hebephilia and the frank depiction that comes with it annoys me and is likely to outright offend a number of other readers. I hate it when I'm left conflicted like this, liking narrative and technical qualities while being turned off by gratuitous elements, but I'll settle for just knocking the rating down a peg. If you've been hooked by the story and characters, you'll want to keep reading at the very least.

Rating:
Read It