Reddit reviews Bakemonogatari Collection [Blu-ray]

This is a DVD UK import! You can buy them direct at amazon.co.uk in germany it just takes a little longer. Here is the link

If you really don't want to pirate it, you could get the blu-ray/dvd. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bakemonogatari-Collection-Blu-ray-Akiyuki-Shinbou/dp/B00MCKN832 Otherwise you'll probably need to pirate it or use a VPN.

Hmm it seems it's not licenced by Aniplex but by a UK distributor called MVM. UK is in a different blu-ray region though so I don't think importing is an option.

Bake, Nise, Neko: Black, Neko: White, Kabuki, Otori, Oni, Koi, Hana, Tsuki.

Bought it on Amazon UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bakemonogatari-Collection-Blu-ray-Akiyuki-Shinbo/dp/B00MCKN832/ - but this is region locked to Europe/Australia as far as I know. (you can also buy directly from MVM - the company releasing monogatari in EU - http://www.anime-on-line.com/xcart/product.php?productid=25083)

I can send you a small cut of an episode/one whole episode if you have a somewhat fast connection or some screenshots if you want, but it seems to be using the same font as the one that is on Crunchyroll (the subs seem to be the same, maybe a bit updated in some places)

> What are some differences in bonus content released for the UK that wasn't released for the US?

In general we don't get much bonus content, and certainly I cannot think of a case where we got more. Case in point would be the collectors edition of Fate/Zero part 1 on Blu-ray; in the UK it costs £5 more than UK regular edition and comes with...... a nice box :P.

My point with Madoka was that (at least a few years ago) a lot of the things that would be very expensive for the USA and sold in small volumes and sometimes with bonus content were sold in UK in complete collections with no bonuses at a cheaper price per episode. Mostly that came down to Aniplex US in the US, and no company with a similar business model in the UK. Now in the UK (and USA?) there are more collectors editions with actual stuff in and various imports or shared print runs with AUS, USA; though with the increase in quantity of releases I'm afraid I can't easily compare all the different recent UK releases to the US releases that I am relatively ignorant on. But with all of them (except for one special case that has been repeatedly delayed for up to almost a year now) not one anime TV-series release in the UK comes with the soundtrack of the show.

My point is kinda meandering, so anyway, the UK Monogatari releases contain no physical bonus content, though the discs themselves are basically the same mastering as the US releases (so the UK Bakemonogatari release has the character commentary, and the Nisemonogatari release doesn't, just like the US). So no artbooks or postcards or whatever you get, but the price is generally better, currently its £37 (~$55) for the UK Bakemonogatari complete collection.

> I haven't looked into the Light Novels (or is there a Manga of the series too?), but have all the volumes/books been released for all regions in their respective languages?

The only source material is the light novels, don't think there is any spin off manga, there are a few short stories and drama CDs around the place though. Pretty much no region (apart from Japan) has releases of any of the light novels bar one (Monogatari is a niche (if very popular niche) series with a small fanbase compared to for example: Naruto, Sword Art Online or Attack on Titan). Monogatari as a whole is notoriously difficult to translate, which is also why its anime release has the unusual situation of not having a English dub. Only 3 days ago or so the chronologically first (release second) light novel "Kizumonogatari" was released in the US (and apparently UK, but no copies in stock anywhere :/ ) under Viz media Vertical Inc., and if it does well they may continue with more licenses.

Bonus info: The translator apparently was supervised by Nisioisin's "Editor and crew" to make sure it got across the nuance. It is relatively late for a release to occur now (Kizu came out in May 2008 in Japan, fan translation had been around for a while) but its justified and I don't think anyone is complaining, if you wanna see more officially translated light novels then buy Kizumonogatari!

> Any website(s) you would personally recommend for supporting official releases for Monogatari and Light Novels in general?

I mean, buying the copies of releases of anime and novel in your local region helps, and buying/importing merchandise of the series (figures, art books, ect..) would equally indirectly help out too. Arguably, the best thing to support the original content would be to buy everything straight from the source, but you kinda need to know Japanese to get any value for yourself out of doing that :P.

Crunchyroll has lots of the Monogatari series on it officially, and while not necessarily the best place you can also buy official merchandise from their website too. If you are signed in and watching stuff on CR, some value of your subscription does make it back to the production committee's of the anime you watch, plus they get data on what people like.

> Would it be worth checking out the Light Novels after the anime (does it go more in detail)? Sites to read the the light novels on ?

Probably, though I've yet to read any of them myself. But due to its translation difficulty we don't actually have that much of it fan-translated yet, it may even be the case that the anime will be finished and translated in full even before the fan translations of the novels.

I want to point out that while there isn't much available legally atm, asking for websites to support the Monogatari series and then immediately asking for websites to read the light novels on is kinda ironic :P.

> P.S. The text panels that flash in and out of episodes, are those placed as another element of the quick paced delivery of the anime or are there to explain in detail excerpts from the Light Novels?

Kinda both I guess ? There isn't a straight up answer to why they do it, but they are often excerpts from the light novel, normally introspective thoughts of Araragi or the current narrator. There are some funny details in them along the way that are cool to read (such as commenting is Tsukimonogatari that their bathroom is not as big as the anime suggests, its just a normal sized Japanese bathroom) and some are there just to be arty or make a joke, but I wouldn't go too out your way to read them all. Up to a point this style was done in Bakemonogatari to save money/production time, some of them literally say "Missing scene" or "Missing Frames", a kinda budget/time conscious artistic choice that paid off I guess :3. An example of something similar (time saving technique becomes art style) in Kill La Kill can be seen explained here (specifically at 42:20).

Huh, that's weird, because it looks just like [this] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00MCKN832/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1419568476&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SY200_QL40&dpPl=1&dpID=61bkvTYBpVL&ref=plSrch ), which says blu-ray. I figured it was the "UK import" from the other link. But thanks, I got my answer. Expensive or not, I think I'm going to get the box set.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bakemonogatari-Collection-Blu-ray-Akiyuki-Shinbou/dp/B00MCKN832/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1494497806&sr=8-4&keywords=bakemonogatari

Amazon themselves as far as I can tell:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bakemonogatari-Collection-Blu-ray-Akiyuki-Shinbou/dp/B00MCKN832/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=bakemonogatari&qid=1564536600&s=gateway&sr=8-1