Fantasia 2024: Kizumonogatari -Koyomi Vamp- Review

Directed by: Tatsuya Oishi
Written by: Tatsuya Oishi

Starring:
Hiroshi Kamiya – Koyomi Araragi (voice)
Yui Horie – Tsubasa Hanekawa (voice)
Maaya Sakamoto – Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade (voice)
Takahiro Sakurai – Meme Oshino (voice)
Masashi Ebara – Dramaturgy (voice)
Miyu Irino – Episode (voice)
Hôchû Ôtsuka – Guillotine Cutter (voice)

Image Credit: Cinedigm Films

Running Time: 144 minutes
Not Rated

Anime has become an increasingly lucrative business on the big screen in the US over the last several years. The Japanese animation industry has always been a favorite of cinephiles, but it has caught on more and more with the general public thanks to franchises like Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen, to say nothing of the likes of The Boy & The Heron and Suzume.

Those general audiences may have a tougher time with Kizumonogatari: Koyomi Vamp, though it would be worth the try. The compilation film, which screened at Fantasia Film Festival on Saturday, is a distillation of the film trilogy prequel to the Monogatari series. While its stylistic quirks may be confounding to fans used to a less experimental approach to anime storytelling, it succeeds fairly well in telling a streamlined version of the story.

Koyomi Vamp centers on high school student Koyomi Araragi, who has a meet-cute with the top ace of his school in Tsubasa Hanekawa. Hanekawa mentions a rumor of a vampire in the town before they part ways and that night, Koyomi goes on a walk where he ends up encountering a dismembered blonde woman surrounded by pools of blood begging for his help. This is of course the vampire, named Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade, who convinces Koyomi to give her his blood to save her.

Koyomi wakes up the next morning and, after a mishap that nearly results in his death, is saved by Kiss-Shot – now a little girl. She explains that without her limbs, she cannot take her true form and doesn’t have all her powers – which includes the ability to make Koyomi human again. Koyomi agrees to help her retrieve her limbs, which means he must fight and defeat the three vampire hunters who took them. Aided by an enigmatic man named Meme Oshino, Koyomi sets out to master his abilities so he can regain his humanity, be free of his servitude to Kiss-Shot and reunite with Tusbasa.

Adapted from the light novel of the same name, Kizumonogatari is a strange yet effective mix of violent, bloody action-horror and horny high school romance. It has a pitch-black sense of humor, telling us right off the bat in a title card that the story ends unhappily for everyone, but keeps things light with sophomoric teen sex jokes including one of the more gratuitous bits of fanservice you can imagine.

Director Tatuya Oishi combines that aesthetic with action and horror scenes that feature absurd levels of gore – limbs are severed, heads go flying multiple times in one fight between two people, faces are eaten off. And to cap it all off, he adds in nods to more experimental cinematic genres. Intertitles will flash on screen to give us hints of Koyomi’s mental state, and time jumps back and forth in sometimes disorienting ways.

It’s an inventive approach that works well with the story that Oishi is trying to tell, though this restructured version still loses nuance compared to the three separate films. Fully 72 minutes has been cut from the trilogy to combine it and while some of the fat is probably better off being excised anyway, there’s still a lot of depth that ends up on the cutting room floor.

Fortunately, what we have left is still entertaining. The visuals are stellar, the fight scenes visceral but also quite funny, and the voice acting shines. This is not a movie for newcomers to the genre; it’s a compilation of a somewhat experimental prequel trilogy to a franchise that exists outside of the mainstream anime fanbase. But for those looking for something outside of casual anime sensibilities, it’s a decently enjoyable ride.

The Fantasia International Film Festival takes place in Montreal from July 18th through August 4th.

6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

The streamlined Kizumonogatari: Koyomi Vamp won't be a film for most casual anime fans to jump right into; it's disorienting at times, with elements that will be off-putting to some. But there's plenty here for fans of the source material and its different genres to enjoy. Tatsuya Oishi reworks his original trilogy in a way that keeps its disparate elements balanced and contains wildly entertaining, bloody fights as well as some light-hearted humor. Though the cut material is occasionally noticeable and it's not entirely cohesive, there's fun to be had for anime fans seeking something a little different.