Kizumonogatari 1

The movie opens with imagery of crows, the crows are meant to symbolize death, the death of Araragi's old life as a human. This is followed by imagery of the Japanese flag, the rising sun. Japan being a country with a history of being isolationist symbolizes the life of a vampire

The burning scene serves to tell us that Araragi is a vampire and that vampires in this universe follow the same set of rules as they do in our own mythology (this becomes more important in movie 3)

The following scene serves to introduce us to Araragi as loner type who has trouble making friends but ultimately wants to make those connections, he is so happy to finally make a friend that he actually skips home despite his initial speech to Hanekawa that bonds make you weak

We are then met with a horrific scene of a beautiful woman laying bleeding out on the ground. we find out woman is the recently defeated vampire Kiss-Shot and get a nice bit of characterization for Araragi showing that he is so selfless that he'd go so far as to save a monstser

Back to present time we learn more about Kiss-Shot and how she has not had a minion in over 400 years like Araragi she also appears to be the loner type (in movie 3 we find out how similar the 2 actually are). The goal for the next to movies is set and we movie on

We are introduced to our villains and Oshino and the stage is set for the rest of the trilogy. I loved the beam of light behind Guilotinecutter with bible in hand showing that his faith in comparison to the other 2

The first movie serves as a good introduction to the trilogy, it does a fantastic job introducing us to the plot for the following movies and characterizing our mc and side characters. The movie is well paced with beautiful visuals and stunning animation.

Kizumonogatari 2

The central theme of Kizu 2 is Araragi's struggle to stay a human and his humanity. This is represented throughout the movie in his 3 opponents and Hanekawa with Hanekawa acting as a metaphor for Araragi's humanity

The movie opens with this scene of Araragi and Dramatugry on opposite sides of the screen representing one being man and the other a monster. In contrast this scene with Hanekawa puts Araragi on the side of monster with the building acting as a physical wall between them

Dramatugry is his first opponent, he fights honorably but Araragi wins in a typical David vs Goliath fight outsmarting the brute and hitting him in his eyes. After he loses the fight Dramatugry accepts defeat and asks to spare his life, a very human thing to do

Episode acts as the transition from man to monster, Araragi now more accustomed to being a vampire starts the fight with the high ground showing how physically superior he is to the half vampire who uses tricks and even harms the innocent Hanekawa

Araragi end the fight ready to end Episode's life but is stopped by Oshino telling him that he won't be able to stay human if he does that, foreshadowing what is to come

This shot has Araragi and Hanekawa running in the fields with Araragi chasing Hanekawa, him chasing to keep his humanity

The fight with Guillotinecutter starts with the camera moving above head showing that even though Araragi is physically superior Guilotinecutter has the advantage thanks to his underhanded tactics

By doing this Guilotinecutter has shown to be the most monstrous of the 3 despite being the full human in contrast the full vampire Dramatugry fought honorably. He is a human with the least humanity

Oshino's words play and a beautifully animated sequence follows showing Araragi run at light speeds to save Hanekawa. He has now discarded being human in order to preserve his humanity

This beautiful shot shows Guilotinecutter on a crucifix surrounded by crows a fitting end for the priest. The crows representing death and Guilotinecutter representing a human, death of Araragi being a human

The movie ends with the Japanese flag representing Araragi now accepting the life of solitude of a vampire but he has preserved his humanity by doing so