Genre Animation

Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu (2016)

Item: Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu
Rating: 2.5
Author: Ross McLaren

★★½ — Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu (2016)

There's a moment early in Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu where the screen practically combusts with colour, shape and movement, and you think: right, this is something special. Studio Shaft has always had a distinctive visual language, but here they seem to be pushing it as far as it'll go. Stark colour contrasts, rapid-fire cuts, that restless blend of traditional artistry and digital experimentation. It's genuinely exciting to watch. And then the story opens its mouth, and you start to feel that familiar sinking sensation.

Look, I don't want to be uncharitable, because the animation here is, without question, brilliant. The action sequences in particular are something else: brutal and balletic at the same time, rendered with a confidence that makes you sit up straight. As a pure exercise in what animation can do when the people making it clearly care deeply about their craft, this film is frequently mesmerising. I found myself rewinding certain sequences just to watch them again.

But.

Strip away that gorgeous presentation and what you're left with is a story you've absolutely seen before. The hapless male protagonist who stumbles headfirst into a supernatural world he doesn't understand. The alluring, powerful vampire woman who, despite all that power, needs his help for reasons. The harem-adjacent dynamic hovering at the edges. It's all territory that anime has covered so extensively it practically has a motorway running through it. The dialogue has its moments of wit, I'll give it that, but too often it leans back on well-worn tropes rather than pushing anywhere genuinely interesting. You keep waiting for the film to do something that surprises you, and it keeps not quite getting there.

The frustrating thing is that the visual storytelling is so confident, so precise, that you can see the bones of something that could have been genuinely great. Shaft clearly know how to use the animated frame in ways that most studios don't even attempt. When the craft and the material are even close to aligned, the film sparks. It's just that those moments are fewer than they should be, and in between them you're sitting with a narrative that rarely earns the spectacle surrounding it.

I've seen the argument made that for fans of the broader Monogatari franchise, this lands differently, that the characters carry weight you can't access coming in cold. That's fair enough. But a film still has to work as a film, and as a self-contained experience, this one leans too heavily on style to paper over the cracks in its substance. Style this good can carry you a long way, but it can't carry you all the way.

I went on to watch Kizumonogatari Part 2: Nekketsu and Kizumonogatari Part 3: Reiketsu, so clearly it held enough of my interest to keep me going, which tells you something. And if you're curious about what genuinely adventurous animated filmmaking looks like when the story matches the visuals, I'd point you towards the Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024), which pulls off a similar stylistic boldness with far more narrative bite.

Worth your time for the artistry alone, and I mean that sincerely. The animation is the real thing. Just don't go in expecting the story to keep pace with it. Two and a half stars.

Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2016 | Watched: 2026-03-31

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