Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu (2016)
★★½ — Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu (2016)
The Monogatari series occupies a curious corner of modern anime. Based on the light novel franchise by Nisio Isin (published in Japan from 2006 onwards), it has grown into one of the most commercially successful and stylistically distinctive properties in the medium, spanning television series, web releases, and theatrical films across well over a decade. Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu is the first of three theatrical films released by Studio SHAFT, arriving in Japanese cinemas in January 2016 after a production period that had kept fans waiting for years. The story is a prequel of sorts within the wider Monogatari universe, following high school student Koyomi Araragi as he encounters Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-blade, a powerful and gravely wounded vampire known as the "King of Apparitions." His decision to sacrifice his humanity to save her sets the entire chain of events in motion.
The film is co-directed by Tatsuya Oishi and Akiyuki Shinbo, the latter of whom has been closely associated with SHAFT's house style for many years. Oishi also helmed the two follow-up films, Kizumonogatari Part 2: Nekketsu and Kizumonogatari Part 3: Reiketsu, meaning this first entry functions as something close to an extended prologue, running at only 64 minutes. SHAFT as a studio has built its reputation on an approach to animation that is deliberately unconventional, favouring graphic compositions and bold typographic sequences over more naturalistic movement. That sensibility is very much on display here. The score and sound design contribute to an atmosphere that sits somewhere between supernatural horror and heightened melodrama, a combination the studio has always found comfortable territory.
The principal voice cast is drawn from the long-running television series, giving the film a sense of continuity for existing fans of the franchise. Hiroshi Kamiya leads as Araragi, a role he has inhabited across years of the Monogatari property (you can hear him in a very different register in Dou kyu sei, Classmates). Maaya Sakamoto voices Kiss-shot, with Yui Horie, Takahiro Sakurai, and Masashi Ebara rounding out the principal cast. For viewers coming to the film cold, without prior knowledge of the television series, it is a reasonably self-contained entry point, though the broader mythology is clearly designed with an established audience in mind.
Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu is a visual feast wrapped around a narrative you've seen a dozen times before. Studio Shaft's animation is, without question, brilliant. Fluid, stylised, and packed with their signature visual flourishes: stark colour contrasts, rapid-fire cuts, and that distinctive blend of traditional artistry and digital experimentation. The action sequences are particularly striking, rendered in a way that feels both brutal and balletic. As a pure exercise in animation craft, it's frequently mesmerising. But strip away the gorgeous presentation and you're left with a story steeped in anime cliché. The hapless male protagonist stumbling into a supernatural world, the alluring vampire woman who needs his help, the harem-adjacent dynamic, it's all territory covered extensively in countless other series. The dialogue, while occasionally witty, often leans into well-worn tropes that feel more familiar than fresh. It's a film that prioritises style over substance, and while that style is undeniably impressive, it can't carry the weight of a narrative that rarely surprises. A technically masterful piece of animation that ultimately feels like a beautifully painted path you've walked too many times. Worth watching for the artistry alone, but don't expect the story to match the visuals.
For me, that tension between visual ambition and narrative familiarity is what I keep coming back to when I think about this one. SHAFT's work here is genuinely impressive as a piece of craft, and I'd be the first to say there's real pleasure in watching animation this confident and assured. But confidence in execution can only paper over so much when the bones of the story feel like something assembled from a well-stocked spare parts bin. If the remaining two films, which I've also had a look at, manage to use that visual language to say something a bit more surprising, they might earn the ambition this one promises. As a first chapter, though, it's a bit like getting a beautifully bound book and finding you've already read it.
Rating: ★★½ | Year: 2016 | Watched: 2026-03-31
Trailer
▶ Watch the official trailer for Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu (2016) on YouTube
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Tatsuya Oishi: Kizumonogatari Part 3: Reiketsu (2017) · Kizumonogatari Part 2: Nekketsu (2016)
More with Hiroshi Kamiya: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · Kizumonogatari Part 3: Reiketsu (2017) · Kizumonogatari Part 2: Nekketsu (2016)
More from Japan: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · Blue (1993) · The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More animation: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
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