Reviews

Nov 15, 2015
Ughh.....this anime scarred me for a whole week....because of that one particular episode. That infamous toothbrush scene. You know what? I'm going to try that out with my younger sister. She'll probably slap the hell out of me or me she'll do the same thing as Karen did.

(Deleted and Re-uploaded my review from yesterday due to the amount of mistakes I've made in my previous review)

[Story]: (8/10)
This is a sequel to the predecessor called "Bakemonogatari". Nisemonogatari chronologically takes place after the events of Bake and focuses on Koyomi's little sisters; Karen and Tsukihi. Otherwise known as "The Fire Sisters". The black swindler Kaiki Deishu, who once deceived Hitagi, returns to town and spreads the incantation which cursed Nadeko before.

Man, I really thought Nise was going to be a lot better than Bake. That first episode was so great. The first episode basically shows you that Hitagi kidnapped Araragi and handcuffed him inside an abandoned classroom. At that point, I didn't know what the hell was going on and that's where the mystery part comes in. In episode 2, it shows you why she "kidnapped" him in the first place. 2 clever episodes, if I say so myself.

After 2 episodes of re-introducing the characters and telling you everything you need to know, Karen's arc comes in. This is where the show actually begins. Unlike Bakemonogatari, the series this time is divided into 2 arcs only. The "Karen Bee" arc and the "Tsukihi Phoenix" arc. Which means the pacing is a lot better compared to Bakemonogatari. It uses 60% of its time fleshing out the story and the characters. The arc also contains character development for both Karen and Tsukihi. About damn time because Karen and Tsukihi got little to no screentime at all in Bakemonogatari. Their previews in Bakemonogatari doesn't count.

How do you think the show uses its 40%? That's right, fanservice. If you think the fanservice is horrible in Bake then oh boy, you are going to be disappointed at how Nise handles the fanservice scenes. The fanservices are a lot more excessive than Bake. These fanservice scenes includes molestation, bunch of dirty incest scenes like Karen and Tsukihi lying down together in the same bed naked (presumably having sex or just had sex), the infamous "toothbrush" scene and skirt flipping/Araragi "accidentally" looking down at women's skirts -- In this case, Karen and Mayoi. Some people thought that Shaft might have taken it a bit too too far when it comes to fanservice because of the scenes I mentioned above and that one episode dedicated to Araragi and Karen. Particularly, that toothbrush scene. If you ask me, I'm going to have to say I'm on the neutral side. I won't say that Shaft have taken it too far nor will I say that I'm ok with Nise's excessive fanservice.

Putting fanservice aside, the show retains its great writing and great storyline and more interesting dialogues. If it didn't, I would have rated Nise a lot lower than 8 because of the fanservice scenes. The story is what really saved Nise but I wouldn't say that Nise's story is better than Bake because it's not.
My opinions on the arcs are in the "Characters" category.

If you're a fan of Araragi groping Mayoi then fear not because the groping scenes are back and it revealed something interesting about how Mayoi feels when Araragi gropes her. Watching that scenes again makes me want to laugh even harder. I can't believe it.
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[Art/Animation]: (9/10)
Someone will probably need to come and correct me on the visuals of the show. After watching both shows on a 1080p quality, I'd say that Bake and Nise looks exactly the same in terms of animation and visuals. The weird animation that I talked about in my previous review (i.e Shaft head tilts, fast-flashing text, etc) is still present in Nise and I highly doubt it will ever go away. Not that I'm complaining or anything. They did take away the fast flashing text that occurs after the opening. Dammit, Shaft..Now I won't have anything to use to give my sister a seizure.
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[Sound]: (9/10)
Unlike Bakemonogatari's outstanding soundtrack, Nise's soundtrack fell a little bit. It's still great but not as great as Bake. The OST version of the OP theme song returns and it is used effectively when there's a dramatic scene playing.

The OP theme songs are "Futakotome" by Hitagi Senjougahara, "marshmallow justice" by Karen Araragi and "Hakkin Disco" by Tsukihi Araragi. The ED theme song is "Naisho no Hanashi" by ClariS. The only OP theme song that I like is the 3rd version because of Tsukihi's cutesy moe voice, the music style used felt like a mix of Japanese and Chinese cultural music and the opening animation also felt the same. I didn't really like the 1st OP because it felt like a recycled version of "Staple Stable". To be more specific, a crappy lacklustered recycled version. The 2nd OP sounded decent. Not bad but not great either.
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[Character]: (8/10)
After many complaints that Koyomi's little sisters barely got any screentime in Bakemonogatari, they finally gave us a show dedicated to them. Was the complaining worth it? Ehhh...I don't know. On one hand, the sisters were given screentime, their characters were fleshed out and they gave me a reason why I should care for these sisters. On the other hand, they were also being used for fanservice. That's for you guys to decide. Anyways....

At this point, I'm sure you guys already know the characters except the sisters and part of Shinobu so I'm only going to review the 3 characters.
The Koyomi sisters are Karen and Tsukihi. Karen is the older little sister and she is a self-proclaimed "hero of justice" who often imitates the personality of several characters from a "tokatsu" series. She has an energetic personality and a tomboyish lifestyle. Surprisingly, she is taller than Koyomi despite Koyomi being 3 years older than her. Tsukihi is the younger little sister and she is the younger half of the "Fire Sisters". She likes to do indoor activities and compared to her older sister, she has a more calmer personality.

Lastly, there's Shinobu, who was first introduced in Bakemonogatari but the show didn't really focus much on her. She was pretty much silent for the entirety of Bake. In Nise, we finally get to see her talk and be lively instead of just sitting on a corner doing nothing for a whole day. They did state why she was silent in Bake and why she's suddenly talkative in Nise so it's not just some random moment that happened for no reason.

I just love how Tsukihi only got 2 episodes focused on her even though her arc spanned for 4 episodes. The 1st episode of her arc is just Araragi and Karen and the 2nd episode of her arc focuses on Araragi and Shinobu. I'm seriously disappointed with Tsukihi's arc. We did get to see Shinobu and her love for Mister Donuts and it's one of the scenes that I enjoyed in Tsukihi's arc. On the other hand, I enjoyed Karen's arc a lot more than Tsukihi's arc because her arc lasted a lot longer and the story of her arc is better than Tsukihi's arc. What I enjoyed the most in Karen's arc is the fight scene between Araragi and Karen, and the ending of her arc which was pretty great.

There are also new characters introduced for Nise. First up is Kaiki, the antagonist in Karen's arc and one of the most interesting villians I have seen in years. He's not your typical villain that fights for his ideals or some shit. All he's interested in is money. He is a con-man, after all. He scams people, especially middle-school girls. I mean, I could provide more reasons why I like this villian but writing more will lead up to another paragraph or two. By the time I'm writing this review, I have already finished Monogatari Series: Second Season and Kaiki is now my favourite villian in the series.

Second and lastly, there's Yozuru and Yotsugi, the antagonist in Tsukihi's arc. Yozuru is a professional onmyouji and an expert in the supernatural, specializing in immortal oddities. Honestly, I don't know much about her yet but what I have seen so far makes me want to hate her. Yotsugi is Yozuru's familiar and a girl who constantly says "I said, with a posed look" in the end of her sentences. I don't know much about her either but so far, she's a funny and interesting character and her personality is amazing.
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[Enjoyment]: (7.5/10)
Saying that I enjoyed Nise as much as Bake is an overstatement. I still enjoyed it but compared to Bakemonogatari, it just doesn't feel the same. I mean, if you enjoyed fanservice a lot more than I do then you might enjoy Nise a lot more than Bakemonogatari.
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[VERDICT]
It was nice to see Koyomi's little sisters and Shinobu finally getting some screentime but the amount of fanservice in Nise is just insane. I laughed way more than I expected when a fanservice scene comes up but at the end of the day, I was still a bit disappointed with the show's fanservice. I did enjoy the story and the characters of Nisemonogatari. Overall, Nisemonogatari is a good sequel but does not live up to Bakemonogatari.

[OVERALL]: (8.2/10)


Pros:
+Nisemonogatari retains it's great writing and dialogue
+Story is still very good
+Great Visuals and Animation
+Great Soundtrack
+Koyomi's little sisters and Shinobu finally got some screen time
+New characters did not disappoint
+Pacing is hugely improved

Cons:
-Excessive Fanservice
-Incest scenes
-Tsukihi's story is only 2 episodes despite the arc spanning for 4 episodes
-Some might find the "Toothbrush" scene disturbing
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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