Nisemonogatari

Shaft has been on a pretty good run for the last few years churning out some extremely popular and perhaps over-hyped series. Now they have brought us Nisemonogatari, a show that I was looking forward to quite a bit. This is partly because I just generally find their work interesting but also because I did enjoy its predecessor. Now while I would not classify myself as a huge fan of the original show I did enjoy the characters, quirky story, and fabulous artwork. However Nisemonogatari is a pointless and directionless mess that feels more like a cash grab that takes ... everything good about the original and turns it to crap.

I am sure people will accuse me of being excessively harsh when I say Nise's story... is one of the five worst things I have ever seen. Maybe that’s because there isn’t any story to speak of. What this series promised us was a story about Araragi's younger sisters and their encounter with the black swindler. It also promised some fill in the blanks of some of some of the other story arcs from Bakemono. I was particularly interested in seeing more on how Senjougahara ended up cursed. What we got instead is what I would consider to be a full length DVD extra putting the various girls in the cast in compromising situations and in assorted states of undress. The anime plods along aimlessly, taking us nowhere substantive. When they do finally get around to something other than panties or erotic tooth brushing, it is crammed in to an episode and a half and then quickly buried to get back to what’s really important. What’s too bad is that when they do bother to tell some story I do find myself interested in it. But also I was pissed off that it was all I got. To be honest the entire "story" could have been more productively told with a 2 episode OVA than an entire TV season. (cough: money grab)

Now I am not going to sit here and rail against service in anime, what’s the point? I am not even offended by it and I find it pretty amusing most of the time. Bakemono certainly had its pervy undertones but it didn't revolve around them or beat you over the head with them either. Nise seems to have just taken those elements and decided to make an anime around them. Frankly what offends me the most about the way the service is presented is that it takes itself way to seriously. It’s like somebody at Shaft just discovered you can put this kind of thing in anime and just completely lost their heads. Then have the nerve to act like it’s somehow smarter than anything we have ever seen before. Just because you inserted some witty dialogue and clever puns in between the breast fondling and skirt flipping doesn't turn it into high art.

Second only to the horrible story is what they did to the series cast of characters. Say what you will about Araragi's but for a harem lead (yes fanboys, Bakemono was a harem anime. Deal with it. It’s not a bad word), he managed to be a pretty interesting and compelling character. Well you can throw all of that out the window after viewing this series. He is a shell of his former self as he has been relegated to an immature perverted lolicon and pedophile who would be a registered sex offender in every developed nation in the world. His world view is that of a 10 year old boy, not a high school senior who is a borderline adult. People might try to say he is being ironic or sarcastic or maybe he's just a bully or a clown. But seriously who in high school, particularly a senior still goes around flipping the skirts of elementary school girls?

The rest of the cast fairs no better. The girls get little in the way of character development and are only treated as objects and tools for service. While you may initially feel some nostalgia as the previous cast is reintroduced and it feels like reacquainting yourself with old friends. However, if you went into this show like I did, wanting to see and learn more about Araragi's two sisters Karen and Tsukihi, then you’re in for a rude awakening. (Unless that is you wanted to learn more about their bust size and figures) For a series that was supposedly based around the two of them they have shockingly little actual screen time.

Well it’s not all bad. As expected from Shaft, the shows artwork and animation is absolutely fabulous. As is customary of their productions the screen is full visual overload of information with innumerable references and puns if you’re able to catch or comprehend them. The styling of the show is very much like its predecessor and has a very unique original feeling about the entire production. Even though the artwork is undeniably stunning, I did not always care for it. Another annoyance would be why they decided to cut the hair of every girl in the show. By the end of the series everyone looks the same. I mean... why? If they had changed their hair colors I wouldn't have even known who some of them were. But if you’re just a general fan of art and animation there is a whole lot to love about this show.

The music and voice acting is also equally brilliant. I honestly think this is the one thing Shaft almost never fails at, is picking appropriate music and animation to open and close their anime titles. Like Bakemono, Nise uses the voice cast to sing the various OP songs but it was the show's ED song which stands out the most. ClariS' "Naisho no Hanashi" is by far the duo's best single to date. Maybe I enjoyed it so much because it meant the episode was over?

Overall only the most ardent Bakemono and Shaft fanboys need apply when it comes to watching this show. Though if you were truly a fan of Bakemono I don’t know how you could not end up being disappointed. The lack of any kind of coherent story mars any sensory satisfaction you may get out of the shows artwork and audio track. You can pour and entire bottle of perfume on a pile of crap but in the end its still, crap.

Bakemonogatari was a special anime for me. While it didn't really have any stand out qualities, the whole show ended up being much more than the sum of its parts. It had some nice visuals, fun dialogue, interesting characters and plot. Maybe a dab of mystery/suspense here and maybe a few seconds of good animation there. Ultimately it was an incredibly enjoyable show that was just a blast to watch when all of its elements came together in a dizzying fashion. So you can imagine my confusion when I finished Nise only to realize that I hadn't enjoyed the show all that much. When ... I came along for this ride, I was expecting to have a damn good time, similar to all the fun I had with Bake. So what exactly went wrong with this show? A hell of a lot apparently.

The plot itself is more or less the same kind of scenario we saw in its predecessor. The biggest difference between the two however is the pacing. Bake moved along at a brisk pace, it introduced new elements quickly and broke them up with some occasional fanservice bits and exchanges of dialogue. Nise does the opposite and moves along at a snail's pace. Everything is introduced very slowly and is resolved equally as slowly. The climaxes to the story arcs didn't really evoke any particular sense of excitement in me. Which brings me to another problem, and that's the complete lack of urgency and tension. Bake had a lot of mystery and suspense in all of its arcs; it was carefully put together and enjoyable to watch unfold. Nise somehow completely forgets to introduce any sort of tension until half-way through the show and right before the climax of its first arc. Yeah Kaiki was imposing when he was introduced yet he never became a threat until a couple episodes later, the mystery surrounding him wasn't particularly well established. There was an attempt at build up with off-screen interactions between him and the supporting cast but it was all vague. So when the time came for a resolution, I came away thinking "so what?”. There's definitely a problem when you're waiting for something good to happen each episode but nothing ever does. Nise is stunted as hell, there's no real build up and whatever little characterization there is, comes in the form of isolated little moments of plot instead of a subtle constant stream of information. The storytelling is a noticeable step down, and it doesn't improve a great deal. Rather you'll always come away feeling unsatisfied and wanting something more substantial from it. It does manage to get interesting during the course of its run but it never becomes truly engaging, it teases you with some good scenes and moments but it rarely follows through.

Bake found a balance between characterization, fanservice and witty dialogue. It juggled these three elements very well, always managing to stimulate the audience with their juxtaposing. Nise does not have this balance, and looking back, it’s what made Bake as good as it was. It’s what I mean by "more than the sum of its parts". These core elements are what made the original show so much fun. Nise unfortunately decides to throw characterization out the window in favor of more sexual stimulation and dialogue with 60% less charm. I don't have a problem with fanservice but it needs to be well-implemented just like any other aspect. In Nise's case, a barrage of gratuitous fanservice every other minute doesn't really constitute as good execution. An overload on one stimulus just makes it boring when it happens again. Fanservice gets yawn-inducing fast when it’s the only aspect of note in an episode. The dialogue isn't nearly as fun as it was in Bake, it lacks the hints of characterization that was so prevalent in the conversations Araragi had with the girls. It’s like they stripped these elements of what made them good in the first place and threw 'em back in without any substance this time around. With the interesting characters playing support, they don't really offer anything to the audience besides some occasional humor and tips for Araragi. The sisters don't fill this vacuum at all, one is boring as fuck and the other is irrelevant for all intents and purposes. Ultimately this entire story is really about Araragi and his relationship with his sisters, not the sisters themselves. His soliloquies are sparse and aren't nearly as effective as they ought to be, though this is more of an execution problem with the show. There's Kaiki and Shinobu as well, and admittedly, they're pretty cool. Shinobu's bits serve as closure for Kizumonogatari so I imagine that some of its impact is lost on the viewers who haven't read the Light Novels. There's not enough of Kaiki unfortunately, he's probably the best character to come out of this and his screen time is pitifully short. Overall Nise feels like a shallow version of its predecessor, which is saying quite a bit since Bake wasn't exactly down there in the Mariana Trench either. Bake's main theme (Growth/Healing) worked on several different levels of the story and was naturally interwoven into the narrative. It felt organic and refreshing; however Nise's themes (Fake/Imitation) feel extremely superfluous. It felt as though they were clumsily thrown in, as if NisioIsn was trying far too hard to emulate the same poetry of his previous works. Ironically Nise appears to be a hollow imitation of its predecessors which in and of itself could be considered "Fake" on some level. I wouldn't put it past NisioIsin to include such nonsensical meta bullshit in his works but this one is delivered in a half-assed manner so it’s largely meaningless.

This isn't the only area where Nise falls short of Bake either; even some of the technical aspects are weaker. Yes the animation quality is much more consistently well done this time but Nise lacks flair and punch in its visuals. Many of the key staff that made Bake as good as it was are missing in Nise. People like Nobuyuki Takeuchi, Tatsuya Oishi, Toshimasa Suzuki and Shaft's own ace key animator, Ryo Imamura are not present and their absences are very noticeable. Takeuchi and Oishi contributed a hefty amount to the storyboard work; they made the visuals fairly exciting and involving, even if Bake often took the route with less animation. Nise however has less experienced people on storyboarding, so while Nise does have a fairly consistent level of animation quality, none of it is particularly fun to watch or evocative of the imagination. For example, part of the fight in episode 7 was done by Hironori Tanaka, a talented key animator. He was responsible for a good portion of the fight in episode 8 of Bake as well. One had incredibly dynamic, fast-paced and visceral animation; the other was slow, lacked any sort of momentum and was a bore to watch overall. I'll leave you to guess which one is which. The music on the other hand, is actually well done. The new OPs sung by Karen and Tsukihi's respective seiyuus are every bit as catchy and enjoyable as you'd expect from this series. Kaiki's main theme is amazing of course; the music is one of the few aspects that are on par with the other season.

Nise is a decent watch. Certainly above some many other anime but it's heavily flawed and is a clear decline from the first season. On the surface it appears to have all the same things that brought us all to love this series but lacks the gritty details. If Bake was more than the sum of its parts, Nise is in fact the opposite. Somehow its less than all of its individual elements. While some of them might indeed be great, the entire show is pulled down by sloppy writing, bad pacing, a lack of focus and an overabundance of fanservice. It feels directionless, its dialogue more meandering than subtle, its humor more reference-filled than witty, its themes more pretentious than heartfelt, and its characters more pandering-bait than people we should care about. This probably would have worked better as a short OVA series or something. Though at this point I believe Bake was a mistake on both NisioIsin's/Shaft's end and we'll probably never see the Monogatari series on that same level again. Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh but it’s annoying when people don't seem to realize what exactly it was that made a show good, especially if those people are the same ones who created the damn thing in the first place.

It might be a bit premature to say this, as (the infuriatingly-titled) Monogatari Second Season is still airing as of this review, but Nise is definitely the odd bird amongst the Monogatari series, always spoken of as an exception where the other three are the rule. And though I enjoyed it immensely, for reasons both wrong and right, it's an uneven mess from start to finish.

Nisemonogatari starts off sloppily, wasting the bulk of the first several episodes of an already short series reintroducing the cast of the first series, as well as the two new challengers: Ararararararagi's sisters, Karen and Tsukihi. They both fill more ... standard harem archetypes that the first series left unfilled - Karen is the spunky, martial arts loving Genki Girl, whilst Tsukihi is something of a yandere (albeit more restrained than many others of her ilk). Both, of course, have a raging brother complex, because for all its good qualities the Monogatari series is still a harem, and therefore every single female character needs to be in love with the protagonist because fuck logic that's why.

It also introduces the first villainous character in Monogatari's canon, Kaiki Deishuu, a supernatural con-man who has run afoul of Karen and Tsukihi's vigilante antics. The Kaiki Deishuu plot is definitely the best part of Nise's first two thirds, but poor pacing leads it to take up a disproportionately low amount of screentime compared to reintroductions and fanservice.

Which brings me this: while the other Monogatari series have plenty of fanservice, Nise is by far the most fanservice-centric. Entire episodes of it amount to nothing more than catering to various fetishes, some of which you probably didn't even know existed before Nise (if you've seen it, you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about). As a result, Nise is less substance and more cocktease, and suffers for it.

That's not to say Nisemonogatari is without substance - in fact, it does a very good job of furthering the various character interactions that are the meat of Monogatari. However, most of this is confined to one episode - along with most of the plot. This breakneck pacing immediately following several episodes of slow-burn nothingness is disorienting, to say the least, and lessens the effect of how good said episode actually was.

The arc that follows it is similarly rushed and very underwhelming compared to (the actual plot of) Nise's first arc, and renders Tsukihi one of the weakest Monogatari girls by making her little more than a plot device in her own arc. In spite of its themes of family bonds, it's one of the weaker arcs.

All this having been said, Nisemonogatari is not bad, and the reason for this is that it's Monogatari, so in spite of all its missteps, the directing is still wonderfully off-kilter (and the art has improved on its predecessor, what with being a post-Madoka shaft series and having an actual budget), and the dialogue is still utterly exceptional. With these being constants, it's hard to make anything actually /bad/, but not for lack of trying in Nise's case.


Final Words: Nise is definitely a guilty pleasure of mine and is an entertaining romp, but it's easily the weakest part of the Monogatari canon. Also, toothbrushing.

Story/Plot: 5/10
Characters: 7/10
Animation/Art: 9/10
Music: 6/10
Acting: 8/10

Overall: 5/10

For Fans Of: Mysterious Girlfriend X, Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko.

Bakemonogatari was definitely one of the most talked about anime during 2009. Whether it was the clever dialogue or Senjouhara Hitagi herself, fascination was aroused among the viewers. Now in 2012 Nisemonogatari, the sequel, rivals the splendidness presented in the prequel. However, Nisemonogatari shouldn't be pressing attention for the same reason, in fact its dialogue lacks the same teasing tone as Bakemonogatari, but it poses an interesting Eastern philosophy which most people tends to ignore while thinking of Nisemonogatari.

One of the most brought up issues about Nisemonogatari is its fan service. While rarely noticed in Bakemonogatari, Nisemonogatari presents its fan service in the most raw ... form possible. This claim can easily be justified by the old cliched lifting the skirt up, and touching female private parts actions shown constantly in Nisemonogatari, and if I recall correctly there is one episode where nothing else but fan service exists. These flashy scenes don't bother me, but it's the incest connotation which comes along with it. Although these are just personal ethic beliefs, the fact that Nisemonogatari seems to be promoting incest behavior is definitely nauseating. Also, last season Bakemonogatari exposed just as much body parts in the beginning, but as the series progressed fan service was toned down. While, Nisemonogatari did the exact opposite. 

The plot of Nisemonogatari can be split into two parts, each about Arargi, the main protagonist, and his two sisters. It starts out with Arargi's first sister, Karen, who believes she is justice. Karen goes after a character who was referenced multiple times in Bakemonogatari as an evil villain. And Arargi, thinking that he's responsible for his sister, goes after the villain as well, without much knowledge of what he's getting himself into. This conflict eventually gets resolved, but it doesn't end there. Then the story goes on to talk about the origin of Arargi's family's evil, and his second sister named Tsukihi. This is where the Name of The series, Nisemono, which translates to Fakery in Japanese, actually starts sinking in. The rest of this tale proceeds to talk about an Eastern philosophy which basically believes in the superiority of Eternal Beasts and how supreme animal beings can transmigrate their souls into actual human souls.

Now when you think about ancient Japanese tales, that's usually it. The duality between material and spiritual souls was their deity/religion, and it's typically boring when anime are made about these sorts of topic. But what Nisemonogatari manages to do, the industry doesn't successfully do most of the time. It manages to mix religious tales within a modern perspective, specifically in modern Japan. 

This isn't the own thing supernatural about Nisemonogatari, though. Many of the characters take in interesting modern outlooks on things. For example, Arargi is half a vampire, and most of the his friends are or were associated with supernatural beasts, mostly animals. 

What the Series ended up doing, like many anime does, is defy many laws of gravity as well as physicals. But it does conclude in a very intriguing way. A very interesting quote which went along with its central philosophy is this: “Given the real thing, and an indistinguishable fake, which is worth more? Naturally, my response was that the real thing was worth more. Oshino-kun asserted that they had equal value, though. But here is [his] argument: The fake is of far great value. In its deliberate attempt to be real, it’s more real than the real thing." (ep 11) Such said quotes intrigued many interesting philosophical points which goes through many of its branches, such as idealism conflicting materialism, but were perfidiously introduced and explored.

For many of us viewers who enjoys philosophy over fan service, this anime would seemingly have failed in its attempt. Since, the series only elaborate on this philosophy to the extent of a few episodes while the first half was more on a seemingly pointless fan service session. Unfortunately, the sad fact is  people who watches anime these days prefers an enjoyable series such as Bakemonogatari, rather than seriously philosophical works. Thus, I understand why Nisemonogatari went down how it did, but why the directors could have just ignored following the Light Novels, and extended the series, I don't know.

The new introduced characters in Nisemonogatari are really meant to appeal to the audiences. They can't really be considered new since their appearances were obviously present in Balemonogatari, but in this series their appearances are more pro-dominant. What's disappointing to many of Senjouhara fans is that her airing time compared to Bakemonogatari significantly decreased. However, it should be awarding that in a sequel about a whole another story she was allowed any. Other than that, the other two main characters are obviously Arargi's two sisters, and they're only decent. In a sense, Arargi is illustrated as a creeper/pedophile in Nismonogatari, more than in Bakemono. If you're into those kind of things, well here's a plus. If you're not, there's not many explicit scenes shown in this series so don't worry... Too much. Although I should warn you that blood is like pouring rain near the end of the series.

The artwork in Nisemonogatari is the outstanding aspect of the Monogatari series and perhaps even a trademark of the Shaft Studio nowadays. I was not disappointed by the visuals at all through this series, as well as the music. During Bakemonogatari's airing, Supercell was the main focus of the series and they succeeded with many of the Original Soundtracks. You could say it was the apex of Supercell's career. I can't say I wasn't disappointed by their disappearance in Nisemonogatari, but with its creativeness in the OP and Ed, I can't say I wasn't satisfied either.

All in all, this series is the one that could have surpassed it's prequel, with more meaning behind it. However, due to its restricted requirements of having to follow an adaptation, Nisemonogatari ended up emphasizing the lesser important aspects of the show. As a result, Nisemonogatari's more insightful view points were almost concealed. But, the industry needs its money, and if they can manage to get it through other solutions such as fan service. So be it. Despite all its poor qualities, Nisemonogatari was still quite inspirational for a sequel, and I recommend it to any viewers who enjoyed Bakemonogatari's artwork or many of its previous characters. 

Now let's just cross our figures and hope all the Gatari series after this one will learn from Nisemonogatari's mistakes, and become outstanding sequels themselves.

Monogatari has two sides to it. One side is a thrilling, genre-switching visual and narrative treat, full of symbolism about people, their relationships with one another, the complications of those relationships, ethics of heroism, and more. For instance, Karen Bee argues that in the face of a world where the supernatural is very real, that the most dangerous thing is a middle-aged Japanese salaryman that gave up on life and morality. Tsubasa Cat shows the poisonous side of love, and even the very first arc is pretty straightforward about the cost of cutting yourself off from emotion to protect yourself from the pain of your ... past.

However.

There's the other side. You know the side. Anyone that's actually reading this review knows the side I'm talking about. The side where Monogatari gets weird, and gets fetishey. The side that Nisemonogatari in particular made infamous, the side that hides in the whole franchise but is most obvious here. It doesn't step over the line for any thematic reasons in Nisemonogatari, it does it because some sweaty weirdo somewhere is going to get off to it. This is enough to destroy the entire franchise, let alone just Nisemonogatari, in some people's eyes and to be frank, I agree with them. It really doesn't matter how deep your themes are if people can't watch five minutes of it without Koyomi groping a primary schooler, or without Koyomi and his sister doing...whatever that was about. It's such a problem that discussions of these elements often overtake discussion of everything else more compelling. I can't blame you if you don't want to watch Monogatari for these reasons. Seriously, I won't even implore you to "try to grit your teeth" or to "ignore" them, not only because you can't, but because you shouldn't. They are abhorrent elements that drag this series down from being an interesting thematically rich treat to a gross wet dream forced on me.

Despite all of that I still love this series, I really do. But if you don't, or even if you hate it...believe me, I understand more than you might think.

Ka, ka, so this 11 episode anime has just ended, as far as I want to give it a good rating, it simply doesn't deserve any, in fact the story doesn't apply fully to the plot and the plot is often accompanied by a lot of symbolisim and metaphore usually in conjuction with art, so for the story it is a "Poor" number 3. And as for the art, I'll give it a "Good" number 7, since the illustrator puts more detail into the art than the story.

Sound: Fair 6.

Don't ask.

Character: Fair 6.

Frankly this is no longer about Koyomi and Hitagi rather this is ... on Koyomi and his relationship with his fire sisters, namely Karen and Tsukihi, with Shinbo on the sides. It won't be fair if I'll just focus on the wussie Koyomi if I don't inculde his fire sisters and his vampire familiar. But I cannot discount the antoagonist Kaiki Deshi who at first we are expecting to have some fight against the protagonist. Sadly, the expected fight didn't came instead it the fight is between Koyomi and Shinbo vs Yosuru and Yotsuga. Oh, and Koyomi is one big loser compared to Shinbo who was able to beat the crap out of Yotsuga, so this part only deserves a 6.

Enjoyment and Overall: Fair 6.

Ok, first of all this anime's genre is comedy and supernatural, the thing is the comedy part is pretty lame, only the supernaturaln thing is one that carrys the overall of this anime, the enjoyable part is mostly on the incest play that Koyomi does with his fire sisters and all the blah, blah, blah that comes with, also there is the art which were exhibited as metaphore that more likely serves as fillers to elaborate the anime's overall make up, so at this point, it is clear that this is simply not for those who don't see the symbolisim that goes with the plot, ka,ka.

--- WARNING! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS A KAREN BEE SPOILER! ---

Despite not particularly liking its prequel (Bakemonogatari), I still decided that I would like to watch Nisemonogatari. You could say that there’s an unspoken rule that whenever you start a franchise you should finish it - one of the main reasons why I decided not to watch Shakugan no Shana quite yet. There was also the fact that I was excited to finally see Tsukihi and Karen Araragi.
Do not be surprised if you read the same things that where in my Bakemonogatari review. I’m not sure if someone told me that this is better than ... the first, but in reality, I found it worse.
(Note: my review’s structure will be a little different from the norm: plot, characters, art, sound, enjoyment.)

The first episode started out great. Araragi had gone to see Nadeko, but along the way encountered Hachikuji and thus made a little detour. Of course, as always, he was primarily focused on his mounting desire to see her underpants. While our MC spends some time with my favourite character holding handstands for longer than I, a gymnast as of 6 years, can do, Nadeko dresses a little sluttier than usual in order to impress Araragi and support the harem genre. The whole time they spend together is full of unneeded sexual undertones such as the classic story of playing twister in revealing clothes. When he goes off to see yet another member of the female cast, Sugura, the latter takes the opportunity to strip and so Araragi finds her still in a state of undress. When he’s heading back, he encounters Hitagi, who takes the opportunity to try and act all tsundere are usual but instead comes of as as yandere. We then discover that Tsubasa has cut her hair.
Why am I telling you this? Because these events are happening in the time which is SUPPOSED to be the Karen Bee arc, but instead tastes overwhelmingly of filler. This personal synopsis is pretty much what happens during the whole anime.
When it is just about to say that it is possible to say that the anime resumes on it’s predetermined track, pretty much nothing happens. Once again, we confronted with a plethora of flashbacks to explain the situation, and confronted with the aftermath. We meet the sole villain yet, who is extremely stereotypical. The whole episode when our main characters are dealing with the wreathe fire bee is actually just dialogue and Kaiki going out of character in such a brisk way that I was left dumbfounded - and not in a good way.
Our conclusion? Barely there - we find out a bit of Hitagi’s life and then the lovely Karen Araragi returns to normal all by herself.
{[Repeat pretty much the same events for Tsukihiki Phoenix]}
We also have the issue of it being, all of a sudden, fan-service laden. Maybe it is not explicitly naked girls (albeit thanks to Suruga there is a bit of that too), but the whole thing is absolutely full to the brim with sexual references, undertones, etc. The only way to describe these, apart from ‘disgusting' is just ‘ridiculous’. Since bashing my head against my table is reserved solely for soppy romance, I found myself numerous times leaning back in my chair, rolling my eyes and sighing "By God.” Thank got there was no one in my room to see what the subtitles read, or perhaps they would have questioned what I was watching. The genre of ‘Ecchi’ is well deserved, though I would also add ‘Harem’.
Secondly, whilst I KNOW that this is in the genre of supernatural, some elements which are linked more tightly to real life just cannot be supernatural. For instance, cutting all your hair with a key (I highly doubt this is possible), kicking someone so that they fly five metres back, or smashing walls when someone gets knocked into them.
To conclude on this, the characters also broke the fourth wall a number of times - not as much as in Bakemonogatari, but nevertheless a notable amount. This could perhaps include the continuation of the random, often long bits of text that flash on the screen along with the classic 'Black - unnumbered cut', inserts of real life photography and way too many cutscenes. I give the story element a ‘4’ because it was even more painstakingly, tear-jerkingly slow, bland and disappointing than Bakemonogatari.

I would say that the main flaw with Nisemonogatari, along with it’s almost non-existent plot, is the characters. The characters were no longer quirky but stale and stereotypical. Araragi was no longer a character who could be enjoyed in spite of his Gary Stu-ness, but a full-fledged Gary Stu who is in peak form. In fact, he’s almost as bad as the king of all Gary Stus, Kirito (SAO), except that he is not all that strong. Females, including his own sisters are drawn to him like moths to a bulb. He is al of a sudden also naive (not exactly, but this adjective is the most fitting) to the point of tears. Whenever someone says something that is obviously a joke, or do something strange, a loud VoiceOver will express his feelings of shock. For instance: Hachikuji continues her antics of mispronouncing Araragi’s name, and he will call her out on it. However, upon her second time of insisting that she merely stuttered, Araragi will exclaim something like “She really did?!” in a very annoying fashion.
Hitagi’s character also took a turn for the worse. It seems the producers are trying much too hard to insist on the fact that she is a tsundere. I wonder if they know what the term means? Tying someone up with five handcuffs on every hand to a pile of chair and threatening to kill anyone who puts them in danger is a YANDERE characteristic. To be truthful, she acts like a cross between a yandere and a kuudere.
The other characters did not change too much, so I don’t have much complaints on them. Shinobu’s promised role of a main characters was not fulfilled.
I give characters a ‘5’.

The art continues in the same style as Bakemonogatari - typical Shaft. The art and animation is okay, I guess, but we still have the trademark weird, depressing colours, inserts of real life photography, really weird 'camera' angles and cutscenes which are supposed to indicate the feelings of Araragi but are just confusing instead. Nevertheless, art is enjoyable enough, and apart from the things I just listed, I pretty much liked it, though it is not my favourite art style by any means.
Art gets a ‘7’ - same as Bakemonogatari.

Sound is another thing that didn’t really change. It was a little weird, such as sudden inserts of classical music, and a lot of the themes, although nice, were very repetitive. I didn’t really notice as much music, and personally, I didn’t find the tracks as nice, though the tracks didn't feel as much out of place as before.
In my subjective opinion, the quality, amount and enjoyment that I got out of the music went down. Thus, I give it ‘6.5’.

I enjoyed Nisemonogatari much less than Bakemonogatari. Whilst my expectations had already been lowered thanks to the first title, I was further disappointed. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m just not seeing what everyone likes in this anime, because otherwise I don’t know how it got such a high score. I’ve just got to hope that everything drastically improves in Monogatari Second Season or I just might drop it - I’m not going to watch another 26 episodes of something this quality.
Enjoyment gets a ‘4.5’

To finish up:
Story: 4/10
Art: 7/10
Sound: 6.5/10
Character: 5/10
Enjoyment: 4.5/10

Overall: 5.4/10 (rounded to a 5)

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As usual, please leave a comment on my review so that I can improve the quality of my reviews!

This review is brought to you by Mister Donut(R)

Nisemonogatari is the sequel series to the Bakemonogatari series. This installment largely retains the same artstyle and art direction as the previous series, so I won't be going through them here. Instead, I will discuss on the other elements of Nisemonogatari.

Nisemonogatari focuses on Araragi's 2 sisters, both of which make up for the main focus of each half of the series. Unlike Bake, each episode does not focus exclusively on each sister, instead taking time to reintroduce previous characters. However, Nise does not handle this quite elegantly, aside from Senjougahara, most of the other characters reintroduce are ... unneeded and feel like unnecessary padding to lengthen the series. It's filler and at times it's quite uncomfortable to see Araragi act in a flanderized manner than his previous incarnation in Nise.

The two sisters aren't nearly as interesting as the previous cast. Both of them being fairly annoying and one of the most difficult moments to sit through in the whole anime were the awful brother-sister almost-incest moments in the series which just panders to the creepy fans who enjoy this sort of nonsense. The justifications for these moments are cringe-worthy (but one near the end is so bad it's hilarious). These scenes are completely unnecessary and add nothing to the whole story while alienating viewers who just want to enjoy a simple comedy.

Speaking of fanservice, the whole series is rifle with unnecessary sequences of fanservice. To the point where it becomes very uncomfortable to watch. This reviewer personally couldn't stand Episode 4 of the series at all due to the absolute vacuousness of the whole episode in question. It's absolutely disgusting and borders on Hentai. While Bake did have its fair share of fanservice, they were mostly brief and didn't interrupt the pacing of the story.

Nise's strongest point that differs it from Bake has to be it's two newly introduced characters, Kaiki and Kagenui. While Meme's absence from the series is felt early on by the viewer, these two make really interesting adversaries to Araragi and Friends but are characterized and written so well that any scene where they appear in is a joy to behold. Arguments between them and Araragi are especially fun to watch, though Araragi's childish and immature delusions can get the better of the scene and make certain scenes cringe-worthy to sit through. Still, Kaiki and Kagenui (Kaiki especially due to a larger presence) are easily the best characters in the series, largely due to at times rather clever dialogue that don't wear out their welcome. Indeed, the adult characters in the Monogatari series are very much some of the best characters in the franchise. (then again there's origami man from Tsugimonogatari, but that's for another review)

All in all, Nisemonogatari is not worth being a worthy successor to Bakemonogatari. However, of one decides to watch this series, this reviewer would recommend that one skips the first few episodes of each half, at least until the respective antagonist of each half is introduced.

6/10

All this reviewing is making me hungry, good thing Mister Donut(R) is having a ¥100 sale this week!

I could write an extremely detailed and verbose review of all the things I dislike about Nisemonogatari. I could. Instead, I'll just say that I found it to be a disgusting sequel to a superb series.

Thank you for your time.

This is going to be a short review and it only contains my personal thoughts. Bakemonogatari was a big hit for me. I really enjoyed the show so much and now it quickly becomes one of my favorites anime. Putting high expectations on its sequels, Nisemonogatari, surprisingly i very dissapointed with it. I myself dislike ecchi and am really anoyyed by it. The ecchi things on it make this anime really-really bad.Sure that Bakemonogatari or other monogatari series has some fanservices on it, but their fanservices are just small and minor things, while nisemonogatari's are too much. Some 'really-ecchi' scenes (e.g the tootbrush scene) ... are definitely unnecesarry. And for me those things really brake the storyline. But others than it are decent, the plot and the soundtracks are rally good.

Overall it's not-so enjoyable to me, but since i'm a big fan of the series, i'll give it 6/10. Well fanservice could be a hate or love. Some hate it and some love it. In the end it's up to you that it is worse or better.

*sighs*

I will defend Bakemonogatori as an interesting and compelling piece of art. It is really good. Nise, however, indulgences in all of the previous seasons' worst aspects without any of the flair and impact. The plots feel aimless and drawn our, Karen Bee in particular. The fanservice goes past artistic right into cringe territory. The philosophical ramblings are far less coherent or compelling. The characters are more reliant on their defining characteristics. Nise feels like what a Bake hater thinks Bake is.

There is also the incest factor, of which the toothbrush scene is the climax. It is just uncomfortable. I do not really know how ... else to put it. I am not offended or repulsed, I am just left with a sense of apathy. Like why care about these characters when they are liable to molest each other at random points?

The character designs, art, and direction are dynamic as ever. But it does not feel as impactful without the other elements to back it. Also, as a second season its sense of novelty is also muted.

This series was mid enough I am not sure I will continue with the franchise. It has lost a lot of its spark. Damn shame.

Score: Strong 4 to Light 5

I have a love hate relationship with Nise. After my first watch of Bake, I was smitten with the franchise and wanted to dive deeper into it. As a result I went to watch Nise next as it is typically thought of as the second installment of the series.

During my first watch-through I was severely disappointing. Not that I had a problem with fan-service, but that the fan-service seemed to go against my previous conceptions of the characters I fell in love with in Bake. Namely, Hitagi turned into a dominatrix, Kanbaru had no development with her subconscious jealousy and no longer seemed to ... be a lesbian, and Araragi all around seemed to be a cheating adulterer when his relationship with Hitagi was so beautiful in the first show.

When I re-watched the show after finishing the franchise, I was much more accepting of Nise's quirks. Many of the scenes with over the top fan-service feel like the original characters except Nisio isin took it a step farther and expanded on the sexual aspects in the characters in a similar way to how a fan-fiction would. And for the most part that's the way I would describe Nise, or at least half of it, as author published fan-fiction. In many ways I think that's how Nisio isin sees it too.

The interesting part of Nise is that while it has moments where you can clearly tell which scenes are author published fan-fiction, it also has deeper themes across its two arcs that rival Bake's in terms of quality. Additionally, it has several essential character introductions that are a must watch to continue the franchise.

During my second watch, I was able to reconcile myself with what Nise is. When there are scenes that go against what the characters would logically do, I think of it as fan-fiction. It allows me to enjoy them for what they are and also appreciate the deeper themes and narratives the story has to offer.

Overall, what you get out of Nise has much to do with what you expect of it. Coming right after Bake, it will most likely disappoint you as they are very different. But if you can recognize and appreciate it for what it is, it is still a very enjoyable entry. Overall I give it a strong 6 to a light 7. Trans-

Nisemonogatari.

Bakemonogatari ended on some pleasant note. I was really willing to know more about what was gonna happen next. So... what do we have from Nisemonogatari.
Basically, happened what I had feared. It's become more haremish. If we were to cut the fanservice part, it would remain like 1\3. I think it's gone a bit too far. Furthermore, it reminds of a harem even more. Now, when Araragi's sisters so much involved. And now, when Araragi flirts with them throughout the whole show.

The plot itself here is rather simple, almost nothing significant happens, besides we get to know new characters. Also, Shinobu. She ... begins to transform from the furniture into a remnant of the legendary vampire who at long last finds herself quite bored.

Araragi wasn't that much consistent with his words from the very beginning but here, he feels even more inconsistent. That refers to his actions as well. I don't know, for me he felt more, like, noble in previous shows.
Another characters feel slightly different as well. Though, I'm all right with it because it may count for their developments. In case with Koyomi it's more like a degradation rather than a development.

Visually it's just great as always. I'm almost got used to it. However, it often manages to satisfy my eye with new undiscovered ways. It is odd. It is good. Even though, monogatari series concentrates on dialogues, it doesn't prevent it to have ridiculously good fighting scenes. Nisemonogatari isn't an exception.
Same applies to the sound. OP-s and ED-s are great. My personal favourite is the third OP with Tsukihi.
At least, these two aspects don't upset me.

As a conclusion, I might say I don't like the turn monogatari series took. I'm sure it can offer much more, something more valuable than just sisters' fanservice.
I just hope the next show in the series will refrain from it.

If you're alike me watching monogatari series the show after the show I guess there's no point in skipping this one, yet... well, see it and have your own judgment.

This is a particularly challenging series to rate. Nisemonogatari has the signature art, sound, humorof its predecessor. The introduction of the first episode is extremely strong with hilarious signature interaction between Araragi and Senjougahara. Then comes the gradual decent into fanservice.

The prequel Bakemonogatari was a very enjoyable series and, in all fairness, did contain a fair bit of fanservice. At some points the fanservice even teetered towards particularly distasteful. However most of the time it was fairly innocent or more often than not was used only to the extent that it legitimately supported a joke that was actually funny. I can personally tolerate fanservice even ... though I do not see the need for it - as such I did not let it bother me in the prequel to this series.

However in Nisemonogatari it is elevated to excess. While there is nothing particularly graphic there are entire episodes devoted to sexual innuendo, somewhat visual paedophillic insinuations as well as incest. Furthermore it is rarely used to support a joke, if anything weak jokes are used in what appears to be the author's attempt to cover up his warped (and illegal) sexual preferences. The issue goes beyond the inclusion of too much fanservice. The series is in fact dominated by it to the detriment of the story, humor and characters.

That being said if you don't mind the occasional naked 8 year old being thrown in your face as well as the main character's personality being butchered (which is ignored as if it never happens) and a frequent lack of story progress you may be able to enjoy this series. I wanted to, but could not.

Nisemonogatari is a decently average anime that, by itself, does not carry its weight but is a very key part in the development of the character’s in Monogatari. There are only three arcs in the entire eleven episodes, with one arc only being two episodes, but these arcs are very important to the development of the characters in the series as a whole.
The “season” begins with Araragi tied up by Senjougahara for his own protection after the disappearance of Meme. Shortly following this Kaiki makes his first appearance and is later revealed to be a con-man who poisons Karen with the flame-wreath bee and steals ... her money. Shinobu tells Araragi of the bee as she knew about it from Meme and he is able to work on curing it, but it is revealed the bee was a fake by Kaiki who agrees to leave town after telling Araragi and Senjougahara that she had become boring since he last scammed her family. The “season” then continues on with the character development of Araragi and his sisters before Yozuru Kagenui and Yotsugi Ononoki are introduced. They reveal that Tsukihi is actually not his sister, but instead a fake. Araragi fights with the duo over this and concludes with Araragi telling them he is okay with her being a fake and lying about it as long as it makes the family happy.
Nisemonogatari is an improvement to Bakemonogatari in many ways, but fails in just as many. The much longer stories and expanded character development, as well as less of a focus on unimportant characters like Hachikuji and Sengoku while expanding on Araragi and his family helps to make the episodes and arcs feel more meaningful than in Bakemonogatari. The animation also experienced a very large increase in quality with much more fluid movement and less comical, manga like movement - such as using stills and unrealistically shocked faces. These are two of the most notable changes, but the viewer is likely to spot many more that can not fit in a single review.
While there are many things that make this incarnation of Monogatari great, many things give this version a lower score than Bakemonogatari. The most immediate drop in quality is in the music department. Platinum Disco is one of the most famous songs to come out of this show, but it is extremely overused and is the intro for nearly 50% this incarnation while in Bakemonogatari each arc only lasted around three or four episodes which caused it to have a lot more variants in the theme song department. Along with this, many scenes go on very long and make the viewer uncomfortable such as the infamous “toothbrush scene” but also the Shinobu bath scene which lasts nearly twenty minutes as well as the ten minute fight scene with Araragi during the finale. The arcs themselves also see a notable drop in quality from Bakemonogatari. While the arcs themselves are of better quality and more importance, they all end abruptly and suddenly and leave very little satisfaction in the viewer. For example: when the Kaiki arc is finished there is no fight scene or argument or even story reveal - instead Kaiki apologies and leaves and promises not to come back while admitting the bee attack will wear off making the whole entire arc useless and seem like filler, and this is only the second Monogatari.
Nisemonogatari is a great incarnation of the Monogatari series for a first watch through, but there are many notable mistakes made by the directors that made this version nearly unbearable at times as well as giving this version no rewatch value. For those watching the Monogatari series this incarnation is highly recommended as it is very important for character development, but if one is speed watching or rewatching many episodes and scenes can be skipped over and the incarnation as a whole has the same effect.

The Monogatari series, the story of half-vampire high school student Koyomi Arararararagi (sorry, I stuttered) and his sort-of harem of girls with various magical and spiritual afflictions, is a series of ups and down, containing some of my favorite and least favorite moments in all of anime. On the one hand, it's gorgeously animated and directed, taking full advantage of its medium to constantly keep you entertained with creative colors, cuts, and camera angles. On the other, it's remarkably up its own ass, sometimes to its benefit, sometimes to its detriment. On the one hand, it contains my absolute favorite relationship in all of anime. ... On the other, it thinks groping elementary-school girls is an acceptable running joke. It's a series of ideas and imagination that spring and explode in every which way, achieving brilliance just as often as it gets tangled in itself. Nisemonogatari, the second installment in the franchise, perfectly embodies this dichotomy.

The story here is told in two arcs, each one focusing on one of Araragi's sisters: Karen and Tsukihi. The first arc, centered around Karen's classmates suffering at the hands of a magical con man and her desire to take justice into her own hands, is Monogatari firing on all cylinders. The story weaves in Araragi's conflicted feelings about his sister's do-gooding as it relates to his own, Senjougahara's still-festering demons of the past, their constantly evolving, always delightful relationship dynamic, and themes about what the "true" way to be just is and what it means to be fake. It hits hard and fast with comedy and drama alike, weaving together complex streams of thought and dialogue into a rich tapestry that deepens Karen and Araragi's sibling bond and enriches both their characters. It even manages to do fanservice alright, aforementioned kid-groping nonwithstanding. It's highly entertaining and always engaging, marking a high point for the franchise.

The second arc, centered on Tsukihi's newly discovered magical malady, is utter garbage.

There are a lot of reasons for that, but the biggest one is the fact that the entire first episode of the arc isn't focused on Tsukihi at all. Instead, it's focused on INCEST. That's right, that powerful sibling bond that Karen and Araragi just developed suddenly takes a turn for the perverted, with the whole episode spent on Araragi lusting after her, trying to deny his lust for her, and the show ogling her at every chance it can, climaxing (for lack of a less uncomfortable phrase) with him basically fucking her with a toothbrush. It's not funny, it's not clever, it's not interesting, and it made me want to vomit. To this day, it's the single most unpleasant anime-watching experience I've ever had, and I wish I could scrub it from my memory.

Even beyond that horrible experience, though, the rest of the arc (only 4 episodes compared to Karen's 7) just isn't interesting. Tsukihi isn't even a character in her own story, spending all her time with various characters arguing about and over her while she lies unconscious thanks to her affliction. She's an object, something to be fought over by everyone else, not a character in her own right. There's no investment in it because we don't know enough about Tsukihi to care about her. Oh, but the show does find time for Araragi to strip her naked and grope her breasts before she goes all Sleeping Beauty, because of fucking COURSE it does. Who cares about actually developing her as a character when we can just imagine being her lord and master Onii-Chan?

As you can tell, I am very divided on this one. Considering it sets up future characters and events, I can't very well recommend skipping Tsukihi's arc. It is part of Monogatari, as much as I wish it wasn't. But that's the give and take with this franchise. You're bounced around between brilliance and bullshit, and you do your best to admire the (admittedly much more frequent) good stuff before it drops you into shit again. In that way, Nisemonogatari is very much the series' standard bearer, for better and worse. But at the very least, it gave me plenty of Senjougahara being the fucking best, so I guess I can't complain too much.

Well, I actually can, but whatever.