Nisemonogatari

Surviving a vampire attack, meeting several girls plagued by supernatural entities, and just trying to get through life are some of the things high school student Koyomi Araragi has had to deal with lately. On top of all this, he wakes up one morning to find himself kidnapped and tied up by his girlfriend Hitagi Senjougahara. Having run afoul of Deishuu Kaiki, a swindler who conned Senjougahara's family, she has taken it upon herself to imprison Araragi to keep him safe from the con man. But when Araragi gets a frantic message from his sister Karen, he learns that the fraud has set his sights on her.

Along with Karen's troubles, his other sister, Tsukihi, is having issues of her own. And when two mysterious women who seem to know more than they should about Araragi and his special group of friends step into their lives, not even he could anticipate their true goals, nor the catastrophic truths soon to be revealed.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Nisemonogatari adapts the fourth and fifth volumes of NisiOisiN's Monogatari Series: First Season.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Monogatari Series: First Season
Prequel:	Bakemonogatari
Sequel:	Monogatari Series: Second Season
Character:	Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica Movie 3: Hangyaku no Monogatari - Magica Quartet x Nisioisin
Side story:	Koyomimonogatari
Other:	Naisho no Hanashi

Hanazawa, Kana
Japanese

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Staff

Iwakami, Atsuhiro

Producer

Kubota, Mitsutoshi

Producer

Matsushita, Takuya

Producer

Ooshima, Miku

Assistant Producer

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Opening Theme

	1: "Futakotome (二言目)" by Hitagi Senjougahara (Chiwa Saito) (eps TV Broadcast and BD/DVD: eps 1, 3)
	2: "marshmallow justice" by Karen Araragi (Eri Kitamura) (eps TV Broadcast: eps 2, 5-6; BD/DVD: eps 2, 4-7)
	3: "Hakkin Disco (白金ディスコ)" by Tsukihi Araragi (Yuka Iguchi) (eps TV Broadcast: eps 8-10; BD/DVD: eps 8-11)

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Ending Theme

"Naisho no Hanashi (ナイショの話)" by ClariS

Reviews

Aug 17, 2012

Veronin

Recommended

Fanservice has always been a bit of a controversial issue. Some love it, some hate all instances of it. There's really no feasible way to please everybody when the reaction can often be likened to a dichotomy, split between 'too much' and 'not enough'. While Bakemonogatari is a series known by most for its unique art direction and character interaction, to say that it's removed itself entirely from sexual themes would be a flat-out lie. It's not much of a surprise then, that these elements are even more prolific in Nisemonogatari, for both better and for worse.

The first thing that should be recognized ...

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Mar 21, 2012

Skadi

Mixed Feelings

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.

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Apr 16, 2015

ChrissyKay

Not Recommended

WAIT. Read. I didn't just unilaterally give Nisemonogatari a 1 because I didn't like the show and I'm thoughtless and spiteful like that. I want to start this review out with a bit of a preface. I've never written a review of something that I've given a 1 before, and that's because I usually don't finish watching them. Why would I? If something is terrible, I turn it off. However, Nisemonogatari is completely unlike any of the other shows I would usually give 1s, and is also the sequel to Bakemonogatari, a show that I am very enthusiastic about. I want to make that very ... clear first: this is not an attack on the Monogatari series as a whole, but merely a single part of it. A part of it I very much feel it could have done without.

So why did I give Nisemonogatari a 1? Is it because it has absolutely no merits, a void of any sort of intelligence or engagement? No. Not at all. Nise is actually an incredibly smart show, and there were aspects of it that I appreciated immensely. The backgrounds are stunning, the references are great, the humor is oftentimes on-point and a good portion of the dialogue is insightful and meaningful. There were several episodes (3 in total) that I actually enjoyed from start to finish. The reason I gave Nisemonogatari a 1 is that it aptly fits my description of a 1: It negatively impacted me as an individual and I feel as though it is an unhealthy, detracting experience for people in general. It promotes toxic ideals and actively helps to make the world a worse place.

If you aren't aware already, Nisemonogatari is famous for its fanservice. The entire Monogatari series is, actually, but I wouldn't even call it fanservice in the rest of the series. In Bakemonogatari, for instance, the camera is used effectively as a lense for the protagonist Araragi to show what he is focused on. When he is having lewd thoughts about a person, it will portray them sexually. This is only the case, however, when it actually fits with what is going through his head, and regardless of how Araragi may VIEW various characters, this doesn't change what actually HAPPENS. This is because he is a human not a god and regardless of what his fantasies may be the world is not going to conform around them. Instead, he is often chastised for his perverse thoughts and it's something he eventually has to deal with.

In Nisemonogatari, this changes. Araragi suddenly becomes the focal point of the world, with every straight girl inevitably seeking to erotically seduce him and even the lesbian character wants to tear off his clothes and roll around naked with him. Even if there is no spontaneous sexual tension between Araragi and a character, the show still devises plenty of ways to put them in absurd compromising positions with each other, liking having Hanekawa roll around on his bed or Shinobu take a bath with him. Now I've heard plenty an educated argument for Nisemonogatari, claiming that it actually hates fanservice and is demonstrating the incredible potential of the camera to portray a character's intentions or emotions, and I would agree that the directing work is masterful. There are two scenes; one towards the beginning and one towards the end of the series in which Araragi's sister receives a crotch-shot. The first one is completely un-sexual, demonstrating the lack of tension in their relationship, while the last one is the exact opposite, showing how that has changed. It's extremely well-done. However, that doesn't change the fact that it's just an intelligent way of fan-pandering. This argument can be applied to nearly all of Nisemonogatari: yes, Nise hates fan service; or rather, Nise hates the uncreative and unenlightened way in which most fan service is done. It wants to demonstrate how it can be done more effectively, setting up moments of situational and emotional softcore porn as opposed to just making some tits & ass wobble. It's extremely good at it, too: if your evaluation of a show is ambition vs. result, than Nise is a roaring success. However, it's not the execution for which I condemn Nise, its for what its goals are and therefore what its effect on its audience is.

Fanservice is annoying. At least, that's how I feel. But fanservice alone, ironic or no, is not enough for me to write off a show. Sure it can get irritating at times and it's a little insulting, but I don't consider it normally capable of single-handedly sabotaging a show. It's usually the case that shows that rely on fanservice to entertain their audience do so because they don't hold a great deal of respect for themselves in the first place or because they don't feel as though they have anything especially original to do or say, causing them to fall back on basic, shallow means of engaging their viewers. This isn't always the case, though: Code Geass and Haruhi Suzumiya stand out as examples to the contrary. Nise's not like that though: it takes pride in its ability to absorb its viewers in its carefully-crafted pandering, and that makes it all the more poisonous.

There are three major reasons why I abhor Nisemonogatari. They are as follows.

1. The fan-service actively detracts from, and oftentimes takes the place of the plot and characters. The show constantly goes out of its way to create appealing situations, turning its characters from the previously multi-dimensional beings that they were into absurd blobs of either hormones or obliviousness. Characters are made conveniently unaware of their situation to allow other characters to up their advances, taking the believability out of them. Entire episodes are spent on contrived erotic situations that devour any meaningful character interactions and replace them with characters making excuses to the audience to touch each other and calling it development. The actual story is condensed to the ends of arcs, becoming rushed and crammed into single episodes of extremely belated exposition rammed back-to-back with resolutions. This makes the show itself far more simple than it could have been, substituting the difficult truths of Bakemonogatari for childish moral taglines and replacing the meaningful personal revelations that were a result of conflict that was internal with physical villains who are either stupidly irredeemable or blatantly hypocritical. This is a very steep and very sickening price to pay for the constant fan-service.

2. Nisemonogatari is part of the Monogatari series. As a stand-alone, it could just be written off or dropped. However, as is, Nise is an active part of a pretty incredible series, one that it actively detracts from. It would be one thing if it were merely boring or slow, but it's more than that. No one's character motivations are consistent: Hitagi, who used to be over-protective and possessive of Araragi, suddenly decides instead that she's fine with him sleeping with whoever he wants as long as he loves her. Suruga, who used to be many things: athletic, energetic, envious, self-loathing; becomes defined exclusively by the trait "she is horny". Hanegawa, who was previously sharp with Araragi for being perverse despite her feelings for him, starts cracking jokes about him feeling her up. Araragi himself is the worst offender. While initially he was characterized as selfless to a fault, self-aware, and endearingly thoughtful of people's feelings, he's now decided to be conveniently oblivious and remorseless as he tramples on whoever-the-fucks emotions to cop a feel whenever possible. What once were entirely believable fantasies have manifested themselves in far-less believable actions. It's a lot easier to control what we do than what we think, and Araragi has aptly demonstrated an incredible willpower many a time. That he would so casually revert to this without any sort of triggering event or internal conflict is entirely unbelievable. All of this is a result of the show warping its characters to create the erotic situations it wants to, and it bends everything too far. Nisemonogatari breaks the illusion of the Monogatari world. Its inconsistencies, indulgent depravity and unfortunate placing in the middle of the series cause it to do hefty and irrevocable damage to the series as a whole. With a series as generally impressive as Monogatari, this is a real tragedy.

3. This is the big one. So far, I've described why I believe the show is bad, but internal sabotage and series sabotage are not enough to warrant a series a 1. What makes Nise so irredeemable is the impact is has on society's perception of sexuality. There is already enough of a problem with media portraying sex as very different than it actually is, glorifying it, creating false expectations of what it is supposed to be like, and taking the messiness and humanity out of it. This is actively damaging to impressionable youths and has a negative impact on social behavior and body image. Nise actively promotes these portrayals, portraying characters as young as 14 in erotic situations in ways that are meant to, as obvious by the expert camerawork, glorify it. This creates a false impression of what sex is like and pushes people to feel as though this sort of behavior is what is expected of them. If they aren't indulging in it too, they're missing out. Look how fucking hot it is, right? This is not to mention the fact that she show uses incest and a vampire trapped in an 8-year-old's body to draw out the appeal of a 'forbidden love' in its viewers. The worst part of all this is the way that Araragi is portrayed: not as the sleazy womanizer that he is, but as a gallant hero who all men should aspire to be like. He's shown as a kind, protective, morally-sound guy who gets to fool around with lots of girls as a result because he's earned all of their affections. In addition to this, unlike similar shows Nise has a very intellectual and mellow vibe to it that makes it much easier to justify enjoying. It's not in-your-face trashy. If you're looking for ways to make entitled monsters out of lonely and insecure young boys, then you've found a pretty sound bet in Araragi.

Inevitably, the show's final flaw is that it never addresses any of its choices. For a season that's essentially about fanservice, it sure never tries to make any contrasting points about why perhaps this kind of media and the ideas that it fosters are unhealthy. No, right up to the end Nisemonogatari is detrimental to itself, detrimental to the Monogatari series, and detrimental to society as a whole. For all of its gorgeous art and witty conversation, I can't think of anything I've actually finished that has been more deserving of a score of 1.

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Oshino, Shinobu

Araragi, Koyomi

Araragi, Karen

Araragi, Tsukihi

Senjougahara, Hitagi

Kaiki, Deishuu

Hanekawa, Tsubasa

Hachikuji, Mayoi

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