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!
