(Eps seen: 7/11)
Nisemonogatari, like its forebear, Bakemonogatari, tends to cast a charm on you. So far, I've really been enjoying this, but more in a guilty fanservice way than anything else.
For the uninitiated, Nisemonogatari is essentially a bunch of dialog set to different, stylized backgrounds. Usually they are talking about supernatural curses that beautiful local girls tend to fall prey to, and then they help that person in some semi-shintoey way. Due to the dialog based storytelling, very little would be lost in the plot if this were a book-on-tape as opposed to an anime.
The artwork itself is stunningly pretty, but I feel at this point that it's just going through the motions. Every female character in the series leans waaaaaaay back and stretches out her neck sexily in the midst of normal conversation. (Why? Because the animators think chin-shots are hot!) What was edgy and breathtaking in Season 1 is now just ho-hum. It feels like they stopped taking chances, except for the sake of making anime-references (which are awesome when you get it) The animation as a whole has gotten so stylized and choppy that it feels more like flipping through a nudie-magazine whilst listening to that book on tape than watching an anime.
In fact, Nisegatari is one of those animes where I would slam my laptop shut if anyone walked in the door. Bakegatari, on the other hand, is not. While Bakegatari readily addresses the cast's raging hormones (who doesn't appreciate a grope or two?) Nisegatari often borders on soft porn.
All those criticisms aside, the character development in this series is enthralling, mostly because Bakemonogatari already did the footwork to make you love them. (I just don't like Araragi's sisters. I don't really know them from the more demure Bakegatari and they just aren't working for me under Nisegatari's hyper-sexualized lens)
For all the other characters in Araragi's harem, my response is a deep, bellowing, YES! They all develop, change, and show other facets of themselves, all while the camera flashes back and forth between their boobs and upskirt views.
I must also mention that the sound has improved in this iteration. Bakemonogatari's music was so quirky that it got repetitive quite quickly.
In short, I really like this, in the way I liked Higurashi-Rei, as fluffy bonus material. It didn't really hit the mark for me as a sewwious continuation of the original, despite it's attempts to do so.
If you liked Bake, watch Nise. If you hated Bake, skip this, you're not missing much. If you didn't watch Bake, go do it because absolutely nothing will make sense in Nise.
