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.
