Just Anime

So, I always heard a lot of great things about Bakemonogatari. Well, in all honesty I can't remember any specifics about what I heard so maybe I should just say that I've heard Bakemonogatari mentioned alot around the anime world. Yep, I'll go with that.

*reset*

So, Bakemonogatari is a pretty popular title around the internet but I never actually got around to watching it. I did watch Katanagatari, based off of a light novel by the same author, and I fell in love with it. When I heard that another series of his was going to be animated, I knew I'd be there day one. Well, that series is Nisemonogatari, a direct sequel which I believe is a direct sequel to Bakemonogatari.

Nisemonogatari

This immediately brought up a problem: I've never seen Bakemonogatari and this is a sequel. The series isn't available legally on any streaming sites and I don't watch fansubs anymore so there is basically no way I'm going to watch it before NiG (my clever way of shortening all of these xgatari series). Would this be a sequel like Ghostbusters 2 where you really don't need any familiarity with the prior movie to pick it up or is this like jumping headfirst into Matrix Revolutions without having seen any of the other films? The mystery awaited me.

Well, less than 30 minutes ago I finished the first episode of NiG and here's what I thought. Now a caution: I have done ZERO research into the prior series so all of this is solely based off of one episode. Also, I'm going to try and present this as unedited as possible.

Act 1

Ok, the first that hit me were the visuals. As you can see in the picture below, this entire part is shot drawn in super wide screen film aspect ratio. Additionally, there is crazy bloom lighting all over the place. I thought to myself, well even if the show is confusing and I don't get it, it is cool to look at. Outside of the art style, the animation is pretty nice as well and shots are framed up in pretty cool way.

It's got black bars like a movie!

So anyways, that was my "I've been watching for 5 seconds" thoughts. As for the situation, some guy named Koyomi got kidnapped by this cute girl named Hitagi. From the outside looking in, they seem to have some type of history. She seems a little off in the head and says that she loves him, but hey, women can be crazy, right? No real shock about any of this. So, there's some sexual innuendo going on between the two of them but she really seems kinda crazy in love. I thought this was pretty interesting to watch and it made me curious about what their history was.

Now, one very important thing that I feel should be brought up. This act also immediately brought the first episodes of KaG (Katanagatari) and Tatami Galaxy to mind for one reason: they talk... a lot. Well, no. That's not really why. They talk a lot in the first episode of Fate/Zero but it's not like this. NiG reminded me of those shows because of the speed at which they talk. Everyone speaks like the Micro Machines guy or the person at the end of a car commercial that turbo charges their way through what should be like 10 seconds of legalese in 2 seconds flat. It's not quite as bad as Tatami where I eventually just gave up and came to the conclusion that you weren't supposed to catch everything being said, but it gets close to it.

Anyways, cool segment. It got my attention.

Act 2

So, somehow Koyomi is now in his house. I don't remember exactly how it transitioned to it and, keeping in line with my unedited style, I'm not going to go back for clarity. Plus, meh. I don't remember being puzzled at the time so I'm sure the transition makes sense while you're watching it.

Anyways, this segment I think this segment introduces Koyomi's sister Tsukihi. I don't really remember what her name was because #1 I'm terrible with English names of real people, let alone Japanese names of fake people and #2 everyone calls each other Oni, Ani, Nee, etc so it's not like you get the chance to have the named drilled into your head anyways. ANYWAYS, the two of them are talking and it really reminds me of, I want to say Tatami Galaxy because everything is really visually stylized. The house they stay in is very stark and they do a lot of cuts they keep what might be a boring scene visually interesting.

This is also where more anime tropes start coming in and the dialog calms down. Sometimes this stuff can make me groan but with this show, it grounded it more for me and put me into a comfort zone rather than making me facepalm. I think it's because I'm new to this entire world that obviously has a lot going on and if I was treated to another throw you in the middle of it scene I might have started to feel lost.

It wouldn't be anime if teenage characters weren't introduced via an upskirt shot now would it?

So as you see, we get some service and Koyomi calls up this chick who is clearly and obviously in love with him, everyone else on the planet seems to be aware that she is in love with him, but duh, he's totally oblivious to it all. It's executed a lot better than I may be making it sound and the oblivious to love thing actually made me chuckle with how they did it.

Also... dude was a vampire. I like how they kinda just casually through that in there in the middle of a nice scene between a teenage brother and sister.

Act 3

At the end of the previous act, Koyomi decides to chill out with the girl who he doesn't know likes him. He invites his sister to come, but having a brain and knowing that the girl obviously wants him to come alone, she declines. So, on the way to ole girl's house Koyomi sees a little girl and goes on a Zetsubou Sensei-esque inner monologue of much debate, confusion and explaining (safe to assume these two have a complex history, although I incorrectly thought they were enemies at first) before running up and giving her a huge super duper silly hug.

Ahh, isn't that just the cutest thing you've ever seen.

Now, I'm pretty sure this girl is a vampire or some sort of monster since her immediate reaction to someone creeping on her from behind was to sprout claws and scamper up a light pole like a squirrel. This act is both my favorite out of the three and the most... what @Tom_Pinchuk would call "tricky" since Koyomi is constantly talking about how he wants to lick her or see her panties. It seemed weird and kinda out of the blue and I couldn't tell if he was joking because at some points the duo seemed like old friends catching up with each other and then in other parts dude is plotting to see her undies. Anyways, I had the courage to sit through and enjoy it for what it was.

Takeaways

Continuity

It's Tricky...Tr-tr-tr-tricky (Tricky) Trrrrrrrrrrricky

I got through the first episode and I have to say, I never felt particularly confused in a bad way. I don't know all of the character backgrounds and histories, but everyone's relationships with each other were laid out well enough for me to understand where they stood with each other, which I'm hoping is all I'll need going forward. If you've been hesitant about watching this without having seen BaG, definitely check it out.

Visuals

I really love the visuals. The character designs look like a lot of other shows, but the art style, particualrly how things are lit and colored really stands out. I can't recall anything similar to it.

Weekly Shaft Construction, Inc Special: pay for 3 broken walls and the 4th is free

I also LOVE the shots that they chose. There are a lot of interesting angles with things overlapping each other to create visually interesting scenes that could potentially be really drab if and boring if done any other way.

Comedy

The show has a lot of funny moments in it. The 4th wall is shattered multiple times and there a lot of subtle little jokes and lines here and there that you could miss if you're not paying attention, which I love but don't see enough of. It also has a few straight up you're supposed to laugh at this gags that are pretty funny as well.

I Bid You Adieu

Well, that's that. Definitely a worthwhile way to spend 24 minutes and like any good episode, it grabbed me enough to want to see what will happen in the next one. You can watch the series online via Crunchyroll at http://www.crunchyroll.com/nisemonogatari

Picture Gallery

-William Taylor ( sickvisionz ) is lazy by nature, procrastinator by trade. You can also find him on Twitter @mrsickvisionz and on Tumblr at In My Lifetime.

@EquitasInvictus: I'm glad that it isn't as obtuse or confusing as I was worrying it might be. I would like to know how...

• Koyomi ended up tied to the chair
• exactly what he and the little monster girl went through to have such a strong friendship
• and to confirm my suspicion that monster girl has a 5th grade body but is actually older... or is just the most mentally/emotionally mature 5th grader on the planet

But those were less about confusion and more about interest. One thing I like about this that wasn't present in Zetsubou Sensei is that it seems more focused. The characters go off on tangents on a regular basis still, but I get the sense that there is an overarching plot. Zetsubou was a bit too "everywhere but nowhere" for me and while I enjoyed the earlier episodes I eventually dropped it. That focus reminds me a lot of Tatami Galaxy, which shares a lot of stylistic things (an emphasis of being visually interesting rather than realistic, dialog pacing, going off on tangents) with both NiG and Zetsubou and is episodic like Zetsubou, but each episode has a focused plot and story or seems like it has an end game.

@DocHaus: It's not that bad. The only "molesting" thing he does is give her a totally nonsexual hug and kiss. To me that came off more like, "ahh, isn't she just the cutest thing ever" like a grandmother would or aunt would do to a little kid (although extremely exaggerated for comedic effect) rather than loli. His upskirt talk on the other hand... if my suspicion of her being older is correct, I think that talk was more of just him joking around with her rather than him being a pedo. They seem to have a deep friendship with a lot of trust and I could see that being a running gag the two of them have with each other. It'd probably be one of the rare times someone treats her like adult (or at least a highschool to college age person) rather than a little kid. If she actually is a 5th grader though...

@sickVisionz said:

• Koyomi ended up tied to the chair
• exactly what he and the little monster girl went through to have such a strong friendship
• and to confirm my suspicion that monster girl has a 5th grade body but is actually older... or is just the most mentally/emotionally mature 5th grader on the planet

The first topic deals with the plot development, the episode starts with the viewer not knowing how he got there, but i'm sure this will be answered in the next couple of episodes( but as the episode title says it has something to do with his sister Karen "bee")

The second point might be a spoiler from bakemonogatari, so if you plan to see it, don't readthis, otherwise:

Mayoi is a wandering spirit of a middle school girl that has been dead for about 10 years, so a 10-12 years being that age for that long is more mature than most kids.

@AURON570: If a screen with text is pretentious to you, well... they don't have that but I'm sure you'd find something in it to be pretentious or equally unacceptable.

@sickVisionz: Yeah, those are actually excerpts from the light novel they also go way to fast to be readable(like the weird stories in the fist couple of opening of Zetsubou Sensei). Make of that what you will.

Now to my main point, I'm actually surprised that you liked it going in blind like that. And like the other guy impressed that you caught on much of the subtext. But it's such a shame you just spoiled Hachikuji's(the elementary girl) arc since the whole thing depends on you not knowing she's the monster in the first place, it's one of my favorite ones too. Anyway you should find some way to watch it, it is amazing.

PS: NisiOisiN is god!

@zetzuei: @EquitasInvictus: You guys seem to be really aware of Bakemono. Without going into details about it, can you tell me if the following character assumptions are correct:

Koyomi Araragi	Koyomi Araragi Formerly a normal high school boy who someone got caught up with a cast of crazy people. Also, he used to be a vampire but I'm guessing that he gained and lost those powers during the first series.
Hitagi Sengohara	Hitagi Sengohara I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that at some point in the first series she was considered to be a fairly normal person. I can't tell if she's a monster or not but from her interactions with Koyomi, I can tell that the two have a deep history which I would guess was filled with flirting and one of them being attracted to the other. At some point something happened and she turned psycho with Koyomi. Am I also correct in guessing that no other "normal" people in the series (like her classmates, teachers, principal, etc) would ever believe Koyomi is he told them that she was seriously off in the head and had major issues? She seems like the type who knows how to hide her craziness when she needs to.
Tsukihi Araragi	Tsukihi Araragi I couldn't really get much out of her except that she's a pretty normal (normal compared to Psycho Sengoara and monster girl below at least) teenage girl who loves her blockheaded oni-san. She doesn't know about the vampire incident so I'm guessing that maybe she feels that her brother doesn't open up to her enough or is too oblivious to the thing going on around him in life.
Mayoi Hachikugi	Mayoi Hachikugi Probably my favorite character so far. I'm guessing that she and Koyomi are really close friends, but perhaps they didn't start off as friends at all. I'm guessing that something happened (someone's life being on the line?) and the two became extremely close and trusting of each other because of it. Also, she's a monster of some sort. She's so mature for a 5th grader that I wonder if she actually is only 10 years old or if she's an older being in a body that looks like a ten year old human.