So I was thinking some deep, serious thoughts about Nisemonogatari, as you do. Specifically, I was trying to piece together reasons why the first episode of this season might be considered inferior to last season. Obviously a big part of this lies in the quality of the direction and storyboarding but that's a given, so we'll leave it aside for the purposes of this evaluation.
In the beginning of Bakemonogatari the premise appeared to be 'normal' (yes, he was a vampire, but that whole plot has very little effect on him as a character or the plot) guy runs into an abnormal situation - the 'very light' girl. This encounter takes place at the start of the episode and sets up the story for the preceding two episodes. The next scene is all about Araragi and Hanekawa discussing this girl and then the scene after that is when Araragi has his aggressive encounter with her. Finally they go together to see Meme so that they can begin to resolve the problem.
This all leads to a very focused plot where there's lots for the viewer to discover that they don't already know. We don't know who Araragi is, what he is, who Senjoughara is, what's causing her 'lightness' problem etc. It's all about the interaction with this one key character: Senjoughara. The discoveries that we make in relation to her, her backstory, her interaction with Araragi, her character etc are all fresh and interesting.
The start of Nisemonogatari involves a fun scene between these two characters again. However, we already know who they are and what they are. That's all kind of been done. Then we move onto the sister, who is at least a character that we haven't dwelt on before. Yet, before we can get to her Nadako is on the phone. Ah, but before we even get to Nadako it's snake girl! We already know who these characters are, there's not much to discover about them that we haven't already covered. The only character that's new and relatively unexplored is the sister but the show doesn't devote much time to her. As the focus on this episode is somewhat lacking it's hardly a surprise that some consider it kind of underwhelming.
In short, despite what people might say, this is a show about the characters. Returning to characters that we already know a lot about, (apart from maybe Senjoughara) seems less interesting than learning more about new characters. Or, at the very least, it would seem better to focus on one character in greater depth. There's certainly something to be said for Araragi's more serious discussion with the snail but even that is only one part of a rather erratic episode.
It's interesting though. And I think you're right in some respect. While Bake was very much structured to be a sequence of character pieces, introducing us to the waifus, it did only that. Araragi was nothing more than your typical selfless caricature, saving them. A bit wordier than your usual audience insert, but empty words don't make character.
Nise seems to want to rectify that. Using Bake as a base to build from, it hasn't stopped in its focus on character, its just switched to one that the audience is already familiar with, but never really knew: Araragi. And I feel as if its less effective in that because, (One) With their ovbious audience pandering antics, it's hard to suddenly take any of the waifus seriously as devices and, (Two) You nailed. With isin/shinbo structuring it the way they have, Araragi feels too familiar, though, in reality, he's had no real development at all, to clarify my previous statement. Aside of course, from the fact that he's selfless, and a hotty vampire.
They're trying to go from no development, to a sudden pile of it, and people aren't adjusting well, it seems. Every scene in that first ep, as disjointed as they were, make perfect sense if you look at it that way. If in the next ep he visits the other waifus, and they somehow proclaim that they'll protect/help him, I'll actually be kind of upset that it's wired so obviously.
Oddly most the episode was setup as a romcom focused on the MC and his love interest(voiced by cheap and deteriorated Horie Yui!) at college, so not quite as creepy as you would think. Ro kyu bu this is not...at least not yet.
Again, this thread proves to be the worst place on the internet.
If you hate Aquarion (the original, not Evol) you have no soul. If you enjoy Aquarion but hate Evol...you are a strange person; Evol is not as good, but it's 75% as good as Aquarion and that's still better than most anime these days.
Looks to be the best mecha series since Gundam OO S1.
Evol is Aquarion downgraded, and that's the problem right there. The cast got worse. You have Miyono and Amata who will be known as the useless pair in a following number of episodes with the audience having to sit through yet another predictable Yuuki Kaji typecast, and it's just going to bother those with a low tolerance for an inferior Shu character. His character development arc is also fairly predictable because of that, and his "I'm useless" attitude in the cockpit highlights this perfectly. The story looks to be a retread of the old plot and is worse due to the sole fact the stupid
gender segregation plot
is going to be taken seriously for awhile. It's easy to ignore it in the 1st and 2nd episodes because it's played for a humorous effect, but now we have to sit through the consequences of it for an unknown period of time. We can only hope it'll be brief.
Bad anime can be enjoyable. Doesn't mean it's good. Also, your argument that it's better than most anime these days makes it good is a terrible argument. Let's not retread a Fractale argument, shall we?
Yep. It's all about how he came to join his club and the events around it. It is under the chronicles label for Papa no Iukoto or Chronicles of Street Observation Research. It's filled with fan-service but still better then the lolicon drama.
Well, yeah, Rider is awesome and Saber is pretty bland, but I thought they both made good points. It's just that Rider did so while being amazingly badass.
Yep. It's all about how he came to join his club and the events around it. It is under the chronicles label for Papa no Iukoto or Chronicles of Street Observation Research. It's filled with fan-service but still better then the lolicon drama.
Yep. It's all about how he came to join his club and the events around it. It is under the chronicles label for Papa no Iukoto or Chronicles of Street Observation Research. It's filled with fan-service but still better then the lolicon drama.
It's pretty easy to hate little girls with annoying high pitched voices who act like they're better than everybody else. How do people enjoy such abominations? That's the real question here.
Yep. It's all about how he came to join his club and the events around it. It is under the chronicles label for Papa no Iukoto or Chronicles of Street Observation Research. It's filled with fan-service but still better then the lolicon drama.
Well, you know, if someone tied me to a burning stake situated over a shark-infested tank and held a gun to my head and forced me to pick a preferred Kugiloli (oh the choices), I'd go with Taiga.
Well, you know, if someone tied me to a burning stake situated over a shark-infested tank and held a gun to my head and forced me to pick a preferred Kugiloli (oh the choices), I'd go with Taiga.
Mushishi has a nice song but virtually no animation! Lain is the quintessential "good" English OP! Wolf's Rain has an excellent OP both visually and aurally (once you get over the shock of the opening STRAAAAAAAY) Gunslinger Girl! Beck is Engrish but awesome! GANKUTSUOU! HE SOUNDS LIKE HE'S DRUNK! Hanada Shounen-shi is the Backstreet Boys!
And looking back over the list above, I can't believe I forgot Kaiba, Higashi no Eden and Speed Grapher! All three have good OPs visually and musically.
Ooo exciting karuta, that was kind of intense. It's impressive that they have turned such a dry sport into something that can be exciting to watch. It's still just a card game, but they have handled it very well. The bit with the t-shirt was pretty hilarious.
I think I'll keep watching this for now. I find the artwork/animation to my liking. But as far as telling a creepy suspense/horror story goes, this is pretty much the textbook example of "trying too hard".
Who needs love triangles when you can just Prince of Tennis the karuta, with stuff like them moving so fast they create supersonic waves that makes clothes explode.
Who needs love triangles when you can just Prince of Tennis the karuta, with stuff like them moving so fast they create supersonic waves that makes clothes explode.
I just looked up what you are talking about and WTF. It almost taints my perception of the show. I was wondering why people were mocking the manga, but I didn't expect that...
I just looked up what you are talking about and WTF. It almost taints my perception of the show. I was wondering why people were mocking the manga, but I didn't expect that...
I just looked up what you are talking about and WTF. It almost taints my perception of the show. I was wondering why people were mocking the manga, but I didn't expect that...
