Nisemonogatari Review

So as some of you may know my favorite anime of all time is Bakemonogatari so I was ecstatic when I heard last year that a sequel was being made.  I had extremely high expectations for this series, but was Nisemonogatari enough to satisfy my tremendous hunger for this bizarre original story?  I don’t think I really need to write a synopsis for this series, if you don’t know what this franchise is about, it is better to start out with Bakemonogatari or you will be completely lost.

Nisemonogatari is able to improve on the already amazing animation of its prequel.  Similar to Bakemonogatari the backgrounds don’t have much movement so that the show can focus more on the interesting interactions between characters. By saying they don’t have much movement isn’t a bad thing.  The series is full of wide-open backgrounds full of geometrical shapes and patterns that establish the setting very well. Nisemonogatari uses an interesting combination of lights and darks, while continuing to use the strange abstract camera angels from the prequel.  One thing that made me really happy was that there was very little use of the flashing words.  They get on my nerves when they are overused in Studio Shaft’s anime but there were only a few in Nisemonogatari.  The character designs are still as strong as they ever were and the new characters all look great.  It is also really nice to see that many of the characters have changed their hair, it show that time has past in the series.

10/10

The returning characters to the series are great but some of the new characters just don’t compare in stature.  Everyone from Bakemonogatari are developed well in the original but Araragi’s sisters were developed so poorly.  They were superficially developed; you get to know a little about them, but really nothing worth wile.  Kaiki on the other hand was a very interesting character and a fake.  It was nice that the series actually had a bad guy who was a complete asshole.  For better or for worse Araragi the protagonist has become much more of a pervert throughout this series.  I don’t understand his damn relationship with his sisters. It is creepy and really sexual.  It is never okay for someone to strip their sister naked or to grope them…Also unfortunately some of my favorite characters from the original series are barely seen throughout Nisemonogatari.

8/10

We get 2 new openings in Nisemonogatari, which are sung by Araragi’s sister.  They are both a lot of fun and they represent both the sisters well. The voice acting is still as good as ever, and the characters voices fit the dialogue well.  I’m sorry this section is so short, there isn’t much more to add onto the sound in this franchise.

9.5/10

If you thought that Bakemonogatari was slow when getting to the point of things well get prepared for Nisemonogatari to surpass that.  The show is really drawn out especially in the beginning, and feels unnecessary at times.  Nisemonogatari really didn’t need to reintroduce every single character; they could have done so much more.  The dialogue that was so strong in the first series just seems like a shell of its former self in Nisemonogatari. Don’t get me wrong it is still bizarre, humorous, and down right great but it just isn’t as good.  It isn’t able to replicate the greatness of Bakemonogatari. Instead the series seemed to want to push the boundaries of anime into a realm of perversion, which is downright weird and creepy.  There were several times I was just incredibly confused, like the damn toothbrush scene which goes down in history as the creepiest anime scene I have ever seen.  I felt like such a creepy pervert watching it, I kept looking around to make sure that no one was around.  I liked that in Bakemonogatari that there was fan service but not enough that it got in the way of the series but that was the opposite of Nisemonogatari.  The show just wanted to exploit the damn girls constantly.  I saw things in this series that I didn’t want to see…the toothbrush scene.  Nisemonogatari seems like more of  Bakemonogatari’s less successful little brother.  The story is still great but it is completely overshadowed by its predecessor.  If you liked Bakemonogatari’s plot and style you will probably find yourself enjoying at least some of this series.

7.5/10

Overall Nisemonogatari is inferior to Bakemonogatari but it is still a great anime that I enjoyed.  The show is still a lot of fun to watch and it still has its moments of brilliance but it is a shell of its former self.  At least we get the Kizumonogatari movie coming out soon.  Hopefully that will be able to bring this franchise back to its glory days.

8.75/10  

Thanks for reading,

-Xana