Bakemonogatari

[Killer_Ossi]

I think the first season was as echi, especially when the neko apppeared.

And I dont think the leg flashing was distraction since, honestly, I didnt see it ^^ Probably because she has no sexappeal because of her horrible hairstyle, not even when she bent over and showed her cleavage.

 

[Ausdoerrt]

QUOTE
Scene exposition still SUCKS as badly as in the first season. I mean, we arent watching anything animated. As a matter of fact, it is a narrated comics, because the characters hardly move, it is just changing screen shots. I know the creators are trying to be original here, but maybe they are trying too hard.

Original? Nah, I think SHAFT is just being too lazy to animate the whole thing and pass it off as "style" as usual

 

[Kid-Wolf]

Oh for the short haired version of Senjogahara can be found on the OVA epsidoe not on the Nisemonogatari series.

Although since it's really another title shouldn't it get it's own thread from here on out? I'd thought I'd ask this before the disucssion went into full swing here.

 

[warita200]

It is the second season of bakemonogatari and the activity in the forums is so low, that I wonder if there really is a need to open a new thread. I dont know how about you, but I think it is sort of depressing how some threads never get past 4 pages.

 

[wedora]

Happy to see this one has started back up, and it picked up in the same manner and is just what I expected. I think some of the charm of this series is lost in translation, for example the heavy emphasis on "bee" as a method of foreshadowing, but its used in many different contexts. Also, some of the exchanges sounding almost the same linguistically with changing meaning, making the wordplay hard for us to catch. This was present in the first season as well, and becomes extremely obvious upon re-watch and/or arc completion (see "crab" arc from season 1).

I really enjoyed the first season and it looks like the second won't dissapoint. Its very introspective and the character exchanges just has me leaning back in my chair smiling or grinning. Yeah there isn't loads of animation, but I think it does what fits for the series since you must focus on complicated dialogue.

 

[JCDRANZER]

I had originally watched the first 13 episodes of Bakemonogatari whilst it was airing and waiting patiently of the episodes that weren't aired on Japanese television but streamed on their website and us anime viewers who weren't able to watch the streams, had to wait for very low quality subbed releases, which weren't the fansub groups' faults.

Over the weekend, I introduced this series to 3 of my friends and we watched 10 episodes over 2 nights, we actually could have finished it quickly but we kept chatting or doing something else after finishing an episode.

All 3 of my friends are somewhat noobs to anime but not as noob as most. They've watched about 10 to 20 different TV anime series.

Marty is one of the 3, he has only watched Code Geass S1 & S2, Darker than Black S1 & S2, Ergo Proxy, Serial Experiment Lain, Death Note, Hellsing and Baccano. I introduced him to Baccano. Anyways, he refuses to watch Shounen and prefer series that are more darker, mature and Seinen in general. I haven't actually tried to make him watch Shounen series to be honest but the 2 other friends have tried.

Dan loves shounen animes, he likes good stories and action, HunterXHunter, One Piece, Code Geass series, Death Note and Hajime no Ippo are among his favourites. I introduced him to Hajime no Ippo. However, he dislikes romance, ecchi and repeated one-liners such as Hanekawa's one-liner in Bakemonogatari, he makes a face that can only be described as a "Dan Face". He didn't like To aru no Majutsu no Index.

Luther is SLOW and takes way to long to watch a series, he tries to watch and do too many things at once. In general, he's closest to me than the other two, mainly because he lives near me and comes to my flat often, he's a nice guy but just generally very stupid, silly, mumbles, super-huge Nintendo fanboy that wants to buy a Wii U when it comes out, immature, annoying, irritating, etc. I tried to re-watch Hajime no Ippo with him but took almost 3 weeks to watch 12 episodes, I gave up re-watching it with him, since he was a first-time watcher of the series, he really really liked it but constantly tried to get this girl who's rejected him twice.....ah forget about that.....anyways, I then re-watched the rest of the series in 2 or 3 days.

Before watching Bakemonogatari with them, I told them that they might like the series and then proceeded to find out which fansubber release I should download by comparing the ratings and comments on anidb. They saw the anidb picture for Bakemonogatari and Dan and Marty started complaining, especially Dan, who said that it's going to be a really crap harem series, I told them they just have to try it out.

Whilst watching the series in awesome Blu-Ray 1080p quality, Dan made "Dan Faces" whenever Hanekawa says her one-liner or the part where they show a lot of text that can't be read quick by enough by the viewer at the beginning of the episode and the other 2 thought the same as well as they wanted to know what it was.

Luther made stupid noises whilst watching the first 10 episodes, which Marty complained about because they were sitting next to each other.

Luther also said the series contained too much dialogue and didn't get to the point quick enough. Me, Dan and Marty all disagreed to Luther's comment, we all loved the intelligent dialogue that kept us yearning for more. The intelligent dialogue........Luther pissed me off with his comment and the fact that he microwaved this jelly pudding earlier the night as well, which was offered to him by Marty. His reason for microwaving it was that he didn't like the taste of it, it was Melon flavoured, he mentioned he tasted Coconut in it, which I believe to be bullshit. The poor Jelly Pudding was reduced to liquid-gooey mess, that son of bitch ruined it.

Marty liked the art style of the series, which I mentioned to him being a SHAFT series, I think he will be more willing to watch more SHAFT series in the future.

We shall be finishing off the series this week without a doubt. Since, it's pretty much me re-watching it, Bakemonogatari still seems fresh to me despite most of the scenes had already been etched into mind when I first watched it. I still love this series and I can't wait to finish it this week so that I can move on to Nisemonogatari, which I think translates to Fake Story I think.

Bakemonogatari will most definitely get a 10/10 from me, it's such a joy to watch.

 

[wedora]

lol, interesting novel you've written there JC. Nice to see you active again, not that I should be speaking about activity per se

With regards to your friend, I think this series' heavy focus on wordplay and shintoism can go over the heads of those who don't have the fundamentals of those subjects down, which you could probably say is a trademark of SHAFT works. If I had watched this as one of my first couple series I certainly wouldn't find it as enjoyable as I did after a few years of learning. I will say this though, watching it a second time is most definitely not boring at all and lets you catch things that may have gone over your head the first time through. They utilize a lot of foreshadowing hints that are extremely subtle, but can be picked up on the second watch through because you understand what's going to happen. For me, it was icing on the cake to cement this as one of the best series I've ever watched, b/c I usually can't stomach re-watching much of anything. Maybe your friend would enjoy it more on the second pass? Then again, he might hate you for it too

 

[JCDRANZER]

QUOTE (wedora @ Jan 31 2012, 09:07 PM) lol, interesting novel you've written there JC.  Nice to see you active again, not that I should be speaking about activity per se 

With regards to your friend, I think this series' heavy focus on wordplay and shintoism can go over the heads of those who don't have the fundamentals of those subjects down, which you could probably say is a trademark of SHAFT works.  If I had watched this as one of my first couple series I certainly wouldn't find it as enjoyable as I did after a few years of learning.  I will say this though, watching it a second time is most definitely not boring at all and lets you catch things that may have gone over your head the first time through.  They utilize a lot of foreshadowing hints that are extremely subtle, but can be picked up on the second watch through because you understand what's going to happen.  For me, it was icing on the cake to cement this as one of the best series I've ever watched, b/c I usually can't stomach re-watching much of anything.  Maybe your friend would enjoy it more on the second pass?  Then again, he might hate you for it too 

Thank you Wedora.

Yeah, re-watching this series was a blast and the foreshadowing in this series was great, like subtle changes to certain characters' lines later in the series were awesome. I only watched the first 13 episodes when I first watched this series.

Anyways, me and my 3 other friends were finally able to watch the last 5 episodes of this series and I'm pretty sure I was the only one that was thoroughly entertained by the series overall, I know they had a few reservations and some just thought it was a simple romance story. One of them, Dan, has watched anime for 5 years but he's kind of a noob somewhat, I know he really likes anime and he could watch more if he wanted to. Luther will also remain a disappointment, he doesn't tend to finish certain series....to be honest, I believe the guy has no taste and no sense of humour. Since, he hasn't watched many things in his life apart from watching some seriously crappy shows, certain shitty British television. Marty, is an anime noob and thinks Death Note, Code Geass, Darker than BLACK, Lain, Elfen Lied are the best anime in the world. They are good but not the best.

In retrospect, I think Bakemonogatari may have been a bad choice for them to watch with some parodies and it being a SHAFT series, which I believe isn't good for noobs to watch because they aren't able to appreciate the sheer excellence that certain SHAFT series exude particularly Bakemonogatari.

Dan and Luther left soon after we finished Bakemonogatari. I was thinking of showing them Higurashi 1st season and I didn't have much luck when getting it from IRC. Another friend, Lewis, came by, we kinda didn't allow him to watch Bakemonogatari because we were 10 eps ahead of him, when we started watching it, he went back home during the weekend. Anyways, it was just me, Lewis and Marty and we started watching "Another", the first 6 episodes, me and Lewis enjoyed it, Marty kinda liked it....to be honest, he wasn't very clear with his opinion.

I'm thinking of introducing them to Kara no Kyoukai, Higurashi, Mouryou no Hako, Mushishi, or something that's really really good and isn't shounen, typical slice-of-life and not generic shounen. Marty still refuses to watch shounen even FMA, me and Dan have watched both series, the first and Brotherhood, Luther has only watched the first or so he says. There have been too many instances where Luther has pretended to watch things so as to not look stupid but the fact is, our opinion can't really go lower than what it currently is.

It was the first time I watched both episodes 14 and 15....I somehow feel that I have watched them before but I swear to god I haven't.

Anyways, I loved this series through and through, I shall be starting Nisemonogatari soon.

I shall rate Bakemonogatari a perfect score, 10/10, I am glad I was able to enjoy re-watching this series.