Wolf Rants: Some Anime Winter 2012 reviews

Okay so here are my quick reviews for most of Winter 2012s anime series. Yeah, I ain’t reviewing all the series that came out or ended this season either because I didn’t watch them or I just don’t feel like making one for ‘em. BTW, I’ve already given Nisemonogatari its own review but I just copy-pasted it here just in case.

Nisemonogatari Final: The ImpoStory & Review

So it has finally ended(?)… However this ending left me with the impression that there is more to come. They did leave an impression of something to happen between Araragi and Senjougahara. Also I was expecting something more for an ending rather than just a last boss fight and a small speech. But then again that’s just me having really high expectations.

I just went berserk when I saw Shinobu transform into a teenager. I mean really, Shinobu tops 2nd in my list of female characters but would’ve shared 1st place with Holo (Spice and Wolf) if only she didn’t have that loli character. Yeah her loli body added to her character type but not into that. Then here they come with Shinobu in teenager form!!! Damn, I love that character… Too bad they just gave her one episode as a teen. NEED MOAR!!

So story wise, I was quite disappointed in the fact that they didn’t show the fight between Shinobu and Yostugi. Their battle would be much more interesting don’t you think? Then I noticed that their battle ground was hardly destroyed. Then compare their fight to Araragis fight with Kagenui where they go up and down pounding through multiple floors.

Kagenui speaks with Arargi saying humans are born fundamentally evil and us being good is us not being true to ourselves. Well, I’m sure you folks must be smart enough to know that this ain’t true right? I believe we are all born with the good and evil levels inside us varying throughout. And humans mostly do evil simply cause of its immediate convenience for our personal selves and our inability to control our own foolish desires. You and I both know that doing the right thing usually requires doing the most difficult thing. But strength in ones “self” and “character” comes from overcoming our destructive desires and conquering our evil self. “For change to occur, destruction must first be done”

Yeah, this episode review is quite short. Mostly because I got a lot of work to do and the fact that I feel this series is still undone. That being said you might have noticed that I wrote “ended(?)” in the first words of my post. Well along with me not feeling like this series is undone; I feel they were implementing more with the final scene between Araragi and Senjougahara. It’s like they are saying “Moar to come” in the form of a scene. And I’m extremely interested to know the changes Senjougahara has come to. BTW, Senjougaharas change in appearance was quite good as well; she still has her “hot” factor intact. But now we’ll have to see if her change in personality complements her new look.

In the end, I WAN’ MOAR!!

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Nisemonogtari Review

As its title suggests “Nisemonogatari” is all about the fakes. “Nisemono”, translates into English as “impostor” which is the basis of the entire series. The fake ideals of the “Fire sisters”, the illusion of Karen’s “Bee oddity”, the con-man Kaiki and his argument that the “fake is of more value in its attempt to be real”, Araragis fake sister, Tsukihi, and Kagenui talking about how humans doing good things are humans being untrue to themselves. This series is all about the fakes.

I must commend that the way they portrayed such a concept as “Impostors” and “fakes” in to the story without over blowing it.  The concept flows together with the story flawlessly, and everything just comes together complementing each scene with the rest without leaving any obvious plot holes or lack of pretext.

Overall, due to the series only having two arcs, I felt that I was shorter than Bakemonogatari. None the less the composition of plots and portrayal of characters though dynamic camera angles, excellent animations, and awesome designs the series was a ride worthy as a sequel of its predecessor, Bakemonogatari.

Next up in line is the prequel to Bakemonogatari, Kizumonogatari. Unfortunately Kizumonogatari is just an OVA or something. None the less, I’m looking forward to it with great expectations. With all the hype, fanbase, and money that the series reels in, hopefully they also adapt the rest of Nisio Isins “Monogatari” series into an anime. I could care less if it’s another TV series, an OVA, or even a movie, as long as they make MOAR!!

OkamiSan~

Nisemonogatari 10: The Fakes

So this episode, being the second to the last, put the main story to its climax(-ish) state quite fast. Other anime would usually give more time and progress the story throughout longer episodes. But they did a good job of creating a well structured main story leading to the end without leaving any plot holes or making it too fast paced. Mind you, this is Nishio Ishins “Monogatari” series and this is kind of pace that the series would go. It takes the main story and mixes it up with the side stories, and Ishin-san does it quite well.

Shinobu! Damn I love this girl… When she said she was actually talkative, she really is talkative. We also get to see her love for donuts a lot clearer here.

Ok, in this episode I found it quite odd and disappointing to know that Araragis aggression is quite up there. Here, he strips Tsukihi, ties her hands, and gropes her under the pretext of asking why does she not have any scars (-.-“). Really, Araragi knows he has got a harem in his hands. This is most likely just fan service but, I prefer an MC that won’t go physical under such odd pretexts. BTW, showing that Tsukihi had no scars was a foreshadowing of her part in the main story.

The sisters have boyfriends?! That’s a nice way of introducing such things. Despite my distaste for incest I was taken aback by the fact that a female, that is supposed to be part of the MCs harem, is in another relationship? Now my feeling for this goes back and forth between saying this is the right thing and but its Araragis harem! Hopefully they get into more detail by the next episode and things get clearer, at least for me.

There was this scene where while Araragi was speaking of their boyfriends that Tsukihis “tail thing on her head” was doing some weird gestures, I feel this was implying something on Tsukihis part. Also I found the cut of when Araragi sighs after the conversation to emphasize this more. Dunno, this just got me thinking…

Lol, for Kaikis return! Usually trouble characters don’t return or if they do return, they do so after a long time. But in this series, Kaiki returns with his iconic character and expressions simply as an informant to Araragi and us, the audience. And along the way Kaiki still manages to get away with snatching someone else’ (Araragis) money. Whether his role in the series has officially end with be determined in the next episode.

So with Kaikis explanations, Kagenui Yozuru and Ononoki Yotsugi are some sort of ghost busters. And now their target is someone immortal. Araragi would of course assume he is their target, but really this arc is about Tsukihi. Now why they wanna kill her? They explain that they have a hatred for oddities that pretend to be human and deceive humans. Really that reasoning isn’t much when I think about it story wise. But then again this entire series has always had unique people with characters that can go beyond reason. Isn’t that how the world is right now? Beyond reason… Unreasonable.

So I guess by now you guys have noticed a considerable emphasis on the word “fake” in this series. Well, the title of the series is “Nisemonogatari” which translates to “Impostory”. So we got the fake sisters as well as their fake justice, and the Con man, the fake man known as Kaiki. I’ll go into more detail in the full review of this series.

Now Kagenui Yozuru says that Tsukihi is a fake sister. But I don’t think so, how I see it or how I’d like it to be is Tsukihi inherited immortality whilst in her Moms womb. So she is still Araragis sister, she does have the families iconic “tail in the head thing”. This is just my theory but we will hopefully get a better understanding of things in the next and last episode.

Overall this one’s a well structured episode leading towards the end without making things go too fast. Yes, perhaps this arc was the one that was given less attention and ended up having a less dynamic story. Still, it’s something worth watching…

~OkamiSan

Nisemonogatari 9: *Insert title here*

I always find myself peeking at the timeline when watching an episode of an awesome series as this. Cause you know, time flies when you’re having fun. Also in this series, there aren’t really a lot of things happening, they got like 2 to 3 major events or scenes that make up the entire episode. Sigh~ I am yet again reminded that the series is about to end soon… I’m so sad face now.

Anyway, I found it irritating when Karen just added herself to team ‘Short hair’. First we got Hanekawa cutting her hair short for a reason that escapes me, then Senjougahara does the same saying it’s a symbol of her change, now we got Karen doing it for…. fun(?). Yeah, it’s just three characters getting a makeover but consider their character types. Hanekawa is the smart president type and her braid is a testament to that, despite it being cliché. Senjougahara is the ‘S’ type character and her long silky hair adds to her dominance and beauty. And Karen... well… she just makes the situation more obvious, other than that her character doesn’t really need long hair. But when I think about it sporty and athletic characters such as Karen do have the trope of having short hair so… she’s fine.

This was unexpected but apparently we are introduced to two new characters in this episode, now I did some research on who they are and fortunately wiki explained this without spoiling any story for me. Kagenui Yozuru and Ononoki Yotsugi, our two new female characters made their debut without any real explanation of who they are. However they leave us wondering how they know about Araragi and the situations behind him going as far as calling him Devil boy, Karen as hornet sister, and Hachikuji snail girl.

Now hopefully they don’t turn out to be enemies, but the entire series has never really had a real antagonist. Yes there was Kaiki, but I consider him only to be half of an antagonist. His objectives just collide with the lives of our characters. Kaiki versus our characters is more like someone unintentionally taking your parking space. You go up to him and tell him that that’s your space; He may give you a face but just leaves to bother someone else.

Along with the introduction of Ononoki Yotsugi, the small girl, came the idea that this series seems to favour lolis. Yea~yea there are now only three lolis in town and it’s highly implausible that Ononoki Yotsugi will be added to the harem but I’m not only talking about the small bodied loli. Aside from Senjougahara, Hanekawa and Kanbaru and maybe even Karen, all the other women in Araragis life (harem) are quite younger than him. Not that it’s a big problem but I would be nice if they added a OneSama figure or just a more mature woman to Araragis harem. And, by the way, it’s not very likely that they will add those female characters from reading the tittle of all novels of the monogatari series. Me sad face again (-_-)”

The event where Araragi called Hanekawa caught my attention being that Araragi was a bit too excited when talking to her. Yeah, he does think highly of her but to be that excited implies something more than just thinking highly of her. Also later in the episode he clearly says he does love Hanekawa then says it is Hachikuji that he will marry. In the end what I want to know is what he would do with the love he has for her, despite dating Senjougahara. HAREM TIME!

And on that “harem” note, this episode solidifies my theory that Araragi knows that he’s got a harem on his hands and is taking advantage of it, to some extent. Now I don’t particularly find it bad, it fact it’s nice to have a main character in a harem to actually know that he’s got a harem. I just hope that if Araragi acts upon his harem the romance and harem aspect won’t be blown out and as obvious as other series. I really~really love how the monogatari series keeps its romance discrete or just simply implied, for the most part.

Episode 9 now and two more episodes to go!!!!!!! No~~ I don’ wan it to end!!!

OkamiSan~

Nisemonogatari 08: TOOTHBRUSH madness!!

It’s amazing how the Japanese can take any simple idea and transform it into something that’s disgustingly bad or flawlessly good or just like in this episode, perversely erotic. Anyway, before I begin I would like you peoplez to know that I’m so not into incest, I’ve got my morals that I’d like to uphold. Your opinion may be different but to each their own opinion or in this case preference. Never the less I foresaw this sort of romance as soon as I found out the kind of series that Monogatari is.

Before the catchy new opening we have the first scenes are like an intro to the new chapter, Tsukihi Phoenix. Now this title obviously speaks so much about the arc. But then, this first scene is pretty much the only thing they show concerning the main story. Then again, they did the same in the first arc to fill in the gaps and make a longer story.

The biggest disappointment I see in this episode, which might as well be the biggest disappointment in the series if so far, is the sudden change in Karen’s character type. I see Karen as this strong, athletic character but in this episode they change her into this perverse masochist, what happened to her strong front? Yeah it probably was destroyed after Araragi “defeated” her in the last episode but it was never really shown properly.

Toothbrush Madness I say!! And like I’ve said earlier, it’s amazing how they come up with such ideas from something as simple as a toothbrush… a toothbrush!! But this sudden lunge into something that is so obviously erotic is not something I like. To me, it this event is a sort of change of pace, the series has always been discrete and subtle about certain things such as romance, and fan service. Yes ever since this series they’ve shown a lot more fan service but this one in this episode is just different. Now I won’t try to explain how it is different because I simply suck at describing the difference.

In a section of the toothbrush scene Aararagi mentions how cute Karen is and was wondering if she was cuter than Hanekawa. But personally Hanekawa is just light-years ahead of Karen, which should be obvious. Anyway, notice how he describes Hanekawa as the ideal woman and goes as far as to say that no one can match her. He’s got Senjougahara but speaks about Hanekawa as though she is higher than Senjougahara. I guess Senjougahara does have a reason to humble herself in before Hanekawa.

Despite my displeasures I found the episode to be very, very, very funny. The scenes where Aararagis facial expression changes as he looks at Karen or when he kicks her in the face or the scene of his reaction to Karen thinking he was going to stick the toothbrush up her ass up to the reaction of Tsukihi after discovering what the other two were doing, in the end I had a good laugh watching this. I wasn’t as aroused, per say, as I thought I’d be. I guess that’s due the fact that I don’t really like Karen’s base character type nor her change, I also don’t like the incest part of things (-.-“).

OkamiSan~

Nisemonogatari 07: Arc End~ Araragi x Senjougahara

And so ends the first of the two arcs we got in this series. A series that feels surprisingly short (-.-"). Anyway, I forgot to mention the fact the Araragi did kiss Karen in the last episode. Also, I have forgotten that in ep 12 of Bakemonogatari, Araragi and Senjougahara did kiss after their conversation. But to create a unique and different mood they decided not to show it. Hence, they did the same and didn't show Araragi kissing Karen. Really, its amazing how the director creates these events and puts them together in such a way that works flawlessly together.

We began this episode with what looked like a Mid boss fight between Araragi and Karen. At first I thought that the destruction Karen makes from her moves were caused by the weather-fire bee but apparently not so. She is capable of that destruction purely through her own strength. It was quite shocking to find out that as normal and ordinary Karen is, she is capable of doing some destruction. Yeah sure there are times in the Bakemonogarati series when supernatural powers and such were exhibited but that was only due to the oddity or supernatural being in that event.

Oddly enough, after the Mid boss fight, I was expecting a Last boss fight. But what was I thinking, Kaiki isn't that kind of person. So the fact that they just had a conversational fight was appropriate considering the character types of all three characters. By the end of the battle Kaiki simply leaves the the town. Now having Kaiki just simply leave town was somewhat unwanted, I was expecting some sort punishment to befall Kaiki, you know, just as crime never pays, crime must be punished. So him leaving unscathed was not something I wanted. But then again this is Nisemonogatari, and they made it so Kaiki simply leaving was not as uncalled for and unjust as others series would put it.

Now talking about Kaiki as an enemy, he is the quite the unique kind of enemy in the sense that his goal is small and simple, he wants money. This is coupled with his personality of wanting to stay in the neutral when it is clear that he is the enemy. He twists words and confuses his victims to make it seem like he wasn't totally at fault or not at all at fault, this gives him some room to escape. All this is complemented by this attitude of speaking in a low, uninterested tone. This makes him a character above ordinary characters. Personally however, his character uniqueness isn't that high, he does have a very unique character but in terms of likes, he doesn't have much appeal.

So after Kaiki leaves, Senjougahara seeks Araragis complement. This is where her tsundere side starts and seeks Aararagis comfort while pushing him into a corner and ending up more like how Araragi puts it, a "Sadist" or "Con Man" (I heard him say Sadist but the subtitle wrote Con man so...). But that's not whats interesting, by the end of the scene Senjougahara says these words "So... Be gentle to me tonight"   キタ━━━(゜∀゜)━━━!!!!!   Now going back, they never showed Araragi kissing either Senjougahara or Karen, so we can't expect them to show anything even beyond that. So with Senjougaharas words and the fact that they won't show anything even beyond kissing, this leaves us to simply imagine what the crap happened to them that night. But then the next scene shows Araragi in his house the next morning, so I thought it was nothing. But I like to think something did happen, maybe he just went back to his house after or maybe Senjougahara is inside his room, cause all they showed was him just outside his room right?!

Outside note: Yeah I know this post comes up in a bad date since I post this just before the next episode comes  out. But really I can't find the time to do it in any other day than Saturday, and the next episode comes out Saturday night. Hence I have to wait till next Saturday to write this. Sorry bout that eh? I do try to write this when I can.

OkamiSan~

Nisemonogatari 06: Don't cut your hair ( ﾟ Дﾟ)!!

When I say “Spoiler Alert“, I’m talking about things that are to happen in future episodes and not the current episode we’re talking about.

I’m beginning to think about how this entire series would go about the two arcs it has to show. Because we are already in the 6th episode when there are only 11 episodes in this series (with which I am saddened). We aren’t even done with the first arc so this has gotten me thinking quite a bit. Anyway, as long as they don’t rush it and squeeze the entire two arcs into these 11 episodes making it crap, then I’m fine.

Araragis relationship with Hachikuji is by far the most hilarious and the most unique one. It isn’t because there is no hint of romance instead their closeness and the ways they interact with each other make them a very entertaining couple. The way they harass and fool each other make up their relationship. Now if candy isn’t sweet then how can it be candy? And apparently in Araragis case, take away his “harassing Hachikuji” part of him then the uniqueness of their relationship is ruined.

Hachikuji exits the scene and Araragi begins talking about something sad, a sort of foreshadowing to something that may happen to Hachikuji. But he then shrugs it off as a joke. None the less, given the mood and coloring of the shot and tone of Araragi this scene seems to have a purpose. So I did some research without much success because the only next major story with Hachikuji is “Kabukimonogarari” which contains “Mayoi Jiang Shi”, which by the way seems to be fascinating story from the synopsis that I read.

In this episode we also go deeper to knowing how much Senjougahara fears Hanekawa. Senjougahara goes as far as adding “-sama” when calling Hanekawa and giving her much respect. Quite a shock considering she is an “S” character. This to you guys may be a good thing or a bad thing but essentially this just gives us a more dynamic and entertaining story. There is actually a pretext to why she is acting this way, one being that she does sees Hanekawa as a threat to stealing Araragi and two, she wants to change. And her change does not end here.

Spoiler Alerts from Wiki:
“After the events in Tsukihi Phoenix, she overcame all of her trauma, and finally became a completely normal and cheerful girl. She starts referring to Araragi with a cute nickname, chuckling at small things and sending e-mails full of Emojis, although her sharp tongue is still there, but toned down.” Now we of course won’t really be seeing this unless they decide to make a series for all of the Nisio Ishins ‘Monogatari ’ novels.

Unfortunately, the photos of Senjougahara shown in the Nisemonogatari trailers are true. Along with her will to change she wishes to cut her hair short to prove it!!! Let me say this again, “SHE WISHES TO CUT HER HAIR SHORT!!!” ( ﾟ Дﾟ) This of course, poses a few if not a ton of problems, well, to me it does. Think about her character type then think back to a few other anime series’ out there that have the same character type. I’ve posted a few in a picture at the end of the post. You may notice that all of them have one major thing in common, long hair. Long and beautiful hair combined with Senjougaharas character type is like a tradition, a cliché (though not a bad cliche), it is a must. It’s just that that character type fits so well with long hair, like peanut butter and jelly, that to change it would be like mixing coke and coffee. Personally, I have not seen such a character type with short hair, none the less I say, “Long hair + that ‘S’ character type” must always be one!

I really don’t agree with Senjougahara cutting her hair short and that is pretty much the first thing that has disappointed me in the series. Hopefully the transition won’t be hurt her character type and they do a proper job of portraying her though she has short hair. And given the picture I found of her having short hair, she don’t look too bad, she’s still hot. That picture is posted at the end of the post.

On a small note, I noticed that Shinobu looks way better when she has her hair down but that’s only when she’s serious, most of the time though, she’s not.  Also Araragi calls Shinobu a tsundere? Is he talking about the Tsundere in Senjougaharas definition? Because she does not seem like a tsundere at all.

Things look like they are in its climax now and we get Karen running away and the reason is still unknown. But what I really want see is how I would take in Senjougaharas change (>_<).

OkamiSan~