By now we all know that Shaft took the best features that made Bakemono and levelled them over 9000. I’ve also noticed that along with those features they took the romance factor from a discrete pace to a very obvious feature. But that’s not all; they even upped an unlikely feature to the series and it being a good or bad thing is something I am yet to determine. Though this episode is clearly titled “Karen Bee part two” they haven’t really gone far into the story have they? Compared to pacing of Bakemono where they get into main story of the arc right away, this series episode feels more like a mix of a character intro and main story. Yeah, I keep comparing both series but to me these things are quite obvious (-.-“).
Ok, so in this episode we meet Nadeko, her new look, and a romantically aggressive attitude. Quite a change I must say; I always thought of her as an ordinary shy girl trying to get the confidence to take the one she loves but… Here her change was just a bit too sudden. Now she gets a new look and goes on seductive mode going as far as thinking what kind of clothes to wear so she can take one off and seduce Araragi. Not saying that it’s a bad thing, I mean every female character in love with Araragi is has their own way of trying to love him so Nadekos character type is to be expected and brings more spice to the whole thing. In the end she still does have her own charm that draws me to her.
Nice cam shot, eh? This ones small but IMO its still fan service, kinda.
This brings us to another topic, FAN SERVICE!! Fan service in Bakemono was there but in small numbers with Senjougaharas bath scene, Nadekos bed scene and Tsuabasas neko on a bike scene. Fan service scenes in Bakemono were there once in a while but compare it to Nisemono and you’ve got a huge difference. Nisemono has got the service rolling every five minutes as you may have noticed. Now personally, this level of fan service is not at all necessary. They could most likely get away with an awesome series with the same level of fan service that Bakemono had but I guess Japans general public demands such. And adding more fan service would mean for views and that means more money, so I guess it’s a give and take thing. In the end, I’m quite fine with this level of fan service though a part of me wished they tone it down a little and as long as the feature doesn’t interfere with the quality of the story then I’ll be fine.
Next scene, we finally meet the one who is supposed to be the subject of the episode, Karen. But still her air time in the episode was too short, and being that she the subject is quite weird and questionable to where Shaft wants to take this. Anyway, from Karens conversation with Araragi leaves much to be desired. I guess this scene was just to set up something for the future but story wise they didn’t mention anything of importance other than the fact that these is something going on.
Along with Kanbarus intro came the same ole perverted talks. Nothing much to say here since the whole scene seems to just be an introduction to who Kanbaru is. So I’ll leave that scene to you guys to judge, I on the other hand find it as entertaining as usual despite the added fan service. The episode ends with Araragi succumbing to Kanbarus harassment in her attempt to prove that she is a pervert…wah (0_o)?
So overall we got an episode that looks more like an intro than an actual story episode. I’m guessing the next episode will have the Tsubasa intro and maybe the Shinobu intro as well. I do however, want more Senjougaraha intro, they didn’t give her much air time. I’ve dug a bit into the whole Nisemonogatari novel and found out that the two volumes contain only two arcs. So I guess the whole character introduction and slow pace was part of the novel(?). Now this questions how will the series end up being since it only contain two arcs. None the less I still have high hopes.
OkamiSan~
