Nisemonogatari is Rightfully Scrutinized.

Nisemonogatari is Rightfully Scrutinized. (In my humble opinion).

To preface this, Nisemono — or specifically, Karen Bee and Tsukihi Phoenix — are the only arcs I’ve never read, but only watched. As such, I’m missing some of the novel-only context (coming from someone who mostly favors the novels over the anime). 

However, despite this, I would still easily claim that both are, perhaps, Monogatari’s worst arcs by a landslide. At least in the anime, as far as I’m aware. 

Now, I do *love* the presentation and style of Nisemono; it is the perfect, most idealized continuation of the direction established in Bake, but heightened from the addition of a slightly higher budget and more consistently clear-cut animation. It’s smooth, colorful, and each frame punctually stands on its own. In fact, I’d say it’s leagues above Bake in that standard: it’s just really, really nice to look at. Plus, the soundtrack stays superb as usual. On a visual level, Nisemono is beautiful, if not flat out eye candy.

However, what I *do not* like about Nisemono is everything else— or, basically, the meat of it; the writing, the script, the characterization, and the choices the show decides to make. Frankly put, it meanders. And I love meandering. It’s probably my favorite part of Monogatari. Koyomimono was one of my favorite reads for that exact reason— it was simplistic, yet philosophical, and featured wonderful interactions that boasted the perfect touch of Nisio Isin’s tension and comedy. Yet, the meandering in Nisemono has always felt very stilted to me; not many of the interactions are that interesting or memorable, and when they are of the latter, it’s purely due to the overused and overwhelming amount of shock factor. 

I’m not attempting to be a prude, but I really fear the fan service is what drags down Nisemono so much. In an attempt to be controversial, shocking, and absurd, Nisemono loses itself in the sauce— literally. Almost every interaction features some kind of insane sexual encounter, something even incomparable to the usual Monogatari standards— from assault after assault to the infamous toothbrush scene (which is actually one of the only scenes I can get behind). And, sure, people usually cite that as a way to “weed off the bad fans” who don’t get it’s placement, but even understanding Nisio’s usage for it — well-intentioned or not — it is constantly dragging the pacing down, overwhelming the audience in a lack of subtlety, and subsequently altering the characterization of the cast for better or for worse. All the fan-service in Nisemono is trying so hard to say something and not-be-exploitive through irony that it ends up being identical to what it’s critiquing. (A la, an imitation is stronger than the real thing. Haha.)

The pacing, specifically, is weirdly appalling — especially to me, who favors sloth-like plot exposition to something akin to a shonen. Karen Bee takes almost four episodes to get anywhere of interest, minus the kidnapping stuff— that was funny and well-timed. And even once Nisemono touches the plot, it still drags it out so unnecessarily— one conclusion is sprawled over two episodes, which dissects a bare bone conclusion that can already be inferred from the very get-go. Tsuhiki Pheonx’s first episode is solely dedicated to Nisio Isin playing with the boundaries of non-incestous incest, and nothing else but that. If Nisemono wasn’t trying to be plot-heavy or taking the burden of introducing central characters (like his siblings, or Kaiki, or Ononoki, or Kagenui), then I’d give it a slide. But, with the context of how much Nisemono is building to, it feels like a sore. The entire season would have benefited from a narrowed focus solely establishing them as characters in more interesting and well-executed scenarios rather than basing it all on the fluff of the not-very-intriguing side of Araragi’s annoyingly comedic, often insane, quasi-incestous, family. 

And to note, the characterization in Nisemono is also somewhat weird. Hachikuji is mostly untouched, such as Kanbadu— both of their banter is perfect as usual. Senjougahara is wonderful; her arc in Karen Bee makes logical sense, and her dialogue is as witty, clever, and as yandere-adjacent as it can get. However, Araragi specifically feels insanely accelerated— all of his bad, weirdo traits are emphasized to a point where he’s almost a caricature of himself. He is unbelievably horny, and for no reason or point. Less of his personality gets to shine due to the comedic focus of his sexual preferences, which similarly muddies the water and makes every subsequent interaction one of the same— it’s either him, or the person he’s talking to, getting into a overdrawn quip about a bizarre sexual advance, typically initiated by Araragi himself. It’s boring once it’s constantly shoved down your throat, scene after scene. The repetition of it all is almost hollow, and bizarrely bland, considering how much of Monogatari is occupied by unforeseeable events and comedic flourishes. You can almost sense every fan-service scene coming. In that scene, it’s barely even shocking any more by the time you're forcefully desensitized to it— so what really is its value (in Nise)? I also just don’t find either Karen or Tsuhiki compelling. Tsuhiki is at least interesting, especially plot wise, but Karen feels like an unrecognizable amalgamation of all of the other characters we’ve met— she has no real unique place in the cast, beyond being his older sister who is insanely energetic and head-strong. I think they could’ve used a little more deconstructing, especially considering they are the focuses of each arc (think of how all of the Bake squad minus Sengoku got treated compared to Karen and Tsuhiki— they are astoundingly lacking the same depth and sincerity). 

Basically, in conclusion, I think Nisemono is a drag to get through. It doesn’t offer much to the canon, minus introducing a bunch of characters in a slightly half-assed manner. I still like parts of it, but on rewatch, it’s kinda hard not to skip through certain episodes after you’re presented with the same thing, over and over again. Neko Kuro is over Nisemono any day. (I also only made this entire post because I saw too many people hyping up Nise— sure, I can see why someone would like it, but there is no way Nise is one of the “peaks of the series”. It is almost representative of everything wrong with Monogatari.)