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EP. REVIEW: Bakemonogatari

Well, DX D is pretty much accepting of its position as a generic harem and Monogatari isn't...also you don't know what pretentious means if you think Medaka Box was pretentious lol.

Now seems like a good time to say that if this thread breaks into anything that looks even remotely like defense of pedophilia moving forward, offenders will be banned on the spot, no exceptions. This is your first and final warning.

I find it very easy to conceptualise the sexual harassment in Monogatari Series, especially with Mayoi, as silly anime humour, much easier than in series with less explicit material. It's so theatrical and divorced in tone, style and actuality from anything I could take seriously that it would be honestly difficult to conceive of it as unpleasant or off-putting. I could just as easily (read: it would be as hard to) think Karen was a monster for beating Koyomi to death a hundred times in their "fight" before Koyomi goes to confront Kaiki in Nise. Obviously I'm not saying Nick or anyone else's opinion is invalid or they're wrong for being bothered by it, but personally? I have barely a shred of distaste that I might have for such material in another series. Or, hey, how about the scene in Kizu III when he spoiler[manipulates Hanekawa into letting him grope her boobs and teases her mercilessly before he goes to fight Kiss-Shot]? That scene was horrifyingly funny, but it was also... well, horrifying. The discomfort in that scene was palpable and kind of uncomfortable to watch. I get none of that ugly, visceral grossness from the scenes with Mayoi ninety-plus percent of the time she and Koyomi are on screen together. They're feel like bros who mess around with each other, and then one's a lolicon and the other's a loli, so their interactions take that turn in a tone I couldn't conceive of as upsetting if I tried.

The episode overall is one of the finest of Bake to me, along with the last of the TV airing series and the conclusion to Hanekawa's arc, and the resolution to Mayoi's story's one of the franchise's most poignant moments. The coda with Senjougahari is lovely as well, and well placed, with her subplot well integrated into the arc overall. She's a great character, overshadowed somewhat by, in order, Hanekawa, Mayoi, Shinobu and the true best girl Kaiki, and when the story uses her well Senjougahara is fascinating. She's great in this arc and it's kind of unfair that Mayoi Snail has these double advantages over the comparatively lacklustre following two arcs – but Tsubasa Cat is a great climax to Bake, which I still consider the strongest animated entry in the franchise (well, except Kizu now it's finished, but it doesn't feel an equal comparison somehow).

Given that the Off-Season novels have all been focusing on side characters and their stories, I'd say the chances are as big as they've ever been for another Kaiki novel.

Why does episode 6's review have the widget for rating it but the other episodes don't? Is it accidentally taking something else's score?

Guess I'll have to double post this time around.

Regarding the finale of Kanbaru's story, it was good, but it was a little long somehow. By the end of its second episode I already felt like we covered enough of what Kanbaru's drama had to offer, and the third episode, while it had a fantastic visual spectacle, I was mostly waiting for it to be over and done with because the conclusion seemed quite obvious.

Now about this episode, I was stoked for it, because I love this girl's hair and overall look, it's one of my favorite types of hair in character design. But I walked away a little disappointed.

I think I'm going to disagree with Nick here about the last scene, because I can buy that what the show's intention is to show Sengoku's discomfort with her own body, the problem is what Araragi and Kanbaru do. When she strips they literally do the 4 Gaijin meme, and there's a whole segment of them talking about her bloomers.

Now, that's not really my problem, Araragi and his lesbian friend Kanbaru talking about what clothes they think are sexy and bouncing off one another like in the scene before is great, it's my favorite part about Kanbaru. The thing is, it's a middle schooler, and we're seeing her blushing and covering her boobs and the camera shots are all sexualized, but Araragi says that it makes him uncomfortable and then joke with Kanbaru so it was just joking, haha! Nope. It works just as good as Mayoi's jokes about Araragi being a pedophile (while clearly showing how he grabs her boobs accidentally), that is to say, it doesn't work at all.

Hanekawa's part kind of...bored me, I don't think she brought in any new information. Hell, all of what she talked about were things that Senjougahara sees in a completely different light, and the fact that we know Kanbaru is a lesbian makes most of what she talks about pretty useless, I'm sure it will have relevance eventually but yeah, felt mostly unnecessary other than hinting at her own arc.

So other than the opening sequence which had very refreshing and very neat visuals, this episode left me rather uninterested, especially since Sengoku's thing is so last minute. From the preview it seems like a whole freaking lot will happen next episode so I can get my hopes up again.

I kind of agree with you disagreeing on the last part of it. I don't think Nadeko has a problem with her own body aside from her being ashamed of the marks and people finding out about her issues.
I didn't take it as her being uncomfortable with her own body or wanting to be less womanly.
There's a fair bit to say about this part for people who've read or seen later seasons of it so I kind of get where he's comming from but I don't think it's the case in this scene.
spoiler[My take on it is that there are 2 relevant other scenes, from Nisemonogatari and obviously her entire arc in the 2nd season, that might have influenced Nicks perception of this as he rewatches Bake. While the 2nd season does make a point about her being troubled by being stigmatized as "the cute girl" and she relishes when being called scary, ugly or whatever it was but neither do I think that's something already applicable in this time of the story, nor do I think she has a problem with it as long as it's Araragi who sees her like that. I don't think she has a problem with being cute, womanly, erotic or whatever else. She has a problem with being reduced to that by people and ultimately a sense of guilt over getting away with things because she's cute.

As seen in Nisemonogatari for example, the scene that has Araragi comming over, we have that situation in which Nadeko dresses as extravagantly as humanly possible (for her) trying to seduce Koyomi with all her might in that game of twister etc. She clearly has no problem with that at all. At least not yet]
But that's just my take on it and why I think Nick thinks that way. I might very well be off the mark here.

That being said, I do think Nadeko makes for the weakest character in the series. At least within Bakemonogatari. I love her design and I really think she's cute af but all this introduction does for me is make her look like a trope to pander for people rather than an actual character.