The -Monogatari Thread

SHINOBU finally speaks !!!
In fact there was intense discussion in 2ch about Maaya Sakamoto voicing Shinobu instead of Aya Hirano. It is amazing how people can make comparisons because Hirano barely spoke anything in Bakemonogatari. I guess some got attached to Hirano's voice in her other tough-loli-girl role - Kacha in Qweaser. But then they should not have expected Kacha's voice in Shinobu because Shinobu is in fact not 8 years old but much much older. Aalthough some think she did not convey all the emotions in some dialogues, many think Maaya did a pleasantly surprisingly good job in voicing it -- combining the other-wordliness and nobleness of her original form with her current loli status. Some in 2ch somehow thought her voice reminded them of Horo in "Spice and Wolf" though.

Although many talk about the loli bath scenes, which you could really know everything Shinobu and Araragi talked about and the depth of their feelings only if you have read Kizumonogatari, some also think the sexiest scenes are Karen lying on Tsubasa's lap or even the Tsubasa in bed with her new short hair....

Anyway, seem nobody noticed that the end-card of this episodes is by YURU-YURI's Namori:

YES!!


Also, the latest news has it that Karen Bee will cosist of 7 episodes which means Tsukihi Phoenix will have only 4 episodes.

I could already hear the pens of various doujin artists during the bathing scenes.

I don't quite understand the scene of Karen. Did Araragi relax in the bath while she was suffering on a fever or did that happen some time before?

Crunchy translated it as pass tense, so I guess it's a flashback.

I figured. Only way it makes sense.

Shinobu is now my favorite character on the show.

Announcement for Ep.5
Hanekawa-san kawaii~~~~~~

http://www.nisemonogatari-anime.com/story/story05.html




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OLD POST:

This is a feature article published on the Mainichi evening post about the appeals of -monogatari series and the anime adaptation (with my English translation)


まんたんプレス：小説から誕生、アニメ「偽物語」　怪異世界と凝った演出が融合
Mantan Press:
Born from the novel, anime "Nisemonogatari"
Fusion of a supernatural world and elaborate animation


　マンガやテレビ、映画などポップカルチャーを紹介する「まんたんプレス」。今回は、人気作家・西尾維新さんの小説が原作で、テレビアニメも放送中の「偽物語」だ。０９年に放送のアニメ「化物語」で火が付き、小説は、オリコン週間販売ランキング１位を取り続けている。ファンの心をとりこにする物語の魅力を探った。【河村成浩】
"Mantan Press" is a corner to introduce pop culture including manga, TV or movies. This time it is about the TV anime "Nisemonogatari" which is currently being aired and is based on the novels from the bestselling author NisiOisiN. The anime "Bakemonogatari", aired in 2009, started a huge boom and the novels have been a constant occupant of No.1 in the Oricon Weekly Sales Ranking. We would like to explore the attraction of "monogatari" that has been so successful at capturing the heart of fans. (Narihiro Kawamura)


　「物語」シリーズは、西尾さんが０６年から執筆している小説で、正義感の強い高校生・阿良々木暦（あららぎこよみ）と、怪奇にかかわった少女たちの姿を描いている。第１弾「化物語」は、カニやヘビなどの怪異にとりつかれた５人の少女の話で、ＤＶＤとブルーレイ・ディスク（ＢＤ）は累計６０万枚以上を出荷する人気作だ。
"Monogatari" series are the novels that Nisio-san started writing since 2006, about Koyomi Araragi, a high school student with a strong sense of justice, and a number of girls who got involved in supernatural issues. The first entry, "Bakemonogatari", includes the stories of five girls who got possessed by supernatural beings like crab or snake. The bestselling anime adapted from this novel boosts a combined shipment of over 600,000 copies of DVD and Blu-ray (BD) discs.


◇一瞬のカットも妥協せずに表現
◇Expression without compromise, even for a split-second cut


　「化物語」の続編となる「偽物語」は、暦の妹で運動神経が抜群の火憐（かれん）と、頭が切れる月火（つきひ）の中学生コンビを中心にした話で、「化物語」のヒロインも髪形や性格を変えて登場する。前半では、中学生に流行しているうわさと怪奇の事件を描き、後半では、暦が謎の陰陽師と知り合ったことから問題が表面化する……という展開で怪異の物語が描かれる。
"Nisemonogatari", the sequel of "Bakemonogatari", is a story centered around the pair of junior high students, both sisters of Koyomi: Karen, who has marvellous sports reflexes, and Tsukihi, who can get angry easily. The heroines from "Bakemonogatari", with changes in hairstyles or character, also appear. The first half is mainly about some strange incidents or rumors circulating around junior high students; and the second half is about troubles surfaced sicne the encounter of Koyomi with a mysterious "apparitions expert"....

　アニメは、独特な個性を放つ原作小説と、凝った演出方法の融合が特徴だ。小説は、密度の濃い会話が次々と展開され、設定や会話には、漢字や言葉の意味などが考え抜かれて選ばれており、当の西尾さんが「小説に特化した通好みの小説」と言い切るほど。それだけにアニメの題材に選ばれたことに驚いたという。
The main characteristic of the anime adaptation is the fusion of the original novel, which has a very unique color of its own, and the elaborate and artistic animation. In the novel, dialogues with substantial density follow quickly one after another, and the meaning of the kanji and words chosen were carefully thought out and picked for the world view setting as well as the dialogues of the characters. Nisio-san even said it was "a novel that was specialized for connoisseurs of novel readers". It was said that he was quite surprised that such a novel was picked up for anime adaptation.


　制作したのは、昨年最もアニメファンを熱狂させた「魔法少女まどか☆マギカ」を手掛けたスタジオ「シャフト」（東京都杉並区）と新房昭之監督の“コンビ”だ。キャラのデフォルメ映像や、文字だけの異質なカットなどを駆使して強弱を付け、さらに一瞬だけ映るカットにも妥協せず、ギミックを詰め込み、従来の枠に縛られない多様な表現方法を次々と生み出している。
The studio that did the animation is the team of studio Shaft (located in Suginami-ku of Tokyo) and director Akiyuki Shinbo, who together created "Puella Magi Madoka Magica" that got the most fervent responses among anime fans last year. In the animation of "-monogatari", they created many ways of expresson that went beyond the conventional styles, including adding accentuations by using techniques like the deformed images of the characters or unconventional cuts with text only, or stuffing gimmick cuts in a short time without compromising even for cuts that appear only for a split-second etc.

　作品とスタジオを結びつけたのは、ソニーグループのアニメ企画制作会社「アニプレックス」の岩上敦宏プロデューサーだ。０３年ごろに西尾さんの小説「戯言（ざれごと）」シリーズに目を付けた岩上さんは、発行元の講談社の担当編集者と話をして、アニメ化の可能性を探った。その流れで０７年、西尾作品のアニメ化第１弾として「化物語」の制作が始まった。岩上さんは「怪異にまつわるストーリーと、会話をはじめとするキャラクター性が魅力だった」と話している。
The person who linked up this work with the studio was producer Atsuhiro Iwakami of "Aniplex", an anime project production company under Sony Group. Iwakami-san started to get interested since around 2003 when he took note of the "Zaregoto" series, another novel series by Nisio-san. He went to talk to the responsible editor at Kodansha, its publisher, about the possibility of an anime adpatation. What came out is the beginning of animation work on "Bakemonogatari" in 2007, as the first project for "Animation of NisiOisN's works". Iwakami-san said "The main attractions [of the work] are the story that deals with the supernatural and the charm of the characters started from their dialogues."


　アニメ事情に詳しい評論家の多根清史さんは「ヒットの理由は三つある。一つ目は、従来の発想にない表現手法。二つ目は、小説の長いセリフを生かす一方で、原作で触れない背景などは自由な発想で視覚化したこと。三つ目は、内面を含めた原作キャラの魅力とデザインの相乗効果だ」と分析している。４月に発売予定のＢＤ１巻は、インターネット販売大手「アマゾン」のアニメランキングで早くも１位となるなど、前評判も上々だ。
Kiyoshi Tane, a commentator who is also an anime critic, gave the following analysis: "There are three reasons why it became such a hit: First, expression techniques that are different from how it was done up till then; Second, while enlivening the long dialogues in the novel, it also freely and creatively visualized the background and settings that were not touched in the original novels; Third, the synergy effect of inner charm of the characters in the original novel with its design in the anime." The BD vol #1, to go on sale in April, went through to No.1 in the anime sales ranking of Amazon, a major internet retailer, shows how popular this anime is right from the beginning.


　岩上さんに、ヒット作を手掛けるコツについて尋ねると「正直、分かりません」と苦笑いしながら、「ロジック（論理）もあるが、面白い物を作ろうという感覚を大事にしている」と明かした。
When we asked Iwakami-san about what it takes to create a hit work, he could only smile wryly, saying "To be honest, I don't know.", though he also revealed that "There may be some logic (technique) behind it, but the most important is still the sense of trying to make something interesting."


◇映像の夢膨らむ「物語」シリーズ
◇"Monogatari" series, swelled with the visual ambition


　小説は最新作「恋物語」など多くの作品が刊行済みで、映像化の期待も大きい。岩上さんは「タイトルごとに個性があるので、できればずっとやっていきたい」と話している。
Quite a number of novels, including the latest entry "Koimonogatari", have been published and expectation of them being animated is running high. Iwakami-san said "Each title in the series has its own character. If possible I would like to keep on working on it."


　アニメ「偽物語」と並行して、今年は劇場版アニメ「傷物語」の公開も予定されている。「物語」が、ファンの心をどこまでとりこにし続けるか楽しみだ。
In parallel wiht the anime "Nisemonogatari", this year there is also the plan to release the anime movie "Kizumonogatari". We can only imagine to what extent "monogatari" series will keep captivating fans' heart.

I totally saw that coming, but the execution was awesome.

Kaiki is breathing life into this show.

And siscon too.

When will the toothbrush scene come to us?

Midway through Karen and Kaiki's verbal dueling, I realized... God, I was hearing Sayaka again.

No wincest. DROPPED like a colony.

Here's what I wrote earlier (as reflection on ep 5's Koyomi Karen scene at the end) that also describes my feelings about Nise re: BGM so far generally

Quote:

On more serious note I found the smut to be aggravatingly out of place for such seemingly serious scene. At least with Nadeko the main point of scene WAS smut with some plot foreshadowing and communication happening in “by the way” fashion. Here the “real content” and the family relationship between Koyomi and his imouto WAS the main point and the smut wasn’t just tasteless smut, it was tasteless smut that IMO drew attention away from real meat (haw haw) of the scene *sigh* Still, it wasn’t nowhere near as bad as it could’ve been. Kaiki scenes were awesome as hell and that also made up for it. All in all I’ve found Eromonogatari to be around Nadeko arc in Bake in terms of tone and quality. It’s kinda good and enjoyable but not really what I enjoy the best about the show… and it’s ridiculously lewd while we’re at it.

Now we finally got episode that escaped the general "problems" of Nise so far. Pretty sweet. The head tilts are just getting awful though and painful to watch. Damnit Shinbo, just stop it...

Senjougihara's looming haircut makes me really sad though

Well, the flower was probably the most lewd metaphorical language they could think of. They didn't show them kissing in Bake either, so that was to be expected. Come to think of it, when push comes to shove the series is rather prude.

This episode was boring again to be honest. Nothing really interesting besides the contrasting juxtaposition of no fanservice. It's cute how insecure the Crab gets though. Hanekawa has her by the balls.

Man, Araragi taking a stroll with Hachikuji in LOL IS THIS STILL JAPAN OR WHAT and Hitagi doing dem poses really made this episode.

Her facial expression when he said that he loves her was priceless.

I'm kind of hoping we get to see Senjogahara attack Kaiki with pencils in the next episode.

And a million lonely hearts were shattered that day.

Disregard bras, acquire liberation

This whole arc was way too stretched out for such a simple conclusion. Karen vs Araragi fight made me realize that there was not enough actual action going on. Bake had simply the more moderate approach. Second, very anti-climatic ending. Kaiki needed a punch to his face in retribution. I did like the tension of the confrontation though. The flow of the conversation was enigmatic and suspenseful.


Moving on to the really important matter:



SHE IS NOT PUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURE

Commie subs
soft trolling
creat shitstorm on /a/ of monumental proportions