I’m handling Bakemonogatari this week (Fin’s away on vacation) so no gushy mcgush!
I’m not quite as excited over Bakemonogatari as Fin, but it still remains the most enjoyable series this season. Most of this episode was sharp banter between Araragi and Senjougahara so there’s not much to spoil, but it was fun to follow. Just a few quick thoughts:
- Everyone’s so shiny.
- The deformed faces seem out of character with what we’ve seen thus far.
- As interesting as the banter was, I found myself strangely drawn to the sharp lines of red, yellow and blue, which you might know as the old theory of primary colors.
- The contrast against the bright white background and mostly dark colors for the characters made me think I was watching an anime Mirror’s Edge.
Bakemonogatari is missing something–it’s missing a certain Shaft edge to it–so as a whole, I don’t find it as enjoyable as either the previous seasons of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (I find season 3 to be a little lacking so far as well) or Maria+Holic. At the very least, however, they left out that boring OP from last week.
I reckon shiny-face syndrome is probably one of those things in anime art which subtly messes with human minds. I’m willing to let it slide in Bakemonogatari though, as it sort of fits the hyper stylised sleekness thing. I’m also quite fond of Senjougahara’s trollface – at least we know she’s enjoying being mean now.
I’ve got no real theory regarding the shiny faces, they just really stood out. I remember comparing Escaflowne the series to the movie and how everything got shinier in the movie. As for the trollface, it’s just like… up until now, you could sorta assume she enjoyed teasing Araragi, y’know? After all, why hang out with the guy when she is a young, beautiful girl. They didn’t have to spell it out, but I guess they felt like they did for this episode.