Episode 06 –
Woahhh, hang on, did I seriously see no fanservice in an episode of Nisemonogatari? Considering how almost every episode up until this point has been loaded with fanservice, the lack of virtually any comes as a huge surprise. I guess Shaft might have finally shifted away from the fanservice overload for now.
Silly observations aside, I’m somewhat astounded that this series will be pushing Araragi Karen’s arc by another episode. In case you were wondering, we’re already on the 7th episode to her arc, and it still hasn’t been resolved. And remember, this is an 11 episode series; at this rate, we might not even fully cover Tsukihi’s troubles after the end of Karen’s arc. To be fair, those first 4 episodes probably shouldn’t even count as Karen episodes, mainly considering how they merely reintroduced the previous members of the cast. If you think about it that way, it will be 3-4 episodes for reintroductions, 3-4 episodes for Karen, and 3-4 episodes for Tsukihi. The math might add up, but that really depends on where the story goes next week.
And dang, I’ve already mentioned this in an earlier post, but the plot is seriously moving at a glacial (almost snail-like) pace. But as usual, the slow pacing is well hidden with tons of clever dialogue, especially with Senjougahara stealing the spotlight this episode. The bantering was, as usual, fun to watch. And as things tend to go with Senjougahara, the conversations with the eccentric girl were fascinating yet puzzling. If there’s one thing that Nisemonogatari has inherited from Bakemonogatari, it’s the very precise and quirky dialogue. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the dialogue takes precedence over the plot, or so it seems with Nisemonogatari.
Nevertheless, it seems that we’ll finally be seeing a big confrontation next week, possibly between Karen, Koyomi, Senjougahara, and Kaiki. The show has at least had the courtesy to develop upon each character’s conflict with the antagonist, Kaiki. Karen obviously wishes to satisfy her sense of justice, while Senjougahara wants revenge for Kaiki tearing apart her family. And of course, Koyomi is out to protect these two girls, which by default makes him an enemy of Kaiki. The character relationships are more complex and multilayered than I had expected, which is turning out to be a pleasant surprise.
Now then, will Nisemonogatari finally have some sort of resolution to the conflict at hand? Or will it continue to drag on in terms of plot? Considering we are well past the half-way point of this series, if Shaft doesn’t start wrapping some issues up, I get the feeling there may not even be enough episodes to properly conclude the story. The last thing we need is a rushed, crammed ending to this show. And no, I’d prefer to not have the “online only” episode shenanigans that Bakemonogatari went through.
Overall Enjoyment: 3.3/5
Screenshots are later in the post.
Distant Paradise 
I like the conversations as they are interesting to listen to but the plot is indeed suffering…
Maybe because of all the focus on the various characters, not much is going on and lends to that slow feeling. What made bakemonogatari and its arcs work for the most part was its focus on the heroine and devoted most of its time to araragi and said girl, but Nisemonogatari feels almost too spread out.
Speaking of screen time, I think Kaiki and Karen come about…4th and 5th behind Senjougahara, Hachikuji, and Shinobu lol
Well, Bakemonogatari had more heroines to cover over roughly the same amount of episodes, so the plot was much more compact (and had a better flow). I guess it should’ve been kind of expected that with only two heroines, the story would slow down significantly.