A Certain Magical Snail #03 — Bake-What Now?

July 17th, 2009

 

SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!

Impressions:

Alright. I’m giving next week 5 minutes to be interesting, and if it doesn’t succeed, I’m done with this show. The first 18 minutes of the episode was just one long tortuous conversation going absolutely nowhere. Every now and then, Hitagi’s teasing would be kind of amusing, but then again, the production was absolutely abysmal through the entire sequence. I especially enjoyed the 50 second pan over a single frame, followed by a still of another frame for another 50 seconds shortly after. Hell, it looked like it could have even been the same frame, just zoomed slightly further in and without the CG fence. At least the second one had 3 frames of silly faces chucked in. …And then they went back to using the original still some more. I’d like to also point out for all those that thought Araragi having a panic attack over seeing a naked Hitagi was normal, that he had a similar panic attack when she sat down next to him… after he spent the last two minutes trying to stare down her dress.

They didn’t even tease the plot of this arc until the last couple minutes, and that’s where they almost jolted me out of the coma the first 80% of the episode had successfully induced. Mayoi at least has a little energy and it was infectous, thank the heavens. Araragi, on the other hand, continued to lose points by picking a fist fight with a girl a quarter his size. Even Sento only assaults people who break into his house to watch porn or float through walls, not little girls who are rude to random strangers trying to hit them up on a playground. In a way, it’s sad that it was even a fight at all, considering one of them has vampiric strength and a healing factor that just won’t quit, bub.

Mayoi better be bringing her A game next week, because even Index didn’t pack the exposition this densely or ever look this cheap. Hell, at this point in Index, she’d been gutted and Touma had fought a giant Catholic pope on fire. I wish Bakemonogatari had anything as interesting as a giant Catholic pope on fire.

Posted in Anime | 32 Comments »

32 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Anonymous says:
    July 17, 2009 at 3:57 pm

    Not suprised you dont like it based on the terrible anime you do blog.

  • Solaris says:
    July 17, 2009 at 4:35 pm

    The terrible anime he blogs are actually far better than bakemonogatari. Even the shittiest Judeenchan is better than bakemonogatari.

    And finally also Mr blogger has come aware than bakemonogatari is not as good as it looks.
    (or maybe i’m still mistaking as Ardoruc loves to bash like hell the shows he likes the most :P)

  • kadian1364 says:
    July 17, 2009 at 4:42 pm

    Based on what I had heard elsewhere, I didn’t know if I wanted to pick this up or not, but comparing unfavorably to Index of all things pretty much seals its fate.

    • Solaris says:
      July 17, 2009 at 4:45 pm

      Well i suggest you to watch a couple of episodes and decide yourself if you like it or not

      • kadian1364 says:
        July 17, 2009 at 6:04 pm

        I know, but such is a luxury of time some people don’t have. I just read bits of blogs at work, and I’m pretty full on my viewing list right now. SHAFT dramas just don’t gel with me, but who knows, I might look at it again if I end up dropping something else.

  • Irie says:
    July 17, 2009 at 5:07 pm

    This was a bit uninteresting. It’s a shame. I enjoyed the first couple. It’s a bit unfair of me to discredit the show without knowing what was said. The visuals became annoying after a while.

    • Aroduc says:
      July 17, 2009 at 5:09 pm

      Hitagi wants to return the favor and hits on him, but he says he’s not interested in a relationship, so she ends up teasing Araragi because he’s having an argument with his sister. That’s basically it.

  • Rawr says:
    July 17, 2009 at 9:04 pm

    Well, I understand moonspeak about as much as the next japanophile, probably less. However, I still managed to enjoy what little I understood of their banter though. Does this mean that having a better understanding of the language actually makes the show more dull? Or is it just that your preference for things exploding killed off any entertainment that you might have otherwise derived from the artistic presentation and writing of the show?

    Although, I can understand your viewpoint, I don’t think it’s a bad of boring show. Whereas index failed to be interesting due to the fact that all it’s dialogue revolved around sci-fi and people shoving explanations down other people’s throats, the dialogue in this is actually amusing due to the fact that the characters are actually engaging in an actual conversation, and not a Q&A session of sci-fi trivia.

  • Anon999 says:
    July 17, 2009 at 11:26 pm

    Seiha reminds me of the AVGN. He reviews bad videogames, and Seiha reviews medicore anime. I’m glad I’m not watching any of these new anime. Sometimes old is best.

    • Solaris says:
      July 18, 2009 at 6:24 am

      Mr Blogger here reviews those anime he likes and are enough peculiar not to be blogged elsewhere, so it’s a blessing he’s here blogging for you as well.
      You’d never know of animes such as Zettai Karen Children or Kyouran Kazoku Nikki if it was for generic Mr Blogers out there who only take care of generic popular stuff.
      You can appreciate his writing or not, but you have no rigth to come here and bash the site like that. Who do you believe you are?

  • TJ says:
    July 18, 2009 at 1:14 am

    blah blah blah, blah blah blah… certainly could have skipped the first 18 minutes of the show.

    that playground looks pretty nice though.

  • karasu says:
    July 18, 2009 at 2:41 am

    awesome, the moment I finished this episode I kind of knew what kind of review you’d give. I know you so well, don’t I aroduc. Isn’t that creepy :V

    At any rate, not that I’ve ever been affected by reviews, I actually kind of found this episode funny. At least it’s fresh humor (in terms of presentation, I think actually that’s the only reason I’m watching this; random shinbo and old 2005 humor redux into 2009).

    I’m thinking that they’re going to be rushing through next episode or this arc really has that little spice that they took so long with pointless (but funny; for me) exposition, so I don’t think you’re going to enjoy this much next week either. Anyways.

  • Honoo says:
    July 18, 2009 at 7:59 am

    The fact that the series consist of so many walls of text certainly doesn’t help it to be any more interesting I see.

    Screw that, I suck this show :P

  • Fumika says:
    July 18, 2009 at 9:51 am

    I loved this episode. The dialogue was snappy and it was superbly entertaining.

    Arudoc hates anything that has dialogue in it, so I’m not surprised he hates this show as well. He’d probably hail a show where the characters did nothing but hand gestures as the greatest anime that there ever was.

    You need to understand the dialogue and watch it yourself rather than simply dumb the show because arudoc hates it.

    • Honoo says:
      July 18, 2009 at 11:08 am

      Heh, I’d go the other way round to hail a show as the greatest ever, if you know what I mean.

      Although it will mean that I’ll fail to advertise it to a certain someone I knew right here in college. While I can sacrifice time for a wall of text I don’t think the other guy could.

  • Anonymous says:
    July 18, 2009 at 5:06 pm

    I think the people who discredit this show usually don’t appreciate SHAFT’s expressionism, though that’s just my thinking.

  • Tina says:
    July 18, 2009 at 9:33 pm

    I found the conversation quiet entertaining in the beginning, it was sort of quirky funny. The exposition was kind of amusing and left something different that most other animes dont do. It was fun seeing the characters taking the time to actually interact with each other. It not a bad show, it just doesnt suite everyone’s taste. Since the shows thrives on these conversational exchanges I sorry to say Aroduc that your probably not going to like it. I thought I hate the obsessive talking and analyzing from the first episode but in the end it grew on me.

  • mondo says:
    July 18, 2009 at 10:48 pm

    Possibly the best show this season.

    -of course, narutards and the likes wouldn’t find my comment amusing!

    • Solaris says:
      July 19, 2009 at 6:52 am

      Ahahah! Maybe cause i’m not a narutard i found your comment really laughable.

      So, tell me, what makes this the best anime of the season and not Tokyo Magnitude or Umineko, just to name two random fairly better ones?

  • DK says:
    July 19, 2009 at 2:28 am

    Hmmm… those long, parallel poles remind of something…

    Ah, right. I have to go fap to Hitagi pr0n now…

  • Albedo says:
    July 19, 2009 at 4:43 pm

    Well… despite this episode being a 18 minute long conversation between staples girl and vampire boy I enjoyed it. Maybe it’s just cause I’m a fan of crazy people who staple people in the mouth but I do enjoy this show. However, I do hope that the next episode does actually have a plot rather than Hitagi teasing Ararararagi the entire time.

    BTW, did anyone else find it amusing that araragi somehow got “This girl clearly doesn’t like me” from that conversation? Yeah buddy… the girl that says you need a girlfriend, says that she could end up as your wife, and then has you stare at her ass for a while clearly has no interest in you…

  • Irie says:
    July 19, 2009 at 8:21 pm

    Have to give credit to the group subbing this show. That was a remarkable effort given how much exposition we get. I could barely keep up.

    I’m not completely sold on the use of visual boards and constant transitions to create impact. I realize it would become incredible boring without some visual cues but it’s a bit excessive.

    I found the dialog to be interesting. Not sure why but the execution between comment and response was fast enough to keep it interesting. Given the great oddity of these two characters, I think they needed to create the stage for their relationship. Both seem to have some serious emotional issues and are finding their time together cathartic.

    Well, this is definately not everyone’s cup of tea but it’s enjoyable under the right circumstances. The whole snail reference has me completely baffled but what’s new.

  • The Phantom says:
    July 20, 2009 at 12:49 pm

    Absolutely disappointing episode, not only this series is not violent at all, but the comedy is dreadful, the romance is awful, and in general… meh!, I still dont know why I still watch this =X, looks like umineko, magnitude, and princess lover are the only watchable new series of this season.

    There are so fucking many loli/magic girl/lesbians shows this dreaded season, good thing cross game, phantom requiem and pandora are still airing. I would trade all those retarded magic girl shows (cough modern magic school cough juuden chan cough) for a single old school romance anime (like orange road) or even a another decent harem (like dual parallel).

  • blkmage says:
    July 20, 2009 at 11:44 pm

    What exactly are you expecting from this? This is a show based on a series of light novels that, according to Wikipedia, focuses on conversations.

  • SOSAnimeBoy says:
    July 22, 2009 at 1:09 am

    WTH

    Is it just me or does this series’ character design style remind you of Popotan?

    Bakemonogatari: http://blog.seiha.org/images2/bakemonogatari3/bakemonogatari3_63.jpg

    Popotan: http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/8783/popotanepeu7.png

  • Solaris says:
    July 23, 2009 at 6:02 am

    Actually Popotan was better than what you people may think for something pulled out of an erogame. Its graphics was nice, the story was rather simple but its main theme was the importance of friendship. There was, of course (!), a ton of fanservice, but it never touched bad taste at all.

  • dark-kyon says:
    July 24, 2009 at 8:57 pm

    i am glad what i found a anime great what for other is crap.bakemonogatari not is the best but is good,diferent,funny.why ever the people think what a anime must be made to be perfect.

  • Taka says:
    July 25, 2009 at 5:03 am

    Most people don’t realize this show is mainly Slice of Life/supernatural.

    It’s sorta like the early episodes of Shigofumi.

    I loved the episode. Mainly because Hitagi. I was so wrapped up in the conversation that the reused animation didn’t bother me that much. Personally i see that as a sign of good direction.