Bakemonogatari Budgetary Considerations

July 24th, 2009

I’m throwing in the towel here. While I’ll admit that I found this week’s episode mostly more engaging (not that that’s saying much), the endless CG backgrounds, art and animation getting even worse, and then a full two minutes of staring at a photograph of a man’s hand holding a cell phone at the end (and more stills abused for 30-40 seconds during the rest of the episode too) have convinced me that this makes a better audiobook than it does a show. I could make it through Index’s exposition because it was broken up every two to three episode by crazed lolicons dropping cars on people, or exploding electric clones. This just has the promise of exposition with more exposition to come. Thrilling. Presentation is everything. Index was also fun to mock, while making fun of this just seems cruel to a clearly underbudgetted show. At least it’s obvious where they are spending their money instead of in the episode itself. Maybe I could just watch the OPs and call it a day.

Posted in Anime | 25 Comments »

25 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Mr. Big says:
    July 24, 2009 at 3:03 pm

    Pretty damn good OP!
    I would definitely watch if the rest of the show was anything like the OP. I only made it about 15 minutes through the first episode. lol

  • Diss says:
    July 24, 2009 at 3:23 pm

    Why let story get in the way of a good anime amiright?

  • Solaris says:
    July 24, 2009 at 3:29 pm

    Oh nice, isn’t that what i continue blabbering about since this (f***ing)show stared?
    Now i didn’t say it, Mr Blogger said it!!
    But that summarizes my line of thought at all.

    presentation is all. …and then good animation went in the fu**i*g trashcan.

    i’d rather go back watching Popotan

    • Aroduc says:
      July 24, 2009 at 4:24 pm

      Eh. The start of the show was clever enough and looked like it actually had a budget, and if they had continued shoving sharp objects in Koyomi’s mouth, that would be infinitely more interesting than being forced to listen to Captain Milquetoast talk.

      • Anonymous says:
        July 24, 2009 at 5:01 pm

        I think you’re just desensitized. I can do without explosions if the protagonist often gets injured by/beats the shit out of little girls.

        Otherwise, I’m with Diss on this one – content and story > presentation. (I like this show’s presentation for the most part, though) For instance, Gonzo shows are shitty even when they blow the budget.

        Anyway, I’ll miss these WTF-are-we-watching-the-same-show? trolling posts of yours.

      • Solaris says:
        July 24, 2009 at 5:11 pm

        BAKEBORINGATARI
        I had some doubts since the first episode.
        I noticed the great graphics and chara, but wen i thought about what had happened in the episode, i realized nothing much happened.
        The second episode cofirmed my worries.
        Leave aside the dressing part that doesn’t add nothing to the story neither with the chit chat talk, neither with the fanservice. They spent half of the episode in nothingness. The other half added indeed to the story, but was rather told than animated, so the second worried i had was confirmed. There was very little action in this ghost story.
        The third episode showed good graphics was definitively gone. The first episode had to burn most of the budget of the graphics to capture audience. And so it was. Once our audience arrives at the third episode, they will probably continue following the show till the end. And you can show your true colors.
        Minimalistic CG scenarios, stills, and people that spens time chit chating. Were these those great dialogues that people who read the visual novel are so eager to defend? Please…
        So what’s left in this show now? There’s no plot, no animation, no (reasonable) dialogues. We still have nice drawn charas and nice ops. Let’s pretend it was enough.

      • Anonymous says:
        July 24, 2009 at 5:50 pm

        Solaris, you can’t please everybody. For everyone who complains about lack of action, there’s somebody who will complain about no character development. There seem to be more people who enjoy the dialogue than not (sub quality makes a big difference), though this IS the internet so it’s not exactly unbiased sampling. And art is… Shaft. Although the new ED animation rocks my world. (Shows losing animation quality is the rule, not the exception.)

        I’m guessing it’s not optimal for someone who doesn’t seem to be a native English speaker to watch English subs of a show heavily focused on dialogue and character interaction, anyway…

      • Solaris says:
        July 24, 2009 at 6:17 pm

        You are rigth Anon, it is impossible to please everybody. But that’s good too, for everyone of us is different and has different tastes in life. If we all had the same tastes, we would be assimilated like Borgs by now. :P

        I am only trying to express my own uneasyness with the show, without the pretense to convince anybody. I just wondered why very few other than me noticed those huge flaws in this show. Well, i considered those flaws, but it may simply be normal for others anyway. There’s no evil in that.

        The thing i like less in Bakemonogatari is the use of metafiction. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metafiction].
        Of course it’s like to say i hate the basic concept of this show.
        Metafiction is a story wich is told in a story. There are great examples in literature. 2001 Nights, Decameron and so on.
        It may be good in a novel or in a theatrical play, but it’s rather pontless in a movie, ehere you’ve got to act the story presented by the metafiction device. In an anime like bakemonogatari, metafiction is only a cheap device to save money avoiding animation and it detracts from the plot wether adding to it.

      • Solaris says:
        July 24, 2009 at 6:31 pm

        I’m guessing it’s not optimal for someone who doesn’t seem to be a native English speaker to watch English subs of a show heavily focused on dialogue and character interaction, anyway…
        Well maybe it shows so much that i’m not a native english speaker. My bad indeed. Excuse me for my bad writing.

        Would you believe i’d rather prefer english subs to those in my own language? I understand english quite good and am perfectly fine also with bakemonogatari’s heavy dialogues. The problem here is not me not understanding the dialogue, but those being raher pointless.
        Maybe i have some more problems with writing and speaking. It’s indeed hard to exercise foreign languages where i live. I’m from Italy and all the world knows how litlle english we do speak :P Hope to get better at writing with your help ;)

      • Anonymous says:
        July 24, 2009 at 7:05 pm

        Actually, I know it can be really, really annoying to read other people defending something that you can’t stand. So I know where you’re coming from.

        …You know, I was really not expecting this to turn into a discussion of metafiction, lol. I agree though, shows like Bakemonogatari and Haruhi are really meta- in nature… that’s part of what I like about it, that it is in some ways about the storytelling rather than the story itself. But when you and Anonymous (below) put it like that, I can understand… I guess the “book-ness” of this show doesn’t bother me personally.

        …and your English is better than my Italian =P and probably better than my Japanese =)

    • Anonymous says:
      July 25, 2009 at 7:41 am

      I’m the worst commenter on this blog. Just putting that out there.

      • Solaris says:
        July 25, 2009 at 1:18 pm

        Hey kid i hope you’re not speaking to me. It’s a million years too early for you to do so. Learn how to write reasonable arguments to support your writing or STFU

      • Solaris says:
        July 25, 2009 at 4:33 pm

        Ok i’m an idiot. First i learn to read posts and maybe i could not end up insulting people at random. My excuses.

      • Aroduc says:
        July 25, 2009 at 4:34 pm

        Or I just find it more amusing to edit the particularly worthless namecalling troll posts rather than delete them. Either/or.

      • Solaris says:
        July 25, 2009 at 6:08 pm

        So i read it well. Ok that makes me twice the idiot. Just let’s forget it ._.”

  • dood says:
    July 24, 2009 at 4:45 pm

    The first episode was great with the mouth-stapling and the second was great for the dressing part, but with the third one I kinda dozed off, the only good part of was the loli-smackdown.

    SHAFT: You either love it or hate it.

  • Anonymous says:
    July 24, 2009 at 5:10 pm

    I agree with Aroduc. If an anime has a great story, but isn’t ANIMATED, then you might as well be reading it in a book. Things shouldn’t have to be explained or told to you, they should be shown. I know there are some things they cant show but you shouldn’t have them talk about the entire plot while just standing around, that’s boring.

  • Rawr says:
    July 24, 2009 at 7:47 pm

    I’ve yet to watch the episode myself, seeing as I’d rather watch shows with heavy dialogue subbed in some form or manner. However, if the show really is anything like index what with information being shoved down your throat through stills, and endless exposition, then yes, there’s a clear problem with presentation. However, as someone above said, Bakemonogatari has a good story, and I find the dialogue engaging and humorous, but that might just be me.

    It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I think the real reason lies in expectations. Aroduc expected lots of blood and mayhem, and the show has yet to deliver on any of that beyond the opening episode, really. It’s a shame you’re giving up so early, but I hope you don’t drop the series, it’s REALLY one of the only watchable ones of this season.

  • Chrys says:
    July 24, 2009 at 7:52 pm

    What IS the plot of this show? It starts off showing Vampire Araragi-kun tearing off people’s arms and and some blood and gore, then completely forgets that stuff ever happened and spends the rest of the show just talking in circles…

    At first I thought it was going to be an action filled blood fest full of Japanese mythology and vampires killing each other. Then after end of 1st OP I thought, Okay, so its going to be like an intellectual debate about JPN mythology and how it can relate to the modern world.

    But now, I have no clue anymore…They keep throwing in super cute moe stuff, fanservice and pantsu, then show super closeups and stills of backgrounds that don’t really mean anything to the plot. Is there a plot to this show and what is it? Cause I certainly can’t find one…

    I don’t know anything about the subs, I only watch anime in RAWS…been studying Japanese for years now~

  • Irie says:
    July 24, 2009 at 8:28 pm

    Since there’s a language barrier, I can’t really comment on the show’s content purely on the visual. I found the dialog interesting last episode but I wonder how much longer this show can be subbed. It was stunning how much text was displayed. I handled it fine but the work to produce the subs must have been a monumental effort.

    Anyway, not the ideal show to really share opinions. Seems like this will be a very weak season.

  • TheBigN says:
    July 25, 2009 at 2:20 am

    Yay SHAFT X Shinbo being SHAFT X Shinbo.

  • Ronin8317 says:
    July 25, 2009 at 7:50 pm

    I recommend watching the next episode before giving up : you will want to see the ‘love confession’. Personally I don’t mind the vast amount of dialogue, but the ‘word riddles’ is impossible to decipher unless you’re very good with Japanese.

  • Aroduc says:
    July 25, 2009 at 9:40 pm

    Settle down, girls. I have no problems continuing to delete the more juvenile name calling. Even Omni didn’t like this episode. I bet it’s far more amusing to call him names.

  • blkmage says:
    July 25, 2009 at 11:09 pm

    I can see why you weren’t thrilled with this episode. But I feel like a massive amount of stills, blowing the budget on the OP and the first episode, and generally weird stuff are all things that I’ve come to expect from SHAFT.

  • Epic Win Blog » Bakemonogatari is Brilliant… But It Put Me To Sleep. Twice. says:
    August 13, 2009 at 9:36 pm

    […] Sure they do an excellent job with the keyframes they do make, but the whole 5 centimeters frames per second minute thing starts to wear on me after a while, and I’m not the only one who thinks that way. […]