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[Neonivek]

Goodness that friend would HATE the .Hack series. (Well at least the first one)

It is probably the most "Talk-centric" anime I can think of...

[Reelya]

Have you watched Bakemonogatari Neonivek ?

.Hack is so far down on my plan to watch list that it's basically not on the list. Is it worth checking out?

[Neonivek]

In my opinion .hack is goooood... But there is so much endless talking (you can get back to back episodes of nothing but talking) that it will wear you out quickly...

And it will hold back revelations like it is going out of style to try to string you on...

So along with endless talking, incredibly slow pacing, and it holding its cards for as long as humanly possible... along with flat out navel gazing and a rather "energyless" direction (characters tend not to get excited about much or do more then slowly walk everywhere). Ohh by the way while there is fighting in this anime I would slap anyone who considers it in the action genre because I can count the number of genuine fights on one hand.

Yet it is genuinely interesting and the conversations ARE interesting and the characters are well done and interesting. As well the English dub is... good.

The best way to watch it I guess would be sandwiched between sittings with faster paced animes and DON'T try to marathon it unless you are suffering from chronic insomnia and need to find a cure.

---

Also I heard of Bakemonogatari... but it vastly disinterests me.

Metaphors and psycho-girls... and a harem...

[Reelya]

That sounds like a really poor summation of Bakemonogatari. It's less "harem" than e.g. Steins;Gate, Haruhi Suzumiya, Clannad and the like - which are shows I call harems but most people get offended by me labelling them as such.

I'm not sure where "metaphors" comes into it. Surrealism, maybe. And it's not a "psycho-girls" anime ala Mirai Nikki or anything.  It's known for it's surreal art, dialogue and situations. But it's decidely not an action series. It's less "action" than Spice and Wolf for example, and it lacks the typical ecchi harem comedy staples. You won't see episodes revolving around boob grabs, panty shots or a beach/hot springs episode here, definitely not.

Here are two reviews from sites that don't pull punches (they give a lot of 1 star reviews to shitty shows, unlike e./g. "star cross anime reviews" - you could film a poop and they'd still rate it 77.5/100):

http://www.themanime.org/viewreview.php?id=1170 4/5
http://www.nihonreview.com/anime/bakemonogatari/ 9/10

[Orange Wizard]

Clannad is not in any way a "harem" anime, and I'm terribly offended by your ascertain of such. It is the story of one girl's love of starfish.
[/sarcasm]

Harem is probably the best way of describing Clannad, honestly, but there's a lot more too it than just that.
Like Fuuko.

[Reelya]

That's what I mean. Some people take an element of a show, "harem" in this example, which could describe almost anything, and attach all the negative stereotypes to it, without considering how it's used in a show.

Another misused word is "shonen", I've seen people refuse to check out a show like Noragami because it had the "shonen" tag in myanimelist, and "I hate shonen shows". Whilte Noragami does have some action, it's a 12 episode satirical supernatural comedy similar to Hatarake Maou-Sama and really nothing like Dragon Ball or Naruto. "Shonen" actually means anything marketed at the young male demographic. Death Note is a shonen for example.

[Chaoswizkid]

Bakemonogatari is all about the wit. It's a lot of talking, but it's not like a constant dialogue of the plot. I had a great time watching it, laughed my ass off at times. It's also got a quite interesting world, IMO. You might think from a description it might be slice-of-lifey, but it's really not, since there's that whole supernatural angle.

[Reelya]

In terms of structure, Bakemonogatari is a lot like Clannad. The main difference is that Clannad has excellent "feels" whereas Bakemonogatari has sophisticated comedy and witty banter that's light years beyond any gags in Clannad.

[Glowcat]

Considering that Bakemonogatari largely centers around Araragi's connection to various women/girls who have varying levels of interest in him it wouldn't be entirely wrong to argue it's a harem, though thankfully the focus of the stories tends more towards the supernatural issues at hand rather than on how much the characters love Araragi.

It can get creepy in certain places too... Which probably culminates with a certain "incestuous toothbrushing" scene.

Otherwise the dialogue is great. Art is interesting. Story is mostly good even if the telling's structure can be harder to follow than a conventional anime. For the most part it's a fun and thoughtful series that I'd suggest at least trying to watch to see if it's your style.

[Reelya]

That toothbrushing scene was ingenious. And creepy. But much more ingeniously creepy than typical harem shit. Even Bakemonogatari being all fucked up is revolutionary.

[JoshuaFH]

Is there anything new in the world of Mahouka lately? I don't think I'd have the stomach to watch it myself, but I loved it's near-incessant bashing here.

But anyway, I'm replaying Persona 4. I've quickly re-fallen in love with it, doing everything in my power to power through the social links I never touched my first time through.

Though now that I'm tryharding the social aspect, I'm very highly aware and frustrated whenever the story kicks in and starts eating up days & nights while I can do nothing but watch as my usually timely schedule is interrupted or when my once-a-week opportunities are stolen from me.

The actual RPG element feels more like a necessary chore that I just cruelly power through. No rescue so-far has taken more than one day, besides the first one which took two because no fox assistance.

Additionally, I'm restricting myself to never purchasing anything from the weapon or item shop. Only Fox, Tanaka, and the Fisherman allowed.

I had that golf club for the longest time :*(

[Reelya]

Don't bother with Mahouka, there's too much padding and long-winded arcs for the amount of inadvertent lulz you get. Maybe just watch arc 1 up to episode 7. But the 10-episode "sports day" arc was murder. I'll see how it (arc 3) goes, but you can easily skip the entire sports arc and barely miss any plot, except for wondering who a few of his new harem-members and one new male buddy are.

Only new thing in Mahouka is they're talking about inventing magical nuclear fusion, based on Tatsuya's gravity magic. That would be Tatsuya's ability to fire nuclear explosions as bullets as described in the Light Novel's wiki. I've actually got another episode here, I doubt any fun stuff will happen but I'll edit this post if anything really funny happens.

Oh, and Tatsuya is trying to invent the Philosopher's stone, and someone asked him if it was to transmute lead into gold, and he explains that it COULD do that, but that was just a mere side-effect as the Philosopher's stone can store magical activation sequences making things "easier" for magicians. Sort of like washing machines did for 1950's housewives, maybe? But with the inadvertent "lead into gold" thing as a mere bonus.

[Darvi]

Additionally, I'm restricting myself to never purchasing anything from the weapon or item shop.

You playing Golden? Probably not, but if so, you're set for the bonus dungeon.

[JoshuaFH]

Additionally, I'm restricting myself to never purchasing anything from the weapon or item shop.

You playing Golden? Probably not, but if so, you're set for the bonus dungeon.

I wish I was playing Golden. Twas a real jackass idea to have it exclusive to the red-headed stepchild of handheld systems.

[Neonivek]

Considering that Bakemonogatari largely centers around Araragi's connection to various women/girls who have varying levels of interest in him it wouldn't be entirely wrong to argue it's a harem

That is basically why I consider it a Harem.

If he wasn't pretty much "THE man" it would instantly negate that aspect... As well if he wasn't "The way in which all the other characters are fulfilled" it would also escape that.

I'm not sure where "metaphors" comes into it. Surrealism, maybe

Well it is simple... Take one of the character's curses... and imagine it as a metaphor for something that happens in real life.

Then watch the anime play out that metaphor.

Its like Buffy in that respect, but more non-sense.

And it's not a "psycho-girls" anime ala Mirai Nikki or anything.

Well then it advertises itself as unattractively as possible to me, and people describe it terribly to me.

"Ohh no I am weightless... I know I'll start carrying school supplies like a freeken psycho"
Me: "Why don't you... just... I don't know... buy body weights? They are a thing that exists"
"But then I won't be able to show myself undressing with sharp pointy objects poking out... Also are you honestly suggesting I wear something that will make me look LESS sexy?"
Me: "Dang what was I thinking? I'd make sarcastic remarks like a swimsuit episode or something... but I have a feeling there is one"

I am sorry but it is hard for me to get into an anime that advertises itself by showing me someone undressing. You are basically asking me to not only not judge a book by its cover, but also by the little blurb on the back, and everyone elses description.

By the by I consider Higurashi to also fall under "Psycho-girls". Any anime in which the point is that these female characters act off and nearly psychopathic.