Hello everyone,
Here we are to talk about the first episode of the much anticipated winter season 2011/2012 anime series Nisemonogatari introducing us back to the main cast and setting up the backstory to explore the life of the two sisters Tsukihi and Karen.
We don't see much of the two sisters in this first episode apart from a little cute scene with Tsukihi at the beginning, but most of the episode was dedicated to the Mayoi/Hitagi pair, the first acting more like a true friend to Koyomi, while the second acting like a madman (as usual I would add).
It was a bit weird starting to watch the talk-heavy story of the Nisemonogatari/Bakemonogatari brand again, but after a couple of minutes I got used again to the massive infodump Shaft does in every single scene.
The story start abrupt with our Koyomi finding himself bound in a chair-filled classroom with no one on sight to help him. Just as he tries to free himself from the chains, Hitagi appear and start to mess up with him in her typical bitchy/do-S way.
It was a bit strange to see this whole scene out of the blue at the beginning of the new season, but I think that we'll see more of it in the future. I'm just curious which of the sisters story will take him in that pityful situation though...:P
On the other side we get plentyful of Mayoi golden screen time making her character grow in detail over the rather simple development she had in her own route. She is acting more and more like a true friend to Koyomi, probably one of the few he has.
Tsukihi as you can see here has a very cute voice and is easily irritated by her own brother, but to be honest I'm more eager to see Karen's personality/voice, as she's the supposedly energetic part of the twins.
You can easily notice all the typical Shaft visual style in here with plenty of special backgrounds and close-in to show Tsukihi's beauty! They even had those fullscreen text dump from time to time!
I was not particularly bothered by them though, maybe I created some sort of immunity to Shaft's special visual style. I should add it to my achievements!
Next episode will hopefully introduce Karen in the main cast and will give the initial sprint to the first arc that will probably revolve around her named "Karen Bee". (Tsukihi mentioned some "fight" she was having with friends)
I'm also interested in knowing more about the past of the two sisters together (not in their own route only) and the reasons for which the two sisters are called "Fire sisters" by their friends.
Hopefully (as a continuation of this episode) we'll have some additional fuwa fuwa time with a grown up (and even cuter than before) Nadeko trying to court Koyomi in her own house!
Concluding, I'm rather happy with the first episode of Nisemonogatari and I'm eager to watch and blog about the rest of the series as well.
See you soon,
feal87