| I finally finished watching all 3 seasons of the popular Monogatari Series. When I first joined this site, a lot of people recommended it to me because I wanted to see something with style, an intriguing story, and deep characters. For the most part, I enjoyed the first season. I hadn't seen anything like it before, and I was surprised by how interesting pretentious philosophical discussions could be. The story moved forward at a decent pace, and I was into it. Then I saw the second season that replaced a lot of the witty banter with sexualized preteens and incest. Many people complained about the fan service, and the reviews were generally unfavorable, so I wasn't alone in disliking it. I looked forward to the third season because, according to reviews, it's the best one in the series, and, at the time of this post, it's #18 on MAL's top anime. I was excited. So I'm watching it, listening to the characters ramble off walls of words as they normally do, and I'm patiently waiting for something to happen. When things do finally happen, I barely care because I don't feel a connection with any of it, and the lack of a clear direction, which even the first season had, left me disoriented. Maybe this season was just too deep for me. Or maybe I'm just too old to appreciate something so hip and new. :P Anyway... TL;DR: Have you ever seen an anime that was "too deep" for you to understand? Was it truly too deep, or was it just a pile of pretentious horseshit? EDIT: I have a love/hate relationship with the Monogatari Series now. It's still essentially an ecchi/harem, but there's a bit of creative genius hidden among all the shit. Watching the series in the proper order helped. Because of its unorthodox structure, I accidentally skipped Nekomonogatari: Kuro, which provides some of the character background missing from the other seasons. |
aikaflipMay 14, 2015 10:10 AM
| While there are several anime i did not understand (and probably a handful more i only think i do), i wouldn't say many of them were because of 'depth'. It was either because i didn't pay full attention to a confusing series which probably wouldn't have made much mroe sense even if i did (Skull Man, Robotics;Notes), the details were intentionally left up to the viewers' interpretations (Haibane Renmei, Penguindrum), or it was more about 'i don't understand why this anime is so/isn't more popular' than the actual content of the anime. The only ones that come to mind would be The Death Lullaby: It looks like it might be an allegory for something... but it beats me =/ A Country Doctor: This one, being an adaptation from Kafka's works, it does have a critics' interpretation of it on the Wikipedia article, but even after reading it, i still don't get it... though being absurdist literature, i guess you're just not supposed to get it. As for your post on the Monogatari series, i think it's more a case of 'i don't understand why it's so popular'. Not that it's too relevant, but here is my take on what i've seen from it (Nise, Bake, Neko): When i watched Bakemonogatari, it felt to me like a shitty combination of Mononoke with Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. The highlight of the series was Senjougahara, the fact that she and Araragi got together in the first few episodes, and their date towards the end; Otherwise, i suppose i can also say that i don't get why it's so well recieved... probably because less people watched Mononoke and SZS before? As for Nisemonogatari, I'm one of the weird ones who liked Nise more than Bake, mostly because -It felt less like a combination of Mononoke & SZS, and more like it's own thing -The Courage to Tell a Lie episode: it's the dialogue which i found most interesting from the entire series -Kaiki, and his whole 'fake which has more value than the original' idea -Tsukihi Phoenix has the most interesting story out of every character imo -Visuals-wise, it was a step up from Bake, and one of my top anime in this category -The toothbrush scene was pretty edgy, and more memorable than almost everything in Bake; Nu Fetish anyone? |
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romagia said: The only ones that come to mind would be The Death Lullaby: It looks like it might be an allegory for something... but it beats me =/ A Country Doctor: This one, being an adaptation from Kafka's works, it does have a critics' interpretation of it on the Wikipedia article, but even after reading it, i still don't get it... though being absurdist literature, i guess you're just not supposed to get it. Absurdist, abstract, and purely symbolic literature walk on a very thin line between art and bullshit—in my opinion. If it can evoke an emotion from a reader or viewer, I guess it could be considered art to that person. But I have a hard time accepting work that just throws random ideas at me without giving any hints regarding its structure, direction, or purpose. Angel's Egg was almost this bad. Otherwise, i suppose i can also say that i don't get why it's so well recieved... probably because less people watched Mononoke and SZS before? That might be the case. I haven't seen them either. *adds them to list* As for Nisemonogatari, I'm one of the weird ones who liked Nise more than Bake, mostly because -It felt less like a combination of Mononoke & SZS, and more like it's own thing -The Courage to Tell a Lie episode: it's the dialogue which i found most interesting from the entire series -Kaiki, and his whole 'fake which has more value than the original' idea -Tsukihi Phoenix has the most interesting story out of every character imo -Visuals-wise, it was a step up from Bake, and one of my top anime in this category -The toothbrush scene was pretty edgy, and more memorable than almost everything in Bake; Nu Fetish anyone? I think Kaiki is my favorite character in the whole series. If more of the characters were as compelling as him, and if their lives didn't revolve so heavily around Araragi, I probably would have found it easier to watch. And I'll admit, that toothbrush scene was pretty amazing. XD |
| I don't understand a thing in Yuri Kuma Arashi. It is 3deep5me At first I thought it was about how homosexuality is not accepted in general [Japanese] society, but who knows. Every new episode is confusing the shit out of me. I have to go to reddit to see other interpretations, but they're all equally messy. Oh well, I'll wait for the series to finish airing to see if its truly 2deep4me. Another Ikuhara work that was 2deep4me was the Utena movie. Like, wtf. UTENA TURNS INTO A CAR. /WHAT idungetit |
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| I've ranted enough about Yuri Kuma Arashi's bullshit for one week. Bakemonogatari was the same to me: a bunch of symbols thrown together for the sake of being "deep." I think I could have understood End of Evangelion, had I actually paid attention, but watching it passively, it was definitely 2deep4me. I was actually able to pick out bits and pieces of the Utena movie and the overlying themes of Serial Experiments Lain & Madoka Magica made sense to me once I jotted down some notes and thought things over for a while. I like to think that if a series actually has meaning, I'll be able to make sense of it eventually. |
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