Jan 31 2012 12:27 AM I had originally watched the first 13 episodes of Bakemonogatari whilst it was airing and waiting patiently of the episodes that weren't aired on Japanese television but streamed on their website and us anime viewers who weren't able to watch the streams, had to wait for very low quality subbed releases, which weren't the fansub groups' faults.
Over the weekend, I introduced this series to 3 of my friends and we watched 10 episodes over 2 nights, we actually could have finished it quickly but we kept chatting or doing something else after finishing an episode.
All 3 of my friends are somewhat noobs to anime but not as noob as most. They've watched about 10 to 20 different TV anime series.
Marty is one of the 3, he has only watched Code Geass S1 & S2, Darker than Black S1 & S2, Ergo Proxy, Serial Experiment Lain, Death Note, Hellsing and Baccano. I introduced him to Baccano. Anyways, he refuses to watch Shounen and prefer series that are more darker, mature and Seinen in general. I haven't actually tried to make him watch Shounen series to be honest but the 2 other friends have tried.
Dan loves shounen animes, he likes good stories and action, HunterXHunter, One Piece, Code Geass series, Death Note and Hajime no Ippo are among his favourites. I introduced him to Hajime no Ippo. However, he dislikes romance, ecchi and repeated one-liners such as Hanekawa's one-liner in Bakemonogatari, he makes a face that can only be described as a "Dan Face". He didn't like To aru no Majutsu no Index.
Luther is SLOW and takes way to long to watch a series, he tries to watch and do too many things at once. In general, he's closest to me than the other two, mainly because he lives near me and comes to my flat often, he's a nice guy but just generally very stupid, silly, mumbles, super-huge Nintendo fanboy that wants to buy a Wii U when it comes out, immature, annoying, irritating, etc. I tried to re-watch Hajime no Ippo with him but took almost 3 weeks to watch 12 episodes, I gave up re-watching it with him, since he was a first-time watcher of the series, he really really liked it but constantly tried to get this girl who's rejected him twice.....ah forget about that.....anyways, I then re-watched the rest of the series in 2 or 3 days.
Before watching Bakemonogatari with them, I told them that they might like the series and then proceeded to find out which fansubber release I should download by comparing the ratings and comments on anidb. They saw the anidb picture for Bakemonogatari and Dan and Marty started complaining, especially Dan, who said that it's going to be a really crap harem series, I told them they just have to try it out.
Whilst watching the series in awesome Blu-Ray 1080p quality, Dan made "Dan Faces" whenever Hanekawa says her one-liner or the part where they show a lot of text that can't be read quick by enough by the viewer at the beginning of the episode and the other 2 thought the same as well as they wanted to know what it was.
Luther made stupid noises whilst watching the first 10 episodes, which Marty complained about because they were sitting next to each other.
Luther also said the series contained too much dialogue and didn't get to the point quick enough. Me, Dan and Marty all disagreed to Luther's comment, we all loved the intelligent dialogue that kept us yearning for more. The intelligent dialogue........Luther pissed me off with his comment and the fact that he microwaved this jelly pudding earlier the night as well, which was offered to him by Marty. His reason for microwaving it was that he didn't like the taste of it, it was Melon flavoured, he mentioned he tasted Coconut in it, which I believe to be bullshit. The poor Jelly Pudding was reduced to liquid-gooey mess, that son of bitch ruined it.
Marty liked the art style of the series, which I mentioned to him being a SHAFT series, I think he will be more willing to watch more SHAFT series in the future.
We shall be finishing off the series this week without a doubt. Since, it's pretty much me re-watching it, Bakemonogatari still seems fresh to me despite most of the scenes had already been etched into mind when I first watched it. I still love this series and I can't wait to finish it this week so that I can move on to Nisemonogatari, which I think translates to Fake Story I think.
Bakemonogatari will most definitely get a 10/10 from me, it's such a joy to watch.
