Nekomonogatari White [DVD]

Just when you start to feel that the Monogatari series is faltering it hits its stride again with a story that is the equal of the two original stories from Bakemonogatari.Technically you are intended to watch Neko- White after Bake-, Nise- and Neko- Black, but really the story takes up after the "Tsubasa Cat" chapter of Bakemonogatari and it would make a lot of sense to someone who had only seen that first set of Blu-Rays. Unusually, it tells the story from the perspective of Hanekawa instead of that of series hero Araragi, and the change of perspective is refreshing because it allows the narrative to concentrate on some of the side relationships in the overall story.Importantly, while there is some mild titillation along the way it at least has a point. While eyes roll when Araragi's main squeeze Senjougahara wants to have a shower with Hanekawa it sets up an unusually touching relationship and contributes to the main narrative. Fan service drops out almost completely later in the story and you'll end up liking every character just a little bit more than you did when you started.The pay-offs to the plot are excellent and I was genuinely moved by the way small things fell into place. I'd recommend this even to someone who is normally alienated by anime's tropes & idiosyncrasies.

Nekomonogatari is the first arc in Monogatari second season.This arc really sets the pace of the show and really shows us more about the arcs protagonist, Tsubasa Hanekawa.This blu-ray is well priced for what you're getting, which is one of the best arcs in the monogatari series

Four Stars because of the way these were carved up, these DVD's are technically complete series, because that's how they were released and named by Shaft, yet it's more true that they are story arcs, complete with the last episode telling you to watch the next episode.Also if you know how it's broken up, then you know that this is technically the start of the second season, so the option was there to bundle these series together to form the full season, or split that into two parts if they wished, but MVM opted not to. If you don't think MVM are just doing this to make as much money as they can, then consider that they broke Owarimonogatari into two parts once they realised they could get away with selling these DVD's with 4-5 episodes.This is a great series, which should be no surprise, the only difference is that it doesn't focus on Araragi as he's mysteriously gone absent only texting to let our cast know he'll be away for a while, much to their annoyance. Instead it focuses on Hanekawa, Senjougahara also features prominently in this and it sees a lot of character development from both of them, especially Hanekawa.There is one slight frustration with this series, the Monogatari series had sold the idea that it's fanservice was different to regular fanservice as it was only to show Araragi was a pervert, and as such it was masterfully done, and the only other character that it generally applied to was Kanbaru. That means if the fanservice in Monogatari is indeed different to any other anime series, then there wouldn't be any in this series because Araragi isn't there and it's not from his point of view. However you would be wrong in thinking that as there is still fanservice in this series, so while I have previously praised Monogatari for it's use of fanservice, in this series it decided to just admit that in all actuality, like with every other anime the fanservice is for fanservice sake, so we can't claim it's on a higher standard. Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind fanservice as it's a part of anime, and if done right, then it adds to the anime and can even add to the overall enjoyment, but most people try to pretend Monogatari is something different, and it isn't.Only thing left to mention is the soundtrack, personally I didn't find it's OP and ED as good as Black, but that's more personal preference and people may have different views on that one.If you've watch the others you know what you are in for, if you haven't, then why are you looking at this? I won't say that it's returned to form like other people, because I didn't have an issue with Black, so for me Monogatari never lost its form, if you didn't like that Black didn't have much character development or spend time exploring the characters, then White does answer that, some people may not like the lack of Araragi, but just like Oshino had to leave to allow Araragi to solve things on his own, Araragi had to leave in this to allow our female cast to resolve this story and grow as characters.

Bought for my husband. He loves it. Arrived quickly.

ANOTHER GOOD ANIME IN THESERIES

Disc doesn't WORK!