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Old 2011-12-29, 15:10   Link #41
Shikijin
Senior Member
 
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
Well, there are people who may simple be attracted by abusive characters like Senjougahara. Personally I was in for Hanekawa. Anyway, what I think the main attractiveness of the series really is is the meta-humor. There are times (most of the times) when the characters behave in an absurdly foolish cartoonish manner and times when things get serious.

There is an adjective in Japan, "otonashii". It comes from the word "adult" and means "obedient / docile / quiet", which is the way a Japanese adult should ideally behave like. Characters like Senjougahara are actually described as "immature", in the sense that the act she puts on one day will eventually cease and she will become a proper adult like everyone else. The same goes for the other characters. It's difficult to tell if they are real people who behave like they were in an anime or anime people who know how real people should behave (at least for Araragi).

As for the dialogues, it is a narrative technique that people may or may not like. Instead of directly presenting the main issue, the author deliberately stalls the discussion with nonsense for a whole chapter while building anticipation, and then at the end of the chapter he drops the bomb.

The jokes were thought for readers of the light novels, so some may be lost in the anime, especially for the non-Japanese viewer. For example, the name of Araragi is written 阿良々木. A-ra-ra-gi. The kanji 々 doesn't mean anything on itself, it's "repeat the kanji before". When Hachikuji stutters Araragi's name, she says 阿良々々木, which has two 々 in a row (highly unlikely, reinforcing the concept that she stutters on purpose). The joke is amusing if you know Japanese.

Don't worry about Senjougahara, she actually doesn't have that big of a role anyway. Take her like a joke on the fact main characters mostly end up with tsundere, so she had to have some tsuntsun (aloof/morose/pointed). She possibly may be idolized a bit in the show as you say, but things like that happen. For example every girl likes Araragi. I agree things like that could be detrimental for a show, but as Senjougahara doesn't have much focus in the whole series of books it doesn't get out of hand.
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