[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Shikijin

This tertium non datur is the flaw in your logic.

There wasn't a flaw in my logic.

I used the word "pure" in front of "straight-up ecchi romcom" for a reason.

Pure as in "100%". Pure as in "this is all it is".

Bake was more than a 100% ecchi romcom. What I was asking is if Nise would be more than that as well.

After discussing this with you, I take the answer to that to be "yes", but that I'll need to wait for it. Fair enough.

And neither it is Nise. But if we take your words as an exaggeration we can see we are essentially meaning the same thing.

I wasn't exaggerating. Episode 2 really did feel like almost pure ecchi romcom to me.

But I'll trust you that some plot-relevant dialogue and details were given out in this episode, but that I'll need to rewatch after the fact in order to determine that. Thanks for the info.

Originally Posted by Kanon

The story arcs in Bakemonogatari were only two to three episodes long, it makes sense the plot moved faster in those arcs. Karen Bee, on the other hand, will be five episodes long (or is six?) and therefore can afford to spend time on previously introduced girls while hinting at what the main plot is going to be. It makes for a good build-up.

Well, it's of course a matter of taste, but I prefer the more tightly-written story arcs approach, as Relentlessflame eloquently described. That is indeed one of the things I liked about Bake, and took away from it.

I think the other reason the harem aspect of the series is more obvious in Nise is that Meme is not there anymore (I miss the guy, by the way). One, because he was the only other male character in this series and that alone made it appear a little less harem-ish; and two, because his presence was a constant reminder of the supernatural aspect of the show. Now the anime features only one boy surrounded by half a dozen girls.

Yeah, I definitely miss Meme, and precisely for the reasons you laid out. Well said.

I'm not surprised people feel the series has changed. I personally don't think it has, though. I've always seen Bakemonogatari has a smart and atypical romcom with supernatural elements, and not the other way around. That may be the key difference between those who are loving Nise and those who are disliking it.

It might help to write that I started watching Bake in large part as a rebound off of disappointment with Haruhi 2009 (i.e. E8). Bake gave me everything that I had hoped to get in Haruhi 2009.

So, for me, the supernatural elements of Bake were just as important as the supernatural elements of Haruhi were, and that's pretty important of course. So in fairness it could be that those elements weren't as important as I thought they were.