Nekomonogatari (Black)

[Yukimura]

Right after the end my only thought was that the only lasting thing I'd take away from watching this was that Hanekawa has an absolutely fabulous lingerie collection (much better than Senjogahara's in my opinion). Upon further reflection though I have to tip my hat to Nekomonogatai for finally managing to inform me on why the *gatari series is so liked by those fans who's interest has baffled me for so long.


There was talking and talking and talking but in the end none of what was said seemed to matter within the story and I didn't enjoy that very much and felt bored through most of the verbal sparring. It's one thing to use complexity in dialogue to convey a very complicated subject in a more 'authentic' manner, but this didn't feel like that. It felt like a straightforward story about a couple of teenagers going through some typical teenage angst that was then dressed up with layer upon layer of verbal complexity. In fact, the complexity of the dialogue seemed to be the purpose of the whole endeavor rather than a means of conveying some narrative or thematic purpose.


Now that I look back I can recall a lot of similar instances in Bake- and Nise- of verbal complexity that only really existed for the sake of the audience that appreciates it but I didn't pick up on it as readily because there was also a lot of narrative and theme, which I am much more interested in, being handed out along with all the fancy talking. With Neko- I knew/could guess the narrative, and the themes weren't particularly new or thought provoking and I finally realized that I spent over an hour listening to people talk very prettily though a story that could be told in about 20 minutes and that the talking itself was a significant part of the intended draw for the series. I finally 'get' that if you don't derive entertainment value from complex dialogue in its own right then there's going to be a great gaping hole in your potential for enjoying this series and that's the likely source of the enthusiasm gap I've always felt between myself and other fans on this subject.