Absolute Fanboy

I almost lost track of how many times Bakemonogatari-related goods are postponed. Original posted in Nisio Isin thread in 2ch, in the Pandora Vol.3, literary magazine under Kodansha BOX’s, they revealed the release month of three new goods, all in June 2009:

• Bakemonogatari Drama CD (1~10)
• Bakemonogatari Anime Official Guidebook (11~20)
• Nisemonogatari 2 (21~31)

The Drama CD is postponed from May 2009; Nisemonogatari 2, the last book in Bakemonogatari series, was postponed from December 2008 to March 2009 and again to June 2009. The official anime guidebook is probably the one Ōta Katsushi is talking about in the previous interview.

The same issue also has Bakemonogatari feature:

• Shinbō Akiyuki Work Profiles
• Nisio Isin & Shinbō Akiyuki Interview
• Kurose Yōhei’s “The World with Only Characters—Shinbō+Shaft Works as a Bishōjo Anime” critic column

I don’t know how many times they’re going to postpone something again until they satisfy. The way they’re being super secretive about everything makes it a bit boring on the information front. I still look forward to the casts revealing in the drama CD, though.

The updated information from Nisio Isin Anime Project thread saying the Drama CD will be released on the first week of June, Nisemonogatari 2 in middle, and Bakemonogatari Anime Official Guidebook in the last week of June.

The guidebook will be a double-cover with illustrations by Akio Watanabe the anime’s character designer and VOFAN the original illustrator. It will also contain a “very long” interview between Nisio Isin and Shinbō Akiyuki with tribute illustrations from various guest artists.

Either the original poster is trolling, or this is true. From the upcoming Weekly Shōnen Magazine, the third season of Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei is reportedly announced.

The title is Zan: Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei (not sure it is 懺 or 懴) and is scheduled to be broadcasted in July 2009, replacing Asura Cryin’. Original source of the image is from Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei thread in 2ch.

Considering Shaft has Bakemonogatari in July, it is also possible that the third season won’t be done by Shaft or they have been doing this since some time. The latter is likely, since Bakemonogatari’s storyboard was done in February, and Miyamoto Yukihiro, one of Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei assistant directors, will be directing the first episode of Bakemonogatari, as revealed in Otona Anime Vol.12.

But seriously, Shaft? Two shows at once? The last thing everyone wants is yet-another Fujisan incident in either series. Now I’m really worried…

This interview cleared up most of my worries I had with the series! Looks like this is a full version of the previous published NewType Vol.2 interview. Since it’s available on the web, I think I should just translate the transcript. Please don’t mind the inaccuracy (or rather, fix it for me.)

Leaving novel’s characteristic in the anime

—When did the project started?

Shinbo: The end of 2007? It was when Kodansha gave me several novels from Nisio Isin to read. Then they decided that Bakemonogatari was to be animated, and here are we now. Since we have a lot of Nisio Isin fans in the company, when the staff from other companies sees the novels on the table before it was announced, they were asking if SHAFT is going to do this, aw. (Laughs.)

—That’s a good story (laughs). What is your impression on the novel?

Shinbo: Not only amusing characters and story, I also found the conversations to be peculiar. That’s why we should adapt those conversations as it is without any weird changes. Since I myself also want to see those conversations in the anime.

—What do you mean by adapting as it is?

Shinbo: To make the boundary line between the letters and the visuals as vague as possible. Not only turns texts into visuals, but to leave the novel’s characteristics on them. This may sounds exaggerated; we’re finding the definitive technique in order to make Bakemonogatari anime. We’re also trying in on-screen texts’ direction we’ve been using up until now.

—The director also used a lot of on-screen texts in Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei.

Shinbo: Since letters are originated from hieroglyph, there should be a way to show them. Because of that, I want to try uniting the expressions of kanji’s appearances with the visuals in this series.

—Then, how about the scenario?

Shinbo: To tell you the truth, all scenarios for the anime are already done. In the end, we directly follow the novel’s transcript and cleanly cut the episode on that. That’s why we don’t have a Series Composition this time. We also won’t reorganize the already-shuffling parts, since all the conversations in Nisio Isin’s novels are foreshadowing something, if we remove any lines or change it, it would not be consistent. Although we want to follow it as closely as possible, it’s quite hard since there’s not enough time in the episodes.

For the direction, it should be nice to have one episode that characters only speak to each other to make the conversation standout, maybe without animation at all (laughs). I’m currently worried about a lot of things and still don’t know how it would look visually but we’re picking out the best method in Bakemonogatari that may differ from the other novel to anime adaptations.

—If you’re saying adapting as it is then I’m looking forward to Kanbaru Suruga’s rampage(?) in Suruga Monkey.

Shinbo: That’s a serious matter. The background art department even asked certain Fujōshi person and uses her room as a reference. (Laughs)

It’s glad to hear they won’t reorganize the story, since that’s one of Bakemonogatari charming point. From what he said, I can finally expect something new in his directional, right?

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The first episode of Natsu no Arashi! is clearly a so-so start; story-wise, looks like their choice of using the eighteenth gag chapter to get viewers familiar with settings and characters in the series backfired them badly.

The animation in this episode is clean, it’s nowhere near the PV-level, although the character design is still on a bad side. ef-colors are less annoying than I thought it would. The opening animation is so-so, coming from Shaft. The ending is great, iPod parody using a cassette tape is just nice.

Somehow I feel they’ve betrayed my expectations in both good and bad way. The good: it’s better than the PV. The bad: it’s still nowhere near their standard quality or what I’d like to see. I can’t help but feel Ōnuma Shin has managed to worsen my good impression of Shaft. Again. But this time, it’s worse than what he has done in ef – a tale of melodies.

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Bakemonogatari gets two-pages features in March 2009 issue of Aniplex’s free magazine, Ani-Com. (Free web edition available, requires Flash.) The article is an interview with producer Iwakami Atsuhiro, although he reveals no new information. Some quote from the interview:

Please tell us the reason you’ve chose Shaft for Bakemonogatari.

One of the main charming point in Bakemonogatari is the story that’s a mix between apparitions and mystery; the another charming point is the conversations between characters. This conversation part is the problematic point to the anime, since it’s mostly a conversation between two peoples for the whole series.

For director Shinbō and Shaft team, they’re known for creating new method for anime series that are conversation-centric such as in Sayonara Zetsubō Sensei or Hidamari Sketch. So what if they applied their best techniques for this Bakemonogatari! Well, more than anything, only being Nisio Isin & Shinbō Akiyuki work makes me excited enough, maybe this is the real reason.

Other interesting points:

• They want to organize the anime series into five parts just like the original novel.
• Currently they are still casting for seiyū.
• The Drama CD will be published by Kodansha BOX (instead of music producer’s side).

Again, not much to see here. The scheduled feature from now on, as of April 1, 2009 are:

• Charamel Vol.8 (March 25, 2009 on sale. ￥990.)—Shinbō’s Room corner, an interview between the director Shinbō Akiyuki and the character designer Akio Watanabe.
• Charamel Vol.9 (June 25, 2009 on sale. ￥990.)—Full issue feature on Bakemonogatari.

It’s likely that this month’s NewType Magazine will also have Bakemonogatari feature. Just a guess, though.