Copied from my own blog: http://surprisinglycomplex.blogspot.fi/2013/06/nisemonogatari-to-be-fake.html
Warning: Contains profanity and some spoilers which are properly hidden. Is made to make you s*it brix.
Detours. The story of Nisemonogatari is all but linear, starting in medias res and almost every episode a self-contained story. This doesn't really make it worse by any means. It actually enforces the point that life doesn't go on rails, with all the important things happening in order. While some may just point out that most of Nisemonogatari is filler, I tend to disagree. In this kind of series, the filler is more important than the stories themselves. Monogatari is characterization in it's heart, and that's why the actual "storylines" are less important than even the goofier "filler" moments.
I can give you an example. Which was more important to the Monogatari series, the part where
and Araragi completely loses himself for the first time we've seen, or the bath scene with Shinobu. Exactly. The part where
is not even important in it's own right, only it's consequence is. Because Araragi doesn't see limits of family going between blood, but with emotion, we get to see more character of Araragi... Which has nothing to do with the scene actually. On the other hand, deepening the relationship between Shinobu and Araragi is so goddamn important to the story at large, just not the particular part of story where it's told. Weird, isn't it?
And there was a good segway I didn't use. Araragi's development in the very end is actually crucial, as the same exact philosophy is told to us by Kaiki just few episodes before. He tells us about a fake being capable of being more than the real counterpart, as the fake must deliberately try to obtain it's goal, which for the real one, is given. It's one of the most important philosophies of this show, and even though this part of the series was not even supposed to be canon, it still effectively makes the series as a whole much better. The philosophy of being a fake can be applied to all parts of the series, before or after Nisemonogatari, and it always gives a new point of view in the matters.
Let me de-rail a bit, but it may be skipped if you want to continue on Nisemonogatari.
On the second time watching Nise, I realized there's also a lot of talk of MONEY in the first arc. Like one of the better jokes being love sold at the convenience store for 298¥, Kaiki talking about philosophy of money and I would even count the flying money during Sengoku's and Araragi's Game of Life to be counted as some kind of foreshadowing for it. Thinking about the philosophy of money, and comparing it to the overall philosophy of fakes, you could see money as some kind of fake justice. And that leads to you know what is behind the character of Kaiki. Money can be just as good as real good, if it's used to make the cogs of society spinning and thus making good for everybody.
And from that, back to the main subject:
Araragi is a problematic case. He hypocritically says that his sisters' fake justice is just playing and nothing really to be taken seriously, even though it's lampshaded that he does the exactly the same thing, difference being between justice and helping being actually pointless, as the Fire Sisters most probably do the things they do just to protect their friends too. This makes them all three fake, but as one is not more fake than the other, it doesn't really matter. They do their thing just to make sure to see people with smiling faces, and they usually succeed in that, where as real "justice", carried out by law, leaves many with tears
Araragi's moods and feelings jump disturbingly much, almost enough to confessing that in a case of if he could, he would probably cheat on Senjougahara with Hanekawa (It's contradictory to what the very next part of the series tells us). Goddamnit Araragi. At this point I want to remind you, that even if it's not played with much, Araragi is just a high school hormone monster, and with vampire blood in him, who is to say that it doesn't actually enforce it even more.
There's also hints to the fact that Araragi is not with Senjougahara of love and that Senjougahara fascination was just bull he made up to lie to himself. There will be more of it in the Nekomonogatari Black.
Also, Toothbrushes.
TL;DR?
Filler is more important than the main series, trust me, I'm a genuis (typo intended).