At last, we arrive at the end of Bakemonogatari! I unsurprisingly had a ton of stuff to say about this one, and had to scramble to fit the viewing and writing in on the tail end of preview of week. Rewatching the show’s conclusion was as rewarding as all the rest of it, and now I’m even more ready for the summer’s new season. Just keep feeding me Monogatari forever, goddamnit.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!
Araragi is beaming following the date, and runs into Mayoi. Shenanigans
Mayoi wonders why he went for Senjougahara instead of Hanekawa
“I don’t see her that way. She’s my savior.” Again putting her on a pedestal, ignoring her feelings
Mayoi mentions seeing Shinobu by the highway
He gets a call from Hanekawa, who’s hanging out in pajamas. It seems she needs help. Senjougahara lets him go after another great exchange
Hanekawa’s remembering Golden Week. And now she has cat ears again
Araragi’s trying to take over a bit of Oshino’s role
“The headaches I got… to tell you the truth, they were pretty intense.” “Then you should have told me!” “I didn’t want to worry you.” Araragi is such a mess when it comes to Hanekawa. He’s so naturally insensitive, because he can’t see her as anything less than utterly competent
Meanwhile, Hanekawa basically only feels comfortable asking him to explain stupid jokes
“I’ll get mad.” “Then get mad. Get as mad as you want.” Araragi being good here
And she reveals the cat ears
Hanekawa going over the season and lightly digging at Araragi’s ladykilling ways
“I don’t know everything. I don’t know… anything.”
Hanekawa’s such a good friggin’ character
“It would be more efficient to hear from the apparition itself rather than Class Prez.”
Episode 14
The cat arrives
Her stress built up again. So what could be causing it this time?
Araragi’s actually getting the hang of dealing with these things
“Shinobu’s gone on a journey to find herself”
Araragi does something critical that he’s never done before – he asks his friends for help
Love this conversation with Senjougahara. She’s become a true friend of Hanekawa in her own way
“I’ve decided to be responsible for you for the rest of my life.” Araragi is at last focusing on his own apparition
The cat arrives, and says she wants to help
Araragi is so horny for Hanekawa all through this arc
“What do you think about my kind, human?”
“Apparitions and humans will never be compatible”
“Human, do you have any idea why that apparition pulled a vanishing act?”
The cat says that apparitions essentially exist in a state of antagonism with humanity – that that is their fundamental nature. And thus it is impossible to “get used” to them
This is true, but also incomplete – we can coexist with apparitions, and all of us do, because none of us are unscarred. We are all fractured people, we all have apparitions. It’s not necessarily a happy state of affairs, but it’s fundamental to our human identities
“Watching you handle all those apparitions one after another couldn’t have been nice for her, right?” She’s talking about Hanekawa
Araragi’s suicidal selflessness comes to the front
And then is contrasted against Hanekawa’s problem. She’s in love with him
Episode 15
And Araragi initially tries to wave it off as a joke, the way he waves off all of Hanekawa’s feelings
“She couldn’t possibly be in love with me”
“But she never seemed like…”
The flashing event lights here are great
Hanekawa thought she was the heroine. “The girl you’re seeing was as quick as lightning, wasn’t she?”
I love this little bit by Inu Curry
How dare he diminish her feelings
“Isn’t this your chance to repay my mistress for all that she’s done for you?” We’ve got two contradictory instincts here – on the one hand, Araragi truly has taken advantage of Hanekawa, and never recognized her as a person. On the other hand, he’s also never taken a stand for himself, and his dedication to Senjougahara is the first time he’s really found value in his own feelings and identity
“I can’t lie about my feelings for Senjougahara” – Honesty
“There’s nothing about her I don’t love.”
The cat is saying this stuff, but they continuously cut in Hanekawa, as it’s still honest to her feelings
“If you’re kind to everyone, then no one is special to you”
We see their first conversation from episode one in the classroom, but this time, we’re actually paying attention to Hanekawa’s expressions. Emphasizing how he wasn’t seeing her
He tries for other excuses, like mesmerism
And the cat gets Hanekawa expressions
And so she decides to kill him
Araragi acknowledges that this violence is also part of Hanekawa, his savior
He wavers on the edge of being willing to die for Hanekawa, but then remembers Senjougahara. “If Hanekawa kills me, Senjougahara will kill Hanekawa. So I can’t do this.” It’s not valuing his own life for his own sake, but baby steps!
“How many people do you think want to save you?” We’re all connected
The breakthrough comes when he actually asks to be saved. He values his life, and is willing to be helped by others. It was all a game before, but this is honest
She was in his shadow all along
Oshino’s gone. He’s on his own, now
Are you going to continue the Classic Streaming Reviews with Nisemonogatari on ANN? If you were to, would that mean you’d have a writeup for every episode of Monogatari that can be streamed legally in the United States?
Also, would you ever consider doing a personal piece on the series? For example, reflecting upon your own life using the lens/lessons/questions of the series? I think these write-ups finally made me realize that Monogatari is more a series of stories that ask questions that it is one that gives answers, so thanks for that insight. This is my favorite series and I love reading your thoughts on it.