Monogatari is back, again (again). This new arc already seems far more compelling than Tsukimonogatari though, so I’m very ready to see where it leads. I already wrote a full piece on this episode over at ANN, but I also took a pile of episodic notes, and figured someone might get some use out of those. So here we go!

Opening with some gorgeous, stained-glass style visual tricks

“No matter what Ougi Oshino does that may seem out of character, it becomes characteristic of her”

“And so, this time we have a story about mathematics”

“This is a story about majority rule. The only method that can turn even a mistake into a truth. A formula of building blocks that pursues conspiring instead of happiness.”

Strong OP

“Ougi Formula, Part One”

Ougi and Araragi are trapped in a classroom together

“You’re relying on someone else to help you, Araragi? All people can do is save themselves on their own.” Ougi can’t help being this smug trickster, throwing his growth in his face

The clock hasn’t moved

Setting up an actual locked room mystery scenario. Pretty fun

Kanbaru introduced Ougi to Araragi

The camera frame keeps including that television in the classroom. And the television also appears in the OP, as something Ougi walks into

There seems to be a hidden room in the school

Shots like they’re being watched

“It’s time to leave school, but not being allowed to go home…” Ougi’s toying with him. This seems to reflect on his inability to leave his identity behind

The CG desks are kinda weird

Araragi getting grilled on the seat he chooses. Apparently during his freshman year, he actually did take a lot of extra classes

Ougi says the classroom is associated with Araragi

Ougi prodding his memory, or perhaps filling it with false ideas. The scenery changes

“In this classroom, on Thursday, July 15th, around 6 PM, something happened”

Apparently he was put on some kind of trial here his freshman year, and that caused him to isolate himself

He and drastically different personalities in middle and high school

“We’re not allowed out until we know who the culprit is”

He was the one presiding over the ceremony

Sodachi Oikura is the white-haired girl

The members of his freshman class represented by kanji characters like buzzing wasps

Araragi was isolated

Someone had stolen answers for a math study group

Araragi got a perfect score without attending the study group, so he was chosen to preside over the group. Which is really interesting and sad – it means he was likely a great student before he was isolated, but gave up on studies, since now he’s rushing to be ready for entrance exams

Oikura hated him for being better at math

Ougi’s style of speaking and creepy, snakelike motions are wonderful

She also constantly invades his personal space, and you can tell he’s uncomfortable with it. Again using physicality to convey power and relationship dynamics

“The culprit will not be determined in this class assembly”

This universe background with the spinning is pretty nice

“It has finally come… the day to acknowledge your past”

Ougi’s basically the judge here as Araragi details the evidence

“Who is the culprit? We will decide by majority rule”

Oikura decided on the vote, but she got voted. But Araragi got dragged into her despair

Araragi blames himself, and has slacked off since then

“Is there a need for you to shoulder so much?”

“Until that moment, I had believed in something like righteousness”

Again, mood changes prompt palate changes

“You have always pursued after the righteousness you lost on that day”

“The culprit is Komichi Tetsujo” – their teacher

Ougi solves the mystery and permits Araragi to leave

And Oikura returns to school, now that Araragi has been “primed” for some kind of conflict by Ougi