Alright folks, let’s get right back into it. Araragi’s stuck in a mirror world, Shinobu’s nowhere to be found, and Hachikuji is having altogether too much fun being Araragi’s big sister. Monogatari’s victory lap has so far been just as self-aware and indulgent as I expected, and I’m eager to see which mirror-shifted companion we run into next. Nisio Isin can’t help but embrace his goofy idiosyncrasies as a writer even at the most serious of times, so I imagine we’re in for at least another episode or two of shenanigans before he brings the hammer down.

As far as themes go, this mirror world is providing a clear externalization of Araragi’s internal discord, as he seeks to solidify both his own identity and his relationship with others now that he’s no longer a high schooler. Araragi is no longer certain of his place in the world, and in classic Monogatari tradition, that uncertainty is now defining his external reality. Let’s see if Araragi gets any closer to figuring his shit out, as we dive back into Zoku Owarimonogatari!

Episode 2

“Have you seen it? The far side of the moon? The continuation of the dream you forgot about yesterday. My possibilities. Your possibilities.” Araragi’s monologue in the opening is now quite illuminating. Rather than these possibilities referring to alternate versions of the Monogatari narrative, they’re referring to alternate personal paths the characters could have picked, and alternate forms of their own identity they could have settled on. Uncertain of his identity with high school behind him, Araragi is now going on a journey that illustrates how all of us could select from a variety of valid selves when choosing our life paths and constructing our personas. His anxiety writ large, but this could also be twisted in a comforting direction, emphasizing how whatever he chooses will be valid, because it is the choice he decided on

They head to Kanbaru’s residence, following the legend that you can see who you’ll end up with in the waters of her residence bath

Hah, they built a whole CG set for Kanbaru’s bathroom. It seems like post-Kizumonogatari, SHAFT are willing to embrace more of that film’s discordant aesthetic style in the mainline episodic production

Love that this whole plan revolves around Araragi’s old, fatalistic proclamation that in the end, it will just be him and Shinobu in an empty world

Araragi briefly considers all the tantalizing versions of Kanbaru that might exist in this world, before getting smacked into the stratosphere by Kanbaru in full Monkey Mode

Ooh, really interesting visual effects for Kanbaru’s rage here. Love the integration of typography into the aesthetics of her freakout, as well as the use of chromatic aberration to evoke her anger seemingly radiating off her like heat. Also some more classic yet effective tricks, like the wildly uneven line density and scribbled edges of her design

Also just plenty of traditionally impressive cuts of animation for this chase. Shaft always go all-out for the Rainy Devil

Araragi is saved by Black Hanekawa. Once again, typography is used to convey character and emotion, with her “nyahahaha”s gaily bouncing over the town rooftops

Oh my god, I had almost forgotten about her catified speech patterns. Damn you and your love of terrible puns, Isin

“Looks to me you’ve got a lot you’re pawndering.” I am going to hunt down these translators

“You’re thinking too much. All you need to do is accept everything as you see it.” This is actually critical advice – that things will inevitably change now that high school is over, but that over-intellectualizing that change is only a route to stasis, whereas simply being open to change and embracing the new reality will make for a far easier transition. Unfortunately, Hanekawa is in her underwear at the moment, and so Araragi instead spends this time hyper-focusing on her breasts

“Hanekawa had the answer but Araragi was preoccupied with her boobs” is kind of a recurring issue for him, huh

God fucking damnit Araragi. His profound knowledge of Hanekawa’s breasts confirms for him that her body has not been mirrored

“No matter what I tell you, I won’t be able to prove anyfang.” I gotta admit, this is some above-and-beyond punnery

Black Hanekawa advises him not to go into Kanbaru’s house at all, but that if he must, he should bring his partner along. Generally that means Shinobu

Both of them end on an affirmation of Hanekawa’s understanding that Black Hanekawa is still Hanekawa in the end, with Araragi deliberately calling her by name, and Hanekawa responding with her “I only know what I know” refrain. There is a part of Hanekawa that will always love Araragi, and also a part that will always hate him; even having overcome her trauma, their wounds are intermingled too deeply to ever fully disappear

Araragi is at this point less certain of Hachikuji’s mirror hypothesis, given Hanekawa and Kanbaru were instead just shifted into their oddity forms

Ooh, I like his next choice – going to the library and reading up on historical figures, in order to hammer out more precisely how this “mirroring” has impacted a wide variety of people. Solid detective work

Unfortunately, all of the book text is also mirrored

He heads home, and is met by friggin’ Sodachi of all people, complete with a character development haircut. Her affectation is so different that he doesn’t even recognize her

In this universe, rather than living in isolation after the death of her parents, Sodachi has apparently been living in the Araragi residence for ten years. Oh god, it’s awful – this is the route her life would have taken, if Araragi had actually gotten the hint during their “math practice” back when they were kids, and helped to rescue her from her collapsing home. This is the happy, well-adjusted person Sodachi could have been if only Araragi had done better with his own life – a sharp point against the equal validity of whatever choice we make, emphasizing the often catastrophic consequences of our choices

“It’s like I instinctively can’t defy this girl.” C’mon Araragi, she even mentioned math puzzles, figure it out

You can see that Isin based Sodachi’s appreciation for math puzzles on his own appreciation for mysteries. That feeling of enlightenment and release when a series of discordant variables resolves into an inescapable, all-answering conclusion is a catharsis shared by both

“You said your favorite mathematician was Euler, right?” “No, it’s Gauss.” “I have no idea how to interpret that.” Fucking amazing. Why did you even ask the question, Araragi

“It’s always been like this. So why am I constantly wishing that it could be like this forever?” A line with both a narrative and thematic layer to it. Pragmatically, this could be implying that Araragi’s original versions of these characters have been “shifted” along with him, and still retain some memories of their original selves. But thematically, this speaks directly to Araragi’s current anxieties, as everything that “has always been like this” shifts with the end of high school

“It feels like all of this is a lie.” Gosh, what a brutal twist on the narrative. To return to his own world, Araragi will have to steal this happiness from Sodachi

Araragi at last begins to suspect this is not some general supernatural phenomenon, but the work of a particular oddity with a particular purpose

Back at the shrine, Hachikuji has enlisted Nadeko, who’s had both a visual and personality makeover. This Nadeko seems boisterous and confident

She’s actually got a bit of a snarky delinquent thing going on now, presumably to make up for all those years as the meek dormouse

“This is why people tell you you think too much.” Hachikuji echoes Black Hanekawa’s advice

This Nadeko at least shares the original’s fondness for sake

Given her introduction of snacks and general lack of any sense of urgency, I get the impression Hachikuji just arranged this meeting because she’s bored and wanted to throw a party

Nadeko states that mirrors reflect truth, and Araragi counters by asking how that profound-sounding statement is useful or actionable in any way. God I love Isin’s dialogue

But what she means is that this world’s reality is no less valid than the other – this isn’t a “reflection” or “copy” of the “real world,” it is a meaningful reality in its own right

“The way we are now is also really us.” Playing back into this arc’s general theme, emphasizing the variety of perfectly valid selves we could grow into

It’s also an interesting play on Monogatari’s more overarching themes – most of this series is spent following the characters as they attempt to understand and embrace their own personalities, but here, that process is further complicated by the fact that our personalities are themselves so mutable and contextual

“We’re not actually trying to explain mirrors to a snake, dumbass.” This Nadeko is very good

“A mirror doesn’t reverse things from left to right, it shows the other side of people”

And Done

Oh man, we are really cooking now! I figured this would be another light introductory episode, but we’re already digging into some messy thematic territory, and even complicating the conclusion of the original Monogatari narrative. From that story’s hard-fought conclusion of “you must learn to accept and love yourself before you can hope to love and support others,” we’re now raising the natural counterpoint of how the “self” isn’t some fundamental, inalterable quality of our souls, but rather a construct formed through years of specific experiences, which maintains some mutability even into adulthood. That’s a rich vein of inquiry, and it’s very much like Isin to upend his own thesis with supplementary notes like this. All in all, I’m having a terrific time, and am delighted to once again be in conversation with this endlessly fascinating franchise.

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