HELLO AND WELCOME to the GREATEST show on earth. I’m your host Bobduh – proud president of the Commentary Club and humble student of our mighty Academy. We have a tremendous show lined up for you tonight, and a great crowd of students, thirsty for blood, thirsty for glory. LET’S HEAR IT FOR HONNOUJI ACADEMY! PRAISE BE TO LADY SATSUKI!
Yes, praise be. No time for chit-chat – you’re all settled, so LET’S ANNOUNCE OUR FIGHTERS!
Well I for one am ready for some crazy shit to go down. The last few minutes of last week’s episode seemed to imply Mirai has actually been a crazy assassin this entire time, what with her admission to Hiromi and taking off the glasses and all that. Would her being a secret assassin save this series? No, of course not, the show’s emotionally sterile and wildly inconsistent. Would it allow for some crazy plot shenanigans and epic showdowns between our protagonists? Hell yeah. Plus it might even make Mirai more interesting, and god knows the girl needs it. Back to our star-crossed lovers!
Last episode was great. Kaiki and Senjougohara are the best. I don’t want to jinx this episode by assigning any expectations to it. Let’s roll!
Oh man am I ever ready for this one. The prologue flash-forward has been reached, Koto has been devoured, and we’re well on our way towards new, uncharted material. This is a delicate stage for any show actually seeking emotional truth – the search for a resolution that doesn’t invalidate the poignant, complex nature of the feelings presented so far. “Koto’s back! Everyone’s happy!” wouldn’t do it – that would basically end Yase’s arc without any growth whatsoever, and wouldn’t be particularly meaningful for either Kurama or Myoe. “Everyone escapes the Mirror City!” certainly wouldn’t do it either – both Kurama and Myoe need to learn from this place before they can be given their rewards. However narrative victory is achieved will be somewhat beside the point – this is a show about people, and waving a wand to fix characters’ problems renders any story about people emotionally meaningless. The key here is obviously young Koto – she’s the new variable, the person who’s already succeeded in giving Myoe something worth protecting, with the potential to change the other two as well. Her return from her visit with Mom should herald some serious shifts – though as I said in my week in review post, I’m hoping that return doesn’t cometoo quickly, because I’m eager to see Myoe legitimately angry at his siblings. In fact, I’ll take more of Myoe however the show feels inclined to show him – he’s easily my favorite character of the season. So let’s get to it!
Well that was a long seven days. Fuck you guys, no preamble. I wanna see this fight!
It’s kind of pointless to talk about this week in anime without addressing the gorilla in the room, so let’s get that out of the way first.
Time to Get Calm, everybody (or, if you’re awful, Everybody Stay Calm). We’ve got one battle already underway and a whole lot of protagonists running from places towards various other places. Meanwhile: Akihito is asleep. I’ve heard this episode is kind of absurdly flush with key animators, meaning action scenes ahoy. I’m hoping this one maintains the visual flare of the earlier scenes while adding a little more sense of weight to the back-and-forth, but honestly I’ll settle for visual flare either way. Let’s get to it!
One last arc, with an apparent emphasis on two of the show’s most charismatic characters – Senjougahara and Kaiki. Well, if you count whatever Kaiki has as charisma. Maybe enigmatic, then? Though he’s actually fairly straightforward – in fact, it seems he makes a point of being the most straightforward in terms of goals and values. Compelling, then? I’ll go with compelling.
Anyway. If it were necessary to put up a brave face, I’d have plenty of material to work off of. Strong chosen characters. The fact that this arc is being given so many episodes. The fact that this is the last arc, considering how well Monogatari tends to finish its stories and seasons. The optimistic comments I’ve heard from people familiar with the source material. The fact that we’re now dealing with a problem that Isin has personally established as the end boss (even though that automatically means he’s going to screw with that expectation in some fundamental way).
But the thing is, there’s no need for any of that – I think Monogatari Season 2 is far and away the best set of stories and episodes this show has ever constructed. It’s always been distinctive, creative, and uncompromising, but I don’t think its various elements have ever come together to make such compelling and well-articulated stories. There have been moments, certainly – Kanbaru’s arc in the first season, a great deal of Senjougahara and Hanekawa’s material throughout, Kaiki’s show-stealing in Nise. And it’s played with very interesting concepts throughout, as… well, as I’ve talked about at length for close to a year now. But the comparison of S1 to S2 feels like the difference between a creative, passionate apprentice and a confident, practiced craftsman.
So yeah, courtesy of last week’s final push, Monogatari is now really Up There for me. Here’s to finishing strong.
So apparently last episode concluded the material originally covered by the OVAs. Which, first of all, seems kind of crazy to me. I’ve heard from people who watched the OVAs that the current season’s patchwork nature is fairly apparent, but as a first-time watcher, this has all felt like a remarkably cohesive work – each episode seems paced extremely well, each episode has told its own cohesive current story, each episode has also detailed the life story and motivation of one of our principles while knocking the overarching plot a few feet down the road. Episode two built perfectly towards the source of Koto’s confidence – episode five neatly danced around and then revealed the nature of Myoe’s emptiness. If this is what the show can do even while working around existing material, then…
Well, I’m excited to see what happens next.
I think last week’s episode is pretty unbeatable, so I’m not gonna worry about that. Almost every episode so far has been wildly different from the one before, and we’ve barely got anything resembling narrative momentum, but for this show that’s actually worked out just fine. Reading people’s impressions of the show so far has been kind of interesting, because it’s easy to see where people’s various complaints are coming from. If you don’t like the show’s sense of humor, the show is not going to do much for you. If you’re too put off by the show’s clearly problematic sex issues, the show’s not going to appeal to you. And if you’re looking for actual narrative momentum or an intelligent thematic core, we really haven’t gotten there yet either. Kill la Kill is sound and fury for its own sake – well-directed, visually distinctive, energetic noises designed to dazzle, shock, and astound. It’s popcorn, salted and buttered to perfection, served on a gourmet platter in a cavernous ballroom. And as much as I normally prefer the hefty steak of… strong character articulation and thematic resonance (this metaphor’s kinda getting away from me), the art of popcorn-making is a storied and worthy craft as well.
Man, I wish I had something to eat other than this tin of old pineapple chunks. Shoulda gone grocery shopping last weekend. Fuck.