New arc! Man has this season been some good Monogatari. I think Neko Shiro is probably my single favorite arc of the show to date, and Araragi-Shinobu: Time-Traveling Zombie-Fighting Buddy Cops isn’t far behind. I’ve written more about this goddamn series than any other by a fairly significant margin, but it’s generally been a show I found more interesting than fully coherent – the style of storytelling was very unique, and the tricks of direction were extremely compelling, but it didn’t necessarily gel into a cohesive production. This season has blown that complaint away, telling vivid and compelling stories that don’t lean on either Isin’s wordplay or Shinbo’s cinematography, but instead make best use of each of their strengths in tandem. And now we have the Nadeko arc.
This is gonna be interesting. In Bake, I felt her arc was basically a biting, caustic comment by Shinbo, but Nadeko herself didn’t really have any presence. These first two arcs have been well-written and well-directed, but they’ve also had the benefit of leaning on two of the Monogatari universe’s strongest variables, Hanekawa herself and the Araragi-Shinobu relationship. Since Nadeko is so loosely define, this arc could go basically anywhere. So let’s go on an adventure.
