It’s pretty remarkable (and, from a writing-about-anime perspective, frankly intimidating) how well this season is holding up. Maybe it’ll just take a couple more weeks or something, but so far virtually none of the shows I initially enjoyed have fallen apart, and some of them have actually improved. Currently I’m impressed by as many shows this season as I was by pretty much the entire rest of the year to date. Running it down…
Tag Archives: Monogatari S2
Monogatari S2 – Episode 17
That’s three top-tier arcs in a row. Monogatari, I don’t know what they’ve put in your drinking water, but I like it. This arc is ostensibly about Shinobu, who’s one of my favorite characters, but I’ve heard it’s actually heavy on Mayoi, my least favorite, so I guess we’ll see if they keep it up. But this season has given me no reason to expect disappointment – Monogatari is one of the most compelling anime of the last few years, and S2 has been far and away the strongest set of episodes. Bring on Shinobu Time.
Fall 2013 – Week 2 in Review
This season has way too many shows. It needs to stop that. Stop having shows.
Monogatari S2 – Episode 15
Man. I’ve always thought Monogatari was an extremely interesting and generally compelling show, but this season…this season you guys. Absurd jump in quality. Neko Shiro is probably my favorite arc of anything in the series, Zombies versus Vampires From the Future Past was one of the most entertaining, and this one’s keeping up the hits. Great direction, a powerful portrayal and subsequent breakdown of Nadeko’s personality, and HanaKana going all pissed-off delinquent on us. And now here we are at the showdown – Nadeko’s been caught red-handed with a personality and desires of her own, something she’s only been moderately successful at hiding so far. We kind of already know how this discussion ends, but I’m game to see how we get there.
Monogatari S2 – Episode 14
Alright, time for another pretty, piercing episode of Monogatari. This arc has certainly not been a light-hearted one – pretty much the entire running time has been split between Nadeko being told off for acting passive and playing the victim and Nadeko secretly agreeing with her snake-shaped other self’s assessment of everyone else being the problem. As always, the apparition is just an unwanted, unacknowledged, or unaddressable part of your true self, and I’m really interested in seeing how they resolve this. Outside of Nadeko’s passivity, what is there to her? Well, the resentment towards others and possible underlying guilt, represented through the snake. Her childlike obsession with Araragi, who’s probably only appealing as a caretaker anyway. Her adolescent need to belong, and equally adolescent faux-sophisticated love of retro media. When you make her address her false self, who’s she even going to be?
Let’s get to it.
Summer 2013 – Week 13 in Review
And so the summer ends. I really couldn’t be more burnt out on talking about anime, considering I just finished three 8+ page essays on TWGOK, Uchouten Kazoku, and Gatchaman Crowds, but I’ll at least wave my hand in the direction of final impressions.
Monogatari S2 – Episode 13
This weekend is gonna kill me you guys. I have written so many words. I have so many words left to write. C3-bu. TWGOK. Gatchaman. Uchouten. Titan. Why am I doing this to myself?!?
Alright, that’s not Monogatari’s fault. In fact, Monogatari’s the nice show, the one that isn’t piling on the mountain of reviews I’ve foolishly assigned myself. So let’s take it easy, Monogatari. Maybe just have an episode of pretty backgrounds I can cap and say “hey look at this pretty background” to. Please don’t get thematically dense on me here.
That seems pretty unlikely, though – between the snake and Ougi, this arc has already firmly declared it will be about the Fallacy of Victimhood, and how Nadeko uses her alleged helplessness as a defense mechanism even as she pursues selfish and potentially damaging ends. Given her desire to direct dissatisfaction outwards and minimal ability to express herself, Nadeko is possibly our most unreliable narrator yet, which in the context of Monogatari is really saying something. Let’s get to it.
Monogatari S2 – Episode 12
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.
Summer 2013 – Week 10 in Review
Another fantastic week in anime, but when the current season has a bewildering buffet on the scale of three good shows, that tends to happen. All three of my favorites were in top form this week, so let’s run down the list.
Monogatari S2 – Episode 10
So do we get to see adult Mayoi now? That’s clearly what they’ve been baiting, but knowing Isin, the answer is no because fuck you. Not that I’d be moved much either way – frankly, last episode was so good it’s already justified whatever other nonsense this arc pulls together, and we haven’t even gotten to the full thematic point yet. Good times ahead!
Incidentally, I missed last week’s episode because busy, but I’ve caught up and put together a writeup for that one as well. You can find that here.
Episode 10
1:27 – Have to admit, Mayoi as a zombie hunter is pretty badass. And Araragi knows it – nice series of ‘holy shit, that’s Mayoi?’ shots there
1:59 – Shinobu, if you haven’t realized by now that this universe runs according to the rules of narrative convenience…
3:15 – Nice. They are playing with shadows a lot in this arc. Clues, clues…
3:53 – Well, there’s a clarification. We are indeed in a many-timeline universe
4:26 – Isin has trouble keep a straight face in pretty much all his stories. Nice name, Shinobu
4:43 – I always love these interpretive sequences. And I guess this makes two stories in a row where the antagonist is an unwanted version of a character’s self
5:22 – Also great. Also, Oshino’s line about the impossible hope of his mission kind of resonates with Shinobu’s line from last week about maintaining optimism and pushing forward just to avoid stasis. Which in turn works with the red light/green light thing, and the futility of dwelling on (or attempting to change) the past
5:32 – When have Araragi’s powers EVER been relevant to his missions? Outside of Hanekawa’s issues, he mainly just gets beat up while talking the enemy to death
5:49 – As if Araragi could resist that
6:56 – I love her replacement badass survival backpack. Also, all this work to save her and she’s still alone
8:35 – New palette! And what a lovely color scheme it is
9:15 – Even this world is beautiful now that Araragi knows that somewhere, Hachikuji survived
10:29 – Not quite sure what all to make of this conversation. Nice view, though
12:31 – They make for quite the silly pair
13:11 – I kind of jokingly referred to this as an Araragi/Shinobu buddy cop arc early on, but… yeah, that’s pretty much exactly where they’ve gone with it. Fun bonding time in alternate universe zombie apocalypses
13:22 – Well this is a new one
14:11 – Isin finds outer demons significantly less interesting than inner ones
Okay, that was hammy, even for me
15:02 – They are getting so much visual mileage out of this shrine
17:27 – This Shinobu required the same thing our Araragi did – to know that there is still hope somewhere.
20:00 – One more shadow for good measure. Right, shadows have always been relevant
23:01 – Alright, moral of the story time
23:15 – And two…
23:35 – …and three
24:05 – Jeez Araragi, leaving a little explaining for the rest of us, would you?
And Done
Route down! That was pretty solid – I enjoyed the second half significantly more than the first, but that’s mainly because I find Shinbo’s gorgeous cinematography far more satisfying than Isin’s campy humor. I liked how it was primarily a Shinobu story, and that Hachikuji’s own theme was kind of just sewn in along the edges – Hachikuji’s general theme of “you must go forward, come what may, because going forward is its own reward and what makes you happy will often come as a surprise” basically bookended the series, whereas Shinobu’s far more classically Monogatari story (accepting all elements of yourself, a very close parallel to Hanekawa and Tsukihi’s stories) basically took over in the parallel world. I really like how Isin tied the two resolutions together – the parallel of Araragi’s satisfaction at seeing a world where Mayoi had a chance to be alive and happy with alternate-Shinobu’s (no, I will not type out her ridiculous name) combined happiness and grief at her own better self is pretty satisfying stuff. Not just elegant, but also emotionally effective – Araragi introducing that concept helps on the emotional sell of Shinobu’s climax.
Overall, I don’t think this arc was as strong as the first (which isn’t really a fair comparison, since I think that arc is the best thing Monogatari’s done yet), but it was still some solid Monogatari. Bring on the next one!