Tag Archives: Monogatari S2

Monogatari S2 – Episode 9

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Well I’m certainly ready to see this kick into high gear. This arc hasn’t been as tedious for me as the first Mayoi one (which is still easily my least favorite part of the series overall), but personally Isin’s comedy is kinda hit-or-miss for me, and not really what I’m here for. So I’d say an apocalypse or something is definitely in order.

Episode 9

0:02 – Nice establishing shot 

0:18 – Sweet, they weren’t kidding. This is a lovely series of shots, too. This one in particular is very interesting – all these shots possess much more detail than Monogatari’s usual highly stylized and flat aesthetic, and here we see the telephone poles’ usual appearance (a solid block of color, usually white) shift into more color as they reach the point where the corruption/natural overgrowth has reached them. Like the normal aesthetic is representative of the clinical, controlled environment these characters normally live within, and destroying that world also destroys that aesthetic

0:24 – God damn that’s nice 

0:40 – There’s one for the “inappropriate OP transitions” highlight reel

2:17 – Another beautiful composition. Love the use of shadow here – those ominous power lines reflected in black

2:27 – Back to the flat colors. Araragi’s house has escaped the destruction

3:01 – More great shadows. Really enhances the ghost town feel

3:39 – Shinbo gets to have so much fun with composition. I get that not every show would be appropriate for such a stylized approach, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a lot more of it

5:30 – So Shinobu’s obviously got some kinda secret. Good to know!

6:16 – Seems trustworthy 

6:39 – They keep changing the color palette of this place 

6:55 – Ermahgerd this show’s design. They are really going all-out today. It’s like the characters, the talisman, and the background have all been pulled from disparate worlds

7:25 – They are making it very hard for me to get through this episode 

7:47 – God, look at it. I love the consistency of the color trick – not only does the overall image fade from green to red, but you can see the individual trees in the distance do the same. It might be stylized, but it’s like the colors themselves are the ecosystem

8:02 – The green has spread significantly since they entered. Not yet sure what to make of that

9:09 – Well this is different. Their shifting, cut-paper texture kinda reminds me of Madoka

10:09 – Today is a good day 

10:47 – And to think I was complaining about this arc. This episode’s an embarrassment of riches

11:39 – Well I can see why she had trouble telling him. Wonder where they’re going with this…

12:26 – “Me that isn’t myself.” Pointing to some common Isin topics here. Links easily enough with fate, but there’s not yet enough pieces to tie it into the red light/green light stuff

13:32 – Jeez, that’s a morbid way to reference that 

14:39 – I like that this is more of a Shinobu arc than a Mayoi arc. Shinobu secretly being a possibly unbalanced world-shaking power is something the show generally breezes over, and keeping it relevant makes the Araragi-Shinobu relationship more interesting

17:08 – An interesting play on “true self.” Shinobu isn’t actually reformed, this is just a new version of her self, and that other self still exists

19:50 – Hanekawa reforms by embracing the various interpretations of her ‘self.’ Shinobu reforms by denying hers 

20:45 – I like pretty much every shot of this episode, but here’s another particularly nice one 

21:23 – He’s even at the playground? Jeez, I wonder who they’re gonna run into

And Done

What a great episode! Goddamn. Excitement about this season = renewed. Beautiful shots throughout, digging at some interesting stuff about Shinobu’s character, and who doesn’t love a good zombie apocalypse, particularly in Monogatari’s fantastic style? Still not sure of everything this arc is really about (though Shinobu’s little “you can’t always be pessimistic and wait for things to happen” speech at the end seems suspiciously relevant), but as long as the ride is this beautiful and exciting, I’ll remain happy to find out.

Monogatari S2 – Episode 7

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Day late on this one – it’s been a very busy weekend. Anyway. New arc today. I’m assuming we’re back on Araragi (which I’m kinda meh towards) and the arc is apparently about Hachikuji (also pretty meh towards), but this season has blown past my expectations so far, so I’m just trying to come in at true neutral. Let’s roll.

Episode 7

0:44 – Clearly a face we can trust.  

1:07 – A three second pause… alright, I’m just gonna let Isin’s dialogue do its own thing until pieces come together in a way that might make sense. The first arc of this season kind of spoiled me, but I’m kind of used to thinking of this show’s dialogue and its visuals as two separate shows that happen to run at the same time. So my notes will probably be a bit more me-focused (just jotting down details until they pull together), since I’m not gonna pontificate on what I don’t think I actually understand. So:

Traffic light metaphor. The pause where all motion is stopped, everywhere.

1:32 – “If I designed the system, I’d make sure the lights were never all green. Everyone prefers safe over dangerous.”

1:41 – They’re really grinding in a very simple statement. We’ll need a couple more reflections to triangulate an actual point, though

1:51 – “When the world is filled with green lights signaling safety, it’s more dangerous than anywhere.”

Again, basically self-notes here. The show is highlighting and underlining this concept, so I’ll want these statements written out to reference against

2:29 – “Half the lights being green just means half the risk. If you want to be safe, don’t cross sidewalks.” That’s something more, since it’s actually nonsense, and a kind of dangerous nonsense too. Hm

3:34 – Araragi, haven’t you realized yet you live in a world where half-baked semi-profundities always come back to bite you in the ass? Often literally, too

Nice shot there, by the way

4:11 – This is gonna be fun

5:01 – Her design is so bizarre. Like a non-anime fans’ idea of an anime character. It definitely helps make her seem like some kind of creepy homunculus

5:21 – Even if I didn’t already know, it’d be pretty easy to tell this is gonna be a Hachikuji story. All this crap mirroring Hachikuji’s life story and first arc. Isin can get so self-indulgent sometimes…

5:57 – That’s awesome. I’m glad she finds that phase as embarrassing as I found it annoying

6:11 – That is an incredibly good question

7:08 – I like how the absurd, empty-stage nature of their world makes this a pretty great gag

8:12 – Hm. Why is Araragi so put off by her assumption that he’s a human?

9:16 – Must every plot element mirror another one, Isin? Katanagatari is actually one of my all-time favorite shows, but in Monogatari I think he mixes it up too much between cute parallels and meaningful ones

9:28 – This one seems more relevant. Professing resurrection in a story about another dead girl

10:21 – I’d like to see a map of this town of theirs

10:36 – Seriously, I’d hire this urban planner in a second

11:06 – Seems relevant

12:42 – Oh please. Bring back Hanekawa!

14:07 – You know how I sometimes complain about Isin using his characters as self-indulgent mouthpieces? Well, I do, and Fuck This

14:47 – It only makes sense. Another distinctive shot

15:27 – Well this episode escalated quickly

18:01 – Manipulating Araragi 101: Play to his hero complex

18:26 – She takes his watch, and then once he no longer has control of it, uses it to confirm his sense of time. Hm

19:53 – I foresee no problems with this

20:25 – This conversation is actually awesome. Time travel is always nonsense, so “going forward in time takes less energy, just like salmon!” is pretty much par for the course

21:04 – And now he’s actually trying to clarify whether he traveled through time physically or just adopted his old physical self. You’d think if he were this thoughtful about time travel, he’d have asked maybe one or two of these questions before leaping through the giant scary time-gate

21:34 – Yeaah, she is being super weird about this watch

22:04 – This is extremely adorable

And Done

Welp, ya fucked around with time travel, what did you expect?

So I guess that answers the question of Hachikuji’s relevance. Are we actually right around her Time Of Death now? Eh, plot is details, let’s talk about the craft.

This episode definitely leaned into some of my least favorite Isin-isms, mainly through the extremely cute plot mirroring and self-indulgent, character-irrelevant banter. The first half just felt clunky as hell, and Shinbou didn’t really get much of a chance to strut his stuff as far as visual-plot-illuminating goes. That’s pretty much par for the course with Hachikuji stories, even though Hachikuji has yet to actually appear – there is no sexual charge to her and Araragi’s relationship, so the camera doesn’t have all that much to talk about. The second half was a lot of fun though, mainly because Shinobu and Araragi have a very endearing buddy-cop dynamic, and because time travel is just loads of fun in general, and actually improved through the presence of genre-savvy characters. Definitely not as strong a start as the first arc, but obviously it’s going places.

Monogatari S2 – Episode 5

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Alright Monogatari, time to tell us what the fuck is going on. Araragi and Kanbaru are out there… somewhere. Doing something – possible tiger related, possibly not. Shinobu is on her own (or maybe not, who the fuck knows what happened during that massive chapter skip last episode), the tiger is threatening Senjougahara and Araragi’s homes, and Hanekawa has decided the moment has arrived. No more playing house with Senjougahara or the fire sisters, no more relying on Neko to sweep the bad feelings away. It’s time to wake up.

Episode 5

0:00 – Actually very excited for this. If there’s one thing Monogatari arcs know how to do, it’s nailing the dismount.

0:41 – “I buried you for my own ego.”  It’s all coming together!

1:17 – “So I’m saying this for the first time: please help me.” And… character arc concluded? I mean, that was kind of it, right? Honestly admitting a need to rely on others, no longer accepting fate as it presents itself and defending herself with an overtly flawless and unfazed exterior? Yep, looks like we’re done here. Pack it up, guys!

1:45 – “A new segment my heart has cut off from itself.” Artfully put, Hanekawa

2:20 – Loving this constantly-reassembling montage. Shinbo’s going all-out

2:37 – Show off all you want Shinbo, I love it 

3:22 – “Stress and envy. Anxiety and agony.” That’s sweet characterization, but it’s also what’s made Hanekawa so unrelatable for so long. It’s hard to relate to someone whose negative emotions are immediately swept up and removed – not only does she intentionally create her own facade, her apparitions constantly perform mental surgery to support it. It puts everything in a pretty satisfying context

3:42 – I’ll take feats you can only perform in animation for 500. This sequeeeence

5:39 – “Just by having a home to go back to, why do I feel like I can do anything?” Interesting. So Hanekawa’s acceptance of the situation has at least given her stress a home, even if she still considers herself homeless?

6:22 – THESE… COLOR SCHEMES… HNNGGHHHH… 

7:26 – But seriously, all anime looks the same, amirite?

8:01 – “I don’t know everything, but everything burns.” Isin is having too much fun with that catchphrase

9:01 – “Doesn’t she know better than anyone that the concept of ‘natural parents’ is nonsense?” Ooh, sick burn, tiger!

9:44 – “I am a machine. I will not be moe. ” The tiger is firm on this

12:18 – Massive pallete shift when Hanekawa takes over. Interestingly, the exterior world has shifted from artificial bright white to natural near-blacks

12:47 – “I don’t want to be ‘real.’ I want to be human.” Man, in the context of this series, a line like that…

13:03 – “Let’s eat a meal together.” The catalyst that started both the conflict and the actual arc, and the simple act they spent an entire episode demonstrating her ability to do with Senjougahara

13:34 – When narrative catharsis fails, try electricity 

14:40 – “She called me part of her family!” Does Isin have problems at home or something? Family troubles on the brain. Also, dear lord these shots 

15:35 – These GODDAMN TEXT SCREENS. This is actually the first episode I haven’t paused to read all of them. Frickin’ Daisuki player…

16:35 – Bet you think you’re pretty cool, huh, Araragi? 

19:00 – “I’ve always wanted him to pat me like this.” …yeah. Well, Araragi did have to come back to actually resolve the envy/“I never told him” thread. His hero act kinda makes me gag though

Oh wait, holy shit, this arc is from Hanekawa’s perspective. This is *Hanekawa’s* Araragi

20:09 – Fantastic. I love the shift from “Oh jeez, I got rejected” to actually embracing her emotions as she draws back the apparitions

And Done

Whew! What an episode! Maybe it’s just cause it was narrated by the actually-coherent Hanekawa, but that was a really satisfying arc. Everything resolved in extremely cathartic fashion, the threads tied together in a very neat narrative bow, there were a number of standout scenes (that “drawing her sadness back into herself” has to be one of my favorite moments of the series so far, and the Shinobu/Neko conversation was also great), and dear god was it beautiful. This show is always beautiful, but this episode was gorgeous. Firing on all cylinders indeed – this will be a damn hard act to top. Nice work Isin, nice work Shinbo. That was fantastic.

Monogatari S2 – Episode 4

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We’ve got mysteries regarding Araragi, Shinobu, the tiger, and the old HQ, and it’s pretty likely most of them are the same one. Let’s get to it.

Episode 4

0:17 – Chapter FIFTY-TWO? Isin you beautiful bastard

3:09 – Casually diagnosing why she’d be turning back into Neko. I like it

4:10 – Holy shit it’s a parent. Also, pretty brutal dressing-down here

5:14 – “People can run away from things they don’t like. But if they just avert their eyes, they’re not running.” Interesting way of framing it

I guess she figures Hanekawa needs some tough love here – but what does this character actually know? Well, thisis Monogatari, every character will generally know everything they need to know about anyone else’s exact mental state for the current arc’s point to be made.

I also liked the shift from Hanekawa happily adopting the fake family role given to her by the sisters, and then her equally quick shift back to “I didn’t help Araragi. My situation isn’t a big deal” when the mother calls her on her pretending

6:10 – A new (old?) challenger approaches?

6:59 – We are getting so spoiled on visual design this season

7:32 – “I’m a half-vampire freelance vampire hunter, if the cash is good.” A half-vampire spirit detective who works only for personal gain and dresses in all white with blond hair. So he’s an intentionally blatant foil for Araragi?

10:02 – Goddamnit Isin. You lead an episode up to some kind of confrontation and resolution involving Neko, Shinobu, Araragi, and Kanbaru in the ruins of the old construction site, then skip like twenty chapters so Hanekawa can interrupt a meeting between a bunch of people we’ve never seen before. This is some high-quality trolling right here

10:52 – “There’s nothing I don’t know.” “She said it, so full of confidence.” Hanekawa’s getting run over this arc, jeez. Now they’re even belittling her catchphrase?

11:25 – Is it just me, or is this episode going insane with the head tilts?

It also seems like they really are gonna address some of Hanekawa’s fundamental issues. They’re finally demanding she deal with a problem herself, and not look away, pretend everything is normal, and let either Neko or Araragi fix everything

11:27 – “You don’t even know that you don’t know anything.” She’s doing that on purpose!

12:07 – Another beautiful one. I could make a damn gallery out of this, Uchouten Kazoku, and Gatchaman Crowds

14:40 – “Their names are the same. It’s a bit too clever to be a coincidence.” Oh Senjougahara, you and your lack of respect for the fourth wall

15:05 – “Trauma… oh, that sounds like a pun.” Jeez, I bet this scene was fun to translate

16:04 – “The places where you spent the night burned down.” Alright, that’s confirmed. …or at least it’s confirmed that Isin wants us to think that’s the link

18:08 – “I’d associate fire with a heart in love.” Hm. The self-deception stuff is already covered by Neko, and she already admits she’s in love with Araragi. Hm…

19:47 – The worst face. Goddamnit Fire Sisters…

And Done

Envy? Really that simple? Hm.

Well, this arc has definitely done good work in humanizing Hanekawa, though it feels like every single character becomes more like a human being when Araragi isn’t around (except for those damn Fire Sisters). And now she’s writing a letter to herself, which is a pretty cute way to make a connection – but she still hasn’t admitted that sheis Black Hanekawa, and that this “other side” of her isn’t an aberration, it’s just the other half (or possibly majority) of her emotions. She’s also taking a pretty half-assed approach to resolving her feelings for Araragi, at least so far – hopefully next episode will resolve this with a little more fireworks.

Summer Season 2013 – First Quarter Roundup

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Because evaluating shows before they even reach their halfway point is obviously an intelligent idea, let’s check in on the season so far. Heroes have risen, villains have fallen, and a couple shows have pretty much just done exactly what I expected them to do. It’s time for the

Summer 2013 First Quarter Anime Roundup

This season is actually kinda crazy-good. I was originally skeptical it could even begin to compare to last season, but a couple wild card hits have set it up as an extremely strong lineup. This is particularly exciting because it’s implying there are some great lesser-known creators out there – last season I knew Urobuchi and Brain’s Base made good things, but my two favorite shows this season were basically shots in the dark. Let’s do it in order…

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Monogatari S2 – Episode 3

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Welp, we’re two episodes in and so far the show has basically established “Senjougahara feels weird, conflicted, and somewhat defensive about her relationship with Hanekawa,” “Hanekawa has a justifiably warped perspective on self-worth” and “the tiger has somehow imprinted on Hanekawa, which seems to be a bad thing and might be related to her house burning down.” For a Monogatari series, that’s a pretty solid list! I really liked how the end of last week’s episode brought Black Hanekawa and Senjougahara into direct contact, and I’m hoping we see more intermingling of the spirit conflict and personal conflict going forward. And we’re off!

Episode 3

0:35 – “You both help people, but it feels like you’re almost opposites. It feels like Araragi is a fake, and you’re the real thing.” Oh god, are they going to bring up every theme of this series in the first minute? I don’t have all day, Monogatari

1:24 – “I’m sure the difference is the ‘grumbling the whole time’ part.” So… Araragi does what he’s supposed to because he feels obligated to, whereas that kind of distance doesn’t exist for Hanekawa, and she just accepts all responsibilities and burdens as the only way her life could be?

1:48 – “If you’re a good person, people will exploit you. That’s why Araragi pretends to be a bad person.” Shades of Karen Bee here as well. Every single theme indeed

2:19 – “You don’t feel anything about the ill will people have. You accept them as they are. You’re too pure white.” I always got the feeling that Hanekawa just expects people to continuously disappoint her, and that her light and dark sides were much more closely linked than Senjougahara is proposing here

3:00 – “You will fail in the wild.” Or pour all your negative feelings into some unhealthy release valve. Senjougahara is right here – she needs to embrace both sides of herself simultaneously

3:12 – That feeling when it’s super hard to rewind and pause to catch all the single-frame text in this stupid simulcast but the text ends up being irrelevant anyway

3:57 – Their skirt lengths are indicative of their personalities. I’ve noticed other shows do this too. I don’t know if this is actually something you get to choose, or just used as easy visual shorthand in anime

4:21 – And Araragi once again relies on Kanbaru when he actually needs an assistant for one of his adventures. Is this because she has the most in common with him? Because he knows she’ll look after herself? Because their relationship is the least fraught with weird tension? Actually, yeah, that’s probably it – aside from maybe Hachikuji, she’s probably the person he shares the most normal friendship with in the series.

5:00 – They’re very strongly casting this conversation from Kanbaru’s perspective. Look at this shot progression. It makes me feel like she’s “sizing Hanekawa up,” and basically pushing on her conversational comfort level in the same way Senjougahara was in the last couple episodes

5:56 – “It’s unreasonable for me to be mulling over him asking Kanbaru for help” (instead of me). And once again she pushes down her justifiable negative emotions

6:27 – “To think Araragi would seek that wench’s help over mine.” And of course Senjougahara has zero issues admitting this pisses her off

7:21 – “You won’t go? Then I won’t either.” Damned if she’s gonna let Hanekawa be more mature about this than she is. Not that competing with Hanekawa for maturity points is particularly mature

9:11 – “What a coincidence, running into you at your house like this. Did you know Hanekawa’s house burned down? Of course you did.” Senjougahara sure is a subtle one. I’m actually liking her character a lot more in this series – her strengths and weaknesses are more accurately portrayed when Araragi isn’t around

9:30 – “She has no place to sleep tonight.” Oh god, there’s gonna be another bad one, isn’t there? Keep it in your goddamn pants, Isin

10:09 – “NOT LIKE YOU CAN HELP OR ANYTHING.” This is the best face 

10:55 – “So I’m now at the Araragi residence.” I am extraordinarily apprehensive at the moment. I mean, this is a fine plot development in the abstract, but… just…

12:09 – “Oh, don’t worry about talking to our parents. They too have a passion for justice.” Goddamnit the fire sisters are ridiculous.

12:44 – That’s a lot of clothes in that hamper. Oh god

14:33 – Whew. That actually worked. It wasn’t hammered as a sex joke like the shower scene was – it was a generally neutral and honest conversation (in fact, more honest than most of the conversations in this series), played much in the same way as the Shinobu/Araragi bath scene from Nisemonogatari. Thank you, Shinbou

16:08 – And now these two get a real conversation? Man, for all that “Araragi best MC” nonsense, this show sure does get interesting when he isn’t around. I love the composition of that shot, by the way

17:55 – “I guess the difference between the you before and the current you is like the difference between Terminator and Terminator 2.” That’s… surprisingly accurate

17:59 – The cat absentmindedly bats at the piece of string as it talks. These guys must think they’re pretty clever

19:50 – “We’re the same? That puts me at ease, but also puts a heavy burden on my heart.” So is she just relearning the forgotten lessons of Neko Kuro? I figured that movie pretty definitely stated “Black Hanekawa” was just a convenient way for Hanekawa to set aside the elements of herself she found painful or inconvenient

22:44 – Now that’s an iconic image 

And Done

And Monogatari meanders forward in its own way. A few things I liked in this episode – seeing the relationship between Hanekawa and Kanbaru, the way this arc continues to very frankly humanize Senjougahara, and particularly the meeting between Vampire and Cat. There were a bunch of beautiful shots in that last act, and we learned that Hanekawa’s tiger is basically an unknown apparition, meaning it might be something self-generated or fake (for whatever that’s worth in this series). I have to admit I’d gotten pretty attached to that old run-down building, and I’m guessing things will be coming to a head shortly. I’m eager to see how the potential revelation of whatever Araragi’s been up to will reflect off Hanekawa’s tiger – there’s obviously the possibility that Hanekawa’s link with the tiger is responsible for the destruction of both her own home and the old building, which would make the next target Senjougahara’s house. Tense stuff!

Summer Season Initial Impressions

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Management: My writeups will still obviously all be on the test, but here are my overall initial impressions of this season’s lineup.

This week sure was summer. I caught the first episode of a whole tidal wave of shows, dropped several, clung to a few more, and was actually impressed by exactly two. Let’s get those out of the way first.

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Monagatari S2 – Episode 1

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Ah, Monogatari.

After two seasons, three additional episodes, and a film, I’m still kinda not sure how I feel about this series. I mean, it’s got a lot going for it, to be sure. The direction is always distinctive and occasionally pretty brilliant. The writing is uniquely Isin-ish and occasionally focused. It arguably has a lot to say, even if it sometimes feels like Shinbou’s weird brand of feminism is directly competing with Isin’s strange form of sexism (or vice versa). It’s basically the opposite of a show like Madoka, where everything works together towards a single focused goal – in Monogatari there is rarely narrative focus or anything resembling pacing, ideas bounce all over the place, and it will twist and turn in whatever directions it wishes, focusing one episode on a single joke extended way too far and another on the fundamental nature of family and human connection. It also indulges both these very driven creators in some of their worst instincts – Isin in his tendency towards losing character in favor of his own self-indulgent voice, and Shinbou in his tendency to make the direction itself the point (which, admittedly, sometimes works to actually counteract the Isin problems – I’d probably like Nise a whole lot less if Shinbou were playing it straight). It’s strange. It’s unique. It’s sometimes problematic, sometimes pretty subversively progressive. It’s Monogatari.

Episode 1

0:35 – HANEKAWA’S THE NARRATOR THIS ARC? Wow. Fantastic. Couldn’t have asked for a better choice

1:20 – “This is a story of betrayal for you to all be disappointed in me.” Hanekawa has often come across as a superhuman cypher, which, while extremely true to Araragi’s perception of her, isn’t really helpful as characterization. I’m very happy to see an arc from her perspective. (Incidentally, this is also why Senjougahara isn’t normally that interesting to me – Araragi’s skewed, idealized perspective of her makes for awesome unreliable narration, but much less coherent humanization)

3:32 – I love how people unfamiliar with anime claim it all somehow looks similar. There is no goddamn way you could confuse a Monogatari series with any other series – its visual style is so freaking distinctive. That clean, shining, almost clinical look, the incredibly flat color contrasts, the overbearing brightness of day and overbearing gloom of night. It’s (intentionally) staged like an elaborate but un-lived-in theatrical stage, a decision that perfectly accompanies the hyper-stylized dialogue and extended, monologue-focused scenes that drive the story forward. I have a number of complaints with this series, but goddamn do we ever need more productions this committed to their unique aesthetic

4:01 – “I finished breakfast, changed clothes, and left the house immediately.” I like how instead of Araragi’s elaborate over-explanations of everything physically occurring, Hanekawa’s text frames are extremely matter-of-fact bullet points of her day

7:00 – Goddamn Shinbou you are so good. I can’t really stop and point out every great thing he does, but this tiger scene definitely draws attention to itself that way. The quick jump cuts between her nervous ticks and panicked thoughts underlined by her breathing really trap the viewer in the claustrophobia of the moment

9:00 – Senjougahara advices Hanekawa to overcome her hesitance and call Araragi, but her eyes jump constantly from Hanekawa’s lips, to legs, to skirt, etc. She is terrified of their relationship, but her words would never betray that

9:10 – Hah! Then Hanekawa tries to make eye contact, and sees it all. I thought Neko Kuro was kind of a step down for this series, but this episode is putting its best foot forward

10:27 – “I can die together with you, at least.” A private joke? How much did Araragi actually tell her about Golden Week?

11:24 – “I’m probably completely unable to ask for help from another person.” Oh really, Hanekawa? I wouldn’t have guessed

12:10 – “It was like I was trying to strike out all the contradictions. This was very like me.” Reordering perspective to make her life liveable seems like a pretty persistent theme of Hanekawa’s stories. Fits nicely with the opening shot of a vacuum automatically cleaning up the stray loose ends of her home life, until it bumps right into her and forces her awake

12:39 – “Did I just skip a chapter? Oh well.” Speaking of erasing unwanted loose ends… yeah, that’s probably not gonna come up again

14:36 – “You don’t have to call people like that Mother and Father, do you?” Senjougahara is pretty goddamn over paying lip service to traditional family definitions. Hanekawa could learn something from her

15:45 – I like how they contrast “I now see that what I did was crazy, I wasn’t thinking it through” against a pan across all the clothes and materials she had prepared precisely because she’d thought it through, and given the fact that asking anyone for help was utterly impossible, this course of action seemed perfectly reasonable

16:26 – Staying at Senjougahara’s house. Oh god, I’ve heard about this. Hopefully Shinbou’s steady hand will steer Isin’s overtly fetishistic nonsense into something purposeful

17:00 – “Almost feels like my home.” In that it’s barely one at all?

17:49 – Aaaand clothes off. You could say this scene is Senjougahara asserting that she’s not intimidated by Hanekawa’s sexuality, but I dunno if I’d buy it

19:20 – “Let’s take a shower together.” See, it’s so far beyond normal it feels like it has to mean something, but Isin is such a goddamn perv it could just be his boner talking. But he’s also such a gifted writer that it could also be Senjougahara trying to counteract both the vulnerability she felt in her first scene here and the necessary admission of their relationship (or at least Hanekawa’s importance to Araragi) that this whole letting-her-stay thing implies, by way of making a big aggressive front of not being intimidated by Hanekawa physically. Which would certainly fit in with Senjougahara’s big, defensive, often ill-thought-through gestures in the past. Which makes me think the camera here is Senjougahara’s intent being shown, as she metaphorically growls and gnashes her teeth at the threat Hanekawa represents

19:30 – “No, wait a minute! I sense a threatening atmosphere.” Oh good. I was right. I really prefer shows impressing me to shows disappointing me

20:30 – “I didn’t expect you to say yes.” “It won’t look good if I distance myself from the girl who slapped me while she was crying.” A BATTLE FOR THE AGES. It’s funny that this is essentially no different from characters fighting over a man in a normal harem, but, you know, not written by idiots

21:47 – “But that means we have to handle the tiger here by ourselves.” PLEASE YES. SENJOUGAHARA AND HANEKAWA, SPIRIT-FIGHTING DETECTIVES

One sign of a good show: it’s just as compelling when the main character isn’t even there

And Done

Bam! Strong showing right out the gates by Monogatari. This episode was certainly very, well, very Monogatari, and featured a clear return to the focused direction I was so enamored of in Nise. Making Hanekawa the protagonist was also an awesome choice – Araragi’s dominant position in this world can be almost overbearing, and it’s nice to see how the character dynamics work in his absence. The pair of Senjou and Hanekawa in particular is fantastic – the way their rivalry expresses itself, through Senjougahara’s brittle and barely-hidden insecurity and Hanekawa’s offhand, absolute confidence, makes for funny and utterly true-to-character drama and conversation. The minutes kind of flew by with this one – it seemed to combine the sharper narrative focus of Neko with the ostentatiously intelligent direction of Nise. If it keeps up like this, it could easily be my favorite Monogatari yet.