#monogatari read-along re-watch

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Monogatari Read-Along Re-Watch — Bakemonogatari Wrap-Up

Bakemonogatari is about the kind of isolation that comes from suffering in a way you can't tell anyone about. Hitagi can't tell anyone about her weight, nor her mother. Mayoi can only push people away, for their own good. The violence in her heart is both Suruga's greatest fear and the source of her motivation. Nadeko hides from the world to the extent that just asking for help brings her to tears. Tsubasa lives in a role constructed by and imposed upon her so firmly that the slightest deviation feels like a massive revolution, and yet she still keeps such non-compliance contained and isolated.

Bakemonogatari is about building trust. It starts with going out on a limb to let someone help you, and continues until you will support them however they need without a second thought. Despite the five conmen who lied to her in the past, Hitagi gives Koyomi a chance. Mayoi feels she has to be prickly, but Koyomi's will pushes her into letting him try, at least. Suruga sees that Koyomi helped Hitagi, but even though she hates him for it, she lets him know about her guilt and her very real fear of hurting others. Nadeko has been treasuring her memories of Koyomi for so long that he may well have been the only person who even had to chance to break through her shell. Tsubasa already trusted Koyomi, but in hiding her feelings she puts that at risk. We haven't seen how Black Hanekawa's second outing has changed Tsubasa, but suffice to say she's not fully open with him yet.

Bakemonogatari is about love that's out of reach. Hitagi and Mayoi are cut off from their mothers. Suruga and Tsubasa never had a chance in their romantic desires. Nadeko lives in her memories of Koyomi, and still hasn't recognized how the real one has moved on. None of them have given up on their love. The point isn't to love less. It's not to let a love you can't have become the thing that holds you back from everything else.

Koyomi reaches out to those who need help but can't ask, who have no one they can trust, who are paralyzed by love, and offers them a hand. You're in pain. You're afraid anyone who helps you will be hurt, and you're right. I don't care, I can take it. Let me take some of your burden. I'll be your bridge to salvation, but you're the one who needs to cross.

He's also the great hypocrite, of course. When he calls on others, it's to ask for help for someone else. In the case of Mayoi Snail, he chooses not to save himself right away and refocuses the problem on others. Only in Tsubasa Cat does he take his first step across his own bridge. He saves himself by asking for help from someone he can't talk to, who he assumes must hate him, and yet who he cares about so deeply that he has dedicated his life to her.

Oshino's line about how people don't get saved, but save themselves, is false on the surface but on some level true underneath. Everyone afflicted by an oddity needed a helping hand to escape, but it was the changes they made to themselves that freed them.

[fzzr]

I dug this up again because it came to mind when reading/watching Nisemonogatari. There's only one baby in Tsukihi Phoenix, the phoenix having "replaced" the conceived child in the womb, but she's born and grows up like any human child (plus a usually undetectable healing factor). Kagenui asserts that as a oddity impersonating a human being, Tsukihi is ontologically evil and must be eradicated. Koyomi pushes back, putting his whole self on the line to state that she is and has always been his true sister.

Tsukihi says outright that her values are reflections of the values of those around her, and thus "fake". This is implied to be due to her nature as a phoenix, which is defined by its efforts to pass for human. The thing is... we all learn how to be humans by watching and copying others. Tsukihi claims not to have developed an inner core of her own, but what is the core of a human's identity but a sedimentary mass accumulating all their exposures to the values of others?

Like the mother in the story, Tsukihi Phoenix concludes that a fake that's indistinguishable from the real thing isn't a fake at all, or perhaps that real and fake are a false dichotomy in the first place. Imposing some arbitrary factor like non-supernatural origin as the line between real and fake is a meaningless effort. You raised that child, you grew up with them. They're family. That's all there is to it.

Two identical infants lay in the cradle. “One you bore, the other is a Changeling. Choose wisely,” the Fae’s voice echoed from the shadows. “I’m taking both my children,” the mother said defiantly.

[queensumomo]

Mengfei Comes Across (I love and hate you!)
Sometimes you come across a drama that you end up enjoying so much yet get so frustrated and disappointed about because you know it could have been so much more. That’s how I felt after watching the C-drama “Mengfei Comes Across” (also known as “Oh My Cute Consort”). This premiered in 2018 and starred Jiro Wang as Emperor Wen Lou, and Jin Chen/Gina Jin as Lady Bu Meng, his consort. 


I stumbled upon it while watching some clips on YouTube about something else and it was recommended to me. It looked very beautiful so I decided to watch the clip. I became curious because the premise reminded me so much of a favorite anime called “Saiunkoku Monogatari” so I searched for the complete series with English subs. Fortunately enough, they were readily available on YT. 


The series revolves around Bu Meng, the daughter of the Royal Court Historian, who ends up becoming one of the Emperor Wen Lou’s consorts because of a slight that her father had done towards the Emperor. In return for the offense, His Majesty decides to pick on her, though harboring no personal interest in her at all. Meng doesn’t want the attention because she’s read in her books that imperial consorts who gain the attention of the Emperor often become the target of intrigue and malice and can even lose their lives. Meng intends to live a long, happy life so she strives to avoid him at all costs. 

Unfortunately for her, not only does she end up directly under his radar because of her father, but her personality and antics turn the Emperor’s initial disinterest into curiosity.
She ends up somehow getting involved with him in so many ways, despite herself, and he ends up liking her more and more along the way. However, Meng’s desire is to leave the palace and gain her freedom again, so when the Emperor becomes the target of mysterious assassins, Meng volunteers to help find the culprits in exchange for her freedom. Together with Minister Zhen Shishuang, an investigative prodigy who also happens to be her childhood friend and first love, Meng succeeds in uncovering a serious plot against the Emperor, masterminded by his first consort, Imperial Consort Ru, adopted daughter of the Prime Minister. 


But the Emperor is hard-pressed to honor his word to let her go, especially when he learns that Minister Zhen and Meng were once in love and almost married each other. Yet he decides to set her free, much to his mother, the Empress Dowager’s disappointment and anger. Meng, on the other hand, realizes that she can’t leave him anymore because somewhere along the way, despite her reluctance, she had fallen in love with him. 


That’s basically the summary of the series. 


I’m actually quite torn about this drama. On the one hand, I found myself liking it very much. The aesthetics were good: costumes were beautiful and the actors were just so pleasing to the eyes. The comedic timing of the main actors were on point, although the minor ones seemed just a bit too overdone for my taste. And the chemistry of the leads was just lovely and they had this level of sexual tension between them that made me jump on their ship. 


This is the first time I’ve watched Jin Chen/Gina Jin and Jiro Wang. I don’t know them and I’ve never seen anything of theirs. But to me, they were perfect as Meng Fei and His Majesty. Every time I saw them on screen together, I felt warm and fuzzy and I smiled so much. I just wanted the scene to go on and on because they were just beautiful and the sparks were there. Jiro Wang had this seemingly hooded gaze that smoldered every time he looked at her. It’s like a mix of deep affection and intense desire toward her. Gina Jin, on the other hand, had just enough level of denseness and disinterestedness towards him. And her face, especially her eyes, are just so expressive. She had this wonderful interplay of mischievousness and intelligence that often manifested through a bright smile which made her whole face glow, making me understand just why Jiro Wang’s His Majesty is so taken with her.


But apart from that, the drama left me very frustrated because the story and plot development left a lot to be desired, as far as I’m concerned. The series was 36 episodes long (according to some early reports, it should have been 45) yet the main plot seemed to have exhausted itself by episode 21, which is when the Emperor and Meng Fei admitted their love for each other. Even in terms of story arcs, the meatier part of the drama was in the first half until this point, what with the assassins and the intrigues from the consorts and the objections from the Empress Dowager all coming into play, together with the comedic antics of the characters. After that, it was mostly stand-alone arcs involving minor characters (although there was also a handful of this in the first few episodes, which almost made me stop watching), with the Emperor and Meng merely becoming instruments to push the story along. In fact, they hardly had any substantial or meaningful screentime at all. 


To my mind, it was too much time wasted on arcs that never had any real purpose in driving the main story, which could have been devoted to expounding on more interesting sub-plots, such as the story of Lady Xiao, one of Meng’s fellow consorts and closest friends. She’s a former general who grew up with the Emperor and fell in love with her fellow general, Shi Shang. This could have been very interesting and compelling because after they were separated when the war ended, and after her father’s death, the Emperor made Lady Xiao enter the palace to give her sanctuary. She encounters Shi Shang afterwards inside the palace, as an assassin hired by a rival state to kill the Emperor. It turns out that he had been captured by them after the war and made to drink poison. In exchange for the antidote, he had to assassinate the Emperor. This could have tied beautifully with the first arc on the assassins that were sent by the Dongli State and led by Imperial Consort Ru, who turned out to be their princess. 

Another interesting sub-plot that should have been tackled and tied into the assassin story arc was the one of Chen Yuanxi, Meng’s childhood friend, who also became a soldier.  She and Meng’s brother, Bu Yue, have always been at odds since childhood, yet in the end it turns out that they are in love with each other.  If it weren’t for the fact that Yuanxi was thought to have been killed in battle and a corpse that was mistaken for her brought home for burial, much to Yue’s grief, they would not have admitted to their feelings for each other.  Bu Yue, incidentally, is also a well-known and much-admired general.  


The latter part was really such a waste. I could only imagine how much more interesting this would have been, especially if the friendship between the Emperor and Meng was allowed to flourish some more before they decided to become lovers. Their scenes together before Meng realized she loved him were just wonderful. And those moments when he would hint at his deeper feelings for her and she gets flustered are just the stuff that wonderful, fluffy romances are made of. 


And how nice it would have been if Minister Zhen was tapped by the Emperor to head the investigations on the assassination attempts and he became a trusted advisor. Just imagine the Emperor’s own dilemma, if they had become friends as well, even as he is riled up with jealousy because Meng likes Zhen very much. 
And I really think there should have been scenes of the Emperor and Lady Xiao talking intimately as friends, especially regarding his feelings for Meng. After all, they grew up together. I think it’s possible that her father may have trained him too. And I think it was also hinted at that they fought together before he became emperor? I’m not sure about this but it’s not far-fetched. 


If I were to rewrite this drama, I would make the development of the romance between the Emperor and Meng revolve around the assassination plot and the political intrigue of the rival states. I would also make Minister Zhen’s character stay throughout the drama, not only because he would have been very useful in attempting to uncover the plots against the Emperor, but his presence would have presented a nice tension between the Emperor and Meng. It would have made Meng’s decision to stay as consort, despite her loss of freedom, more compelling. And I would give more meat to the story of Meng’s three consort friends, Consort Xiao, Consort Yan and Concubine Qu. I’d take out all the other minor arcs, like that of the imperial cook and imperial physician. 


I would have made Meng stand firm on her decision to leave the palace anyway to pursue her own dreams, despite the fact that she’s slowly falling for the Emperor (just to prove that she is truly independent and empowered) but would have made her return in the second half of the story at the request of the Empress Dowager (who didn’t like her very much for her son). Perhaps something serious would have happened to the Emperor as a result of the attempts on his life, and Her Majesty would ask Meng to come back and care for him. And there would have been a man-to-man talk between Minister Zhen and the Emperor about their love for Meng. And maybe Zhen would talk to Meng and help her come to terms with her own feelings for the Emperor.  I wouldn’t have made it so easy for her to just accept that she had fallen for him and give up on her own dreams.  No matter how ditzy she may sometimes seem, Meng’s character is intelligent and independent.  It would have made for a more interesting romance, not to mention given the drama more time to give Meng and the Emperor - with Zhen thrown into the mix - more screentime cuteness together.  


Oh well. I would have to content myself with re-watching this up until episode 21 and just imagine all the ways this drama could have been so much better than just a slapstick comedy.

[fzzr]

Monogatari Read-Along Re-Watch — Nadeko Snake

Previously.

Novel

The bulk of this story is actually spent with Suruga, continuing the pattern of each story starting by checking in with the focus of the previous one. The main thing that we learn from how Koyomi and Suruga interact is that he now fundamentally trusts her. Koyomi doesn't just trust her with his life (which is not much, to him) but with someone else's. We also get to see that Suruga's moments of seriousness in Suruga Monkey were not aberrations. She will banter and troll at the slightest opportunity, but when something serious is going on she is ready.

This isn't wasted time with respect to the story, as the banter is part of what lets Nadeko open up and ask for help. As for her, Nadeko doesn't even have her first line until more than halfway through. Once we do meet her, we find there's another reason Suruga has to carry the conversation. Nadeko is too... let's call her "quiet"... to participate in the quick exchanges of the series. Koyomi assumes that she's like that due to the pain and shame of her possession by the Jagirinawa. We can infer that there's a bit more to it than that, when she talks about how special Koyomi and her time with the Araragi family were to her. In the end though, it's left ambiguous.

Something I've never understood (and still don't) is why Koyomi thinks that recognizing Nadeko on the stairs would have changed the results. At that time she would have had no reason to share what was happening to her or what she was doing, and he would have had trouble re-contacting her afterward regardless. They didn't lose a huge amount of time between seeing her on the stairs and catching her at the shrine again later. The critical mistake happened when she showed them the binding marks, and that would have happened the same either way.

Little detail: Koyomi gives the date, but his reflection that not having spoken with Mayoi recently upsets him a bit is what gives us a sense of what that amount of time passing feels like emotionally and lets us check in on his relationship with her without distracting from the threads relevant to this story.

Anime

This arc features the first really large cut in the anime. Much of the opening conversation with Suruga is skipped in favor of getting to the shrine and main plot of the arc sooner. Some of it gets moved to the walk up the mountain, but it's still a big cut in the amount of banter. This was probably necessary to fit the arc into just two episodes. It's just a bit shorter than Suruga Monkey in print, but that was three episodes. Filling out the same amount of screen time might have caused it to drag.

Once again the audio does a lot of work here. For Suruga, her voice makes it quite clear where she stands on the silly-to-serious spectrum at any moment. Nadeko gets to express subtleties in her thoughts in a way that we can pick up on even if Koyomi cannot. Music is great as always. There are a few scenes where it really caries the tone by putting on one of the spookier or more tense tracks.

As for what's on screen... hooboy. Mayoi Snail is the first part that raises the power level on Monogatari (extended panty shot and non-con contact on an 11-year-old) but Nadeko Snake is what makes this a don't-watch-with-an-open-door-behind-you show. The novel doesn't spend much time describing the situation with Nadeko in just bloomers on the bed, but the anime follows a very unfortunate gaze, including adding some action details that are original to the anime. It is defanged somewhat by the humor surrounding it, but that's still something that's entirely reasonable to bounce off. The snake going down Nadeko's throat is depicted in the anime very much how the novel described it, but it's still a moment you don't want to screenshot and share. That part was actually not animated when originally aired, which I always assumed was because it was going to be a problem to put on television, so that's what they chose not to finish when they fell behind schedule.

Conclusion

Of all the arcs in Bakemonogatari, this is arguably the one that casts the longest shadow. The shrine is one of the most important locations in the series, and events from this arc will have direct consequences through to the very end of the series. Nadeko herself has a lot more going on than we see in this arc, but I'll hold off on a Nadeko post until the Second Season wrap-up.

This is the first arc where the necessities of their respective media made significant differences between the novel and the anime. Split decision on whether it's an improvement or not. The pacing of the anime is genuinely better, but I missed a lot of the humor and relationship development that was embedded in the banter of the novel. The blocking of the scene in the bookstore with Hanekawa was more clear in the anime, and the environment of the shrine provided great visual storytelling. The real oof is the power level check inherent in how the events are depicted, but there's no way around it. That's just Monogatari.

[fzzr]

Monogatari Read-Along Re-Watch — Kizumonogatari

Inspired by some others on tumblr, I'm going to read each Monogatari novel and then watch the anime adaptation arc by arc. I don't have anything in particular I'm looking for, just wondering what the differences are and how the two compare. Since the English box set of the novels put Kizumonogatari ahead of Bake, I'm doing Kizu first.

Novel

I've read a lot of first-person fiction recently, and Koyomi's narrative voice feels like it's coming from deeper inside him, somehow. It's not quite stream of consciousness, but more like stream of reminiscence. Rather than just recounting what happens, Koyomi is recalling it, commenting on his memories as he processes them. This gives us an extra layer of insight into his emotional state, as he both describes what he felt at the time and how he feels about his actions then in retrospect.

Another fun feature is the language and wordplay. Obviously it's not always possible to directly translate the Japanese puns (and I'm not qualified to judge if it did) but there's a sprinkling of English language tricks that only work in writing, which I'm given to understand are a pretty good equivalent. A lot of what gives Koyomi his unique voice is the way his mind skips between the focus of the moment and small distractions, which often take the form of these language games.

The dialogue between the characters was great, too. This is just as I expected, since dialogue is arguably the thing that made Monogatari into a phenomenon. Nearly every character has Koyomi on the back foot in conversation at some point (or almost all the time) and the interplay with his mind-state makes the dance of jokes and jabs that much more engaging.

This was my first time reading anything by NISIOISIN and it really was a treat. I'm definitely looking forward to what else I can learn about the characters beyond what the anime had time to show.

Movie

As a movie with different artistic direction and production processes than the TV anime, it's aesthetically quite different from the rest of the series. As is often the case, this manifests in more detailed character designs and intricate movement. Kiss-shot and especially Tsubasa are at their very best in Kizumonogatari. It also features five action scenes of varying length, and these definitely benefit from the extra animation time. Oshino Meme spends relatively little time in motion in the TV series, so getting to see his character come through in his actions, fight scene and otherwise, was much appreciated.

The issue for me arises when looking at what's missing from the movie. The TV series jumps through hoops to capture Koyomi's (and other viewpoint characters') internal mental state. The movie doesn't take us nearly as deep into Koyomi's head. This lets it be more subtle with conveying where he is mentally, but it cuts us off from a lot of his actual thought process. His thought process is what defines the entire voice of the novel and this feels like just too big of a thing to give up.

Kizumonogatari makes great use of the strengths of the movie format, and I did indeed like it more this time with the context of the book to make some parts hold together better. It's just that the great tradeoff of time constraints associated with that strength were allowed to run counter to what makes Monogatari what it is at an even higher level.

Conclusion

Kizumonogatari has always been my least favorite part of the series, and that hasn't really changed. However, reading the book has given me a new appreciation for this important chapter. I wish the movie had been able to capture more of it.

[fzzr]

Monogatari Read-Along Re-Watch — Karen Bee

Previously.

Novel

Ah, the Yandere Hitagi scene. This is the most involved cold open so far, and well done. Hitagi continues to be the character who most leans in to tropes. This is not a bad thing by any means, rather it's a lens NISIOISIN can hold up to her and highlight her personality in her deviations from the tropes. In the stereotypical yandere trope, the yandere isolates their beloved from others in order to make them fully dependent on the yandere physically and emotionally. Often this is framed as "protecting" the target from danger, usually in the form of competing love interests. Hitagi plays the scene as though she intends to do the same with Koyomi, but she takes the efforts to keep him dependent on her to such high levels that it is clear that she is teasing (in her usual extreme way) rather than brainwashing him into loving her. We will later find out that her actions are an impulse reaction to hearing Koyomi has encountered Kaiki, whom she considers the most dangerous person for him to interact with. In this sense, she is indeed doing this for his protection, closing the circle of the comparison to the yandere archetype by making it clear that her feelings come from her fear and love rather than some sort of twisted self interest.

Kaiki himself is an important recurring character, through you wouldn't know it from this arc. One of the big questions of Karen Bee (and Nise in general) is the value of a phony. Kaiki presents himself as a non-believer in oddities, even as he is aware of changes to the spirital situation in the area and distinguishes real from fake in a way that could only come from study. In this sense he is a phony phony, using real knowledge while denying its truth to himself and the world. Kaiki is shameless in his fakery, fully self-aware of his despicable actions and insincerity in all his interactions. He presents himself as completely remorseless about the harm caused by his schemes. Even this is a façade to some extent, as we get tiny hints of consideration for others in his checking to make sure Karen has enough money to go home when he robs her and his telling Hitagi that the man who tried to rape her is dead and thus not worth dwelling on as a target of some possible future revenge. There are layers of lies here too. Why would he know that, if he claims not to care about those he swindles? If he's making it up, why would he lie in order to help someone?

Karen, our nominal focus character, confuses me. She's brash and passionate, and even Koyomi has to acknowledge their similarity in acting selflessly. There's no question whether she has the big personality needed to stand among the other characters. The thing is, I still don't feel like I get her. What are her dreams, her fears, her aspirations, her doubts? She wants Justice with capital letters, and projects what that means onto the world. I also have more trouble understanding her relationships than I do any other character. I guess it's in character for her to have unsubtle points of view on people — Yes Justice good, No Justice bad until made into Yes Justice — but I definitely feel like I'm missing things. After the fight with Koyomi he tells her not to develop a crush on him, and she says "too late". That's a somewhat ambiguous answer right now, but I'll be coming back to that after the upcoming Toothbrush Scene.

Structurally, this arc is primarily a sequel to Nadeko Snake, following up on the major loose end of the source of the curses and reminding us that Nadeko didn't really resolve her hopeless crush on Koyomi in that arc. It also introduces Kaiki and the name "Gaen" (linking Suruga into the wider plot as result). Looking forward, yuri aficionado Suruga picks up on things to do with Hitagi and Tsubasa's relationship that will come up soon.

Anime

When I first watched Monogatari as it was airing, Karen Bee was my least favorite arc. As of my previous watch through (not having read the novels yet) it was third least favorite. (I already said what I don't like about Kizumonogatari, and I'll talk about Koyomimonogatari when I get there.) After this watch, that hasn't really changed. I think it just comes down to pacing. It gives each plot point the time it deserves, but the result is the longest arc in the television series in terms of screen minutes.

Still, saying something one of my least favorite Monogatari arcs is like saying one of my least favorite cookies. Like the rest of Monogatari, Karen Bee in the anime is especially held up by how the animation supports what's there. The conversations are generally visually engaging, and make great use of symbolic details to varying degrees of subtlety to communicate things unspoken.

The music is also great as always, with some new tracks added where appropriate. This was the first time I caught the Renai Circulation quote in Yuuwaku, which plays during the visit to Nadeko's house. There's yet another minor key Staple Stable variant during the conversation with Hitagi in episode 6, as well as a more direct reference in Hitagi's new OP. (OK from now on I'm going to stop pointing out when the show uses the theme-song-as-lietmotif trick to set the appropriate mood while calling upon the associations with the character unless it's an especially notable case.)

Conclusion

I wish I liked Karen Bee more. The themes aren't poorly communicated at all — if anything they're beaten through your head. There are lots of strong individual conversations and such, but damn does it somehow feel like it drags.

Really it comes down to I don't think I understand this arc fully — surely the length would be worth it if I did. What was Karen's actual problem? Did she solve it, and if so, how? Was this actually a Koyomi and Hitagi arc and I just missed it? Feel free to explain it to me, because I would really like to understand. For now I'll look back at Nisemonogatari as a whole after Tsukihi Phoenix and see if things are more clear.

[fzzr]

Monogatari Read-Along Re-Watch — Tsubasa Cat

Previously.

Novel

First we check in with Nadeko. She is actually a bit more talkative this time around, relying on references to old anime and manga to provide something for Koyomi to bounce off off. Notably, she's the only person in the series who treats Koyomi almost entirely without criticism. Her overly accommodating manner and excessive inclination to apologize and agree with everything are the main defining features of her dialogue. Koyomi doesn't pick up on it, but seems like there's a whole other Nadeko hidden behind her bangs.

Tsubasa returns at first in her perfect-class-president-with-some-snark form. Her heart has been in it less and less since Mayoi Snail, and it doesn't quite make it to the end of the conversation this time. As usual, Koyomi doesn't see how she uses her gentle critiques to covertly hint at her feelings for him. Even the near kiss in Nadeko Snake didn't do it. Reading Kizumonogatari and seeing her at her snarkiest before Bake changes how that decline comes through, and I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

Oh man, the date with Hitagi. This is one of my favorite sequences in all of Monogatari and it's still so good. It uses a setup-punchline pattern where important lines are said first in jest and then later with feeling. My favorite is Hitagi's father starting and ending his conversation with Koyomi with the traditional line for entrusting his daughter to an approved suitor, first to break the tension and the second time with sincerity. Hitagi using the same lines to list what she loves about Koyomi as a break in the banter and in full sincerity beneath the stars is pretty damn effective too. The way she builds and builds the tension to keep Koyomi on edge while simultaneously demonstrating her love for him is peak Hitagi for sure.

Once Black Hanekawa starts to emerge, Koyomi goes from merely inattentive to the way others feel about him to utterly dense. His last chance to understand the cause of the situation was when she all but admitted to trying to hurt him with the dishonest theory about him having vampire charm. When she says "I don'tt know anything" rather than the usual "I only know what I know" line, she's giving him one last chance to understand the severity of the situation. I can't even call it willful blindness, he really does see her as she normally presents herself.

As the intensity of the story escalates in we get to see the fruits of Koyomi's actions throughout the novels when Hhe calls on all four previous ladies. Mayoi, Suruga, and Nadeko have each met Tsubasa only superficially — they're actually answering Koyomi's call because of the trust they have built with him over the course of the series. Hitagi helps in her own contrary but meaningful way, making sure that no matter what happens, Tsubasa's will not leave a mess for everyone else, her duties unfulfilled. Hitagi thus reminds Koyomi that while he may be the one putting out the call, he can't lose sight of what Tsubasa needs as a whole person. Unfortunately, he still falls short.

I think it's reasonable to say that Koyomi's blindness to how Tsubasa feels about him is the reason this arc is the least resolved of all of Bakemonogatari. Tsubasa does not complete her change, so the solution is deferred and only gets that far thanks to Black Hanekawa leaving open the specific opportunity needed to make that happen. Instead we see Koyomi's first step toward addressing his own great flow of self-destructiveness, when he asks for help for himself for the first time.

Anime

The rearranging this time was once again well chosen. Moving the flashback to Golden Week to the beginning of the first episode makes it clear that this is an arc for Tsubasa, even though very little to do with her will happen until two episodes later. It also sets up for the echo of Koyomi saying he cares more about his debt to Tsubasa than their friendship.

I am glad dedicated the entire second episode of the arc, and the last of the regular season, to the date with Hitagi. It's such a powerful sequence that placing it at the end of cour boundary is an excellent punctuation mark for the series. They even changed the OP for that episode back to Staple Stable. This is an important choice, because along with Senjougahara Tore in the stargazing scene it firmly establishes the pattern that the OPs are not just themes for the arcs but also for the girls. I'll talk more about this in my eventual post(s) about the music of Monogatari.

They really pulled out the stops toward the in a different way from the date. You're often not meant to take the visuals in Monogatari literally, but in the confrontation with Black Hanekawa they get almost Utena with it. When they depict the conversation in the classroom where Tsubasa and Koyomi spend time alone together, they also make the words come out of non-oddity Tsubasa's mouth. This is a great way to make it clear that though the mind and body seem to be transformed by the sawarineko it's still Tsubasa underneath, and saves on the narration that implies that in the novel.

One detail I didn't catch the significance of one previous watches is once Black Hanekawa pounces on Koyomi and starts to drain him, her hair becomes grey rather than white. This matches up with the novel, where she says that she feels herself fading away, as killing him would solve the problem she represents.

Conclusion

Way to go NISIOISON and SHAFT for wrapping up Bakemonogatari on a high note! Next up, a big retro on the five chapters collectively.

[fzzr]

Monogatari Read-Along Re-Watch — Suruga Monkey

Previously

Novel

As Monogatari arcs go, Suruga Monkey is relatively straightforward. Every arc in Bakemonogatari (Crab through Cat) is on some level about not being with the people you love, and Suruga Monkey is the first one where that's romantic love. It's too short to have deep-laid foreshadowing, but there is some stuff early on that turns out to have payoff later.

This arc starts with conversations with Mayoi, Suruga, and Hitagi. Here we get to see in close proximity how NISOISIN can maintain a common voice for the series while making the banter of each character distinct. Mayoi has less of an edge of forced hostility now, and her conversation is full of wordplay and deliberate misunderstanding. Suruga plays absurdist games, treating trivial things with exaggerated pomp and the serious as mundane. Her whimsy lets her control the conversation by keeping it off balance. Hitagi's tongue is as sharp as ever, and still somehow affectionate.

The fight with the Rainy Devil was interesting to me, because in Koyomi's internal recollection it has a lot more of him blaming himself than the anime can depict. It weaves the conversation before the fight, explaining how he got there even as he gets various organs damaged. This somehow makes the fight more desperate, as we're in Koyomi's head as he struggles and realized how doomed he is. It also means the specifics of the problem — they need to solve the problem by making the wish impossible to fulfill — is the most present thing in mind when Hitagi shows up and delivers the answer.

Small notes for self later: Koyomi describes Suruga as dunking in her play - this contradicts what I recall from the anime of Suruga Devil. Oshino's reference to the remaining parts of the devil was presumably more of laying the groundwork for some future chapter rather than having it worked out years in advance. Araragi is described as good at math, was this knowing foreshadowing, or just something that got used later as well?

Anime

So far, Suruga is the character who has benefited the most from the adaptation. Her voice actor did a stupendous job, and the editing, sound effects, and music all do great work too. The scene where Koyomi is cleaning up her room depicted as him throwing her books backed by Bakalolite is entirely original imagery to the anime, and it helps set up the friendly rapport between the two of them as a bonus.

One of the jokes I thought had to be anime-original is actually straight from the novels. Koyomi refers to Hitagi as the most difficult character in the dating game, and it cuts immediately to them studying in her house with her saying she thinks someone said something bad about her. The novel does the exact same thing with a chapter boundary, glad they made the timing work in animation too.

Compared to the novel, the big fight is more spectacle. This is probably mostly because intercutting the fight with bits of the previous scene as the novel does would screw up the pacing and choreography. They make the important artistic choice not to make the whole fight take place in shades of red and black. This serves to make the violence feel less gratuitous, as unlike the combat in Kizumonogatari the details aren't that important. The key points that he's losing and Suruga is still trying to kill him along with the Rainy Devil come through very clearly, and Hitagi's arrival still interrupts in a perfectly timed way.

Conclusion

Suruga Monkey is what you might call the "standard" Monogatari arc. Check in/banter with one or two characters, introduce the mystery, banter, incomplete or misleading progress on the mystery, setup for the solution, confrontation, resolution, punchline. There's nothing wrong with that, of course. It's clean and efficient, funny and clever, and does a great job introducing Suruga to the cast. It's not exactly the most subtle arc, but it damn well gets the job done.

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Monogatari Read-Along Re-Watch — Mayoi Snail

The second Bakemonogatari arc, Mayoi Snail†, introduces us to Hachikuji Mayoi and more incidentally, Namishiro Park. Both of them will be surprisingly important to the narrative as the series moves forward. Indeed, in retrospect Mayoi Snail is the jumping off point for the wider plot of the series, not Hitagi Crab.

Novel

The emotional core of Mayoi Snail is within Koyomi, and accordingly we spend a lot of time on what's on his mind. He's quite down in the dumps, and the way the stream-of-reminiscence represents that is very real. When the particularly painful memory (his fight with Karen) comes up, he cuts it off and finds some diversion for his thoughts. Nonetheless in his conversations with the other characters he is forced to recall that moment a bit more clearly each time. Those conversations are the entire content of the arc, so lets get into it.

Despite the name on the title page, a great deal of this arc is to do with Hitagi and her relationship with Koyomi. She shows up with her mind on a single mission: get together with Koyomi, preferably with him asking her out first. Koyomi is a mix of too dumb, depressed, and willfully blind to understand just how strong she's coming on. She has complete control of their conversation, letting him out just a bit when he tries to pull away but redirecting him back to the point in short order. Ultimately Koyomi chooses not to pick up what she's putting down, using a variety of excuses that ultimately come down to his own lack of self-worth.

Just as non-relationship talk hits a dead end, Mayoi shows up to start the spooky stuff part of the story. This initially consists of even more banter, this time with physical comedy mixed in. Just as Hitagi slipped propositions into her banter, Mayoi gives away clues to her true nature in small ways. Just as Koyomi refused to be pulled in by Hitagi's advances, here he will not be diverted away. While the introduction to Mayoi is in the foreground, Hitagi becomes increasingly frigid. Koyomi attributes this to his own shenanigans (he did just knock an elementary school student flat on her back) but compared to her earlier playfulness, the difference is palpable. All of this builds intrigue while putting up yet another barrier between Hitagi and Koyomi, this time from her end.

Eventually the spooky stuff becomes too obvious to ignore, and Hitagi sets out to get help from Oshino. This leaves Koyomi and Mayoi alone for more sparring, verbal and otherwise. This time Tsubasa shows up to mix things up with some sanity and order. I appreciate there's a bit more Tsubasa in Mayoi Snail. It gives us some early hints of her relationship with her family that doubles as more misdirection around Hitagi not being able to see Mayoi. Her strong opinions on disciplining children is another tip-off if you know what to look for.

As Koyomi and Mayoi bounce off one another, they bring out each others' true reasons for being where they are. Once again the dialogue is funny, energetic, and clever all around. This time, however, Koyomi comes to suspect that there's another level to the situation he isn't understanding. At the same time, he starts to acknowledge that the only one keeping him from going home is himself.

Each of the four characters who visited the park that Mother's Day has a distinct reason not to be with their mother. Only Koyomi could go home to his mother and be welcome there, and he gets called out on it. Mayoi desperately wants to get to her mother, but can't. We heard all about Hitagi's ruined relationship with her mother in Hitagi Crab, but she nonetheless has a home where she is welcome. Tsubasa's parental issues are only referred to indirectly for now, but the fact that she sees the Lost Cow and walks away without difficulty is another critical clue to Koyomi about the true, internal source of his issues.

Hitagi's return is what settles the issue. The reveal that Koyomi was the one afflicted by the Lost Cow all along in the final catalyst needed for him to acknowledge the true root of the problem. Understanding this he nonetheless demands to go that extra step, and save Mayoi anyway. This reinforces Koyomi's character as the person will save everyone, and it's enough to push Hitagi out of her confrontational mode long enough to declare her love. This conflux of several disparate plotlines being resolved at once is one of my favorite things to see in storytelling, and this one is well implemented indeed.

So Mayoi is freed, and Hitagi intercepts Koyomi's final attempt to escape. They extract from one another promises to have a relationship based on mutual honesty and respect. Mayoi, now free, tells Koyomi to talk with her again sometime. What a small first domino that is to set great things in motion!

Anime

This is the talkiest arc of Bakemonogatari, so the storyboard really needs to be creative to keep things visually engaging. They do this by making a change to the setting, adding playground equipment the novel explicitly says are missing. When the conversation is playful, Koyomi and Hitagi are shown interacting with the equipment. When the conversation is more serious and they're sitting down, it has the sky cycle bars move across the screen slowly, suggesting parallax without actually moving the camera from being centered on them. It also brings in extra exaggerated camera angles (especially zoomed in on faces and eyes) for times when Koyomi is off balance. The male gaze shots line up pretty well with moments from the novel where he finds himself admiring Hitagi physically, saving on exposition.

They also make great use of music to control the tone. Every arc does this, but track changes often sync up with transitions to new locations, which covers up their impact to some extent. Since Mayoi Snail barely changes setting at all, the music does all the work alone. Hitagi enters the park to the chill track Sanpo. When she reminisces about how the neighborhood she grew up in has changed, it calls on the melancholy of Nichiyoubi. When Hitagi begins to toy with Koyomi and they start fooling around the playground, it uses the playful Jinchiku. After the eyecatch, the conversation gets a bit more serious again, and the pensive and slightly uncomfortable track Doutokutosetsu picks up. Hitagi pulls Koyomi out of a funk thinking about his family issues with some more trolling, backed by Sutekimeppou. Dokuzetsu kicks in when Hitagi raises the pressure on Koyomi, leading up to her essentially direct offer to be his girlfriend. Between each of these shifts there are at least a few lines of dialogue without background music, so the transitions really stand out.

The result of all that is they adapted a conversation between two people with basically no stage direction into 15 minutes of engaging, dynamic television. I don't think it's any exaggeration to say that the episode 3 banter session between Hitagi and Koyomi is what really made the statement that this show is fundamentally about talking, and it's going to be fun to watch anyway.

Koyomi's interaction with Mayoi is slapstick comedy, and gives us our first look at how the anime does at comic timing. In short, it's excellent. Since the ultimate resolution doesn't require any dramatic action, they were free to commit the bulk of the animation budget to these sequences. The background tracks continue to do work, of course. There are even some jokes in the music, like the ball dance played later on when Araragi and Mayoi are grappling at arms length.

Once Hitagi starts trying to figure out what Koyomi is doing, the anime has a curious problem. In writing, what we know is entirely what the first person narrator sees, and this makes a convincing unreliable narration much easier to achieve. Anime is of necessity presented in third person, and so we have a stronger assumption that what's on screen is what's in the scene. Mayoi Snail sticks strictly to "what's on screen is what Koyomi perceives." This is both necessary to build up the twist and a precondition for understanding future narrators who break the rules of objective depiction of reality even more.

The solution and resolution are handled exactly as they should be, and ending on Mayoi's new freedom is just as heartwarming as it was in the novel. In terms of cuts and changes, there are once again very few. One I noticed was in Koyomi talking about him falling behind on his studies, he doesn't point out that it's because he was at a school with a higher academic standard. Removing this small crutch gives Koyomi even more room to get down on himself.

Conclusion

Mayoi Snail, for all its relative brevity, is one of my favorite Monogatari arcs due to how it shows the true potential of the series as a whole. It will certainly be coming up by reference moving forward.

On a meta level, Mayoi Snail could be seen as an arc that trains the reader/viewer for how to handle the rest of the series. This is a series that can carry itself on dialogue alone. You learn that you absolutely must not tune out the banter, because the important bits are all embedded within it. It's also the first arc where the inherent unreliability of a first person point of view becomes important. It is made crystal clear that what is written and seen is not the objective reality, but only what the narrator understands at the time.

† A later arc from Monster Season is called "Mayoi Snail," and this one is properly "Mayoi Mai Mai". However this was called "Mayoi Snail" in localizations of both the novel and the anime, so I called it that in this context.