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Aug 05 2013

Categories: episodic review, monogatari
Tagged: monogatari

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“I’m a cat. I don’t cry. I just ‘meow’.”

The Hanekawa soliloquy montage at the beginning of episode five? Excellent. Really well done. Kudos to Shaft for doing a great job on the montage when the story called for it. I’m glad they spent that extra $100 for those After Effects filters.

(Trucker hat Hanekawa and War-torn Hanekawa cracked me up. Her journey flowed too… as you see her sitting in a truck and then she’s wearing the trucker hat next to a bear. I just wonder Sure, it may a little Shaft being Shaft-esque, but at least the art style idn’t deviate from the art deco-ish style of Monogatari. Don’t you remember the random live action photographs of dismembered limbs back in the first season?)

Scene doesn’t work as intended. Or does it? Dum da dum.

(This whole sequence reminds me of the sequence where Mugen gets tripped up on “special crop” and gets all trippy during a killing spree. Samurai Champloo… almost ten fucking years old, and the animation still holds up. The production values were great, and the styling, which was advanced for the time, still seems relevant today. It’s a show that has definitely aged well, and if it aired today, it would still be above average for production values. Either that’s a statement on how well Watanabe make Champloo or how low budget most anime is today.)

Monogatari‘s animation is still quite top notch. I think this season, it’s head to head with Free!. Shaft doesn’t take a lot of scenes off, and they put quite a bit of effort into this episode. Besides the excellently animated monologue, they came up with a nice range of expressions for Hanekawa, and they animation is always smooth. They never had to resort to speed lines or whatnot for action scenes.)

“You really don’t know anything, Tsubasa. You don’t even know that you don’t know anything.”

Two points. One, burn. Gaen lays the smackdown on Hanekawa by turning her own “I only know what I know” catchphrase on her. It must be even more confusing to Hanekawa in that she must be thinking, “Wait, how does this random person know my catchphrase? Does she subscribe to Crunchyroll?” Two, Shaft decided to head tilt Gaen. And Gaen is wearing some weird outfit that can best be described as “confused middle school girl from suburbia.” Seriously? Crooked hat with a Super Mario star necklace? Is she supposed to be Zack Morris’ little sister?

(Sometimes I wonder if Shinbo has a browser tab open to this video all the time. It would explain the head tilt fascination. Personally, I have this video open on a tab at all times…)

Even the mom gets Shaft tilted. This is getting out of hand.

(Actual parents in actual anime? I keep forgetting that Araragi’s parents weren’t killed or missing or abandoned him. It’s like the rarest of rare anime characters– parents who live with their kids. Even rarer? An anime series where both male and female leads live with their parents, and the parents are animated. Can you name one off of the top of your head? Kyon and Haruhi live with their families, but they are never shown, especially Haruhi’s. Eva came to my mind first only if you consider Rei as the leading female character.)

(Of course, both Araragi’s mom and Senjougahara’s dad are both quite blunt. They do not mess around… okay, maybe Senjougahara’s dad a bit, but dads are allowed to be a bit doofy.)

Classic Senjougahara head tilt. Now with less spite.

Best. Facial expression ever.

(Araragi’s little sisters are huge bro-cons? Who would have guessed? But did they find boyfriends who looked like Araragi or behaved like Araragi or both? In other news, what girl in this series doesn’t want to jump Araragi’s bones? Is Mayoi the lone holdout? Maybe Shinobu?)

(Also funny how Araragi refused to meet their boyfriends. If he knew already that their boyfriends were like him, would you blame him? It would be creepy and awkward. “Yeah, my little sister is only going out with you because she can’t have me.”)

She’s priming Araragi’s bed with her scent? How is she not a cat? Or a dog… I forgot… which animal likes to mark their territory with their scent? Oh right– the teenaged girl. They also like taking selfies. So basically Hanekawa, who has steeled herself to die at this point, decided her final acts were to act like a normal teenaged girl. Of course, this was possible because she decided that she wanted to be normal. The whole thing with Kako and Black Hanekawa is that she tried to be something she’s not, hence why they appeared… and she’s finally being honest with herself now. I just can’t wait for her to start posting selfies to her Instagram and pinning overnight oats in mason jars recipes.

I just want to know who approved the architecture for this town. Who was the civil engineer who came up with this town’s plan? It’s just insane. There’s tons of buildings that are just I-beams, a lot of industry, a lot of new suburban development, and pedestrian walkways that look like they came from Elysium or Columbia. Did the townspeople ask their major to start a ten million bell public works project for an elevated walkway that resembles the rib cage of a titan?

And the fifty million bells or so needed to construct this library public works project… that has exactly one table in the center.

You just knew Arararagi was going to make an entrance, and he does. Sure, his timely save of Hanekawa ranks up there with all the times “Gundam A saves Gundam B at the last moment,” but it wasn’t about that. It was more about… mmm… one, Arararagi actually finally saving the day. I assume we’ll learn about where he’s been a la How I Met Your Mother-like story non-linearity, but he wasn’t been saving that many people lately. This is the first time he saved someone from an apparition by actually defeating it. Two, not only does Hanekawa acknowledge her limitations and asks Black Hanekawa for help, Black Hanekawa acknowledges her limitations and asks Ararararagi for help. Even in her final moments, she still thought of Araragi. Three, Shaft should have tossed out some epic music with Araragi showing up. I feel like dropped the ball a bit with this… like every entrance on Gatchaman Crowds has been more epic. Gatchaman!

If there was a Fuck Yeah Araragi tumblr, this image should make it.

“I’ve wanted him to gently pat me like this.”

Hanekawa looks so happy. Like a stray cat that finally found a home. From the beginning of the series to now, most of the episodes have focused on Hanekawa. She’s gotten three arcs to herself when others like Nadeko and Senjougahara only have had one. I wonder if Nisio Isin originally intended for Hanekawa to be Araragi’s main love interest, you know, before he came up with Mayoi.

(And I like how this story ties up why Hanekawa could see Mayoi back in Mayoi Snail whereas Senjougahara could not.)

“You know, Araragi. I love you a whole lot, Araragi. Can you go out with me with marriage in mind?”

One hell of a confession. She doesn’t beat around the bush and is direct in typical Hanekawa style. Sure beats anything coming out of the recent season of Oreimo. Of course, Araragi gives the proper manly rejection answer. I like how this arc went from Hanekawa admitting to Senjougahra that she loved Araragi to Senjougahara calling her out on it to Hanekawa searching her own feelings to finally admitting to Araragi himself that she loves him.

Catwomen.

Three previous predictions for next episode…

1. Kabukimonogatari next? Araragi will drool.

2. New outrageous architecture will make an appearance.

3. Nadeko shows up!