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Aug 27 2013

Categories: episodic review, monogatari
Tagged: monogatari

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“Because, like me, oddities are beings that exist outside destiny’s framework.”

(Monogatari Series Second Season eight. At least they fit in the theme of traffic signals that Oshino was talking about earlier.)

I’m glad that this town has no one living in it because this is not suspicious at all… a grown man holding onto a little girl like that? Nothing suspicious at all… at this point, Araragi’s known preference for lolis, well, that has to be his downfall, right? I fully expect some mad villain (possibly Kaiki) to unleash an army of loli fembots werewolves to take him down.

(I’m also 18% sure that Araragi’s very public preference for lolis only foreshadows that the ending is Senjougahara dying, and then Araragi roaming the planet with Shinobu as a ronin.)

“You’re a pervert, right?!”

Oharuhi-sama bless loli Hanekawa. She provided the episode’s best (and most predictable) moment when she sends poor Araragi to the police box rather than Mayoi’s mom. She’s a smart one. She also features in the episode second best moment…

“Hanekawa not in uniform is the best thing ever! And so is DFC Hanekawa!”

I mean… not creepy at all how Araragi approaches and creeps on poor Lolikawa. He doesn’t even try to reign it in a bit. I do hope this leads to present day Hanekawa having a memory of some dude in a red hoodie trying to turn her into an after school special.

(I wonder if Araragi choose not to help Senjougahara because if he saw loli Senjougahara, he would be conflicted if he liked the loli version or the adolescent version more.)

HOW IS THIS EPISODE NOT A MONUMENT TO ARARAGI’S LOLICON PROBLEM?! Or is this episode a way for Shaft to cater to the DFC crowd since the Nekomonogatari arc featured a bountiful harvest of melonpan?

(Gotta love Shinobu’s attempt at a traditional cleavage pose. It’s like so awkward and cute that I’m surprised Araragi hasn’t tried to get her to take a bath with him yet… oh wait…)

The only show with a lower rCPE (relevant Characters Per Episode or just “CPE”) is WataMote. Basically every episode has featured just three characters and maybe a side bit a la Oshino last episode or Lolikawa this episode. I don’t know if it is because that’s how the source material is or because Shaft is cutting their seiyuu budget, but it makes the episodes drag on a bit more than they should. I feel like Shaft could speed things up at this point or at least bring back the fanservice. We more need more gif-able moments.

(WataMote, by comparison, features basically one endless soliloquy, and it’s really well done that you don’t think, “Hey, this episode basically as Tomoki talking to herself for a solid ten minutes.” Genshiken is almost on the opposite side of the CPE spectrum where there’s a Game of Thrones-esque cast, and it still functions well because not all the characters need to contribute in an episode and everything distills to a DOTA-esque 1 through 5 position assignment. Of course, Hato-kun is the 1 role. Nonetheless, both of those shows are really hitting their strides right now.)

I like how there’s no cars or trucks shown in this episode except the one destined to run over Mayoi. Araragi lays on the pavement for a solid two minutes, and no other automobiles drive past? The world of Monogatari is a sterile and desolate world, kinda like Google Plus.

Mayoi is sure terrible at reading maps. You would think someone, besides Araragi, would approach the little girl staring at a map at 5am and ask if they could help. I mean, not one nice grandma form the nearby apartment complex was out for a morning walk?

(More importantly, Araragi and Shinobu have been in the past for what, two nights? Where have they been sleeping? What the hell happened with this homework? Wouldn’t he at least want to finish his homework before jumping back into the future?)

Three previous predictions for next episode…

1. Araragi and Shinobu return to the present and discover that everyone has been replaced by robots running on weird blue liquid. (I saw The World’s End, and I really enjoyed it. Probably the best movie I’ve seen this summer. The writing was crisp, and the dialogue had no wasted lines. Plus, it had some great fight scenes… and Walter Frey. Weirdly enough, by the half hour mark, I totally forgot it was a movie about the apocalypse. I would have been happy if it turned out to be romantic comedy.)

2. Oh well, I just want to see, what, twenty-some year old Mayoi alive in this timeline? Kinda like Mikuru Prime we get Mayoi Prime? Mayoi Prime fanservice, please.

3. 1.21 gigawatts! 1.21 gigawatts. Great Scott!