The Monogatari-fest is reaching near its end. For those of you who are slightly off about the current events; here’s a brief break down. Araragi wakes up in Hell and learns from Mayoi that he had been killed – chopped off by the kokorowatari – by Gaen, just so that he will be resurrected back again. Sound like a meaningless roundabout course of actions, but in truth, there are some subtractions and additions involved. The “subtractions” part: his vampiric ability is fully gone and thus, restore Shinobu into a full-fledge sparkling eye-winked vampire lord Heart-under-Blade (such heartwarming to realize that even now when their bond is broken and Araragi is no longer her “master”, she’d go such length – threatening to rip Gaen apart – to bring him back). The “additions” part: Araragi also grabs Mayoi back up, the decision that wasn’t initially planned by Gaen, but something she did expect from him; and a neccesary time to reassert his actions and learn more about his role in this masterplan.
I must say that the cast of Monogatari is one of the rare cases that I have personal attachment to almost all of the characters; and I like Mayoi well enough (her matter-of-factness regarding her staying in hell to pile stones up everyday like it’s a part of mundane daily life totally won me over). But the chatter banner between Araragi and Mayoi has always been one of its weaker, more questionable part that does more harm than good in my opinion. Even at large, the introduction part when characters get together has never been Monogatari’s strong forte as they usually rely too much on established gags and wordplays that really hard for us, foreigners to comprehend. Here, Araragi apparently is all over the moon and can’t keep his desire to “touch” her. Bleh. Apart from that though, even with her role this time as an assistant for Araragi to lead him back to surface, Mayoi more than hold her own. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say that his help meant the most to Mayoi more than any other harem character. Others still have their lives beyond their apparition nature, her life was an endless cycle of wandering alone – the lost snail. Thus, more than anyone, she understands about how all his efforts really worth, as a result she won’t accept the low-esteem, woe-is-me Araragi. That’s why when she’s furious and hits Araragi for his insecure rubbish, it holds so much weight. For all of its “heavy-dialogue nonsense” and “irrelevant visual style” and “weird characters’ poses”, the series’s heart is always in the right place because the show understands the characters’ struggles and sympathy with them.
As Mayoi leads him to meet Teoru, they pass through all the girls he had “saved” with a “what-if” scenario. What if he didn’t save Hitagi back then? What about Hanekawa? Interestingly, he always regrets about saving KissShot because obviously his life would take a very different turn had he walked away from her. Even in Nadeko’s case it’s a sense of regret that he failed to help her, or to be more exact, he failed by helping her. But make no mistake, although he’s at his lowest confidence, if he had a second chance to redo everything, he’d still help those girls out. This episode also raises another interesting theme: the difference between doing the right thing and correcting mistakes. I believe this will tie up to Ougi’s arc as she always believes that she does the right thing by erasing the part that don’t function like it’s supposed to. I highly believe that she was the person behind the darkness entity that threaten to erase Mayoi in “Mayoi Jiangshi” for example and I think the reason she said she’d come into the trap that Guen prepared is to exterminate Kiss-Shot for good.
I didn’t expect to see this guy Teoru back, and he has one or two intesting expositions to spare. First, all his kipnapping, his supposed “death” in Yotsugi Doll was all scams to deceive Ougi. In reality, since he failed in his own experiment, he became an entity himself: half human – half monster, wandering the boundaries of material world and the afterlife. Meme got him into the plan and he was put in hell to prepare for this moment: bringing Araragi back to life. Second, he also reveals the person who ordered him to exterminate Araragi and Shinobu: none other than Ougi. Really love the fact that this episode set in Hell (that made it the third Hell episode I’ve seen this year, all of them were fantastic), so that Shaft even has more opportunity to go wild on the visual; and the visuals were spot on for most part. The OP is good though a fair bit forgettable. Now that all the pieces are fit into place, we’ll head to the next equally important part: Araragi and his college entrance exams plus his full date with Hitagi the next day. Unbelievable, right? That’s Monogatari series for you.
