Owarimonogatari – 03 [Ougi Dark]

Well done Monogatari for building up a final showdown that is tense, not by the climatic battle but by the amount of information release, how the pieces of the puzzle finally get into place. An ending that tied up everything the show has paintakingly constructed from previous dozen arcs; an ending that emotional satisfied and an ending that unlike any other ending. Usually for the climax this crucial, all the important players will be in place to play their roles; here in Monogatari, it’s an one-on-one confrontation, mostly through talking, and concluding with a single line of acknowledgement on top of it. Monogatari series has always been a show about growth, about characters who learn about themselves and embrace their dark side. Thus, isn’t it fitting that after saving all the girls, it’s time for Araragi to face his darkness and save himself? Growth, after all, is about acknowledgement. It’s until Araragi acknowledges his dark side that he’s truly become more mature. How NisiOisin make an ending that perfect and conclusive really prove me again how I fall for his style in the first place. The following paragraphs will content huge spoilers of the whole Monogatari series, so if you don’t want to spoil yourself, I guess I will see you out there in the chatbox.

Gaen makes herself very clear to Araragi by her two “minimum requirements” in order to reach everyone’s objectives: assign a new Deity for the North Shirahebi Shrine; and exterminate Ougi Oshino (one of them ultimately failed by the way). Since Araragi unexpectedly bring Mayoi up from hell, she becomes a perfect candidate as a new God for the shrine. And to think that the catch phrase that I always overlooked “Kami Kashita” is a forshadowing all along – from back to episode 3 in 2009. My hat off to you NisiOisin. If you really notice, despite having a large cast, Monogatari never had more than 4 characters in the same sequence (something I’d love to write more about, another time), up until this episode. Here, basically Gaen’s monologuing and info-dumping us much needed expositions about the history of the Shrine, and how everything came to the way it is now. The exposition is long and demanding, so Shaft again uses their old tricks to engage our attention: having Mayoi and Ononogi playing around, and then emphasis on irrelevant topics like playing baseball and cricket (something I’d love to write more in deep some time, again. I regard this technique as “the art of distraction” to keep our attention). Originally Gaen intended to put Shinobu as a Deity, but it’s rather fitting, and surprisingly make so much sense to enshrine Mayoi as a new Deity. The snail that defeat the snake part is a bit of a stretch to be frank, but all those info had been planted well before in previous arcs (notably, Shinobu Time and Hitagi End) that it just comes all together in a neat package.

The second minimum requirement is to exterminate Ougi. But what makes Ougi dangerous is that her true identity is a total mystery. In fact, she has only two purposes: to eject those broken the rules, and to point out how imperfect Araragi’s approach is. The one thing left she knows she has to do is to exterminate the biggest “fake” of all: Tsuhiki the Phoenix. Tsuhiki, stays true of being one of my favorite (but under-developed) characters, and stay true to herself, doesn’t care about the future and just simply enjoys the present. That what her character always is: embracing the present, having fun while supporting what other people do, especially Karen and her brother. “I’m pretty good at living.” That is indeed a marvelous thing that she can say confidently. In that moments alone, Ougi feels compassionate towards Tsuhiki’s “fake” nature. Coming to face Araragi, I sense something about Ougi I had never felt before. A hint of sadness. She comes to the fight knowing that she’d get suck by the Darkness, but it’s the fight she has to fight. Kudos to the seiyuu of Ougi who give such a demanding performance that make her sound emotional towards this final climax, a feat that isn’t easy to pull consider her spooky emotionless role.

And here, all the concepts the show has built throughout its near-decade long all surface: The act of selfless sacrifice for the sake of others. The concept of rightness. Justice. We know before that Araragi keeps pushing himself over his limit results in him slowly losing his humanity. But he also forms a guilt towards those girls that he had helped: regrets that he could do it better, feelings that he cheated because of his vampiric immortal ability, blame himself for the unfortunates of others. All those negative feelings, plus the strange occurrences of the town (most notably during the First Minion’s period) that create Ougi – or Koyomi Darkness. Ougi is an appariation that has all the special abilities of those girls he helped, specifically assigned to attack Araragi, form a justice that oppose to his very ideal and has a dark intent to crush all the girls and his ideal down. Araragi just does what he thinks is right, and Ougi does what “right” by eliminating the “wrong”. In the end, no one is truly right and wrong. And Araragi just doesn’t give a damn about what is right anymore and come saving her instead, if it means that he would be exterminated too. That act, that Araragi finally saves himself, is the biggest personal grown for him. Bye bye adolescent. Araragi now becomes a full-fledge adult and Ougi the Koyomi Darkness now becomes Ougi the niece of Meme Oshino.

All the girls all make an appearance in this last episode. It’s rather heartwarming to see how much Nadeko has grown since her last arc, and she’s cute now because she doesn’t try to be cute. Hanekawa’s still kicking ass, getting Meme back all the way from Anartica goddamnit (the only place where there is no oddity, thanks to the Lost Cow effect by Ougi) and Shinobu shines just by little things that she said. Brilliant. I would love to see more from Kanbaru but this ending just hit all the sweet spots in my body, so I’m done complaining. This is a conclusion that easily justify the insane amount of time I have been following this series. I’m not at all joking when I say I’ve grown along with Monogatari and at a specific time of my life few years back, this show, along with their characters who struggled for their own issues, connected deeply with me in a personal level. As for what my opinion is about the possibility of further adaptation of the Monogataries series. As much as I love the whole cast and its universe, I believe that the story (pun obviously intended) has run its course. Monogatari series had been blessed with too much efforts from Shaft and I would love to see the same kind of attention for some other materials out there that needed adapting. Not sure if I can be able to grade this Owarimonogatari, or the whole Monogatari objectively so I guess I will spare you guys on the full review. Monogatari is one of a kind series, there’s nothing like it, just like there’s no place like home.