Araragi has to be running out of new harem members by now. Right!?
What They Say:
The bee apparition is now gone, and summer vacation where the phoenix apparition averted harm is over– Around Koyomi Araragi and the girls who started a new trimester, apparitions, or perhaps threats even worse, were creeping in ever closer.
Tsubasa Hanekawa, Mayoi Hachikuji, Suruga Kanbaru, Nadeko Sengoku, Shinobu Oshino, and Hitagi Senjyogahara. Their soliloquies, confessions – and farewells. 6 new are starting now.
The Review:
After returning from his adventures through time with Shinobu, Araragi learns that his failed attempt to stop Hachikuji from being killed would’ve been a wasted effort even if he’d succeeded – she never wanted to be revived anyway. But as Araragi was talking to her, something strange happened – something dark, almost terrifying, but that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Something they can’t escape from – until Ononoki comes to their rescue. Uncertain of what the ‘darkness’ was, Araragi waits for darkness, and for Shinobu to wake up…
…which happens when you least expect it, but in the most satisfying way. Which describes a lot of the episode, to be fair. The “meat” of the episode is strangely confined to the post-ED sequence, but there’s still plenty of entertainment to be had in the rest of the episode – between Araragi’s incessant flirting, a decent bicycle chase scene, and yet another addition to his ever-growing harem, there’s plenty going on, and after the comparative heavy going of Nadeko’s arc, it’s a welcome light break.
But there’s a strong sense of foreboding around the episode, too, thanks to the formless ‘apparition’ that’s chasing Araragi down. I remember when I was in around 6th grade, I made the mistake of reading a short story about a formless creature that would stop at nothing to reach its protagonist. It left me terrified (I was only 11), and the way this episode played out had enough in common with that story that the memories came flooding back. Without the same sense of terror – I don’t scare half as easily at 41 – but with a huge sense of uncertainty and curiosity about how the arc will play out from here. It’s made clear that this is all something to do with events that happened in Shinobu’s past, but for the most part we’re left hanging for next week to find out what those events may be.
In Summary:
Downsides? Lack of story progress in favour of all the flirting, and as usual all the wordplay isn’t going to be everyone’s taste – but then by this stage, the Monogatari formula is no secret. You know what you’re going to get. As arc starter’s go, this one is certainly intriguing & left me wanting more – which is all you can hope for, really.
Content Grade: A-
Streamed By: Daisuki
Review Equipment: 27” Apple iMac, 2.9GHz Core i5, 32GB RAM, Mac OS X 10.9
