#things that were amusing or notable for some reason lol. I actually tend to dislike plot because most 'plot heavy' things like action focus

[murasaki-murasame]

Monogatari Series Rewatch Part 3: Bakemonogatari [Suruga Monkey]

I’m doing it, I’m finally continuing this. It’s not like it’s been that long, but I’m definitely gonna need to hurry up if I’m gonna want to catch up before Owari S2 starts. Oh well.

I’m gonna try and write this out in real time as I finish each part, and see if that feels better than watching the whole arc and then posting my thoughts on it.

I’m debating whether or not I should try and write up actual reviews of each season/TV special as I finish them completely, to compose my thoughts in a more organized and precise way, but it might take too long and I care a bit more about catching up on this as fast as possible. We’ll see.

Anyway, this time on Monogatari, it’s that one time the story got super duper violent! More ramblings under the cut.

PART ONE:

-It’s still super amusing to me, for some reason, how stuff like Araragi’s really standard internal monologue about his perspective on Kanbaru as the basketball team ace is presented in such a dramatic, fast-paced, almost unnerving way, near the start of the episode. I dunno why, I just like it. Especially now that I’ve read the LN and know just how not at all dramatic or fast-paced these parts are.

-I really like how the start of the episode establishes that the whole Araragi/Hachikuji friendship dynamic is going to just be an ongoing thing now. It’s great. Their interactions are always hilarious [other than the sorta uncomfortable parts, I guess, but I just look past them]. I love that Araragi just takes it in stride that he’s now friends with this ten year old ghost girl that knows how to troll the hell out of him.

-Here she is! Kanbaru! My wonderful sporty monkey-armed anger management issue-ridden carefree lesbian daughter! Kanbaru’s so great. I’m so happy to see her again. I mean I just read this arc in LN form not that long ago but STILL. She really is one of my favourite characters in the series. If only because her interactions with Araragi are just so, so great to watch. Sadly they only have like one conversation in this specific episode, but still. I love how, after spending a while gushing about his witty responses, she immediately asks him for his opinion on Russian politics. She just kinda does her own thing and doesn’t really think about how Araragi feels. For the most part. In general she just knows how to completely throw him off balance when they talk and it’s the best thing ever.

-My memory of this arc is slightly fuzzy since it’s technically been like a month since I actually read it in LN form, but she’s following him around at this stage because she’s already aware that he might become the next victim of her monkey hand, right? And she wants to basically monitor him because of it? I forget. Either way I’m pretty sure it’s to do with her hand, and she’s being intentionally deflective about it and not explaining why she’s following him. It makes these early conversations slightly unnerving, when you know that she’s already dealing with these conflicting feelings and is worried she might hurt him. I think. Again, my memory about this is fuzzy.

-I really like getting this glimpse of Senjougahara’s sweet and thoughtful side, and her ‘I am literally willing and able to murder people in cold blood’ side, all in one conversation. She’s such an awkward person who doesn’t really know how to express her love. Though it’s interesting reading her ‘I’ll kill whoever kills you’ line, knowing that it’s actually really direct foreshadowing of how this arc resolves.

-It’s almost silly how much Araragi’s immediate response to new events in his life is ‘let’s call Hanekawa about it and get her to explain stuff to me’. I don’t dislike it or anything, it’s just kinda funny. I don’t know if I realized early on just how much he does it. From what I remember it’s particularly noticeable in the Koyomimonogatari season. I think. Also it’s kinda distressing to see her just wandering empty city streets at night, all by herself. It really helps set up the idea that she avoids being at her house at all costs. 

-It’s worth noting that I really, really relate to the whole thing Hanekawa talks about, in regards to the idea of people all having a sense of personal space, and that personal space becoming so rigidly fortified in people like Araragi and Senjougahara that it becomes something hostile. Yep I can definitely feel that pretty heavily. Not to mention the idea of specifically ‘making exceptions’ for people who can get closer to you. I’m definitely the sort of person who, like she said, feels uncomfortable just being around people. I think that’s how she said it. Either way, it’s one of the aspects where I can see myself in Araragi. It’s probably a big part of why I like him so much as a character.

-The fact that Senjougahara really did earn the money to repay her debt to Oshino is pretty interesting, and helps show that she can be a lot more true to her word than she lets on, even if she clearly dislikes him. Which I guess makes her commitment to keeping her promise even more admirable. And then the episode ends with her standing over Araragi when he’s lying there, covered in blood, near-dead, and she just hands him the envelope with the money in it because he forgot it. Lol.

-Speaking of Araragi being covered in blood and near-dead, we get our first glimpse at how violent this arc is going to get. I like how the animation in these scenes feels notably different in how it flows compared to everything else. It makes it really jarring and unnerving. It helps that the whole Rainy Devil design is really creepy.

PART TWO:

-I kinda love how Senjougahara is totally aware of how completely implausible Araragi’s story is, and is just like ‘whatever’, and just stands over his head to let him see her panties for a while so he’ll feel better. Man, these two are such dorks.

-I forgot to comment on it above, but I really love the OP of this arc. I don’t really have the time to do any actual analyses of any of these OPs in any depth, even though the version I’m watching even has subs for them, but this one’s still really nice. I still love the pastel colour scheme, and all the green/purple contrast. It’s unconventional, but it works well. I also still have to laugh at the really blunt lily symbolism. Something about it always cracks me up when it shows up in anime/manga as lesbian symbolism. I feel like I see it in a surprising amount of stuff, and I haven’t even touched Yuri Kuma Arashi yet, haha. I’m certainly not complaining or anything. Flowers are basically #aesthetic goals to me. As evidenced by me blog header.

-You kinda have to give props to Araragi for visiting Kanbaru and confronting her about the monkey’s paw so soon after that whole thing happened. I guess it speaks a lot to his personality that he wanted to figure things out, and didn’t necessarily consider the potential risk, at least not to the point of being swayed away by it. It’s a kinda interesting parallel to how he could have chosen to leave Senjougahara alone when she violently pushed him away, but he didn’t. Which has a fair bit of relevance to this whole scene.

-The whole aesthetic of Kanbaru’s house, and her room, is still really cool. It somehow feels hard to imagine her living in such a traditional Japanese house, though. The stacks of red books in her room are always neat to look at, especially in later story arcs. They’re a neat framing device. The fact that they’re read is meant to be a reference to how the JP light novels look when you take them out of the slip case, right? Since they’re all plain red as well.

-It’s still pretty fucked up that Kanbaru’s mother just left her daughter a goddamn monkey’s paw as part of the inheritance. Like, wow. I know that the end of the arc gives a fairly sympathetic explanation for it, but still. [Also, in hindsight, is it actually a monkey’s paw, technically? I forget. This series really likes to have twists about the nature of the oddities being different to how they first seem. I vaguely remember this arc in particular being kinda twist-y with how it keeps unveiling new sides to the scenario at hand.

-Also the whole live action hand animation going on when they were discussing the hand was creepy as hell. Basically all of the live action elements are kinda creepy. It’s pretty damn effective, though.

-I just remembered that the Vertical translation of the LN had Kanbaru continually refer to Araragi as ‘my senior’ in a way that I just never quite got used to. I know that even in the JP version she’s meant to in general sound like she’s being almost pushy with how respectful and idolizing she’s being when talking to him, but something about that translation feels like it comes across too strongly. I don’t quite know how to explain it. It’s probably mostly just that it’s not something people in high school say at all in English, even if they’re being polite. For the most part.

-I still love how completely blunt and casual and self-assured Kanbaru is in identifying as a lesbian. It’s such a nice change of pace from how Japanese media tends to be with this kinda thing. I guess I technically have some specific issues with how it’s handled in Kanbaru’s case, but that’d take too long to go over, and it’s stuff that I basically ignore and interpret in my own way anyway. Either way, I just really like this conversation, and what it says about Kanbaru as a person. I haven’t ever been in the exact position she was in with regards to Senjougahara, but I can understand her feelings, and how she acted in that scenario. I can completely understand her desire to back off for Senjougahara’s sake, only to later berate herself for her ego and hypocrisy when she ended up seeing her and Araragi happily together. And hoo boy can I understand all too well the feeling of shameful bitterness and jealousy toward couples like that, toward someone of the opposite sex interacting with and even dating your crush like it’s the most natural thing in the world, as you wonder why it couldn’t just be you in that position, even as you’re fully aware of how rude and selfish all of that is of you to feel. I really have to respect Kanbaru for being so open about this with Araragi. It takes a lot of effort to be open like that.

-I just relate to Kanbaru a lot [even though so many parts of her personality and mannerisms are kinda the opposite of my own, lol], and completely understand how her feelings of jealousy became such a big, violent thing. It’s a good thing that my own feelings never got to the point of me going around in a trance at night, violently assaulting people with my creepy monkey arm. Hahaha.

-I really like how openly sexual she is around him with what she talks about. It’s great. I just adore how much it completely throws Araragi off course and she just talks around him in circles. Even though the whole ‘I can be a replacement for Senjougahara if you want’ scene kinda . . . gets into some of my vague issues with how it reflects upon her. But that’s it’s own thing.

-Also, as a side note, this whole scene as they enter the abandoned cram school just reminds me how it’s always slightly mystified me why lesbians seem to so commonly explore and express their sexualities through stuff like BL, and gay romances/erotica in general. I’ve heard about it from enough queer women to know that it’s an actual thing, but even after having read about it, it’s still kinda baffling. But in a kind of fascinating way, I guess.

-It’s super weird seeing Shinobu just be this unmoving, unspeaking background feature. She doesn’t even have any proper lines until Nise, right? It’s really jarring after how much of a regular, talkative, reoccuring character she becomes after that point. I keep forgetting that she’s like this in Bake.

-OK yeah I was right, it’s not a monkey’s paw. I wasn’t sure for a second. I’ll probably hold off on talking about this in detail until it comes up in the third episode of the arc.

-By the way, the talk of devils and whatnot just got me remembering that Hanamonogatari exists. Man, I love that arc. I can’t wait to rewatch it. Even if it’ll take a while to get there. Ugh. [[On this general note, this is part of why I’m really happy that Vertical has made it clear that they’re going to license at least most of the series. There’s so many arcs later on, like Hana, that I really want to own physically in LN form. It helps that the JP cover of Hana is really beautiful, and it’s presumably what they’ll be using for the ENG release. There’s a lot of other covers in the series like Tsuki’s that I love, but that’s another topic for another post]]

PART THREE:

-Yep, here’s where we get more deeply into Kanbaru’s experience with the rainy devil. The whole idea of it’s always kinda terrified me. Especially in the LN when you have more time to take it all in at your own pace and really think about it. It’s pretty messed up. Still a pretty weird thing to leave behind for your only child, even if I understand the intention. Either way, there’s definitely something disturbing about the concept of Kanbaru basically becoming chained down by a vague and violently enforced wish like ‘I want to be faster than the others’, constantly fearing that any competitive running situation could lead to her unwittingly hurting someone.

-Aaaand here’s the part that gets into the real root of the situation at hand. The fact that Kanbaru’s desires to be faster, to be by Senjougahara’s side, also have an equally valid, important, and influential back side. That she wanted to kill the people in her school who were bullying and ostracizing her. That she wants to kill the person who took away the girl she loved. This sure is a thing, all right. I kinda mentioned it before, but this is another aspect of her character that I relate to a lot. Even though I’ve never actually lashed out at anyone in a physical way. It’s the sorta thing where this is just a more . . . extreme, yet still relatable, version of what a lot of people feel. Because it’s pretty normal to feel such things. To have issues with anger and jealousy. As this whole story makes clear, the issue is when you act upon those feelings, and give into them. But I do think it’s worth reiterating that Kanbaru really did want to become faster, and she really does love Senjougahara. There’s just always two sides to the coin, I suppose. I totally understand how a desire for something can become inherently tied to destructive urges. How you can desire something through destructive means. It can be pretty alluring, the prospect of taking out everything that stands between you and happiness. Of gaining happiness by getting rid of everything else, and removing the competition. And a lot of the time when you feel that way, especially when it’s in conjunction with more pure desires, it’s easy to look away from the parts of what you want that are too disturbing and shameful. But yeah, again, the issue is when you act upon any of that. The whole point with this is that it’s better to earnestly work toward a goal you want, than to try and gain something through violence. Like in a lot of these sorts of relatively fantastical, fictional stories, Kanbaru is there to show us what it looks like to go down that dark path. But thankfully she got intervention, one way or another, before it got to the point of absolutely no return. Even if she still shoulders the consequences of it, which we’ll get to later.

-The whole idea that Araragi has to win in a fight against the Rainy Devil to prove that he’s ‘unkillable by it’, thus voiding Kanbaru’s contract with it, is a really neat concept, while also being really distressing. Like, damn does this guy have low self-esteem and a huge hero complex, to relatively happily accept that sort of a proposition. Especially when the person he’s trying to save literally tried to murder him, and basically admitted to wishing, deep down, that he were dead. Wow. It’s kinda easy to forget the gravity of what Kanbaru nearly did, when he takes it in pretty good stride like this.

-Man it hurts to see Kanbaru more or less accept the idea of cutting her arm off as penance for her crimes, and to see her talk about not caring about any of it anymore, not even Senjougahara. I know that she’s obviously guilty of a lot of things, but still. Damn. Especially when you contrast it to the big fight scene where it becomes immediately obvious that some part of her still can’t feel that way, and still wants to kill Araragi in order to get what she wants. [[Also the entire ‘I don’t need an arm like this’ scene reminds me SO MUCH of that one part in Pandora Hearts that still gets me all emotional but that’s a whole other story altogether]]

-The entire fight scene, short as it is, is still one of the most memorable moments of Bake by far. I just love the visual presentation of it. It always manages to surprise me with how graphic it is in it’s gore, with the censorship mostly amounting to using neon and pastel colours and not realistic ones.

-But of course I also love how the fight ACTUALLY resolves, with Senjougahara coming in to dramatically save the day by berating Araragi for his unhealthily self-sacrificial nature, and by making it clear to Kanbaru and her Rainy Devil that she would genuinely murder her if she killed him. I guess that’s one way of forcing the devil to accept that killing him is impossible. The whole part where Kanbaru tearfully confesses her feelings to Senjougahara, gets shot down yet again, and then accepts the idea of continuing to stay by her side, one way or another, even if her feelings will never be returned, always makes me sad. I just feel so bad for her :C Especially when I realized how much the physical positioning going on there reminded me of that one part in Hana. Either way it hurt to watch. Though it’s distinctly amusing to see Araragi ultimately be sorta pointless, while it’s the girls who resolve the scene by actually talking to each other. It’s almost cruel how ultimately simple it was, that it all boiled down to them laying out the basics of how they feel about each other, and how much it’d horribly backfire on Kanbaru if she actually did anything to Araragi. I guess the lesson of the day is pretty much just that you should REALLY talk to people about your feelings, and not let them fester inside you until they fuel violent rampages. [[I get why scenes like this lead to the typical complaints of Araragi being a weak hero, but eh. It makes perfect sense that his toxic hero complex and his lack of self-regard isn’t really rewarded by the narrative. The story cares much more about the importance of people saving themselves]]

-It’s still nice to see that Kanbaru more or less ends up on good terms with them both by the end of the arc, though, and that they’re basically friends again. That’s nice. But MAN is it still really fucked up to contemplate the fact that she’s stuck living with that arm of hers for her entire life even if the devil in it is gone. I’m pretty sure that Hana makes it clear that even a year or so down the track, she still restrains her arm at night and obsessively reads newspapers each morning to see if she still ended up going on a rampage and hurting someone, so it really is still haunting her, if only as a purely psychological complex. Which is just disturbing and sad on so many levels. Especially since she even ended up giving up basketball due to it. That sure sucks. Thankfully she knows how to look on the bright side of things because she’s still the same old Kanbaru we know and love.

-As one final note, on the topic of the story caring mostly about people saving themselves, next time on Monogatari: the arc where Nadeko gets saved by somebody else, the root cause of her emotional problems is left unaddressed, and it leads, later down the track, to her becoming a completely psychotic snake goddess who very nearly murders a large portion of the main cast! YAY! This arc is going to be so fucking weird to rewatch. I haven’t even read it in LN form yet. So this is gonna be a trip. I’m still unsure if the trajectory of Nadeko’s arc was planned from the start, but it’s very possibly my favourite overall sub-plot in the show.

#murasaki rambles #monogatari series #bakemonogatari #this got super long again #I need to figure out a faster way to do this #just watching these three episodes and writing up my thoughts took like #three or four hours I think #hopefully I'll get my nadeko snake post up tomorrow