Monogatari Series Second Season episode 8 – No orz-ing

I said last week that I was disappointed to see Arararagi back as the main character because it was refreshing to see the story from someone else’s point of view for a change. I was hoping for something similar to the way Durarara was structured, where every episode felt slightly different due to it being told from a different character’s perspective. This episode reminded me that there are some great upsides to having Arararagi as the main character. It’s not his wit or his charm or his paedophilic tendencies, the last of which I could probably do without. No, it’s because he pulls the best faces.

This episode looked great visually. It had lots of little dumb stuff that made me laugh, such as switches in artstyle to 70’s shoujo to more dramatic facial expressions. The way shots were framed was clever too, holding back reveals and framing shots in certain ways. I did particularly like how they shot the shrine when they went back, looking much starker than it did the first time around where it simply looked a little foreboding. It’s a lot of the usual tricks the Monogatari series pulls, but it struck me more this episode than some previously. Probably because they moved around a lot, rather than only moving to two spots in the one episode because they spend so much bloody time simply chatting to each other about absolutely nothing.

Stuff like this. Meme falling out of the sky behind an absurdly large full moon as desks float into the air as though they’re constructed from helium as Shinobu quotes something he said in her usual tone of voice whenever she’s talking about Meme. In other words, sounding hugely pissed off like he was the one who kept eating her doughnuts and that’s why she spent all of Bakemonogatari sulking in a corner. I liked that little bit from Shinobu at the end where she pointed out the risk of her defecting because she could get her power back from the shrine. It’s an interesting little reminder that Arararagi and Shinobu’s relationship is a strange complicated one where Arararagi is supposedly keeping Shinobu in check but their relationship has grown in such a way that they care for each other.

I genuinely liked that scene from last season where they talked in the bath, and not just because we almost got to see Arararagi’s crotch. It was their acknowledgement of their immortality and the loneliness that comes with it. Their acceptance that they will forever be with each other. It was a great scene that was only slightly hampered by the fact it was Shinbo acting like giant paedophiles yet again. You know what would make all these scenes with Shinobu that much better? If we had the context behind how their relationship was originally formed. I’m starting to think that they originally started making the storyboards for Monogatari Second Season assuming that Kizumonogatari was already out and that’s why the series feels like it assumes you already know what happens in Kizu. Then again, it’s being doing that since Bakemonogatari so nothing new there.

Heeeeeaaaaaaayyyy what’s going on!

The actual events of the episode were really just your standard time travel plot fair. Here’s a few of the characters you know and love lol no it was Hanekawa nobody likes her. Here’s characters wondering how the time travel mechanics play out. Here’s them viewing important scenes from a different angle. Maybe I’ve just seen too many time travel stories to get particularly excited by them anymore. I liked the episode, but I can’t profess to being particularly excited either way for how the arc plays out. I’m interested by the aftermath and how it effects the character’s relationships, but that’s providing they change in any way at all. If Mayoi’s relationship with Arararagi doesn’t change in any way after this arc because it’s revealed you can’t change anything so everything stays the same, then the arc will have felt like an awful waste.

No orzing allowed.