Lmao this shit is too good

that pat on Genos nose when he stopped the punch was cute. Best bromance

Oh my god, my heart is breaking.

Poor Oikura. And right as she whispers "don't feel bad for me, don't feel sympathy" and looks at Hanekawa, and then later this shot, I remember that Hanekawa also has an abusive home situation, was struck and beat by her parents (and was healed by Araragi in a very similar way), and generally was just ignored -
and Senjou's parents, too, were divorced, and felt isolated from their daughter -
and Sengoku's parents, too, only seeing the good girl in their daughter and not really knowing her -
I like how many parallels this is drawing. Oikura's implication that Hanekawa, too, knows what it's like to have Araragi abandon or not be there for her.

I like how Oikura is turning not only into a mirror for Araragi, but one for Hanekawa as well.

Oh God, and now it's shifting perspective that that Hanekawa focus before wasn't (only) sympathy, but also Hanekawa realizing the flaw in Oikura's story.
And then it turns out not to be, and the clever Hanekawa deduction we're set up for vanishes into thin air.

This is soooo sad. And that flash of Araragi's thoughts in reaction to what Oikura is saying just breaks the heart. It's so honest and selfish and flawed. Because it's easier not to face this reality.
ACTUALLY this also might be Oikura thinking, but I think the way it flits between the two (the last narrative being Araragi thinking "Lie." as he says he remembers the way she kept glaring)
Shafts way of dramatizing and making aesthetic/sympathy/inspiring emotion through the illustration of humanity/human flaws/human suffering is so great. I think there's a fine balance between the voyeurism of suffering and finding common humanity, but I think that's a balance that Shaft successfully negotiates. I think, in dealing with some extremely heavy and dark subject matter here, they don't exploit it. But if, say, it was overly sexualized or there were certain angles here, it definitely would be. And that is a balance that I think the Monogatari series as a whole sometimes struggles to maintain.

Also Oikura's voice actress is killing it here, between the brokenness, the loathing, and the forced smile/cheer.

And Hanekawa can't hold herself back anymore, with "nobody can make someone happy who isn't trying to be happy." Oikura notes that "You sound like you know what you're talking about," with a slight bit of hope in her tone. They definitely are paralleling the two, and while I don't think the conclusion is as simple as Hanekawa is presenting it here, I think it is two different reactions to abuse.

While I really appreciate Araragi's reaching out to Oikura and his message about happiness (that happiness is something everyday that anyone can attain and that Oikura shouldn't overestimate it; similar logic to how Oikura claimed her suffering was ordinary, even when it clearly wasn't).
I still don't think it's that easy, and Oikura's request that they find her mother shows, I think, how hard it still is for her, and how complicated family abuse and love can be.
That she didn't want to rat on her parents explicitly.
That even though her mother told her any other daughter but here would be perfect, Oikura still wants to find her.

I feel like that's the end of Sodachi Lost, and it'll come up again later, but damn...



Also the Evangelion influence is really evident in Oikura's arc, with the repeated iteration of lines

FINALLY free of Sodachi

And despite the half episode of shitposting comedy between Araragi and Kanbaru, I'm thrilled with where this is going. One of my absolute favourite parts of Shinobu Time was the relationship between her and the demon hunter whom she befriended and ultimately betrayed (by being a vampire), and to see him return from the darkness as darkness himself, with a vampire's blood-sucking abilities, is hype as [radio edit]

I knew who it was going to be as soon as I saw the armour filled with darkness. It's kek that he speaks with Araragi's voice, since it becomes a weird mix of [radio edit]ed up and Araragi sounding not-serious, especially with that "evil laugh." It suits Monogatari, as much as I might wish for something more dramatic, but it really emphasizes the extent to which that demon hunter and Araragi are foils for one another.

Seeing Tsubasa's tiger burn down the cram school from the inside was super intense. That's like, completely catastrophic power

Also this timeline is getting hella crowded

The music, the animation, the feels

weeeeell that was at least the usual amount of Shaftogatari pls

But also some great stuff, ie. Gaen's everything, Shinobu

also holy shit, the darkness/samurai turned into some unholy nightmare fusion of the apparitions Araragi's faced until now, with all of their abilities

holy shit shit is going down, and it's still just within the events of Nekomonogatari: Shirou

omg Puri Puri Prisoner's transformation sequence. Even if it wasn't a full one 10/10.

Kinda sad they cut the prison story with Puri Puri Prisoner and Sonic but they've cut out all the special chapters so far so it makes sense.

I saw some people complaining that it was rushed but I don't really think so they covered everything they absolutely needed to cover well enough.

I actually wanted it to go faster. I get that this is considered fast to other people, but I'm so done with shounen pacing and seeing long still shots every five/ten seconds to fill time D:

So this show's pretty [radio edit]in' solid. There's a goddamn mecha space harem and there were absolutely no action scenes in this episode and I don't even care because the writing's so tight and consistent.