Owarimonogatari
Started watching Owarimonogatari. Is the most defining trait about Ougi that she’s the only girl Araragi doesn’t want to grope? Instead Ougi gropes him. Well Senjougahara fits the description too.
The fansubbers really put effort to those subtitle effects. For example this second OP has difficult looking reflection and animation effects to match the Japanese on screen, and they always get the timing and geometry perfect in most subbing. Actually, the part I most dislike about subs is not that they look bad but that they necessarily spoil the future events a bit. You can only get the true delivery timing by turning them of and listening only to the original audio.
>tfw never studied extra curricular math with a cute girl
I actually like this Ougi girl a lot. At first I thought she was an obvious villain, but the author keeps her cover perfectly and it’s one big mystery. Just like the topic of this arc, and exactly according to “Oshino Ougi is Oshino Ougi”.
Hanekawa just embarasses herself next to Ougi’s genius.
The mysteries in this season aren’t that good. At least compared to something like Hyouka.
At times it’s tough to piece things together because the story jumps in time so much. I’m at 8th episode of Owari now where Araragi and Kanbaru have left the burning abandoned school building, set aflame by the Tiger in Nekomonogatari White which takes place concurrently. Now they arrived at the park near Senjougahara’s house and Shinobu is there, explaining she fought with the Cat and Doll against some non-Kanbaru Monkey, but I didn’t recall such a scene. So I browsed again through the Nekomonogatari White episodes and while there was no such fight, I remembered there was a remark about “chapters being skipped”, at one time “just how many?!”. So I conclude the fight scene was skipped to be shown later. Also I forgot when Shinobu started living in Araragi’s shadow, but apparently it was after this? Seems like it could happen in this arc. I was also momentarily confused that Shinobu didn’t know Izuko, but thinking back she wasn’t with Araragi and others when they met her in Kabuki. I wonder if the fact is going to be used here, because if it was then it could seem like great planning. I suspect that a lot of writers read their previous writing to find things they can use like this. Thus it’s “planned” but not necessarily at the time of writing the first part.
Finished this first 12 episode part of Owarimonogatari. I guess I’ll move on to Koyomi and Kizu before watching the latter part, to follow the original broadcast order. I wonder if I have ever watched as much anime in sequence as I will have after I finish the rest. If I counted correctly, almost exactly 100 25 minute long episodes worth of anime. Gintama is the only other anime I’ve seen that even has total over 100 episodes, and I never marathoned it too much. Looking at my manga list, I recall my biggest continuous reads are probably Vagabond at 37 volumes and Genshiken at 21 volumes. I think Vagabond was much easier because it relies on images so much and Genshiken at times has walls of text.
Watching Koyomimonogatari. Not bad, the mysteries are quite fun and more elegant than those in Owarimonogatari, but I guess it’s a bit dull to watch all 12 episodes in row with no progression to the main story and no increased understanding about the world (the episodes involve things that could be related to kaii but are not).
As reckless as trying to win a game of shogi without losing any pieces.
Finished Koyomi. I think I’ll watch rest of Owari next even though Kizu was animated before it, because I’m more interested in Owari and ending this Monogatari marathon with the films seems nice. I suspect there shouldn’t be any major risk from changing the order just a bit.
Watching Owari. The more this series progresses, the more it turns out that everybody is essentially on the same side, and always were. Then who’s the enemy? Ougi? Is she plotting to take over the “power gap” created by the lack of kami in the shrine?
Now the last arc, Ougi Dark. I hope for something interesting, like Araragi refusing to side against Ougi after her and everybody’s plans are brought to light. Although I guess I don’t really expect any conclusion at this stage, there are still many books left in the series (and left to be written). I still want to think Gaen is the real villain or that there aren’t any.
Finished Owari now. Mmh. I guess the ending was okay, but arc by arc I’m feeling Monogatari is betraying my high expectations. In many ways is just like other LN/anime/manga series, and some of its unique characteristics, like the dialogue, is now feeling more tiresome than creative. No doubt the series will remain among my favorites, but it also marks yet another miss at trying to find a masterpiece.
