Owarimonogatari

This review contains spoilers.

I don’t know why I started this mad idea of reviewing all of the Monogatari Series, but this is now my eighth review for the eighth instalment of the Monogatari. Early on, I had my doubts about Monogatari, but I kept coming back so something must’ve been there.

By the time I finished Second Season, these doubts had been washed away. Owarimonogatari has cemented that I shouldn’t have doubted in the first place.

Why? Well, I don’t even think Owarimonogatari is the best Monogatari series out there, but it’s still really damn good. That, to me, proves that Monogatari knows what it’s doing and can execute on it well. Damn well. If a show is this good when it isn’t at its best, people are doing something right.

Owarimonogatari is a series of two halves that delve into the backstories of the characters. The first half explores Araragi’s past and a girl that he’s encountered multiple times over his life. And the second half brings Shinobu’s past to the present with an expansion of her backstory as explored in the Shinobu Time arc of Second Season.

Backstories have always been something I’ve been dubious of: if I’m here for the characters current story, nine times out of ten, I don’t wanna hear about their old stories. But I have my full faith in this show and it did an amazing job of exploring Araragi’s past in a very natural way for his character. Shinobu’s backstory, likewise, is awesome and seeing the story weave into the established timeline was a delight.

Beyond the exploration of the past, this series really pushes us to think about a main theme of the Monogatari series: knowledge. Who knows. Who does not know. What do people know? Anything? Nothing? Only what they know? It’s not something this show seems to want to answer any time soon, but it’s become a big part of the mystery of this series.

Let begin with the first half of Owarimonogatari. The first three arcs are about Araragi’s past and a girl named Sodachi. Each arc explored how Araragi and Sodachi crossed paths in his past, two years ago, five years ago, and then six years ago. If Monogatari is a show about Araragi helping girls, these three arcs establish Sodachi as the girl he did not help.

I’d argue that this half of the series leans much heavier on Monogatari’s mystery elements that the show has before. Each of the three arcs plays out more explicitly as a mystery to be solved, with each mystery leading Araragi one step closer to Sodachi so that he can finally help her.

What complicates this story is Oshino Ougi. It isn’t Araragi who can unravel this mystery but rather Ougi. Ougi takes the place of the sleuth, helping a foolish Araragi piece together the memories of his past. And on the layer beneath each of these three mysteries is the mystery of Oshino Ougi herself.

In every mystery Ougi and Araragi seem to unravel, this mystery about Ougi deepens. Episode four starts with a prologue about her. Araragi says if you were to write a novel about her, all it would say is Oshino Ougi was Oshino Ougi. I’m inclined to agree: we’ve been told nothing about this character. But despite this Ougi feels remarkably integrated into the story and this allows the character to be a total enigma. There are just so many questions…

If Ougi is someone that was mentioned to Kaiki, and he didn’t know of her… is she that mysterious? Or is she even Oshino Meme’s niece? Why does she do what she does? Why, does she seem to push people towards apparitions? For example, she did it with Nadeko to start the Nadeko Medusa arc and she did with Kanburu in the Sugara devil arc (Hanamonogatari).

To me, she seems like a contrary force to Oshino Meme. He talked about the balance a lot, but was always helping humans. Ougi seems to be helping the apparitions, or at least pushing people towards more occurrences with them. She too talks about the balance. And there needs to be balance, so if Meme pushed the balance one way, perhaps it’s for Ougi to push it the other way.

I have to be honest and admit that before this series I didn’t really like Ougi that much as a character. I found the mystery surrounding her very interesting, but I struggled to enjoy her, even as a somewhat-villainous character. To be fair, I had the same thoughts about Kaiki after watching Nisemonogatari. It wasn’t until Second Season that he really came into his own and landed himself as being one of the best characters of the series.

And… I still don’t really like her that much. But by god, I couldn’t stop watching this series. The mystery of everything just totally sucked me in.

So maybe we aren’t supposed to like Ougi. She is, after all, fabulously written so I can’t say I don’t like her through any fault of the show. The way she talks and worms what she wants out of Araragi makes for a twisted watching experience. Once you clue onto what she’s doing, you start rooting against her. A highlight of this in episode four, as Ougi begins to twist her words trying to get Araragi to bring her to Sodachi. And it takes Hanekawa to push back, knowing him well enough to say exactly the right thing.

So I can’t believe I’m saying this but… Hanekawa offering to let Araragi touch her boobs was some great writing. In this scene we’re on Hanekawa’s side, desperate for something to turn the pleading in her favour. And she knows exactly how to get through his thick skull.

For Araragi it wasn’t the opportunity to fondle that clued him in, but rather that she made offer. In the moment it’s a clever line that pointedly ends quite a dramatic and tense scene.

Nominally, the first half of this series is about Araragi’s past and Ougi.

But beneath this Owarimonogatari also looks at this idea of knowing and not knowing. Why does Araragi forget about his past, and why are these events getting dug up? Why can Ougi piece together things from Araragi’s past? Why does she know what she knows?

And as the show enters into the second half, we are reminded of earlier questions we have had about this theme. Why does Gaen know what she knows? And, as an aside, why do both of them lie about being related to Oshino Meme? And how the actual fuck does Ougi know the full name of Shinobu’s first minion?

This is something Monogatari has continuously played with; the idea of knowing. Hanekawa only knows what she knows, Gaen always seems to know everything. And Ougi insists that she doesn’t know anything.

But Ougi has always seemed to know a lot. Through the second season of Monogatari she was meddling using information she had no right in knowing. And in Tsukimonogatari she seemed to have something to do with Tadatsuru appearing and if she did, it means that she knew exactly when Araragi began to turn into a vampire.

Before I get too distracted, lets bring focus back onto the second half of the series: the Shinobu Mail arc. These six episode cover the return of Shinobu’s first minion. Through this story it explores the relationship between Shinobu and Araragi.

For Araragi, Shinobu’s first minion, ‘the First’, (or as we later find out, Seishirou… or even later, Shishirui Seishirou), represents a romantic-triangle-like rival. While obviously under highly supernatural and dramatic circumstances, Shinobu and the First broke up, and now the First has returned to make amends.

The First is the chosen one and Araragi is just some kid who saved Kiss-Shot in a train station. There is obviously a giant gap in qualifications here, and we see this conundrum play out from both Shinobu and Araragi’s perspectives.

For Shinobu, she insists there is no first or second, no difference in her eyes between the First and Araragi. Deep down there is, the fate of the First was an enormously emotional thing for Shinobu. She doesn’t want to face the First. Shinobu tells Kanburu that it’s out of respect for Araragi. But I think Kanburu was right, though, Shinobu was afraid of having to face the First again. Not afraid that she’ll die, but afraid of having to confront him again.

For Araragi, his entire problem is boiled down to what is discussed in his phone call with Senjougahara. It’s a great scene, one that really warmed my SoL/Romance loving heart (even if it had the subtext of how do I deal with a vampire and her samurai ex). Araragi asks Senjougahara what she’d do if someone more qualified than him asked her out and she responds, very characteristically (i.e. bluntly) that she’d go with the other guy.

But she goes on to reassure him that he is more than enough. He is qualified, and that’s why both Senjougahara and Shinobu have stuck by him. He fights the duel with the First to prove it, and the way he outsmarts the First to win is proof enough that he is worthy.

The epilogue of the final episode provides a vast tonal shift from the first half of this series. The third arc ends by focusing on how Araragi has found happiness (with obvious elusions to his relationship with Senjougahara) and that he hopes that Sodachi can find her own happiness even if it is through hating Araragi.

Comparatively, the Shinobu Mail arc ends by Araragi and Yotsugi talking about how Shinobu and Araragi’s relationship prevents either from being happy. This, of course, was the decision that Araragi made in Kizumonogatari. To prevent Shinobu from killing again, he trapped both him and her in this bond in which neither can fully become a vampire.

The show provides an interesting juxtaposition between these two relationships. Both seem like positive(-ish) relationships, but the fact that one represents happiness for Araragi and the other actively prevents happiness by existing is a very interesting thing for the show to consider.

So is Araragi happy? With the show’s unreliable narration, it’s hard to tell how Araragi truely feels. So I think that’s something the show wants to leave up to us to figure out.

Monogatari has continued to improve upon establishing set-ups. Bakemonogatari was fantastic, but in relation to the rest of the series it is distinguished by being the first. There are no pay-offs from long standing set-ups and equally, no set-ups are really established. Stand alone, it still managed to be great.

But what was so remarkable about Second Season was that it managed to pull off these incredible pay-offs by expanding upon the foundations the story had established so far. There weren’t explicit set-ups to exploit, so the series worked with what had.

But it’s clear that Nisioisin has a plan now. He sets things up all over the place. Drops little hints to a bigger picture or to more stuff going on that we can’t see.

And this is at the heart of what makes the second half of this series so genius. The Shinobu Mail arc is a grand payoff for the set-up of the very first arc of Second Season. The arc in which Araragi isn’t around and we wonder what he’s up to. And then Hanekawa meets Gaen and Episode and we wonder what they’re up to.

Well, surprise! It was this! And god damn, fair enough, hey?

The incredible genius behind the achronological storytelling has always been a great part of this show. As you’re watching and trying to work out what is happening you are also trying to figure out when it is happening. And the second you figure it out, you feel like a genius and then you realise that Nisioisin is the real genius.

It’s such clever writing and it must take a lot of thought to figure out not only when everything happens chronologically, but when to tell all of these stories to make for the most drama. So, my absolute applause to Nisioisin.

As these reviews go on I find it harder and harder to talk about the production without just repeating myself. It’s fantastic as always here, and I’m glad to note that the animation did feel more reigned in that it did in Tsukimonogatari, which I noted as being somewhat distracting at times.

The production of this series lines up with my general assessment of Owarimonogatari. It’s not the best animated Monogatari series. It was still absolutely gorgeous, though.

Oh, and before I wrap this whole thing up… I am finally admitting defeat for my love of the intertitles. If you love ‘em, you gotta let ‘em go… Intertitles, you will be missed.

Anyhow… let’s get outta here, people!

It’s good to get back to another longer form series. Hanamonogatari was great, and I enjoyed Tsukimonogatari enough, but there’s something about these multi-arc series that lets Monogatari really shine. Owarimonogatari was a fantastic series, and the four arcs presented were all great.

As an aside, I realise I raised a lot of questions in this review and didn’t really explore many answers. I’d say that’s pretty typical for Monogatari, so unanswered they will remain.

To surmise my thoughts on Owarimonogatari, I would say that despite not being the best Monogatari series, it’s certainly up there. This series executes on what Monogatari does best. It sets-up big questions, tackles philosophical ideas, explores relationships, it twist our minds and subsequently blows them. If this is how Monogatari performs when it’s not at it’s best, it’s testament to how damn good this show is.