I decided that since previously I didn't write down thoughts as I went through the book, it would be wiser to continue and consciously make an effort to remember the material as well as my own understanding of it to make better use of my time. Similar to the previous time however, this is less of a review and mainly a bank to store my thoughts so I don't forget them, though it's true that re-remembering my interpretations while gaining new ones upon revisiting the material sometime in the future is a possibly better alternative that allows me to take only what I really need from the book and leave anything else behind for a future me to discover, I think it's better to keep a store of my thoughts to better understand what I like about this series, and so I can more effectively convey them to others if I'm asked. My memory is my worst enemy after all. I forget important things so often it may as well be parodied or condemned as a cliche. With that in mind, feel free to ignore this and read a more intelligently and poetically formatted review, and feel free to indulge in my somewhat incohesiveness if you're fine with indulging in a large helping of waffle. Thank you for your time regardless.

Hanamonogatari: Flower story. It is with gloomy weather and rain, that a beautiful flower blossoms in the sunlight. That is essentially what this story is about, at its core, but surrounding that core is the story of misunderstandings - a complex and slightly disorganized tale that you return to with a greater appreciation for what transpired than you had when first experiencing it. Thus, here is the story of Kanbaru Suruga's last day of adolescence.

To understand a book filled with misunderstandings, it's important we understand its core ideas before heading into discussing its contents. The first is that the idea of truth in your public presentation is inherently false, as we play characters in our everyday lives to appease the people around us, for it nurtures our fear of being misunderstood by others. The second is within the quote given by Tooe Gaen, Kanbaru's mother: "If you can't be medicine, be poison. Otherwise you're nothing but water." which illustrates the status of the characters within the story, as well as gives the audience a grasp as to how people can be perceived by others. To be kind or to be cruel define your character within the minds of others, to leave yourself in the middle allows for misunderstandings within your being. The final idea is also given by Tooe Gaen, who tells Kanbaru towards the start of the book to never let yourself think, to attack the future because thinking is what keeps you in the past.

The first character Kabaru meets in the story - Oshino Ougi. The personification of "water" within Gaen's quote. Ougi is an undefined person, someone who lives within mystery, even though they have no known family whatsoever, Kanbaru and Araragi both buy it when Ougi claims to be the cousin of Oshino Meme. Ougi appears wearing a boys uniform in this arc, with Kanbaru asking "Weren't you a girl?" and Ougi retorting with "I've always been a boy, since the day I was born." and Kanbaru buys it. This doesn't show ignorance, but a willingness to accept people for who they present themselves to be, to believe them for the character they portray themselves as in order to avoid misunderstanding them.

The second character is Higasa Seiu, someone who takes up a small role of Kanbaru's friend and former team-member. When Higasa is asked by Kanbaru in regards to Lord Devil/Akuma Sama, she states: "I didn't expect someone as uplifting as you to hear of that rumor.", subtly teasing the audience for assuming the same before reading this book. In prior installments it's safe to assume Kanbaru is just always cheery and that she was only emotionally stressed before Araragi helped her, but behind her cheeriness is still a person, and a young person at that. She's much more intelligent and conscious than she gives herself credit for, undoubtedly misunderstanding herself. Kanbaru presents herself as cheery to be liked by other people, and it's because of this attitude being the norm for her in normal conversations with others that presumably leads Higasa to tell the story of Numachi Roka, during their second appearance, as though she were still alive - leaving out the part where she committed suicide despite explaining that half of the story during her third talk with Kanbaru. It's clear that Higasa also falls into the water category, though not undefined like Ougi her actions could both be interpreted as medicinal and poisonous and I'd also just like to place her in the same category as Kanbaru for a later explanation.

The third character - Numachi Roka is the second all new character made entirely for this plot. Numachi gets a lot of time to talk in this book, almost too much time to talk, and though it impedes the enjoyability by slowing the pace down to a crawl in some instances the idea of it fits the theme, to talk is to refuse action, and to refuse action is to let the present wash away from you. This is exactly the case for Numachi. Someone who is the opposite of Kanbaru, someone born with a talent who didn't nurture it, someone who cared too much for the opinions of others without even understanding them. It's possible it wasn't even permanently broken, rather just in a state that couldn't allow for sports, but this understanding was refused and replaced with a total disallowed use of the leg, leading to Numachi's suicide. In her first encounter, she details her methods in business, what she gains from being "Lord Devil" is simply the misery of others, and in return she lets them know she'll take care of their suffering for them. They may misunderstand these words as a cure, and thus believe it, but Numachi may also misunderstand that they believe it to be a cure just because they don't return. Numachi's belief is that "Time heals all wounds", and that they'll understand what caused such a problem and move to avoid that outcome on their own, when Numachi doesn't understand this herself. She lost her ability to play basketball by not understanding her gift, and she does the same with her stay as an apparition after passing. Her refusal to accept her own death forces her to relive what led her down that path to begin with, not understanding her gift of apparition status, instead using it to selfishly collect other's misery and parts of a being serving a similar purpose. The reason why Roka talks too much about her past is because she thinks so much, she speaks in place of acting. Relying on others' words as opposed to how they conduct themselves is a great cause for misunderstanding, especially when so much talk is being exchanged at once. Kanbaru even says she feels as though she's been cheated after learning of Numachi's passing, knowing that she misunderstood the context of Numachi's backstory.

The fourth character brought about is Kaiki Deishuu, the swindler, this time adorn with glasses and a beard. Kaiki is an example of thinking to precede action, he's someone whose character is a liar and a con, but his truth lies within his fibs. He lies about taking Kanbaru to coffee, he lies about not being romantically interested in Kanbaru's mother and lies about not allowing her to rely on a part of the devil to win. Yet he still treats her to an expensive dinner and makes an effort to care about her nutrition, though this is rather backsided as well, since eating so much meat while good for you will also hurt you when eaten in excess. But as someone who can only see the front of someone, Kanbaru only sees in Kaiki what has been told to her by Araragi and Senjougahara, that he's an evil swindler, and yet she's baffled by his kindness. Kaiki is a character who manipulates the conversation to give someone the purposefully incorrect assumption of his character, to lie about his interest in Tooe Gaen only retrace his steps and admit to having feelings for her establishes an ounce of trust in Kanbaru he needs in order to assure he can help her if she needs it, yet of course Kaiki when asked how he was able to locate Kanbaru, recalls the name "Numachi Roka" as if he didn't exactly remember her or had hardly known her, yet it's revealed later that he truly did know her. Kaiki here and in Nise has given characters 50% of the information they need, presumably because both halves join together when they meet regardless, or perhaps it's because he believes a mutual frustration with the recipient's disowned trust will lead them to be less harsh on each other and instead find an agreement in their dislike for Kaiki, or perhaps because he believes that they can handle the situation with just 50% of what they need to know, because with their own judgements will they find their victory - you never know with him. Kaiki is defines poison in Gaen's quote, someone who is harmful and by nature evil but who's evil can be used for good in certain situations, since poison is nothing but a substance if left unused.

In a sort of side/foot/middle note - I forget when Karen appears in the story (despite finishing the book yesterday and rewatching the anime today!) so I'll throw her in here since she only talks to Kanbaru via phone call, and her character is more or less an extension of her older brother, to fit her in with the quote: I'd say she's similar to Kanbaru and Higasa in that she's like water, but a warm water.

The fifth is the one and only - Araragi Koyomi. This time sporting a long haircut that grew on me a lot upon rewatching the adaptation. The protagonist of season one of the series, the young man who was attacked by a vampire, fell in love with a young woman whose weight was taken by a crab, helped a lost snail find its way home, saved a young girl from a curse, mended the heart of his idol bewitched by a cat, drove off a fraud from his town, fought for the life of his younger sister, and most importantly, forgave a tomboyish athlete for her hateful feelings. If Araragi were to be anything, he'd be someone who acted out of emotion, rather than thought. It's the reason he tries to do his best to everyone, he believes everyone to be worth helping if in trouble, and goes as far as to sacrifice himself as a way to give himself emotional satisfaction. He is medicine. But kindness can be a curse in many ways, and the duality to someone so emotionally driven is their ignorance to their actions.Take for instance, Karen's implications over the phone that Araragi strips her for whatever unsightly reason - implies a much more poisonous person that the dashing senior of Kanbaru's picking her up when she's fallen and escorting her home in his... New Beetle.... Ahem, anyways, giving her sound advice in typical Araragi fashion, Araragi says a line I'd wanted to hear for so long: "If you're in trouble, the only one who can save you, might be you." Maybe it's an English translation thing, but I don't care. The choice of using the words <code>might be you</code> makes all the difference to me. It shows Araragi's growth in a single sentence, his adulthood, his understanding of his own beliefs, no longer simply repeating what Oshino had said but adapting it to match his experiences.

Upon reaching her home, Kanbaru finds a package with her name on it... from Kaiki. Though she'd called Kaiki earlier and he didn't answer, with Kanbaru assuming he thought she was pathetic to have reached out to him so soon, it turns out she'd misunderstood his intentions, and he sends her a package with the head of a devil inside. Funny that he previously said "It's better to ask me for help than that monkey's paw", and yet sends her the head of the beast when she asks him for help, she misunderstands not only his ignorance to her losing her arm, but understands the phrase when he sends her the head. To take the assistance of another, someone she may not understand within, instead of cheating with an item guaranteed to give you a dunk - allowing you the winning move without much variable in between.

Numachi Roka - Rematch. With their mutual frustration at Kaiki, the two are now on equal ground, and decide to settle it with a basketball one-on-one, only one round. Kanbaru passes the ball to the defense in order to win, taking advantage of Numachi's trademark of playing against the attacker, taking advantage of her reliance on thought to win - and dunks the ball in the hoop before Numachi can stop her. Kanbaru did say she didn't like dunking at the start, but it was because its " a flashy move done to impress the audience" when it's actually because it goes against her belief that the game isn't about winning, and that the more chances for a counter there are the more fun the game is. Kanbaru understands herself and dunks the ball in the hoop, a move done deliberately because she wanted to win. She wanted to beat Numachi. It's here when Numachi understands she's been dead, and thanks Kanbaru for the match, saying that maybe she just wanted to play against her one time, and that the only reason there was ever an idea that they were arch-enemies was because they were exceptional at opposite roles, despite never actually playing against one another in an official match. With a short speech to Kanbaru encouraging her to take hold of her life and stop playing it on the sidelines, she vanishes. Perhaps this was her reason for staying behind as an apparition. As Tooe Gaen says, she was more like muddy water than anything, someone who wanted to be evil but who's evil deeds were left too undefined to be interpreted as evil by many. Though maybe this was a play on her last name meaning "Swamp".

The epilogue, or rather, the punchline of this story. Araragi and Kanbaru have a chit chat whilst they clean up Kanbaru's room, Araragi discussing once again his infatuation with his little sisters - Kanbaru's disgusted reactions give the impression of Araragi's behavior leaning more towards his character being poisonous, but it was only because of his medicine that allowed him to poison his little sisters, after all. Kindness is but intoxicating. It is here when Araragi gives a speech about how wishes are something you grant yourself, and it's not about the wish coming true, but rather understanding why you'd wish for something. Understanding your desires. Comprehending why you would want something so bad you'd turn to wishing. This completely illustrates the reasoning behind Gaen giving Kanbaru the arm of the devil - to have her understand the importance of effort to make her wishes come true, to understand what would be so important to her that she would resort to using a magical item to grant them - and to see the negative effects this cheat has will allow her to seek bettering herself instead, teaching her a lesson about her desires and how to achieve them - making it less about thinking and wishing and more about acting. This allows Kanbaru to actually begin to understand her mother. Someone she'd referred to as "That person" her mother was but water to her, not poison, nor medicine. She didn't take to heart what she said because she misunderstood her intentions, but only after removing the raincoat was she allowed to grow, the rain nurturing the flowers of her adolescence. The Rainy Devil couldn't possess Numachi because she could no longer grow, for she is a "wax flower" as her name "Roka Numachi" illustrates. She was born a flower, and thus couldn't benefit from the rain. Kanbaru had to grow by making her wishes, by being able to regret she was now able to accept. With that, she has Araragi cut her hair. This final line of dialogue I think sums it up perfectly:

"Kanbaru, many people will have lots of different opinions on what you did. There will be those who will say you did the right thing, and those who will say you were wrong. You shouldn’t pay attention to them. Don’t worry about what they’ll say. What you did was neither right nor the wrong thing. What you did was your youth."

footnotes- I would also like to add that I listened to the soundtrack while reading the novel, and I unfortunately wasn't a fan. I didn't hate it but I didn't have as many tracks I fell in love with as the previous osts, perhaps it was the over use of the cinematic classical styles compared to the previous soundtrack's blend of styles.