How can a movie trilogy be this good? (Part 2)

Disclaimer: This review has spoilers for Kizumonogatari II. It also includes some lewd and gore scenes.

Link to part 1

Kizumonogatari II

I enjoyed this movie a lot more than the first one, probably because it answered a lot of questions I had, and also because the fight scenes were awesome.

There were also a lot of key moments between Koyomi and Tsubasa that I really liked. They improved Koyomi's development a lot in this movie, far more than what I would've expected.

While fighting with the first vampire hunter (Dramaturgy), we learn that Koyomi doesn't just have the power of regeneration, he also does it very fast, and that's pretty uncommong among vampires. Seeing how unmatched Dramaturgy is in front of Koyomi, he gives up and returns Kiss-Shot's leg.

Then we learn that Kiss-Shot has to eat his own leg to regenerate and make it a part of her.

That scene was pretty funny not gonna lie, I didn't expect that at all.

Continuing, we face one of the most important scenes of the movie, or at least one of the most impactful ones. That would be in the second fight with the vampire hunter (Episode). While Koyomi tries to defeat him, unsuccessfully, for a very long time, Tsubasa arrives at the location where they're fighting, to tell Koyomi a way to defeat him once and for all. But just before she could say anything, Episode strikes her with his gigantic weapon.

Obviously, I didn't expect her to die, at all. Mostly because she is alive in Bakemonogatari. Watching this scene was traumatic and very sad. Koyomi trying to save her while also feeling guilt for not getting rid of her successfully before. All of those feelings mixed with Tsubasa using her last moments to tell Koyomi about how Episode's vulnerability is that he transforms into mist.

After all of that, I knew Koyomi was going to go berserk and start trying to kill Episode instantly. And that's what ended up happening, but before he could kill him, Meme appeared to balance things out saying that, if he kills him, he would be "renouncing to his humanity". After that, Koyomi asks Meme for help, because he wants to save Tsubasa, no matter the cost. For three million yen, he accepts, and says that he can save Tsubasa if he uses his own vampire blood to heal her.

Hopefully, that turned out to be the truth, and we were able to see Tsubasa alive, once again. Key moments like these help to relate more to both Tsubasa and Koyomi, along with understanding the reasons behind some of their actions towards one another.

It's kinda funny because most of the time Koyomi gets flustered in random moments with her, and sometimes it's the opposite, with Tsubasa blushing when she realizes the situation she's in. Those moments make them very human, very... real, I guess.

One of the key and final moments of the movie was the one where Tsubasa gives Koyomi his panties as a symbol of trust, to make sure he'll see her again. Even though, it was... really lewd and kinda unprecedented, I think that the moment was perfectly executed, as I was able to feel her embarrassment and trust towards Koyomi. Maybe it's not that serious and it's just a random funny moment like always, but I don't think that was the full intention behind a very long scene like that.

But the very final moment of the movie, was really, really epic.

Meme informs Koyomi that Tsubasa's been captured by the final vampire hunter (Guillotine Cutter), and that if he wants to beat him, he'll have to renounce to his humanity. This gives us one of the most insane and cool moments of the movie, with Koyomi transforming his whole body in less than a second to save Tsubasa and trap Guillotine Cutter at the same time. The fact that Koyomi went that far just for Tsubasa's sake, and also to keep Guillotine Cutter intact. He didn't kill anyone, he just beats them in their own games.

Continues in Kizumonogatari III review.