Bakemonogatari - Episode 13

Bakemonogatari may have finished its broadcast run in the most beautiful way imaginable, but that still wasn't enough for me - Thus, I was left waiting impatiently for the final three episodes to start streaming online, and after a few delays episode thirteen is now available to be enjoyed to the fullest, albeit not quite in the kind of high resolution I would have liked.


Needless to say, the beginning of this instalment finds Koyomi in a pretty damn good mood, with things going well between himself and Senjougahara and the fact that he's been tutored by a couple of the smartest girls in school. Indeed, such is his reverie that when he spots Mayoi wandering around, he decides to greet her in a rather ill-advised fashion, thus continuing his history of abhorrent behaviour towards poor old Hachikuji. Still, that aside, he does learn from Mayoi that she thinks she saw Shinobu wandering around near a doughnut shop the night before - An odd occurrence in itself, although it also got me wondering as to how Mayoi even knows about Shinobu and Oshino as I don't particularly remember either party being mentioned to her previously.

Araragi then makes his way onwards to school, although this soon becomes a short-lived visit, as a message from Hanekawa has him take off to skip school for the day, although not before seeing Hitagi and giving us a much needed dose of her usual sparkling and witty conversation (the highlight of which being her assertion that she can take Koyomi's place in the school roll call because she "has a great voice actress").

So, Koyomi and Tsubasa meet up, with the latter waiting in a nearby park dressed in pyjamas and a hat. Again, much random and occasionally amusing conversation follows before we get down to the crux of the matter -Hanekawa's memories of what happened to her during Golden Week seem to have returned, but with it has reappeared a pair of cat ears. Of course, we all know what that means, so it's off to see Oshino the pair go, with the fixer of oddities seemingly in a hurry to get this problem sorted, wasting no time in unleashing Tsubasa's inner cat demon so that he can find out what's going on.

It may have taken a little longer to appear than planned, but to be quite honest I'm just happy to be fed another dose of Bakemonogatari, and as per usual it does little to disappoint. The dialogue is fantastic throughout, and to be honest that's always been one of the major things which has made this series so special regardless of what else it deigns to offer up. I'm not actually sure whether this "Tsubasa cat" arc is going to last for both of the remaining two episodes, but either way we're now set up for some interesting times, and some of the revelations and subtle views beneath the surface of Hanekawa's cool exterior in recent episodes will doubtless come to the fore as the true nature of her oddity is reveal. I, for one, can't wait to see how it pans out.