Sunday 25 August 2013

Monogatari Second Season - Episode 8

Shinobu and Araragi's jaunt into the past have taken them rather a lot further back in time than they originally planned, although there are no prizes for guessing why they're so off-target as they wind up eleven years in the past.

It is, of course, Araragi's concern for Hachikuji that has brought them here, as he ponders the possibility of saving her from her fate and the accident that took her life on Mother's Day, thus sealing her fate as an oddity.  For her part, Shinobu isn't convinced that things will be quite that easy, but she agrees to tag along nonetheless to see how things pan out.


The first step of this plan is actually to find Hachikuji - a plan almost derailed by running into a decidedly younger (but no less savvy) Hanekawa.  With this potential obstacle overcome eventually, Mayoi's house is found and all that remains is to follow her when she leaves to visit her mother the next day.  Cue Mayoi herself blowing a hole in this plan by leaving early in the morning before Araragi is on the scene, although as luck would have it he manages to not only catch up to her but to save her from her fate... even if it seems that he was also the cause of that fate.  With their mission complete, it's time to return to the present day - except things are decidedly different to how they left them...

After a bit of a slow start to this arc, this week's Monogatari Second Season managed to up the pace and perhaps more importantly up the humour, making the most of Araragi's more, err, "disturbing" predilections for comedy value to surprisingly good effect.  On the other hand, the story-telling within this instalment was actually pretty simplistic, although it seems clear that these events are merely a means to an end which we should be well and truly getting our teeth into next week.

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