Monday, 28 October 2013

Monogatari Second Season - Episode 17

It's time for Shinobu to take centre stage once again - well, not that she truly arrives until late in this episode, but then again this instalment also promises a journey four hundred years into her past but we haven't quite arrive there yet either.

Anyhow, our real focus for much of this episode sees Koyomi spending some time with Hachikuji, and more specifically seeking to return her backpack after his misadventure to try and save her life in a previous story arc.  With the backpack safely in Mayoi's possession however, the pair of them see something unusual.  Rather, they don't see anything unusual, which is why they know they've just seen something unusual.


With this invisible something made from nothing giving chase, there's nothing for it than to try to escape by bicycle - something which proves first difficult, then impossible.  Luckily for Araragi, Ononoki is there to save the day, rescuing the pair of them before leaving them to their own devices, albeit not before providing Koyomi with an interesting and thought-provoking parting "gift".  None of this serves to answer the question as to what Araragi and Hachikuji had just experienced was though, and it's left to Shinobu to deliver at least part of the answer to this question.

This was another episode of Monogatari that served to remind me of everything that I truly love about this series - its superb one-liners and quips, its insane concepts that somehow slot naturally into its world, and a characters that fizz and jump out at you even when they're being irredeemably lecherous.  I laughed throughout, and I want to know more about where this story arc is headed, which is exactly what I ask for week after week from a series such as this one, and boy does it deliver when it's on this kind of form.

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