Summary:

Koyomi doesn’t tell Hitagi what really happened and instead claims that he crashed into a telephone pole. Since he needs to stay still for a while to heal himself, Hitagi decides to stand over his face so that she’s exposing herself to him as a train roars past on the nearby tracks. Sometime later, Koyomi visits Suruga’s house and finds her room a mess, so he helps her clean it up. Koyomi is there to confront her about what happened, but she apologizes first and confirms what he suspected. She eventually un-bandages and shows him her arm, and Koyomi immediately realizes that she’s got what looks like a monkey’s paw. In touching it, he can feel that it’s alive, and Suruga tells him that it sometimes moves against her will. Even though she knows that it was she who attacked him last night, she doesn’t really remember it, and Koyomi thinks that she was in a trance. Suruga then surprises him by revealing that she’s a lesbian, and before his imagination can take him too far, she explains that she had an unrequited love for Hitagi.

Suruga had heard, however, that Hitagi had changed after entering high school, and she felt that she had to help her, but Hitagi rejected her. When Suruga later saw Hitagi happily chatting with Koyomi, she became jealous, but through all her emotion, she still wanted to be at Hitagi’s side, so she made a wish with the paw. Given all this, Koyomi decides to take Suruga to see Oshino, but along the way, she offers her body to Koyomi in place of Hitagi’s. After some banter, he ultimately tells her that she can’t replace Hitagi, and the two continue on to Oshino’s place, past a sulking Shinobu on the way up the stairs. After Koyomi introduces Suruga to Oshino, she shows her arm to him, and Oshino asserts that she doesn’t have a monkey’s paw. He’s never heard of one that joined with a person’s arm, so he thinks that this is instead a rainy devil. It can still grant three wishes, but it is in exchange for the person’s soul.

Preview

It’s been less than two weeks, but I’ve somehow managed to almost completely forget what happened last episode, so I had to flip through that first to remind myself. In any case, this episode started with a great Hitagi scene (how does she even think of these things…) and had several amusing moments later, like Koyomi’s reaction to Suruga saying that she was a lesbian and then the whole boys love thing. For once I didn’t actually feel that any part of it was slow, but it’s not until the final scene with Oshino that things got really interesting. I guess the monkey’s paw thing was too obvious and overdone, so the author decided to throw in a more original twist with the rainy devil. At least, I’ve never heard of anything by that name in any type of lore, but it does somewhat resemble Faust. I’m curious though as to what actually happens if all three wishes get granted; i.e. what does it mean that a devil gets her soul? I wonder too what clever way will Oshino propose to get rid of it, and fortunately, we only have to wait one week for the next episode to see the conclusion.

32 Comments

  1. Finally back on (stoopid baseball) 😀
    This show continues to be great, the off beat dialog, the art, and most importantly the story arcs. I’m liking this arc over the previous Mayoi one.

    Christopher
  2. Dang, every girl he gets involved with gets more & more crazy/weird. The vampire bitch, weightless crabby tsundere, snail-cow ghost-loli, & now the super monkey-demon hand girl. That’s a full plate in its self & he still has more courses to feast upon.

    Megas
  3. I adored the scene with Suruga watching Senjougahara with a blurred out Koyomi, for both the symbolism and because with his face and voice not there, you could actually see a side of Senjougahara that I don’t think has been shown yet. That conversation looked dominated by Koyomi for once. I would like to know what Senjougahara would do if she found out that Suruga beat Koyomi in. Finally a question; Just how much time has past between the Mayoi Snail and Suruga Monkey Arcs? Because I feel I’ve missed out on quality Koyomi/Senjougahara dialogue.

    Adrian
  4. “Since he needs to stay still for a while to heal himself, Hitagi decides to stand over his face so that she’s exposing herself to him as a train roars past on the nearby tracks.”

    Most epic wtf’ness and you describe it like this? Come on 🙂

    outcast
  5. Senjougahara can do anything with a straight face 😮
    Some great lines in this ep:
    “If you want it, I’ll be the uke to your seme anywhere, anytime.”
    “It swelled.”

    As for Rainy Devil it probably has something to do with how it’s written and or read in Japanese – this is the main feature that Nisio Isin uses in this story…

    S_1
  6. I really love the SD faces they keep throwing in there. Feels out of place, but not too much so. Somehow reminds me of FLCL. And the ED, too, since it was done by the guy who drew the FLCL manga.

    lvlln
  7. Oshino suggestion (the only 2 choices in the novel)

    Show Spoiler ▼

    And the Monkey Paw is always the right hand, as i know for the other story incarnation, and never the left hand. While i never heard of Rainy Devil anyway XD

    HellorHeaven
  8. I hope I’m not reading too much into this, but what’s with the relationship between Oshino and Senjogahara? The whole money thing is done too obviously and it feels like Oshino’s extorting Senjogahara or something. There’s even that scene in episode 2 where Senjogahara says she will “do anything” to pay him back and Oshino gives her this evil eye thing.

    https://randomc.net/image/Bakemonogatari/Bakemonogatari%20-%2002%20-%20Large%2006.jpg

    I forgot how to hyperlink

    minitune
  9. @minitune: Senjogahara willing accepted paying Oshino back for getting rid of the Heavy Crab.

    Can anyone tell me what’s with Senjogahara’s hair? It suddenly turned brown at the end of episode 6 and now its continued into 7 so it’s obviously not a continuity error.

    CamusCanDo
  10. Not brown, just lighting, I think.

    The art for this episode was a bit down… they really blew the budget on the first couple of Senjougahara eps (with good cause, since she’s epic)

    K.K.
  11. Funny how there’s hint of lesbianism in the latest CANAAN episode and in this episode they just come and say it.

    Araragi and Suruga make for a nice couple too. I loved the no panties scence.

    ileana

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