Posted by OP Sequence
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OP: 「恋愛サーキュレーション」 (Ren’ai Circulation) by 花澤香菜 (Hanazawa Kana)
Watch the OP! Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼
That was probably the most sickeningly cute and adorable song I’ve heard all month if not all season. I can’t seem to get it out of my head either… On a side note, I didn’t realize that Hanazawa Kana is only 20 years old. Zegapain seems like such a long time ago.
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Summary:
When Koyomi goes to see Oshino about Nadeko’s problem, Oshino identifies this as a case of a jagirinawa, a snake spirit sent by a person’s malice. In Nadeko’s case, it was a female classmate who cursed her after Nadeko rejected a boy that the classmate liked. After finding out about it, Nadeko had read up on snake curses to figure out how to get rid of it, and that’s what led her to kill snakes. The problem is that Nadeko did it wrong, and she had some bad luck as well. When Shinobu, the legendary vampire, came to this town, a lot of bad things began to gather at that old shrine, and the jagirinawa acted in this case because Nadeko was killing snakes there. To get rid of the jagirinawa, Oshino gives Koyomi a charm for Nadeko to pray with at the shrine. Along the way there, Koyomi asks Nadeko about why she turned down the boy who confessed to her, so she reveals that there’s someone else she likes. She then asks him how much of the past he remembers and finds out that he doesn’t remember much.
At the shrine, Nadeko starts praying, and as she does so, she remembers back to how kind Koyomi was to her when she was young. Oshino’s charm meanwhile starts working, and the snake scale markings start to disappear. During this time, Koyomi tells Suruga of how he and Oshino talked about how he could try to forcibly remove the jagirinawa, but it would then attack him. And even if he got away from that, the jagirinawa would then return to the classmate that cast the curse. The problem that Koyomi comes to realize, however, is that, although the charm appeared to work, Nadeko is still in a lot of pain, and not all of the markings are gone. He quickly figures out that they were wrong: there wasn’t just one jagirinawa, there were two. This means that someone else had cursed Nadeko aside from the original classmate, and Koyomi thinks that it was the boy. This leaves him no choice but to forcibly remove the jagirinawa, and although he’s successful, he gets his arm and leg bit in the process.
The fight leaves Koyomi reeling, and right as things are looking really bad, Suruga pushes Koyomi down. She warns him not to get excited because of the poison in him, and she knows that snakes are cowardly by nature, so if Koyomi can stay quiet, the jagirinawa will just leave. Koyomi tries to object because that means that the jagirinawa will return to the person who cast the curse, but Suruga reminds him not to lose sight of who he’s trying to save. Moments later, just as Suruga suspected, the jagirinawa slithers off, and Koyomi can only apologize to her. Nadeko is fortunately okay, but when she tries to thank Koyomi, he feels that she shouldn’t.
Preview
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While I was okay with the story itself, particularly how it ended on a less than ideal note, I thought the execution here by SHAFT was pretty lacking. It wasn’t bad animation quality though, it was just a significant dearth of animation, period (note: it’s hard to show it via screencaps because I typically choose important shots). It actually didn’t bother me much for the first half of the episode, but it was laughably bad during the second half. They spent so much time focused on Koyomi’s eye, the shot of the sky, and those red/black/whatever placards, and they spent very little on what was actually happening. I had a hard time following that action scene between Koyomi and the jagirinawa because practically nothing was being shown.
I was also a little disappointed that the episode just ended normally without the usual epilogue with the ED playing over it – the previous three arcs have all ended with Koyomi waking up to his sisters and then some sort of aftermath chat. This might be my expectations talking, but the ending here was rather sudden, and it made this arc feel less special than the previous ones. Patrik informs me that the novel had more, so maybe for the DVD version they’ll properly animate the episode and give it a proper epilogue. Regardless, I guess now we’re headed into the final arc about Tsubasa, and apparently only two episodes of it will be broadcast normally, with the rest being streamed online at some future date.
what the? webcast again?
So are we 100% certain that they will not be animating the prequel Koyomi Vamp arc? ‘Cause I have noticed that Shinobu has not even made a single peep or hum in any of her appearances yet various sources such as Wikipedia and Anime News Network among others list her seiyu as Hirano Aya so that left me wondering as to whether or not they would animate the prequel. And yeah I agree, the fight scene could have been so much better if it actually had showed some fighting as opposed to red/black/whatever placards followed by a shot of Koyomi’s suddenly injured arm or leg. Other than that it is still a good episode in my opinion and I am looking forward to the remaining episodes.
Odd. I’m sure I’ve seen Bakemonogatari listed at 15 episodes in the past.
I heard that the reason some scenes weren’t animated was because they weren’t done yet
Shaun: It will be 15 episodes long, but only the first 12 in TV, the last 3 only on the web.
That ending was hard to watch because there was not much to see. Did they run out of money at the end of the episode?
They are very short on staff so.. yeah.
I agree with you OMNI. The characters drawings and story are awesome but too many typography and lack of actual story animation.
It’s interesting she looks like Shiki from “The World Ends With You”.
Love the new opening song though.
They are desperate for animators and you can tell from just watching it
question for Omni or anybody that can answer why don’t u blog Naruto Shippuden? i love all the show u do blog n reading blogs wen i missed the show really help and Naruto one of my favorites so i was just wondering why u don’t blog and if u could maybe start pleaseeeeeeee
Yeah, the abruptness of the ending of this episode tells me that SHAFT has more in store for us. I only realized that the arc was technically ‘closed’ when Tsukihi and Karen named the next one “Tsubasa Cat.”
pops: In order to have time to watch and blog as many new shows (ie. 1-2 season shows) as possible, I purposefully limit myself to one show that has no end – which for me has always been Bleach.
oh i see understandable i like bleach way more anyways
where is senjougahara ?I’m starting to miss her tsudere-ness
What is this webcast shit, I want my Tsubasa arc. Wait what, so only Tsubasa’s arc is left? That sucks big-time.
@Sly: I’d place Senjougahara under Yandere than Tsundere…seeing as how she doesn’t have the usual signs of a tsundereko, but has show that she has no problem harming or even killing someone. Which, IMHO, makes her all the more attractive!
THAT OP… ALL THAT BUDGET. Just animating the OPs fried SHAFT’s budget. Plus they did stuff like ef, SZS, and whatever with lack of animation in the episode itself but the few scenes they do are breathtakingly awesome.
And hell yeah the OP is cute. Actually, I’m not even watching this. Waiting for it to end so I can watch it in one go!
Now they can go full Drama for everything left of Kizu and Nise.
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2009/09/12/bakemonogatari-shafted/
Since the rest of this show is likely prequels and the like, does this mean we’re not going to see Senjougahara anymore?!
There should be plenty of hitagi left. At LEAST one half or near most of one episode will still be dedicated to her awesomeness, assuming they continue following the book faithfully. I’m really looking forward to it. Should be either the next or the following week.
Wait weren’t there two snakes? What happened to the other? Koyomi only yanked off one right?
The other one was properly exorcised, I thought.
Maybe it’s NOT the ending yet, maybe there’s something more, cause this arc was pretty short compared to the others, so it’s probably longer…
hopefully when DVD sales come those scenes would be added in
still need more hitagi =( but for some strange reason Nadeko’s my second favorite girl in the show and I adore her outfit and OP.
@snoo: the charm got rid of the first snake, the other snake realized that his comrade got destroyed and went straight for nadeko’s neck.
is this the last episode for the nadeko snake arc?
@sean: yes. Next episode is the start of Tsubasa Cat.
Anyone else notice the revelation about Araragi’s vampirism? The fact that if he forgets about/let’s go of Shinobu and such that he’d return to being completely human
I kind of felt a bit disappointed at the lack of epilogue as well. I was actualy surprsied it wasn’t over yet or that it just ended how it did and then hearing “Tsubasa Cat” as the enxt episode really. Very confusing.
Hopefully the DVDs or online broadcast indeed fixes this, but relaly, I think this shows a bit of the issue of having your director do two shows at once I geuss.
And stuff.
I’d have to agree, just watched the subbed version, and the OP is just really really cute. I <3 tsundere Senjougahara, but this OP just made Nadeko really cute =X
Just watched this and overall it was still a good episode, just a little frustrating when I couldn’t see what was going on.
Just in case that you didn’t know, Shaft couldn’t finish this episode in time. <_<
I heard that it had more scenes in another broadcast channel. I’m pretty sure that this will be fixed in DVD/Blu-ray.
My new favourite series. Not the best episode but, its still awesome. I want more senjougahara.
Well, two things. Meme did mentioned that he won’t be around all the time to bail out Koyomi’s tendacy of sticking his nose into any and all oddities, Meme will be moving on. And the fact that Koyomi could revert back to normal if he just stop letting Shinobu feed on him. But Koyomi does feel responsible for Shinobu’s current state. I have a feeling that Shinobu can only feed on Koyomi in her current reduced state. (yes, I peek ahead, and Shinobu’s role will get bigger).
I came when watching the new OP
second half was painful to watch, no shaft awesomeness makes me sad 🙁
Sort of understandable in regards to the missing scenes due to a few reasons;
– They are desperately short on animation staff, hence then hiring urgently via their site.
– SHAFT only have a limited budget, plus this is only their second native HD show.
– The driector is working on this and Zan SZS.
In usual SHAFT fashion, all should be fixed for the DVD/Blu-ray releases, with other eps probably being improved upon as well.
Ps. New OP was SO much better than the one for that other annoying loli.
I came across Eastern Standard’s review of Nisemonogatari (Karen Bee part) http://theeasternstandard.blogspot.com/2009/08/nisemonogatari-karen-bee.html, and some of the things raised in these two episodes are answered. So if you want to know what’s ahead, read away.
Did someone notice that shrinking an arc to only two episodes makes it flow smoother? Well, Shaft did their better to destroy every action scene around with those fucking red and black panels, but well, that’s it as long all of you like it. 😉
PS: Good op. Just good as always, and always better than the episodes non the less.
One of the flash screens at the start specifically says something to the effect of “so sorry, still under construction”…. and the last half of the episode was a slideshow flashback to the disaster episodes of Tsukuyomi Moon Phase with entire segments of scenes visualized by still frames of scenery.
I can only conclude after many series that Shinbo may be “an artist”… but he must have horrifically lousy budgeting/time skills in regard to outsourcing.
Look forward to the DVDs (as with TMP) where most of this nonsense is replaced with an actual episode.
not a very gd episode, i hate the part where it only show the kuro stuff rather than koyomi attack by the snake, next week is tsubasa, really wanna knw what happen to her
WOW! bakemonogatari rated 1st place @zomganime!!!! (september 20th 2009) XD
Did anyone notice that Araragi’s fetish was revealed in this episode? Awesome choice Koyomi…