Bakemonogatari / First Impressions / Monogatari Series

Summary:

Back at the end of April, at the beginning of Golden Week, Tsubasa had explained to Koyomi how her current family has no blood relation to her thanks to a series of marriages and remarriages. Her current parents saw her as a nuisance and sometimes hit her, so Tsubasa decided to be a good girl and stayed away from home when she could, but she made Koyomi promise not to tell anyone about it. On that day, the two had then found a dead white cat on the road, and Tsubasa had wanted Koyomi’s help in burying it. In the present now, Koyomi leaves school to find Nadeko waiting outside for him. She wants to thank him again, and since Suruga was in a rush earlier, she gives him the swimsuit and bloomers that she washed to give back to Suruga. The two also talk about how the supernatural aren’t at fault for what happens and how Nadeko shouldn’t bother with them and should just return to a normal life. Their conversation is then interrupted by the appearance of Tsubasa, and Nadeko gets embarrassed and runs away.

With Tsubasa, Koyomi talks about how the snake problem was settled, and she tells him the rumor about him being a bad influence on Hitagi. The conversation is cut short when Tsubasa suddenly experiences pain in the form of a severe headache, and even though Tsubasa claims that she’s okay, Koyomi is worried because he still remembers what happened during Golden Week. Back then, Tsubasa experienced the same pain, and it resulted in her hair turning white and her growing cat ears. When Koyomi had gone to see Oshino about it, Oshino had attributed it to a sawarineko and multiple personality disorder, and he suggested that the other side of Tsubasa appeared because of stress. What this led to was the alternate Tsubasa randomly attacking people and draining them of energy to reduce her own stress, and her victims included her parents. When her target had been Koyomi, however, he had the help of Shinobu, and she had bitten Tsubasa and drained her. As a result of this, Tsubasa had returned to normal. Back in the present, Tsubasa reassures Koyomi that she’s okay, and she changes the subject away from what’s bothering her.

Preview

This episode really didn’t feel like the typical first episode of a Bakemonogatari arc. There’s still plenty of exposition and dialogue, but because of the flashback sequence, it was like there was a mini-arc where a problem already got explained and solved. Obviously that wasn’t the real end of the problem though since Tsubasa is still having headaches and since this is only the first episode of a five-episode arc. Regardless, I’m enjoying the arc so far, and having so much Tsubasa screentime is great since I like hearing Horie Yui in this role so much. Of course, that being said, I think Nadeko wins in terms of being the most cute character. It’s just ridiculous how cute she is this episode.

On a different note, I’m glad that the animation quality went back to normal this episode, and I was actually able to tell what was going on in the action scenes. It was pretty cool too to see Shinobu attacking Tsubasa, especially given how she’s usually so idle. In fact, it made me curious how they got Shinobu involved in the first place or if she just showed up on her own to protect Koyomi. I also liked the whole kaleidoscope effect scene – it was kind of mesmerizing. Hopefully the quality won’t drop when they get to the online-only episodes after the final TV broadcast episode next week.

43 Comments

  15. Tsubasa sawarineko looks a lot more appealing than the normal one…without eyeglasses and and with those wild hair she could ever compete with Senjougahara…and obviously she was already fallen for Koyomi…like any other female ever spoke to him…the snake girl, the snail…

    Actarus
    Reply

  18. Its so sad…how yall folks just love tsundere, whatever. There are more girls than just her in this anime you know. Nadeko is completely unbelievable as a character but if Koyomi had a third sister, it would be her. She would definitely lighten the load on him from those other two over-zealous brats which are getting hardly no screen time except for the previews. As for Kitty-chan: -FINALLY- 😛

    Megas
    Reply

  22. I don’t know if Bakemonogatari will win the Best Anime of 2009, but I’m sure that it will receive many votes. Except for Episode “5.5”, the story has been smooth and interesting. Its storytelling technique has been superb. (This episode, in contrast, has been a little rushed comparing to other previous stories.) Each “monster” is reflective of a social problem and a growing pain of adolescence. Characters are nicely drawn and even have emotional depth. (And the director is not shy of magnifying the flaws of the main characters.) It is a much welcomed addition to the “experimental” genre.

    matroid
    Reply

  24. No Remy,i’m been wondering the same thing too…and i’m so bored about the same dialogue between Tsubasa n Araragi,they just dun get enough of it. I almost laughed out at the part they revealed the power of black Tsubasa, when i saw the way Tsubasa drained her parents energy, it’s more like she shock them with electricity. But i like the graphic of this episode though, and i hope there’s one episode where all the character could gathered, must b interesting

    treble89
    Reply

  26. People I know watch this for three reasons:

    the fanservice segments
    the character design
    the animation

    I’d personally give this show a 7 or 8 so far, just waiting for the final episodes.

    Kincaid
    Reply

  28. Jesus crap Nadeko’s so freaking adorable. I would love to see some doujins where people put her in a box and just keep petting her.

    She and Hitagi are probably the two of my favorite female in this anime.

    Moocow
    Reply

  33. im pretty sure the cause of her stress this time is araragi and senjogahara dating and no senjogahara is pissing me off!!! also shes not an interesting character because shes tsundere (most tsundere characters are just really annoying) shes interesting, becuause instead of a little cute girl heroine shes a super awesome one almost like haruhi suzumiya but a lot less bratty and a lot more funny to watch.

    sean
    Reply

  34. @Actarus: Very true! Tsubasa for sure is in love with the guy, the fact that Koyomi went out with Hitagi is probably very stressful for her! LOL! Especially because Koyomi talks to her about everything, supernatural, school, other people’s fast, etc. even asking her for advice, so I bet she gets “stressed” hearing him talk about his girlfriend lol! I heard that Kizunomonogatari divulge further into both Koyomi’s as well as Tsubasa’s past, is that true? or is it only about Koyomi?

    X
    Reply

  35. Well, i like the others characters a lot, but… Senjôgahara is my favorite. I mean, she’s the most interesting one. Her behaviour is so… WTF \o/, not a moemoe or an Araragi fanatic x_x

    Senjôgahara, please, come back and kick some asses xD

    Mabo
    Reply

  38. So far, they’ve started off arcs with Koyomi talking with the previous arc’s heroine, so the fact that Hanekawa was the first one caught me as a bit odd (if we go circularly and assume Hanekawa’s the last heroine, then it even connects to Hitagi Crab that way). And Koyomi almost molesting Nadeko was weird as well. I didn’t really have any idea what to make of that.

    I think that Nadeko was more than just embarrassed by Hanekawa, but actually fearful. I’m wondering if there’s something about Hanekawa that she can see but hasn’t been revealed yet. Clearly Hanekawa’s going to have to revert to her catgirl form at some point in the near future.

    lvlln
    Reply

  40. I wonder why are there so many fans of the overannoying senjogahara. Tsubasa is far better than her. Tsubasa would have been a better chose in the snail arc. That arc wouldn’t have felt so forced with tsubasa, who could actually see Mayoi with respect of making up Senjogahara playing dumb and pretending to see the invisible child just to save the subsequent episode’s plot twist. Did you notice they put the annoying stapler girl everywhere she was useless and didn’t put her where she was needed? How amusing 😛 In the snake episode only god knows why there’s Suruga instead of Senjougahara, wich was so fitted for fighting stuff AND the main char’s girlfriend! Sure she’s stronger than Koyomi himself as he only proved to be so strong enough to beatt a child ghost up now. When the fights got really serious the outcome was so different. This is another amusing peculiarity of this anime 😀

    Solaris
    Reply

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