Bakemonogatari / First Impressions / Monogatari Series

「つばさキャット其ノ参」 (Tsubasa Kyatto Sono San)
“Tsubasa Cat Part 3”

Araragi is so ecstatic about scoring Senjougahara as his girlfriend and having her body that he’s raping lolis on the street in broad daylight! Someone stop this deranged pervert! Sukebe! Hentai!

My thoughts go out to Hachikuji. You can bite off some more of his fingers while you’re at it; he’ll heal up really quick anyway. Araragi was going straight for the chest area too. Ghost or not, he’s still a lolicon by the look of it! First off, I should mention that I’m filling in for Omni here since he’s been swamped with projects as of late. He asked if I could help cover some of his shows this week so that he can catch up, hence why I’m writing about the first web episode of Bakemonogatari. With this being a streamed episode, you’ll probably notice the lower quality screen captures right away. Luckily, the animation itself was good, which you should expect (demand?) given how much time SHAFT’s had to work on this (delay and all). As such, I would’ve liked to see less black bars super widescreening the episode, often hiding character mouths. While this may be Shinbou Akiyuki‘s intention and the minimized work is just an added benefit, one could make the argument that it’s his means to that end.

Anyway, things pick up from Araragi and Senjougahara’s super date under the starlight of the Summer Triangle. After running into Hachikuji and groping her for a while, Araragi hears about how she spotted Shinobu alone in front of a donuts shop the other day. He later runs into Senjougahara, who lets him go off and do his “humanitarian aid” work and says she’ll cover for him during attendance call with her touted Saitou Chiwa seiyuu abilities. However, Araragi is both disappointed and outraged by her imitation of his voice, plus gets tricked into indirectly admitting that he loves her, so he runs off to meet Hanekawa as planned.

At the now infamous park of the series, Araragi is quickly infatuated with Hanekawa’s huge breasts bursting out of her pajamas, but is unsuccessful in getting her to take off her coat to showcase them better. The two then discuss her headaches and cat oddity during Golden Week, which she wants to see Oshino about. Before taking her to him, Araragi decides to ask some questions to get a better idea of what might be happening. Aside from a previous headache incident in front of a bookstore, their discussion quickly drifts to Hanekawa’s questions about letters sent in to a radio show, which Araragi doesn’t understand why he’s answering earnestly about. Back on track, he asks Hanekawa to remove her hat, even if she’ll hate him for it, revealing the cat ears still on her head. With Araragi having seen enough, they head towards Oshino’s and talk about how his vampire powers might be charming all the girls around him.

When they arrive, Oshino’s willing to help the Hanekawa despite how busy he is. In the process, he continually shrugs off Araragi’s presence and gets on his nerves. Inside the building, Oshino explains that Hanekawa is being affected by a cat spirit, a Sawari Neko 「障り猫」, and knocks her out soon after, claiming things will be faster talking to “her“.

Not a terrible lot ever seems to happen with each Bakemonogatari episode, but time and time again it’s entertaining as hell. For me, it’s the character interactions and conversations about random topics that are the driving factors. In the first third of the episode, we just had Araragi and Hachikuji going at it for the most part, but that alone made my day. Sure, she brought up something about Shinobu which should come into play later on (if we ever get that far with this adaptation), but there was a whole lot of enjoyable, meaningless ramble leading up to that.

While it was nice to see Hachikuji, I would’ve liked to see more of Senjougahara this time around, but I guess this is better than nothing. I don’t think it’ll ever get old listening to her tease Araragi, but having her use her own seiyuu as means to do so was totally unexpected. That said, I have to say I really like her sleeveless summer uniform. As for Hanekawa, I don’t know why she was only in pajamas, but that works for me. She was surprisingly cute in a troubled sort of way, and even started giving signs that she likes Araragi as well. Because of that, I can’t believe he was about to burst out laughing at her cat ears, but it reassured the idea that Senjougahara is the only one that can keep him in check.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing the next episode since Hanekawa just transformed, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have a scheduled airing date yet. I guess that’s SHAFT for you.

* I decided to use last names in the writeup since almost all the characters addresses each other as such.

 

ED Sequence

ED: 「君の知らない物語」 (Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari) by supercell
Watch the ED!: Mirror 1, Mirror 2, Streaming ▼

The ending sequence has changed more than I realized. While the middle part is the same, the first 15 secs and last 30 or so are completely new.

Preview

44 Comments

  11. “Araragi is so ecstatic about scoring Senjougahara as his girlfriend and having her body that he’s raping lolis on the street! Someone stop this deranged pervert! Sukebe! Hentai!”

    Saying that to someone new to this series a very big WTF

    eld
    Reply

  13. @Ragna: actually that’s a very good point, her hair color never changed in the novel.

    @Divine: they actually explained why she’s in PJs in the novel, but it’s only in Koyomi’s thought (guess they couldn’t animate that here)

    Also, for the commercials during the episode, all the lines are from Nisemonogatari.

    Moocow
    Reply

  15. I think they’ve foreshadowed Hanekawa’s interest in Araragi throughout the show, they just beat us over the head with it on the bike ride. Whenever Hanekawa has referred to Araragi’s insensitivity to Senjougahara’s perspective, I have taken it as possessing a dual meaning. The reference to the vampire’s gaze (which she probably saw over Golden Week) and her clutching onto him are just finishing pieces in the puzzle. Araragi could take this opportunity to upgrade to the high-end model, but alas, he’ll stick with the psychopath and meet his other needs by molesting loli spirits.

    The funniest bit for me was when Hanekawa kept talking about a radio program to avoid answering Araragi’s question. Of all of the banter between the characters of the show that had to be the most plausible.

    m
    Reply

  16. I think they made it plain by now that all the girls involved in this like Koyomi in one way or another. Some just may not make it as clear as others. Hanekawa even goes as far as to explain it away as a power he never even got a chance to use. Whatever the case, this episode was righteous. But I had to watch the other 3 parts first because its been so long that I remembered more of how it was portrayed in the novel than the anime.

    Megas
    Reply

  18. @Ragna & Moocow: Her hair color didn’t change, they just warmed the colors of the ambiance, see the color of Senjougahara’s uniform, looks almost orange. They did the same in ep6 when Hanekawa is talking with Araragi.

    Coyote
    Reply

  20. Where is the merchandise I’m so buying this in blue ray!!! I have a feeling after Hanekawwa “confession/gaze power” Araragi is going to spin into a “do they really love me or is my power?”. Which will trash the great love of chapter 12…. please say ain’t so!
    This series should be 4 seasons long

    Island esper
    Reply

  27. I’d argue Araragi was running away (on his bike) from Senjougahara not out of disappointment, but embarrassment for being forced to… pre-confess his undying love ; P

    At least he does intend to do it someday. Sweet scene.

    Trillian
    Reply

  30. You guys seriously think Hanekawa is “better” than Senjougahara? Did you not watch ep12??? Say it isn’t so!

    Sure, Hanekawa is the embodiment of all that is “moe”… glasses+twin tails+braids+smart+nice+damsel in distress+keeps her distance but obviously interested+always there when you need someone to talk to+neko mimi+naughty side (cat variation)+OPAI+… and so on and so on…

    But Senjougahara is, well… Senjougahara!!!… she wins!

    What the? LOL How did I become so biased????

    Cyprinious
    Reply

  36. Hanekawa? Senjougahara? We’re not asking the real question here, which is: What was the name of that anime in the commercial at the end of the stream? It looked pretty interesting.

    So Very Odd
    Reply

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