Comments on: Your hand in mine (the best first date ever)

By: Nanaya

Nanaya — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:08:24 +0000

The final 3 episodes are being released online at their website starting Oct. 28th, from what I heard.

By: Chris K.

Chris K. — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:05:17 +0000

I really liked this series, and I found Araragi’s and Hitagi’s first date to be very emotional and sweet. But, I’m kind of getting tired of watching 16-18 year old anime characters having dating and relationship experiences that are equivalent to what real world 7-8 grade students would have, their date was something like a couple of dates I had when I was in 7-8 grade.

I would like to see more anime show what I would consider to be a more realistic dating/relationship experience, kind of like Yukino’s and Soichiro’s relationship in Kare Kano, I always get a good laugh when characters pine of each other for years, have their first kiss at around age 18, and maybe have sex at marriage or age 30, whatever comes later.

By: Martin

Martin — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:59:59 +0000

@Gaguri: the Mayoi Snail arc will lend itself particularly well to a rewatch, just to be in awe of the little details that the writers managed to slip past me without my noticing. And yeah, CotS is a wonderful example of memorable supporting characters; I finished the novels recently actually, so will try to write a post about them in the next week or two.

@ghostlightning: it’s heartening to know I’m not the only one who thought that way about those episodes! I wasn’t too impressed with them at the time, but afterwards I understood why certain plot points and characters were shown in the way they were. It’s…it’s not like I’m a Hitagi fanboy or anything! No, wait… OTL

@Hanners: good observation on the episode 2 vs 12 parallel – I must admit I never made the connection at the time. For all the supernatural stuff, the natural and convincing way their chemistry comes across is still the most memorable aspect of the storytelling for me, directorial quirks aside.

@kadian1364: absolutely! I’m actually concerned that the next three episodes will not only be unecessary, but by adding events that go after episode 12, they might detract attention away from what I found to be a satisfactory moment of closure. I’m hoping Gaguri’s theory of ‘missing’ episodes is right in this case. [sigh] another CotS fan, eh? Gives me even more reason to write about it then…

@Sasa: if the new season seems as short on the ‘must watch’ shows to you as it does to me, I’m sure you’ll find the time to watch it. And yeah, well spotted on the EitS reference – I’ve been listening to a lot of their stuff lately. The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place is a wonderful record!

By: Sasa

Sasa — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:20:00 +0000

I… still not have not watched this show, amazingly enough. (It’s crazy, I know!) But I was still wondering if the title of the posting is a reference to the Explosions in the Sky song. I totally love that song, by the way.

By: kadian1364

kadian1364 — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 21:00:29 +0000

I don’t know how much more virtual ink I can spill concerning Bakemonogatari’s 12th episode, just that I agree with Gaguri about how a bit of a letdown the Monkey and Snake arcs were (and any CotS reference will win instant points from me), but somehow worked anyway in making that final episode floor me all the more. The hazy fog before the sunrise, as it were.

The difference, I feel, between this “finale” and Time of Eve’s is that I felt Time of Eve had much more story to tell, and left me wanting more (sequel likely), but Bakemonogatari’s last episode gave me everything I ever wanted from it, done fittingly and with such finality, that anything other than a true sequel season featuring the main pair is going to feel like an afterthought.

By: Hanners

Hanners — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:19:11 +0000

I’m with ghostlighting on the purpose of the mid-section of this series – The Nadeko Snake arc in particular was, in truth, all about Araragi, and although it wasn’t as compelling as the other arcs I think it was important if only to nudge viewers away from seeing him as the outright “hero” of the piece. The same could be said to a lesser extent of the Suruga Monkey arc but… well, I really liked Kanbaru as a character too, so I’m biased. ;)

I can only agree whole-heartedly however that this final TV broadcast episode was near-perfection in so many ways – It made me laugh repeatedly throughout Hitagi and Koyomi’s car journey, yet still had enough energy left in it to turn things towards a genuinely touching finale.

Thinking about the series as a whole, I felt that Hitagi’s opening up to Koyomi in that final scene was almost a counterpoint to episode two where she wandered around naked and in her underwear in front of him. That time she basically opened herself up to him due to a perceived lack of any self-worth and importance, yet come the end of the series we see a subtle shift in that – She now understands that she does have something to give and is thus a “worthy” person to that degree, yet she still feels herself as not having worth enough. It was a nice little example of character development in my book.

Somehow, despite managing to make for a decidedly quirky relationship, there’s still a real underpinning of realism in this couple’s teenage love, from Hitagi’s teasing right down to Koyomi’s insincere “I like everything about you” response to her. It all adds to this feeling that what we’ve seen in something beautiful yet intensely fragile, and something that may well not last that long after all… yet despite that, it really doesn’t matter, because it’s what’s right in front of them that moment that’s really important.

By: ghostlightning

ghostlightning — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 03:25:58 +0000

I too had some issue with the exploitation in the middle episodes, but I appropriated them in my reading of the text as a commentary on Arararagi as viewer representative. It’s not unlike how harem leads are viewer avatars, but it’s not the same either.

There is both condemnation and compassion for him in the narrative, and therefore to us. This may seem condescending, but instead it comes off to me like Hitagi herself. She IS condescending, but she can’t be reduced to that.

Bakemonogatari did all these things perhaps, but it’s just a love story, some interesting fanservice, teasing about shinto and spirit stuff, and a bunch of cute songs that lead to one about the summer triangle and love. There’s Hitagi to fap to… but we may end up hating it for pandering to us and I don’t want to lose this love I have for it…

You get where I’m going with this ;)

By: gaguri

gaguri — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:26:55 +0000

I definitely think Bakemonogatari is one of those multi-layered stuffs that can be second time. For example, we might first assume that Senjougahara was acting like she was disgusted with Araragi for fighting a kid, but actually she acted like that because she couldn’t see the snail girl, which makes the twist that much awesome because all the hints dropped here and there hits you like a running train.

I had some problems with Hitag-less episodes too. The supporting characters simply can’t compete with the level of intrigue of Hitagi. I mean, take CotS for example. It’s okay to side track for a moment and focus on different commanders/chief of staffs (instead of lafiel/jinto), because all their characters are soooo interesting and their chemistry just delicious. In Bakemonogatari, I’d have to say only Hitagi/Koyomi is at that level of complexity and intrigue, and the rest just…well, I wouldn’t say bad, but definitely not as uniquely crafted I suppose.

As for the remaining three episodes, it’s really weird. I heard the remaining three episodes are all going to be ‘missing’ episodes between episode 11 and 12 (Tsubasa arc), and episode 12 is actually the final episode. Or maybe I got that entirely wrong, can someone more informed correct this? Anyway, I thought episode 12 was, and felt like, final episode, so I just wrote my article away to heart’s content ^_^b