Owarimonogatari – 02
/inside you the time moves, and she don’t fade/the ghost in you, she don’t fade/
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“Let us fancy ourselves famous mathematicians or detectives and pose dramatically: prove that Araragi Koyomi cannot hate Oikura Sodachi, even though she hates him. You may ignore Oshino Ougi.”- Araragi Koyomi, this episode cold open. Yeah, right, like any of that is gonna happen without complications…. |
I Derived the Answer Alone…
So this episode is going to set up pretty much everything else that follows in this arc. I’ll take the scenes on as they come. First, Araragi and Ougi take a trip to his alma mater, his old middle school. This scene actually comes later in the chronology. Ougi points out that the place where he spent, twice nearly ever day, putting on and taking off shoes as “food for thought”. This perplexes Araragi, as it probably does us; it’s a ritual, and like most rituals you do it automatically after a while; the mind can and will wander. So, who Araragi was and what he was thinking, and even how he was thinking, is important to the story at large.
When we shift back in the past, to where we left off last episode, Hanekawa is confronting and cautioning Araragi about Sodachi’s sudden reappearance after two years of absence. Something that Ougi would call a “coincidence”. Given that we will be dealing with probability, “coincidence” is a very carefully measured word there. But we find out that Sodachi was grilling Hanekawa about what makes up Araragi in the here and now. We also get that Araragi tries to cover up his nervousness at the prospect of seeing Sodachi again, with bald-faced and witless lies. Who is he really trying to comfort here? You get one guess.
Nobody Can Be Happy Without the Help of Others
“You took my cool nickname!”
It’s fairly clear, and it would be on a cloudy evening down a ten mile shaft cut vertically, that hate has shaped Sodachi’s worldview. She makes it plain and obvious. At first I thought it was very much overplayed, but on a second watch, this was calculated, as calculated as Ougi’s “food for thought” statement was and is. Honestly, if we are in the realm of “calculation”, the beauty of Euler’s identity is something that Sodachi felt that Araragi stole from her.
We are clear in our understanding that this person is on the verge of, if not totally in, the throws of insanity. Her hatred isn’t an issue she is just kinda mulling over not being able to get around, nor is it one of a few things on her plate. This hatred towards Araragi is perhaps the only thing in the world that can give her energy. It practically forces you to ask, really ask, not just declare and not care, “What is her damage”. In the realm of Monogatari, it’s “What is her oddity“. But see more on that next section. And I’ll add a huge round of applause for Sodachi’s VA.
That leads to a head, as Araragi tries to steady the young lady, and she stabs his hand with a pencil. Then it goes straight into Hitagi Time. Now what we think of as important is the actual exchange of blows, it being the most memorable. But what precipates the exchange is the thing; Sodachi has an issue with Hitagi helping out Araragi to get into college, claiming that he will never pay it back to her. Hitagi states quite clearly, that there is nothing to pay back, she’s happy if he’s happy, and that him attending the same college as her, has more to do with her desire. Then Sodachi snaps, and gets aggressive again. Again, because her realization that she hurt Araragi did more to de-esculate her hate in that one moment than anything he could have said. Hitagi may be a badass, but here, she is an intrusion…
Red Leaves and All Leaves to be Lost
Somewhere, a Shinobu is going hnnnnnnnggggg!
It may be the Monty Hall problem, and it may be about probability or coincidence. One thing for certain is that the three letters are a clue about Sodachi’s mindset. It’s clear she made the map that goes onto the abandoned house. But, how much of that is left to chance? Very little really, as Araragi isn’t playing for a car, so he can read all the letters and get the map anyway. But it’s part of a game, that is for sure. Also, “What’s her oddity?” above. Araragi looses track of Ougi for a brief moment. They clearly show us that he finds Sengoku’s nameplate on her locker. Next shot, is Ougi looking on in profile, upwards. At this point in the story? Sengoku is “up Snake Mountain” And who facilitated her going there?
Ougi: “Don’t mind me, just breaking this guy out of his normal perceptions”
Everything abut this abandoned house just screams at me. At first it was Ougi asking, or leading, Araragi into confirming if it was anything like the abandoned cram school that her uncle, Meme, stayed in. This reminds him, and us, of the help both he and his friends would end up getting there. So, connection made. Then it was Araragi himself recalling this house as a ruin, and the next image was of a room that didn’t look ruined at all. Then, Ougi busts down a door that Araragi couldn’t open. Facilitating….Also, cause I just don’t know where to put this among all the possible clues, the house’s sale is managed by a Momiji agency. The color of changing leaves….transitions….
“Are you Bertrand Russell?” Mathematicians rule, I guess.
That is followed by a very bald faced clue that is only there to be bald faced. We are reminded that his parents are police officers. That’s not just random chatter, it can’t be. But soon, a ghost of Sodachi’s past past comes up, and the place is in ruins in Araragi’s mind again as it is in the present. The boy is hiding something, from us, from Ougi, and most of all from himself. It can only escalate from there. That train is interrupted by what I think of as a red herring. Why does Sodachi come back to school? Because that awful teacher left? Fishy. That might have given her a reason, but it’s not at the heart of her need. But in going back to the train of thought; why does Araragi let all this information out in the first place? He’s taken aback at how liberally he gives in to Ougi. Is he unburdening himself? Confessing? Is that just what Ougi does to people, or to him? As of right now, I’m going with confessional, cause his potential guilt makes for a great story.
Do we have enough clues to solve the riddle?
There is a negative emotion at the heart of every Oddity. Hate is just too large, at most it’s too large to tell a specific story; it’s far too general, but it’s a good place to start, then you get down to cases. With all the character’s we’ve had so far, there was something specific at their heart which gave rise to their own unique Oddity. Abandonment, envy, jealousy, becomng inconsolable, a lack of empowerment, being a victim….the list can go on.
But who exactly has the Oddity on their back? That classroom affects both Sodachi and Araragi as much as that abandoned house. Is it something they share? How unpretty can it get? ’cause the clues in that house, and Sodachi’s hatred towards Araragi makes me uneasy. I’ll see you next time for that. But not before reminding you that Ougi states, “I feel like I just came into being recently”, that dovetails into Ougi sussing out that Sodachi’s feelings of hatred towards him are, “divergent”. Is she having a go at him, or a go at how we identify ourselves as we age? Or something else?
Endcard
Who is that on the left? Kyoko! The Forgetful Detective! It’s NisiOisiN’s other light novel series. It has a live action show running this October!
…and SHAFT is helping him out!
Bonus
Click the above image to read the English fan translation of Koyomi Stone
About skylion
All around nerd that enjoys just about any anime genre. I love history, politics, public policy, the sciences, literature, arts...pretty much anything can make me geeky...except sports. Follow me @theskylion
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
You know, I think I like Sodachi. The intensity of her hatred is just so striking to me and that makes her really interesting to watch.
I’m loving that opening too.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Oh, Sodachi is a pip! The reasons behind her hatred are going to be of greater interest, I can tell you that! I’m a bit spoiled, I tried to keep it out of the post….but soon!
SHAFT always does great openings. That odd twist she did at the end gave me shivers…
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
I’m really curious about the oddity in here too. So far, the only odd thing has been Ougi. …And I don’t think she really counts.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Oddity =/= Odd, that much is very true, or else every single character in this franchise would be an Oddity. They’re dropping clues left and right, but until the larger picture comes into focus, they remain what they should be, isolated bits of information that make us speculate. But, since I am a bit of an Oddity myself, I’ll just go ahead and put it behind a spoiler tag.
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POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Let the girls of Monogatari insult you~
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
Hahaha I love how the moments Ougi is messing up with Koyomi’s memories are so obvious.
About Sodachi… Geez, so much hate. I’m not sure if I like the VA. Or is her damaged voice intentional? Like “UUUGH, I’m so broken I screamed the past two years thinking about how much I hate you that I don’t have a proper voice anymore”?
And I had forgotten how Senjougahara is a boss. When most people would be left speechless by Sodachi saying stuff like “you owe me your happiness”, she just shrugs it off as if it’s nothing much. And if you slap her? She punches you. Awesome.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Is Ougi messing with his memories? Seems to me she’s bringing out the stuff he doesn’t want to think about, but maybe should.
Damaged voice? I would call it talent, as Marina Inoue is one of the best of the industry vets.
I honestly think Hitagi screwed up the situation more than she handled it. It was like grease on a fire…
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
But it’s weird, because whenever Koyomi remembered stuff, there would be images of it. And when Ougi remembered for him, there were this weird art sequence that you put on the post. It’s like she’s inducing him to remember stuff that isn’t even supposed to be remembered, like she’s manipulating his memories.
The character has the damaged voice, not the VA. It was just weird, after hearing her perfectly fine voice one episode earlier. But I agree, she has to have a lot of talent to pull that out the way she did.
Hahaha sure, the punch definitely didn’t help. But I loved it nonetheless.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Whether or not he is supposed to be remembering those things is still up in the air; but yeah, it’s very manipulative.
DAT PUNCH! I don’t want fans to think that I’m knocking Hitagi down cause I hate her character, far from it. It was a very memorable moment, and I quite liked it as well.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
EDIT: first posted as a comment on the Owarimonogatari FI. Posted here just in case…
English Language Site for the Kizu films. The first one is Iron-Blooded, followed by Hot-Blooded, and wrapping up in Cold-Blooded. These were epithets Araragi used to describe Kiss-Shot Arcerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade.