Owarimonogatari – 04
It’s not the first time we’ve seen Ougi’s hands….
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“Oshino Ougi was Oshino Ougi…and everyone lived happily ever after” – Araragi Koyomi this episode’s cold open. Juxtapose that with Ougi herself redacting everything but her own name, and you have some suspicious circumstance. |
“See, we’re not on the same page.”
Geez, Araragi, how many ways can the cityscape spell it out for us…
Araragi is being pretty easy when it comes to admonishing himself. When it comes to his relationship with Ougi, we aren’t exactly as clued-in as he is. He’s talking to us from a future point in the storyline, and he doesn’t come off as the most reliable of narrators. It’s his theater of the mind, and he moves the pieces around the set as he please in his own recollections. I’ve always had the hint that he’s the kind of person to admit to a small guilt, in order to distract us from a larger one. So when he calls himself a fool in relation to Ougi, how is that supposed to work? Is he a fool for trusting her, or in not trusting her enough? There are lots of us that think that Ougi is leading him down a dark path, manipulating his memories, forcing him into corners with subtlety, only to whisk him out with aplomb. I think it goes a lot deeper and further than that, and one of the places it goes is between two good friends. Araragi and Hanekawa. It might not even go in the direction we think it does, at least at first.
“What about Hanekawa are you saying you know?”
Probably not the altercation we are lead to believe…
“I only know what you know.” is Ougi’s by-now stock answer. This was after a lovely battle of politeness and wits between Ougi and Hanekawa. Now, an awful lot was said, and the battle had all the marks of a terse love triangle in the making. So, what does Araragi know? At this point, for this case in point, that’s up in the air. But one of the things I’m seeing is how he isn’t quite sold on Ougi being as bad an influence as Hanakawa makes her out to be. He hasn’t dismissed her in any fashion. In the narration for this arc, she’s always close to his thoughts.
Closer than Hakekawa can get…
I’m not sold either. But, what was important right now is that Hanekawa isn’t out of the loop just yet. Of course, neither is Ougi. But there was something almost shedenfruede about Ougi’s take down of Hakekawa. Not for Ougi, but for Araragi himself. Something that feels like…well….these are the things he would have said if he didn’t cling to the nice guy act all the time. After all Ougi has shot down or admonished both Sengoku and Kanbaru, or outright manipulated them. Something that Araragi himself might have wished for in some capacity. Oddities are really good at filling in the gaps between wish and reality. The distance between the two friends on perception and intelligence is enough to maybe make the idiot…well, an idiot when it comes to Hanekawa.
I’m running with the assumption that Ougi is an Oddity of Araragi’s own creation, one made for a specific set of needs. If there is anyone in this theater of the mind that could pull of such a feat, it’s this guy. But if there’s anyone that could also pull it off with a singular lack of skill, it’s also this guy. In that respect, Shinobu is almost the same style of Oddity, and since she shares a last name with Ougi, and since that name had a great deal of weight tossed behind it this episode, I’m going to assume a connection. “Repaying Oshino is a great thing to keep in mind”. is something to also keep in mind for this connection. Ougi prefers “giving till it hurts” in her Straw Hats for Jizu statement; which is not only Araragi’s modus operandi, but might be his raison d’tre.
Can they be any more heavy handed with the numbering?
I’m also going with the assumption that Ougi isn’t manipulating Araragi towards some foul end. If anything, she’s making him focus on clarity of thought. I’ve said there is larger game being played in this town. Ougi is an active part of that game. Now, instead of being a player, what if she’s a piece? This all might fall apart a little considering that it was Hanekawa that “won this round”. But she cheated. The potential for breast grab is her own special move against the idiot. After all, she’s played it before and got the best result out of it; all without forfeiting to a fondle. That was never about giving him a feel. It was a call-back to when she stuck his neck out for him. All of this, just to go talk to two absent classmates, who I can’t help but think are more alike that we might know. But then, the only thing I can’t figure out is how Sengoku connects to Sodachi knowing that Araragi’s parent’s are cops…
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 Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
This was such a tease episode. “We’ll show 3 minutes of Hanekawa, and then waste 15 minutes with boring-ass Ougi standing on a streetcorner yammering with Araragi, who turns into the stupidest person in the universe when he talks to her.” I was so much hoping we’d have more of Hanekawa here, but nope: bait and switch.
Maybe it’s the way the show’s supposed to go, but whenever it’s Ougi talking, it just so smarmy, so unctuous, and so obviously manipulative. I just wanna smack the hell out of stupid Araragi (maybe Hanekawa will do it, but I doubt it). And it’s not like the conversation goes anywhere. It just goes over the same thing again and again and again and again and again.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
In so far as I know, your wish for more Tsubasa will come true next episode, if we haven’t lost you already.
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
Maybe it’s just me, but… please stop posting videos in the preview image of a post. They break the blog’s formatting: completely overlapping everything on the right, and become a major nuisance.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
It’s not just you. I just checked it out on Firefox for both Linux and Windows; I don’t get the same issue with Chrome for either OS…and I just don’t bother with IE period. I pretty much use Chrome exclusively, so the problem doesn’t register with me. I’ll edit the post…
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I get the same problem as Wanderer and it basically covers my entire screen. :B
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
I’ve edited the settings for the webm/video images, as I was able to duplicate the problem in my version of Firefox. A refresh of the webpage should fix the problem if it still looks huuuuge.
POWUH: 400-499 with 462 comments
That appears to have fixed it. Thank you muchly.
I do use Firefox. I probably should have mentioend that in the first post.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
It wasn’t that hard to figure it was Firefox; one, process of elimination, then testing it on my own browser, and two, it’s a known issue with that browser. But, now worries…thanks for bringing the problem up.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
There is no IE problem. >_>
POWUH: 800-899 and Mad Scientist with 814 comments
I can’t replicate the issue.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I find it hard not to see Ougi as a devil on Araragi’s shoulder, leading him down a dark path…but that would probably be too simple for a Monogatari character. I feel so on guard with her precisely because I just don’t know what to expect from her. Does she have some good points that aren’t purely focused on manipulating Araragi? I really can’t tell. I like that uncertainty about her. She does things that seem nice but she’s so unnerving and all-knowing that it’s impossible for me to trust her. She might be a new favourite for me (but not as good as Hanekawa!)
I really enjoyed the low key cat fight carried out in the most fake polite tones possible. It was brutal.
I also love how the cliffhanger was “WHAT PAJAMAS IS SHE WEARING???”.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
OK. Prediction time! For the Pajamas!I call even odds on baby blue with soft pink trim with soft pink cartoony bunny faces. If you wanna play put forth your prediction. The prize is a guest-blogging/tag team slot with me on the first episode of Shinobu Mail. Now don’t bet if you don’t want the prize!
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Yeah, she’s a devil of some sort. I keep in mind that dark doesn’t always mean evil, nor does sneaky and manipulative. But, recall that at the end of Shinobu Time, Araragi spun a fake story about Hachikuji to Ougi, so there is something there.
I still think that Ougi won that round. But she sooo could have called Hanekawa on the boob bluff…
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
No matter what Ougi had said.
THE BOOBS ARE ABSOLUTE!
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Ougi: Did you touch her boobs the last time?
Araragi: No…she said she would hate me if I did….
Ougi: So it must be for some other reason right? But nevermind, you just go on…
POWUH: 900-999 with 915 comments
I love how they just cut Hanekawa’s proposition to Araragi walking with Hanekawa. It’s like as soon as she mentioned the boobs, we had an obvious winner there. Oh, Araragi, who do you think you are deceiving?
Also, was Araragi always this dumb, or is he like that because of Ougi? It’s too obvious that there is something wrong yet he just seems to be purposefully overlooking it for the sake of keeping her around.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Well, as for why Araragi is acting the idiot…he’s caught between two strong female characters. He’s a limp noodle in every aspect. Plus Ougi is spooooky!
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I don’t really agree. I think that Ougi’s probably got some “power to cloud men’s minds”. Think about the other encounters she’s been in. Nadeko lost hours while talking to her. Araragi consistently turns into a yes man, barely above drooling from lack of brainpower, when he talks to her.
Of course, maybe I’m just stepping on skylion’s “spooooky” joke here.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Well, I think Ougi is an Oddity in her own right, so the power to cloud minds might be appropriate.
…and you can step on my joke, if you wanna…