[monir]

I was going to wait till the sub appears before I open my yap, but I think I'll explode if I wait any longer.

Originally Posted by guanin

Anyways, this arc involves the flashback to Golden Week with Sawari-Neko's first attack, then going back to the present time line in the anime to see the Sawari-Neko coming back, right?

The timeline was tiny bit more confusing than that... The episode started out with her injuries on the cheek. At that moment, we don't have a clue whether it is taking place in the present or in the past. After the opening theme, Hanekawa appears once again as Araragi is talking to Sengoku. She displays her symptom there. When Araragi starts to wonder if this is the same as the time during the golden week, the flashback starts. The episode ends in the present when Hanekawa points out about the question marks of a guy who is openly walking with girls' school mizugi. Other than the similar tell tale signs of her Shiroi Neko days, aka, Bad Hanekawa, aka, Black Hanekawa (all akas' are coined by Oshino himself ), she didn't revert back to anything.

There was a lot of information about what brings out the Black Hanekawa. I'll call her Shiroi Hanekawa form as Black Hanekawa because it's aptly misleading, equally amusing, and yet describes the other Hanekawa perfectly. She is a bad kitty once in that form. Oshino says that she transforms in that form as a stress relief mechanism when she is under a tremendous amount of stress. What gives her those stress? Exams? boyfriend? Family? Thinking about that first scene, her family is most certainly the source of her stress. That's also seem to be the first clue about the opening scene was taking place in the past. The 2nd clue was when she touched and picked up that dead cat for a burial. Sawari neko.

I'm speculating here of course. I'm not certain if I'm correct, but that's how I reasoned the opening scene happened in the past and what lead to her eventual transformation in the upcoming Golden Week.

The flow of interesting information about Hanekawa continues and gives more ammunition for further speculation. As shown, Hanekawa was bitten by Shinobu. Since she is high up in the food chain, being a vampire and all, she was able to energy-drain the Black Hanekawa aka Shirai Neko to the usual Hanekawa. Speculation starts here.....

Hanekawa never had a resolution to her Black Hanekawa problem. It simply means that Black Hanekawa never appeared since Shinobu's own version of energy drain on Black Hanekawa.

The question is why didn't Hanekawa transform into Black Hanekawa since then? The answer is she coped with her stress one way or the other since then instead of letting it built to a critical stage which would trigger the Black Hanekawa transformation.

So what were those steps she took to keep the stress at a tolerable level?

She stayed away from home as long as possible. She talked to Araragi and enjoyed spending time with him. A certain checks-and-balance was reached to keep the Black Hanekawa at bay. All signs of symptoms disappeared...... well, until now.

So what is triggering the familiar symptom to her transformation?

Once again, the obvious answer has to be stress. So, what is causing her stress? Her family is always a suspect. But then, a major clue to her new- found stress is thrown at us when Araragi ponders to himself if there is someone suitable for Hanekawa who is kinder than anyone else. And it seems he was going to voice that question, but then.... he stops short. Hanekawa, near the end of the episode tells Araragi that he is kind when he keeps pestering her about going to hospital and etc... Here comes further speculation:

Araragi is now officially involved with Senjougahara. As a result, the checks and balance is tipped. Araragi's very company used to help Hanekawa to cope with her stress. Now she can't be with Araragi as much out of decency and consideration for Senjougahara. And so her stress level is on the rise again.

Now the real question is why is Hanekawa stressing over the lack of Araragi's company? Why indeed? And then it hits me...... You effin' lucky bastard Araragi..................

I am so looking forward to this arc.


P.S. DV stands of Domestic Violence just in case anyone isn't familiar with the acronym.

P.P.S The two other piece of information that give further rise to speculation were: a) Shinobu bit Black Hanekawa. It's an interesting information because of what we know about Araragi's abilities. b) Sengoku observed Shinobu gave her and Kanbaru a sort of look which entirely different from when Shinobu looks at Araragi or Oshino. The following was the look Sengoku got from Shinobu:

Originally Posted by Belum_nabum

BTW Monir HOW THE HELL do you take so many pics so fast.

Dilligent usage of my index finger placed on top of the mouse by gently caressing it and pressing on it over and over and over till the job was done. Did that answer your question?

Media Player Classic also helped out a lot.