Quote:
Originally Posted by omimon
Actually, other then being Araragi's girlfriend she plays a really minor role in terms of Araragi's story. From what I remember, Senjougahara is the last person Araragi ever goes to when it comes to oddities. It is always, Oshino then Shinobou then Hanekawa or Kanbaru. Hell, he even goes to Nadeko and Mayoi who doesn't really have any powers before going to Senjougahara.
People has been crazy for Senjougahara and I can see why, but in terms of usefulness she really is useless.
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What does that have to do with anything? Usefulness? What? I was just talking about how all the arcs are pretty explicitly set up as ways of developing their relationship. Note that the
relationship is the star here, not the characters themselves necessarily.
Mayoi's arc is about Senjougahara seeing the true nature of Araragi's "helpful" personality, plus the obvious confession and its aftermath. We also get a scene about them promising not to hide things from each other.
Suruga's arc is about the aftermath of that promise, and how it conflicts with Araragi's ideals. He has to realize that suddenly he's important to someone, and that not getting anyone else involved isn't the best way to make everyone happy. It's also about them both wanting to help each other, but not really being sure how to (Senjougahara wants to help him study/get his life in order, Araragi wants to help her get her friend back).
Nadeko's arc is
about Senjougahara being pushed into the background. The whole theme was "choose who you want to save" with the analogy being that he can't spend so much time hanging around other girls if he expects to be Senjougahara's boyfriend. You can't be friendly with everyone equally, at some point you have to stop and think about what's most important to you.
Hanekawa's arc is about... well we haven't seen it yet. I don't doubt the events of episode 12 help set it up though.
And yes, there's more to the arcs than that, most obviously the particular issues that the girls had, but in terms what they all mean to Araragi it's pretty obvious what the overall theme is. People sometimes indulge in what I think of as "eroge thinking" in that they separate the story into "routes" that they treat as almost causally isolated from each other. This is simply not the case in most series, and especially not this one. Araragi is the main character for a reason, and no it's not simply to be an audience surrogate. This is his story, and focusing on each arc as an entirely separate thing misses that.