Monogatari Series Second Season - Episode 9 Discussion / Poll (Mayoi Jiangshi IV)

[Dop]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

Originally Jiangshi were suppose to be corpses that were being transported back to their homeland to be buried after dying far away. They were carried on bamboo poles with the poles under their armpits, and a two man team transports the body upright. It looks like a hopping zombie from a distance.

Add folklore, and you get Taoist masters using Asian Voodoo to re-animate the corpse so it can make the trip home under its own power.

See the film "Mr. Vampire", for more reference.

At least that's what the whole thing with the rice immediately reminded me of!

[achirist]

I found this episode really touching. I haven't read the novels, and I loved the conclusion to this arc! In a sense you could say it was more about Shinobu then Mayoi, but it occurs to me they are in a similar position with Araragi--unlike the other girls, they don't die, they'll always be around. To explore his relationship with one, the other was needed.

And actually, this earth is very homophobic--sadly so are some monogatari fans, and recap episodes.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by Shikijin

It seems that originally Mayoi was supposed to be the narrator of the book, but it proved too difficult to write so Nisio went back to Araragi.

That would have been interesting. Shame that didn't happen, but I'm still quite happy with the end product.

Originally Posted by HandofFate

Isn't this how it usually is? Other than the intro arc of the characters, most of their focus ends up leapfrogging to the next.

Like in Nise. Kizu came right before it, so it focused on shinobu.
And in Karen Bees and Phoenix arcs, the girls had little relative screentime as well, and they had a lengthy closure scene in the next arc instead.

I wouldn't say it's usual since that only happened in Nise. And even then, Karen and Tsukihi weren't shafted to the extent Mayoi was. We still learned plenty of things about them in their arc. Another thing different here is that Mayoi wasn't affected by/turned into the oddity associated with her name in the title.

I hope the title of the next arc is not as misleading. I want more Nadeko!

[340.29]

Great episode. Was quite a nice surprise seeing grown up Hachikuji. She seems like a great person.

Onto another matter, how on earth did Oshino manage to deduce that Araragi time travelled? The reasoning the anime gave was this:
1) Hachikuji spoke about Araragi (in this world, no more than a person that saved her life long ago) to Oshino prior to Golden Week.
2) "I suppose you slipped through time to save her?"
3) ???????.

A girl who tells you a story about someone saving her long ago does not imply someone time travelled to save her. Nor does it in any way imply Araragi did it. The only way to assume she was saved through time travel is to know that she is suppose to be dead. This would mean this Oshino (of route X) knows facts about the other world, route A. My conclusion is this: Oshino is omniscient.

[zero7090]

Damn, this is sad.

This is the most emotional overflow ep, in the entire monogatari series i have ever watched so far. Before, i only regarded the series as rom-comedy, but now i finally feel the drama in this. I know not whether the author started to considered adding drama from this novel volume or shaft finally get themselves together and did a good adoption. It is the first time my emotion ran wild like this, i think not since the 5cm/s.

Kiss shot seiyu voice especially that "pat me on the head" line, stirs my heart like there is an electric egg beater inside my body. (Is she and shinobou seiyu the same?)

The soundtrack covered the screen pretty well. Static views with nothing but the leafs moving is good chemical mix for an emotional scene with emotional music.

[The Butcher]

Mayoi getting shafted didn't upset me in the slightest.

She is my least fav tbh.

[shinyaNakagawa]

Originally Posted by 340.29

Great episode. Was quite a nice surprise seeing grown up Hachikuji. She seems like a great person.

Onto another matter, how on earth did Oshino manage to deduce that Araragi time travelled? The reasoning the anime gave was this:
1) Hachikuji spoke about Araragi (in this world, no more than a person that saved her life long ago) to Oshino prior to Golden Week.
2) "I suppose you slipped through time to save her?"
3) ???????.

A girl who tells you a story about someone saving her long ago does not imply someone time travelled to save her. Nor does it in any way imply Araragi did it. The only way to assume she was saved through time travel is to know that she is suppose to be dead. This would mean this Oshino (of route X) knows facts about the other world, route A. My conclusion is this: Oshino is omniscient.

Spoiler for the quoted person:

You have answered your own question.
Oshino is a practitioner who collects all stuff about Kaii, may it be legends or just some rumours. He need to believe everything he had collected during his mission.

[ID555]

Wow great job on the episode, very touching, especially with the choice of background music.

I'm also impressed by Sakamoto who went from Shinobu's pleasant, singsong voice to Kisshot's harsh lifeless one.

[DorkingtonPugsly]

When comparing this arc to the last one I can't help but notice the drop in quality. It's less clean, finely cut, not all that lush. Hopefully it's not gona be a constant downhill from here on out.

I also think Shaft and whomever are drawing/designing the backgrounds, settings, and architecture, do a nicer job when it's landscapes of the city this takes place in. It's probably that for me it looks better when it's done with buildings and streets with a present day vibe. That's also why neko white and other arcs looked nicer in my opinion than Kabuki. I'm being really unspecific here (really tired) but hopefully someone gets it.

EDIT: I also just realized that's why for me the first episode of Kabuki looked so nice and felt good.

[omimon]

Originally Posted by shinyaNakagawa

Spoiler for Comparison to the novel:

1. All four blades were the replicas of the real one.
2. Adult Mayoi is 21 years old.
3. This arc is the first part of a two-parter which interconnected to Neko Shiro.
4. Araragi texted Senjougahara and Hanekawa in the morning before Shinobu and him met Mr. Hachikuji. It has been cut in the anime.

Read number 4 again and consider how impossible that is.

[Shikijin]

Originally Posted by 340.29

Onto another matter, how on earth did Oshino manage to deduce that Araragi time travelled? The reasoning the anime gave was this:
1) Hachikuji spoke about Araragi (in this world, no more than a person that saved her life long ago) to Oshino prior to Golden Week.
2) "I suppose you slipped through time to save her?"
3) ???????.

Araragi actually spoke to several persons, including three schoolgirls, a police officer and Hachikuji's father. In addition, there are possibly several other bystanders who noticed a weird boy together with a blond girl. Blond persons are rare in Japan, even more so years ago in a country town.

In addition, Oshino perfectly knew Shinobu could time travel, although this was cut from the anime. I don't remember exactly where the scene was, but at a certain point Shinobu casually mentioned that Oshino told her to absolutely never time travel, which made Araragi freak out.

One more thing: the title of the book, Kabukimonogatari, contains the word kabukimono, ronin who dressed and acted in a way that stood out, a reference to what Araragi unconsciously did.

[Sol Falling]

Really pretty disappointing. I guess I maybe wouldn't lay it all on the final episode itself, but this arc as a whole felt rather rushed and with a feeling of a great deal of substance being cut out. I don't have a particular attachment to Shinobu in the first place so SHAFT needed to more gradually build up the emotional development and more concretely highlight the tragedy if the finale scene was going to move me. I also would've wanted/expected a lot more action and exposition about other characters in the parallel world, their fates and experiences, before jumping right back to the current universe.

I seriously think 4 episodes is bullshit for any single novel adaptation. Not one of the volumes has worked out well in that format so far. Despite being so hyped for the rest of Monogatari S2 after the incredibly solid showing of Nekomonogatari White, and holding even greater expectations considering my understanding of the source material, I'm less excited for the rest of the season now.

[Helius]

Originally Posted by Shikijin

Araragi actually spoke to several persons, including three schoolgirls, a police officer and Hachikuji's father. In addition, there are possibly several other bystanders who noticed a weird boy together with a blond girl. Blond persons are rare in Japan, even more so years ago in a country town.

Yeah, plus all he had to do was to have Hanekawa admit as a child she was "molested" by a hentai high-schooler... that's all the evidence he needs.

[Cosmic Eagle]

They should have drawn the scenes with Shinobu and Kisshot out IMO. That was the best in the entire animated Monogatari bits so far. What will they do with Kidzu I wonder...

[shinyaNakagawa]

Originally Posted by omimon

Read number 4 again and consider how impossible that is.

Spoiler for ...:

It seems that my brain mixed things up, but I really thought that Araragi had tried to contact both of them even though he know the chance is too slim. Well... my bad.

[-Sho-]

So that's it , it felt like if something was missing , well , was surprised how easy they handle the last boss.

[MrFalcon]

I really liked the episode, although parts did feel a bit rushed.

The scene with Shinobu and Araragi marching to battle while walking in the flowers and holding hands was pretty cheesy. I would have liked that to be cut for more time on the ending.

I always enjoy reading the novels more than the show but don't know Japanese. I hope somebody finishes the translation of this one someday, or at least the end. Would love to see how Nisioisin wrote it.

[frodonk]

no complaints from me, mostly because there were very few of those still shots this episode, I always have to keep my fingers on the pause button just to read those.

Did I spot a Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere reference in there, btw?

was that the part where they said they were the same? if it was then no, it's not a reference lol.

[340.29]

Originally Posted by frodonk

no complaints from me, mostly because there were very few of those still shots this episode, I always have to keep my fingers on the pause button just to read those.

Wow. I never really thought about doing that. I assume you mean the flash texts?
I've always thought of it as some kind of subliminal messaging, or just something planned to be fragmented. I generally pick up keywords from it, and I've always assumed that's the whole point. Would be quite upset if I've been missing real content this whole time.

[shinyaNakagawa]

Originally Posted by 340.29

Wow. I never really thought about doing that. I assume you mean the flash texts?
I've always thought of it as some kind of subliminal messaging, or just something planned to be fragmented. I generally pick up keywords from it, and I've always assumed that's the whole point. Would be quite upset if I've been missing real content this whole time.

You need to read those. Some of them explain stuff that SHAFT did not animate. They are not really subliminal though...