Tag: 2015

Psycho-Pass Movie

Psycho-Pass Movie

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Psycho-Pass Movie anime cover art featuring Akane Tsunemori and Shinya Kougami
Psycho-Pass Movie Cover Art

Overview

The Psycho-Pass Movie is a continuation of the series after season two, but that doesn’t really matter all that much. I honestly don’t remember the plot of season two, as I’m sure is the case for many people, and yet I had no trouble following along with the plot of this movie.

Inspector Akane Tsunimori is once again our protagonist, and Shinya Kougami from season one has been brought back as well, albeit as a terrorist this time around. Because this movie prominently features these two over the rest of the characters, it’s more apt to say that this movie is a sequel to season one, and just happens to take place after season two.

Needless to say, that means it’s better than season two was. But, it still wasn’t perfect and I’ll be getting to my issues with this movie in a later section.

Instead of taking place in Japan, this movie takes place in SEAUn, or the South East Asian Union, which seems to be located in or around Cambodia as far as I can tell. I don’t believe it was ever explicitly stated, but the country’s flag looked similar and that’s what I’ve heard from other sources.

There’s a civil war going on in SEAUn, where the military government has recently implemented the Sibyl System just like Japan. However, all data gathered in SEAUn is transmitted to Japan for analysis by the system; there isn’t a separate branch in SEAUn.

Because of this, members of a rebel group in SEAUn went to Japan in an attempt to take down the Sibyl System and free their country from oppression. After they’re caught and their memories are ripped out of them, the Ministry of Welfare’s Public Safety Bureau finds that Kougami, a former enforcer who went missing, is taking part in the SEAUn rebellion.

Not only is he an escaped criminal from Japan, but as a former inspector an enforcer, he knows all there is about fighting against Japan’s technology, and has been training the rebels on how to do so. Because of this, capturing him is the PSBs top priority, and Akane is sent to SEAUn to do just that.

Inspector Akane Tsunemori from the Psycho-Pass Movie anime
Inspector Akane Tsunemori

Now that the general plot is set up, it’s time to go through the rest of the summary fairly quickly. If you guessed that Kougami isn’t really a terrorist, then you’d be correct, sort of. After leaving Japan, he tried to find somewhere peaceful to live, only to realize the entire outside world is full of civil wars.

He then settles in SEAUn where the Sibyl System has recently been implemented, probably because it’s something he’s familiar with, and decides that he’ll have to fight to claim a peaceful place to live. However, during the fighting he notices that something’s off about the Sibyl System in SEAUn.

Japan never issued Dominators to SEAUn, and so the military uses standard firearms instead. The issue there is that standard firearms don’t know the difference between different levels of latent criminals. Because of this, any latent criminal, no matter their hue, can be killed at any time.

Further, the members of the military never seem to have their hues clouded no matter how many innocent civilians they murder. Akane and Kougami then team up to get to the bottom of this mystery, and they learn that the military has been tampering with their hues before sending the data back to Japan.

The plot is resolved when Akane has Shion hack into the system in SEAUn and fix the scanners. Once the scanners throughout the city are working properly, the hues of the soldiers are properly read, and they’re killed by the automated weapons they had been using to kill civilians.

Oh, and there’s also a mercenary group of cyborgs in the movie as well who are hunting down Akane and Kougami throughout the second half of the movie. Other than the fact that they’re chasing them, they don’t really have anything to do with the plot.

In the end, it’s found that the military leader who took control of SEAUn and implemented the Sibyl System was actually killed and replaced by the Sybil System itself as a body double. Although it denies this, it would seem that the Sibyl System has begun it’s version of Manifest Destiny.

Issues

Before I discuss the issues with the actual movie itself, let me first mention the issues with how I viewed the movie. The version of this movie I found was only in 480p and had poor subtitles. This means that not only was I missing out on what I assume were great visuals, but the dialogue may have been a bit off as well.

The subtitles being a bit off weren’t too big of a deal, except for the fact that half of the movie was already in English and yet the subtitles were still incorrect somehow. And, that brings me to my first major complaint about the movie, the fact that half of it was in English.

You may think I’m exaggerating that, but I’m not. Literally half of the movie was in English, because apparently that’s what the creators of Psycho-Pass think the primary language is Cambodia is. I’m not going to say that nobody in Cambodia speaks English, but their official language is Khmer.

As far as I could tell, the only reason English was used is because it’s a placeholder for “other” languages. By this I mean that there’s Japan, and there’s everywhere else, and to differentiate, they use Japanese in Japan, and an “other” language for everywhere else, which in this case happened to be English.

To a Japanese audience this may have been fine, but for an American audience, this really hurt the movie. Not only does the language not match the region speaking it, but it’s also all being spoken by Japanese voice actors with thick accents. This makes sense for the Japanese characters, but not for everyone else.

But, again, it all comes back to the amount of English in the movie. If there were only a few English lines, it wouldn’t have been a big deal, but there was simply too much English to ignore it.

My next issue with the movie is with the concept as a whole. I understand that something different has to be done to keep the plot fresh, but due to the change in location, this movie didn’t really feel like Psycho-Pass.

The Psycho-Pass I’m used to took place in a futuristic Tokyo where everything is pristine and monitored 24/7. However, this movie takes place in a war-torn nation and although there’s still futuristic technology, it looks and feels more like a dystopia than utopia.

I don’t have much experience with the Ghost in the Shell franchise, but this movie felt like it would fit much better with that than with the previous two seasons of Psycho-Pass. Perhaps the military nature of this movie also pushed it in that direction unlike the detective nature of the series.

The third and final issue with this movie I want to bring up is that the new characters and plot don’t actually matter in any way. I already mentioned how the team of mercenaries didn’t actually have a real effect on the plot, and the same goes for the rest of the new characters if I’m being honest.

None of these characters have any sort of lasting impact, and the overarching antagonist, the leader of SEAUn, wasn’t ever an antagonist at all, it was the Sybil System playing the role of antagonist in order to spread its domain. With this in mind, everything Akane achieves in the movie was going to be achieved with or without her anyway.

In fact, we’re explicitly told that the only reason she was actually sent to SEAUn in the first place was to get her out of the Sybil System’s way so it could do its job, not to actually arrest Kougami. Oh, and Kougami is let go once again, changing nothing from the end of season one.

Free Will

Before I end, I feel that I should mention at least one thing I like about Psycho-Pass and this movie in general, and that’s how it uses the concept of free will. I probably mentioned this in my review of the series, but Psycho-Pass takes a different stance on free will than most other anime.

While there are certainly those who fight against the Sybil System such as Shougo Makishima in season one and Kougami in this movie, they’re portrayed as pseudo-antagonists instead of protagonists. In fact, Makishima was definitely the antagonist.

Usually we see that free will is something to be treasured and worth fighting for, but Psycho-Pass takes an alternative perspective by saying that free will is dangerous, everyone would be happier without it, and given the option, people would choose to remove it from the equation.

So, let’s go through each of these points as illustrated by this movie.

First, the idea that free will is dangerous is illustrated simply by Japan being the only country on Earth which isn’t in a civil war. This lack of civil unrest is attributed to the Sybil System controlling every aspect of everyday life, and because of this the people are happy and safe.

Next, not only are those who live under the Sybil System happy because of the relative safety in which they live, but the system also takes all the guesswork out of life for them. In the beginning of the movie, Akane’s friend mentions how she’s getting married to someone the Sybil System suggested would be her perfect match.

She admits that she didn’t trust the system to make a decision like this at first, and that their relationship had a rocky start, but in the end she found that the system was right all along. In the series we also had a number of similar examples, including career compatibility.

Finally, the idea that the masses would choose safety over free will comes into play in the post-credit scene of the movie. The Sybil System steps down as dictator of SEAUn and allows for an open election, only to be re-elected shortly after.

Conclusion

Overall I decided to give the Psycho-Pass Movie a 6/10, which is actually the same rating I gave to the first season. Perhaps if I watched the first season today I would rate it higher than I did originally, but I don’t have much time for rewatching anime, there’s too much to keep up with as it is.

And, if I’m being honest, other than the scene of Akane first encountering Kougami (pictured far above), the best part of the movie was actually when the ending credits began and the song Namae No Nai Kaibutsu by EGOIST started playing. So, the fact that one of the best parts of the movie was the ending credits song from season one should tell you something.

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HuniePop

HuniePop

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HuniePop anime title screen featuring nine of the girls
HuniePop Title Screen

Introduction

While browsing anime and anime-inspired games on Steam during the Summer Sale (which ends on July 5th), I came across HuniePop. HuniePop is a combination of dating simulation and match-3 puzzle games, and is also rated 18+ because why not?

Although the game is 18+, there is both a “censored” and uncensored version of the game. The “censored” version is the one available through Steam, but I’m using quotations because even that version is only somewhat censored.

However, I didn’t want to let any of my readers down, so I took one for the team and patched my version of the game to be uncensored, which only took about one minute to do. If I’m going to play a lewd puzzle game, I might as well play the lewdest version.

Really all this patch seemed to change were a few of the pictures you receive from the girls after completing in-game milestones. You still get the censored versions of these pictures, but the uncensored ones are extremely explicit, and that’s all I’ll say about those.

The basic plot of the game is that a love fairy appears in your room and teaches you how to get dates with all the cute girls in town. You can buy the girls gifts, food, or alcoholic beverages, talk to them to learn about their personal lives, or ask them on dates which is the main focus of the game.

I’ll go into a bit more detail about the different things this game has to offer later on, so for now we’ll move on to the girls themselves.

Characters

The first girl we meet is Kyu, the love fairy. She’s originally not one of the datable girls, but is unlocked after you’ve successfully “conquered” a certain number of the other girls. I think it’s between one and three.

Kyu is one of the best two girls in the game, the other being Audrey who I’ll get to in a bit. With pink hair, it’s no wonder she’s one of my favorite characters in the game, however, I also find her dialogue to be some of the best in the game as well (pictured below).

The next eight girls we’ll just run through in the order they appear in your HunieBee contacts.

Tiffany is a blonde college student and cheerleader. She’s a party girl, but only in that she likes to have fun and is somewhat shallow; she doesn’t do any drugs like the real party girl of the game does. Of all the girls, I found Tiffany to be the hardest to read. She’s a party girl, but also a good girl so I was often conflicted when choosing answers to her questions.

Aiko is a psychics professor at the university. She has a cynical sense of humor which makes her easier to read than Tiffany. Basically, when she asks a question you should pick the answer that’s the mid-ground, but also somewhat funny.

Kyanna is a hairdresser at the mall who’s really into fitness and working out; good thing I was able to lie and say I like doing those things too. She’s one of the girls I spent the least time with because her dialogue wasn’t funny, and I wasn’t interested in anything she had to say. However, she’s far from the worst girl.

The other best girl, Audrey, is up next. Audrey is the true party girl of the game and has some of the best dialogue along with Kyu. Whenever she asks a question, it’s pretty hard to pick the wrong answer if you understand anything about her personality.

Lola is the girl who annoyed me the most from a collector’s standpoint. In order to unlock everything in the game, you need to frequently talk to and go on dates with the girls, however, Lola was frequently unavailable due to her job as a flight attendant. This means I often had to wait multiple day cycles before I was able to interact with her.

Nikki is the shy, nerdy girl of the game. She doesn’t really have much going on personality-wise. This is the only girl for which Kyu’s advice is to “just be yourself,” and I’m still not sure who she was insulting more, me or Nikki.

Our next girl, Jessie, is actually Tiffany’s mom. It took me way too long to realize that the only two blonde girls in the game had the same last name and that some of their dialogue referenced each other. Jessie is a professional cam girl and likes to hang out at the bar.

Beli is my least favorite girl of the game. She’s the spiritual girl who’s too nice for her own good, and so her dialogue annoyed me. I know I said I spent the least time with Kyanna, but Beli was probably pretty close.

The next three girls are all bonus characters, kind of like Kyu, although she counts more as one of the main girls. To unlock each of these girls, a special task must be completed within the game.

The first one I unlocked was Venus, Kyu’s boss. To unlock Venus you must successfully “conquer” all nine of the girls I previously mentioned. As the goddess of love, she’s considered to be the final boss of the game.

Next, I unlocked Momo, a cat girl. To unlock Momo you need to buy a goldfish from the store, then throw it in the trash while in the park. I’m not really sure how anyone is supposed to figure this out, but I had to look it up.

The final girl I unlocked was Celeste, an alien bounty hunter. To unlock Celeste you need to give Kyu the adult magazine which has been in your inventory since the beginning of the game. She’ll then give you an odd item in return which you need to try to give to a girl on the beach at night.

HuniePop menu screen featuring Kyu
HuniePop Menu Screen

Gameplay

While half of the gameplay involves talking to the various girls, the more important part is the puzzle gameplay (pictured below). These match-3 puzzles are how the success or failure of dates is decided. If you reach the required score within the required number of moves, the date is a success.

Each piece can be moved anywhere within its column or row to make matches of three or more. The larger the match, the more points that are awarded.

The green, red, orange, and dark blue are the main pieces for scoring. Green is flirtation, red is sexuality, orange is romance, and dark blue is talent. Each girl likes one of these colored pieces and dislikes another; this means matches with these colors will be worth more or fewer points.

There are also four special pieces: yellow, pink, purple, and light blue. Matching the yellow pieces awards an extra move, pink increases your “Passion level,” purple makes you lose points, and blue increases your “Sentiment.”

As far as I could tell, increasing your Passion level increases the amount of points awarded by other matches. If you match 3 red pieces with a Passion level of 10, you’ll be awarded more points than making the same match with a passion level of 0.

Sentiment points are spent on in-date items. Items can have a wide variety of effects such as clearing all of the pieces of a certain kind, or granting bonuses for matches of four or more for the rest of the date.

For an adult dating sim/puzzle game, I found the puzzle gameplay to be surprisingly good.

HuniePop puzzle screen featuring Tiffany
HuniePop Puzzle Screen

Conclusion

In about three days I sunk 20 hours into HuniePop and ended up 100%-ing the game. This means I “conquered” all 12 girls, unlocked all six outfits and hairstyles for each girl, gave them each all 24 gifts they wanted, and learned everything there is to know about them all, thus completing their bios.

Like I said at the beginning, if I’m going to play a lewd puzzle game, I’m going to go all in.

One of the smaller features I also liked about this game was the ability to choose the gender of your character. There’s no way to change the girls into boys, but you can choose to play as either a male or female. All this really does is change some of the dialogue for the characters, but as someone who always plays games as a female character, this was a nice touch.

HuniePop is normally $10, but since I got it during the Summer Sale it was only $2.50. If I had to pay full price, I don’t think I would have gotten this game, and it definitely wouldn’t have been as worth it, but for $2.50 it was a great deal. 20 hours in a $2.50 game is like 480 hours in a $60 game, so that’s not bad.

If I had to rate this game, I’d give it an 8/10, but that’s also taking the reduced price I paid for it into consideration. For $10 I would probably lower it to a 7. It’s true that it has more replay value than something like Doki Doki Literature Club, but it still wasn’t as good.

Adding to the replay value of this game are all the collectibles, the four separate save files, and the unlockable “Alpha Mode” (yes, I completed it) which is a higher difficulty mode unlocked by turning in all 12 pairs of panties from the girls to Kyu.

GATE

GATE

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GATE anime series cover art
GATE

Overview

GATE: Thus the JSDF Fought There!, or just GATE for short, is yet another isekai anime, although this one has a bit of a twist. Instead of one protagonist being randomly transported to another world, a large gate appears in the middle of Japan which is connected to another world.

From within this gate, a massive army attacks from a fantasy world, and in retaliation, Japan sends the SDF (Self Defense Force) into the other world basically to conquer it. As you might expect of a 21st century army attacking a fantasy world, it’s a slaughter.

Although some of the most powerful dragons of the land can withstand rifle rounds, even they are no match for the tanks and jets at the SDF’s disposal. Luckily for the SDF, the only being who stands any chance of wiping them out is actually on their side, whom I’ll get to later.

I’ve heard people call this anime a propaganda piece, and I can see why, but after completing the first season it’s really just a fairly standard isekai anime. Japan is clearly the “good guy” compared to the U.S., Russia, and China, but at the same time their relationship with the fantasy world is ambiguous.

If this were purely a piece of propaganda as some have suggested, I would expect many more scenes of excessive military force and less peace keeping operations. Military propaganda doesn’t usually balance the two in the way this anime does; it tends to be one or the other.

Characters

The protagonist of the series is Yōji Itami, a (second?) Lieutenant with the SDF and leader of his squad, the members of which I’ll skip over because let’s be honest, they don’t matter all that much. Itami is a hardcore otaku who only works for the SDF as a way to pay for his anime, manga, and otaku merchandise.

Although his age and background as a special forces soldier set him apart from most other isekai protagonists, his overall attitude still makes him “relatable” to the target audience. He’s a white knight otaku who likes tsundere blondes; that’s pretty much as stereotypical as it can get.

Rory Mercury is one of the two “best girls” of the series (pictured below). She’s a priestess of the god of war, Emloy. As such, she’s an immortal being who could destroy the entire SDF on her own if she so chose, but she seems to be interested in Itami, so the rest of the SDF is lucky.

She carries around a large ax which she uses in battle (obviously) and dresses in a gothic lolita fashion (I know some people are going to be mad about me calling it that). Despite being a priestess of war, death, and destruction, the populace seem to be extremely fond of her.

Lelei la Lalena is another member of the Itami harem as I’ll call it from here on out. She’s a human mage and serves as the primary translator between the Japanese and the Empire (although technically they’re all speaking the same language).

The third and final member of the Itami harem (for now) is Tuka Luna Marceau, an Elf whose entire village was destroyed by a Fire Dragon. Like Lelei, I don’t find her to be that interesting, but at least Lelei has a job and doesn’t just wander the streets of the refugee camp.

The other best girl I hinted at earlier along with Rory is Princess Piña Co Lada, which is the best name in all of anime by the way. She’s not the best at being either a princess or a knight, but she more than makes up for it with her attitude, appearance, and most importantly, name.

Rory Mercury from the anime GATE
Rory Mercury

Conclusion

GATE was a pretty good anime, and I enjoyed it, but was it really that good? No. Did it stand out much from other isekai anime? Not really. Because of this, I rated the first season as a 6/10, but I have hopes that I’ll be able to rate the second season higher.

I think some more world building would go a long way toward making this a better anime. We know that the Empire isn’t the only country in the Special Region (the name Japan gave the fantasy world), but we know nothing about the other countries.

I think it would be interesting to see how the SDF dealt with wars and diplomacy between multiple countries in the Special Region rather than just dealing with the Empire alone.

Also, as a final note, why do Itami and his squad appear to have full autonomy within the Special Region? That’s probably one of the most “isekai” aspects of this entire anime. Despite being a member of the military, Itami is such a white knight that the rules don’t seem to apply to him.

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One Punch Man

One Punch Man

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One Punch Man anime cover art featuring Saitama and Genos
One Punch Man Cover Art

Overview

One Punch Man was the hit anime of 2015, and yet I just got around to watching it yesterday. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from this series despite all of the hype surrounding it.

I figured it was just another “normie” anime like SAO, and the fact that Netflix had the rights to it didn’t help since it aired at a time when Netflix wasn’t exactly known for having good anime rights all to itself. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I watched this series.

While One Punch Man is an action-comedy anime, it really doesn’t skip out on the action in favor of comedy, which is something I liked about it. Mixing action with comedy is something I don’t feel is done successfully very often (such as Marvel movies), but One Punch Man pulled it off.

In the world of One Punch Man, professional heroes are ranked much like they are in My Hero Academia, however, along with individual rankings, there are also grade rankings. The ranks go, C, B, A, S, with C being the weakest heroes and S being the strongest.

While there are a couple hundred heroes in the C class, there are only 17 in the S class. Because of this, C class heroes have a weekly quota of heroic deeds they must achieve, otherwise they’ll lose their sponsorship by the Hero Association.

Characters

Saitama is the protagonist for the series and is also where the title “One Punch Man” comes from despite being called this in the series. As the title suggests, he’s so powerful that he can defeat any opponent in just a single punch.

While this may seem like a blessing, for Saitama it’s actually a curse. He originally became a hero for fun and enjoyed fighting against monsters and enemies alike. However, he’s now become so strong there isn’t a single worthy opponent for him and so he’s bored of fighting.

Basically, Saitama is just a thrill seeker who’s looking for that next high he’ll probably never find.

Once he joins the Hero Association, he gets a perfect score on the physical exam, but fails the written exam. Because of this, he’s placed at the very bottom of the C class of heroes despite his immense power.

Genos is the other main character of the series. He’s a cyborg in his late teens who is on a mission to find and destroy another cyborg who attacked his hometown a few years back. After being saved by Saitama and witnessing his power, Genos decides to become his disciple.

While Saitama’s power comes from brute strength and physical ability, Genos, who is also strong and has superhuman physical abilities, tends to use laser-like weapons built into his hands. You could think of these like the weapons Iron Man has on his palms.

Despite being Saitama’s student, after taking the Hero exam he’s immediately placed into the S class. This is because he got perfect scores on both the physical and written portions of the exam.

You might think that because of this, Genos would technically be a better hero than Saitama, but Saitama’s pure strength is enough for him to overcome any obstacle so he doesn’t really need whatever was on the written portion of the exam.

I’ll mention one final character who appears as a recurring supporting cast member, Mumen Rider. Mumen Rider is the top ranked C class hero and is literally just a guy on a bicycle.

He has no amazing powers, he just has a bike. However, what he lacks in ability, he makes up for in spirit.

Much like Deku from My Hero Academia (before he gained the power of One for All), Mumen Rider doesn’t think about what happens if he loses, all he knows is that as a hero it’s his duty to do whatever he can to save people. However, this doesn’t always work out for him since this is a parody anime.

Saitama from the anime One Punch Man
Saitama

Conclusion

One Punch Man was a better anime than I expected it would be. For now I’m going to rate it as an 8/10, but I’m feeling like it could also be a 7.

It was cool and entertaining enough for me to binge the whole thing in one day, but it didn’t make me feel anything which is why I really can’t rate it any higher than an 8. Even among the other anime I have rated at 8, this one doesn’t particularly stand out to me.

I’m not sure if an official date or even season has been announced yet, but a second season of One Punch Man is on the way. However, this time it will be made by J.C. Staff instead of Studio Madhouse so we’ll just have to wait and see if the quality is still there.

The OP for One Punch Man is available here.

Owarimonogatari I

Owarimonogatari I

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Owarimonogatari Season 1 anime cover art featuring Ougi Oshino from the Monogatari series
Owarimonogatari Season 1 Cover Art

Overview

Owarimonogatari season one includes four arcs, Ougi Formula, Sodachi Riddle, Sodachi Lost, and Shinobu Mail. All four of these arcs deal with the past and how the characters involved cope with it.

As part of the final season, it’s finally time to start filling in some of the gaps in the story, such as why Koyomi was a loner at the start of the series and why Shinobu only has one servant, Koyomi.

Both of these questions are also answered to an extent in Kizumonogatari, which was originally written near the beginning of the series. However, due to the order in which the anime was released it actually came out after Owarimonogatari season one, with Koyomimonogatari between them.

Ougi Formula

While the Ougi Formula arc is named after and prominently features Ougi Oshino, it’s really the setup for the following two arcs, Sodachi Riddle and Sodachi Lost.

This arc takes us back to the time when Kanbaru first introduced Ougi to Koyomi. Ougi tells Koyomi about a room she’s discovered in the school that doesn’t appear on any of the architectural plans. Suspecting an apparition might be at work, the two decide to investigate.

Once inside the room, Ougi and Koyomi are unable to leave, presumably until they defeat the apparition, whatever it may be. Koyomi then realizes he’s been in the room before and proceeds to tell the story of Sodachi Oikura.

If I’m not mistaken, Sodachi was the class president at the time and she was investigating a case of cheating on a math exam. When nobody comes forward, she proposes the class vote to determine who the culprit was.

However, while she votes that Koyomi was the cheater, most of the rest of the class, including the teacher, vote that it was Sodachi.

Ougi then suggests to Koyomi that the culprit was actually the teacher who let the students see the answers beforehand to increase the average score of her class and that she used Sodachi as a scapegoat. This causes Koyomi to remember why he stopped trusting others in the first place.

With the mystery solved, Koyomi and Ougi are able to leave the room and it disappears.

The OP song for the Ougi Formula arc is “Decent Black.”

Ougi Oshino from the anime Owarimonogatari season 1
Ougi Oshino

Sodachi Riddle

Despite technically being in the Ougi Formula arc, Sodachi Oikura is formally introduced in this arc, Sodachi Riddle.

After she was voted the culprit of the math exam cheating by her classmates, Sodachi left school and only returned on exam days. However, after the mystery was solved in the Ougi Formula arc, the math teacher who framed Sodachi goes on maternity leave and Sodachi returns to school.

In this arc we learn that Sodachi was actually a childhood friend of Koyomi’s, which makes sense when you think about it. She’s a tsundere who has a twin tails hairstyle, the typical description for the childhood friend character (like Eriri from Saekano).

In middle school, Sodachi actually taught Koyomi math so he would pass his exams, but Koyomi had apparently blocked out his memories of her (classic childhood friend character being ignored or forgotten). However, Sodachi didn’t help Koyomi with math for his sake.

Her parents were abusive and so she invited Koyomi to her house to study math so that he would see how her family behaved and tell his own parents about it since they’re police officers.

However, Koyomi never realized what was going on in the Oikura household and so the abuse continued until one day Sodachi’s parents got a divorce and she moved away. Sodachi saw this as Koyomi betraying her and has hated him ever since.

The OP song for the Sodachi Riddle arc is “Mathemagics.”

Sodachi Lost

But wait, there’s more! In this exciting third arc in a row about Sodachi Oikura we learn more about her depressing past.

This time Koyomi goes with Hanekawa to Sodachi’s apartment, where she lives alone, to both apologize for and confront her about the past. It’s at this time that Sodachi tells them the story of what happened after her parents divorced.

The general idea of the story is that she lived alone with her mother who stayed locked in her room with the windows boarded shut. Sodachi was forced to take care of her mother who would eat less and less each day until one day Sodachi arrived home from school to find that her mother wasn’t there.

However, there’s something that Hanekawa doesn’t understand about the story. Sodachi mentioned that although her mother wasn’t there, her door was still locked from the inside and the windows were still boarded.

Hanekawa then figures out that Sodachi’s mother had actually died years earlier, and Sodachi had been caring for her corpse without realizing it, simply thinking her mother wasn’t eating much because she couldn’t accept reality.

While Hanekawa doesn’t want to tell Sodachi the truth, Koyomi eventually does because he knows she won’t be able to move on with her life and be happy otherwise. In the end, Sodachi takes the news better than expected, but then reveals she’ll be changing schools.

The OP song for the Sodachi Lost arc is “Yūdachi Hōteishiki.”

Sodachi Oikura from the anime Owarimonogatari season 1
Sodachi Oikura

Shinobu Mail

Now that the Sodachi Oikura chronicles are complete, we’re back to a Shinobu arc in the form of Shinobu Mail. For this arc I’ll try out a more freeform summary.

Basically, Shinobu’s first and only other servant besides Koyomi has returned as an apparition seeking to exterminate Shinobu. Why would he do this, you ask? Well, because he was originally an apparition specialist before Shinobu made him into a vampire against his will.

While he always felt betrayed by Shinobu for turning him into a vampire, she likewise always felt betrayed by him for killing himself afterwards. In the end he’s defeated by Koyomi who places a seal on his body and Shinobu apologizes to him as he fades away.

Honestly, I don’t remember how much of his backstory was told in this arc so I’ll leave it at that for now and go into a little more detail when I review Kizumonogatari. (Edit: I didn’t go into it at all in my review.)

The OP song for the Shinobu Mail arc is “Mein Schatz.”

Conclusion

As you may be able to guess by now, Owarimonogatari Season 1 is a 10/10 like most of the Monogatari series.

While I don’t particularly like Sodachi as a character, I did enjoy her arcs much more than say, the arcs for Hanekawa. Her arcs reminded me more of how I felt when I originally watched the Mayoi Snail arc of Bakemonogatari.

There was an actual mystery involved that was more than just “it’s all in your head” and it also had a bittersweet ending which is something I like.

Next time we’ll take a look at Koyomimonogatari which is a compilation of individual episodes which take place throughout the series.

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