Overview

While Owarimonogatari season 2 isn’t quite the end of the Monogatari series, I would have been fine if it was. That’s not to say that I don’t want more content from my favorite anime, but this season felt like a conclusion that I could accept.

There are three arcs within this season: Mayoi Hell, Hitagi Rendezvous, and Ougi Dark. The season starts off with a Mayoi arc so you know it has to be good.

One final note before I get into the first arc; all three arcs of this season have amazing OP songs, however, they’re unfortunately only featured in the Blu-ray release of the season and so aren’t in the series if you watch it somewhere like Crunchyroll.

Mayoi Hell

The Mayoi Hell arc pics up from where the final episode of Koyomimonogatari left off. Koyomi was killed by Izuko Gaen and sent to the innermost circle of Hell for forming a pact with a demon in the form of the vampire Kiss-Shot (Shinobu).

There he encounters a familiar face, Mayoi Hachikuji.

Now you may be wondering, why is Mayoi in the deepest circle of Hell? Was it because she led people astray as a lost cow apparition?

Not quite. In fact, Mayoi was sentenced to Hell, but not the deepest circle like Koyomi. Instead, she was sentenced to stack rocks for the rest of eternity for dying before her parents because apparently, that’s something to be blamed for.

Mayoi, being the lovable rascal she is, snuck out of her circle and went to the deepest portion of Hell in order to greet Koyomi whom she heard was coming shortly. She then tells Koyomi that she has a plan to revive him and Koyomi follows her down a path of his memories.

At the end of the path they meet Teori, who you may recall was an apparition specialist killed by Yotsugi in Tsukimonogatari. However, like Yotsugi, Teori had actually been dead for a long time and was a living puppet at the time Koyomi met him.

Teori has actually been working with Izuko and the rest of the apparition exterminating gang on a master plan that involved killing Koyomi to sever his bond with Shinobu, then reviving him as a regular human again.

A rope, which is actually a snake, drops down from above and Koyomi is instructed to grab onto it. While Koyomi believes there are others who should be revived instead of him, Mayoi refuses to listen and convinces him to allow himself to be revived.

At the last second, he grabs Mayoi with his legs and pulls her up with him back to the world of the living.

Hitagi Rendezvous

Hitagi Rendezvous is more of a setup for the Ougi Dark arc than an actual arc of its own. In this arc, Koyomi and Senjougahara go on a date to the planetarium in the morning, then go bowling and to karaoke in the afternoon.

The first important part happens when Koyomi falls asleep at the planetarium and has a dream in which Ougi tells him that she needs to talk to him and that he shouldn’t fall for Izuko’s tricks.

After the first part of their date is over, Senjougahara turns the next two stops on their date into a competition, which Koyomi wins both of. The loser has to obey one command from the winner, and as expected Koyomi doesn’t really ask for anything.

However, once the date is complete, Koyomi tells Senjougahara that he forgot to get her a present and that he’ll make it up to her. She suggests that he should obey one command from her to make up for it, which is for him to call her by her first name, Hitagi.

While the Mayoi Hell arc didn’t exactly include a nice, neat ending for Mayoi, the Hitagi Rendezvous was a good end to the story of Koyomi and Hitagi (as I’ll now refer to her). This is the first reason why I mentioned I’d be fine if this season happened to be the last.

Ougi Dark

Before I get into what happens in the Ougi Dark arc, let me first mention some things that I left out of my summaries of the previous two arcs because they relate more to this one.

Firstly, after Mayoi was brought back to the world of the living, there’s still the issue of the “darkness” swallowing her up which is the original reason she passed on to Hell in the first place since she’s an apparition without a purpose. Mayoi, Izuko, and Shinobu stay to discuss what to do next while Koyomi goes on his date.

Secondly, Ougi is found at Koyomi’s house when he gets back from his date with Hitagi and tells him that while she is a force that corrects injustice, she is not the “darkness.” She also asks for Koyomi’s help with confronting Izuko.

From this point, I think I’ll just describe how the season ended rather than going through a chronological summary.

As per Izuko’s plan, Mayoi becomes enshrined as the goddess of the snake shrine so she won’t be chased by the “darkness”. Meanwhile, Koyomi must confront Ougi and reveal to her that her true identity is an apparition created by himself.

Ougi was created from Koyomi’s self-doubt and feeling that he was never able to solve everyone’s problems in the best way. Once this is revealed, the “darkness” appears to swallow Ougi, but Meme Oshino suddenly appears with Hanekawa and fixes the situation so Ougi can live.

Finally, Shinobu, now in her full-power Kiss-Shot form since she was severed from Koyomi upon his death, decides that rather than being a legendary vampire, she would rather return to living in the shadow of her master, Koyomi.

While Koyomi’s quote to Shinobu at the beginning of their time together in Kizumonogatari was “You’ll never forgive me, and I’ll never forgive you,” he now says to her, “If you were to die tomorrow, I’d be fine with tomorrow being the last day of my life. But if you decide to live through today, I will also choose to live through today.”

With that, all of the character arcs that were left open up until this point are now complete.

The season ends with Koyomi running off to help another girl in need, in typical Koyomi fashion because that’s just the kind of guy he is.

Conclusion

It’s no surprise that Owarimonogatari Season 2 is the highest-rated of the Monogatari series entries on MyAnimeList, and it should also come as no surprise that it’s a 10/10 for me.

While I saw the conclusion with Hitagi as a bonus, I don’t think I would have felt content with the ending if either Mayoi or Shinobu was left out. I think many would agree that Shinobu is the female lead of the series, but I would argue that Mayoi is just as important to the series.

At some point in 2018 the next entry in the Monogatari series, Zoku Owarimonogatari, should be released.

Overview

Koyomimonogatari is a bit different from all the other entries into the Monogatari series we’ve looked at so far. Instead of covering one or multiple entire arcs, Koyomimonogatari is made up of single episodes which take place during different points in the series.

For example, the first episode takes place before the events of Bakemonogatari, while the second episode takes place after. Because of this, I’ll be doing a short, roughly two-sentence summary/review of each episode rather than grouping them together into arcs like I normally would.

Episodes

Koyomi Stone is the first episode of the season and is about a stone in a small shrine that Koyomi and Hanekawa find on the school grounds. While I don’t remember exactly how this episode ended, I believe it had something to do with the shrine was Koyomi’s discarded woodshop project, and someone put a rock in it for no real reason.

I feel it’s important to note here that since these are single episodes rather than full arcs, and it’s been over a year since I watched them, my memory is a bit hazy on some of the details.

Koyomi Flower is the second episode and follows Koyomi and Senjougahara as they attempt to find out why people have been leaving flowers on the roadside and school rooftop. I believe they determine it’s because by making it look like someone died there, other people will act more cautiously and be safer.

Koyomi Sand involves a sandbox in the shape of a devil which Mayoi tells Koyomi about. Upon investigation, the shape just happens to be a coincidence caused by a sinkhole or some other issue with the bottom of the sandbox.

Koyomi Water is one I don’t really remember much about at all. I know there’s some mysterious story about the water used for the bath at Kanbaru’s home, but I don’t remember how it turned out.

Koyomi Wind involves a discussion between Koyomi and Nadeko about how Kaiki was able to spread his charms throughout the middle school. Basically, kids are just gullible.

In Koyomi Tree, Karen tells Koyomi about a full-grown tree that has mysteriously appeared behind her dojo. Koyomi determines that the tree has always been there, just nobody ever paid attention to it before.

Koyomi Tea is about the other fire sister, Tsukihi, who tells Koyomi the members of her tea club believe in a ghost despite her proving to them it doesn’t exist. I think Koyomi tells her that they want it to exist because things are more fun that way.

Ougi tells Koyomi a story about the snake shrine located on top of the mountain in Koyomi Mountain. Apparently, the shrine was once located on a different mountain but was moved. If I’m remembering correctly, they determine the shrine wasn’t actually moved, but an entire new shrine was built instead.

In Koyomi Torus, Shinobu and Koyomi play a game. Shinobu will hide four donuts around the room, and each one Koyomi is unable to find she gets to eat. Koyomi is only able to find three of the four and suspects Shinobu cheated by eating the last one.

However, Hanekawa comes up with some dumb explanation about hiding the fourth donut inside one of the other three which would mean Koyomi actually found all four without realizing it. This was the worst ending of all the Koyomimonogatari episodes and not just because Hanekawa was involved.

Koyomi Seed is about Koyomi helping Yotsugi find something she has lost. I think she mentions that she doesn’t know what she lost, but she’ll know it when she sees it. Something is also telling me it was her who was the lost thing the whole time.

Koyomi Nothing is about Koyomi training with Yozuru so he can learn to fight without relying on his vampiric powers. If he is able to land a single blow on her, then she will answer a question he has about Yotsugi. In the end, she never shows up to their fight.

The final episode of the season is Koyomi Dead. Unlike the rest of the episodes which take place at some point throughout the series so far (maybe with the exception of Koyomi Nothing) Koyomi Dead sets up the next arc of the series.

In this episode, Gaen kills Koyomi by using the apparition killer sword Kokoro Watari.

Conclusion

As usual, this entry of the Monogatari series is a 10/10 even though it was in a slightly different format than usual.

One thing you may have noticed about this season is that each episode had a fairly “boring” ending. That’s to say that in each case there wasn’t any kind of apparition at work, it was simply something like a misunderstanding or a lack of noticing something.

While some people may not like that about Koyomimonogatari, I actually do because it’s relatable. There are many times when I’ll notice a building or sign while driving that I’ve never noticed before, only to find out it’s been there for years or even decades.

Not every mystery has to have a mysterious solution, and that’s what I enjoy about Koyomimonogatari.

Finally, while the last episode, Koyomi Dead, sets up the Mayoi Hell arc of Owarimonogatari season 2, the next time I write about the Monogatari series will instead by about Kizumonogatari, because that’s the next part that was animated.

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.”

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.”

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.

Overview

The only arc found in Tsukimonogatari is the Yotsugi Doll arc. Chronologically, this arc comes between the Hitagi End arc of Koimonogatari and the Suruga Devil arc of Hanamonogatari.

Tsukimonogatari is also the first entry in what is known as the “Final Season” of the Monogatari series. However, although it’s called the final season, there is a fourth season called the “Off Season” and a fifth season called the “Monster Season.”

Yotsugi Ononoki is the main girl of the Yotsugi Doll arc as you could probably guess from the title. Although Yotsugi is in the series before this point, I don’t think I’ve actually talked much about her yet.

Yotsugi is considered the familiar of the specialist Yozuru Kagenui who exterminates immortal apparitions. However, Yotsugi is herself an immortal apparition. She’s a living doll made from a human corpse.

Yotsugi Doll

The Yotsugi Doll arc begins with a series of events involving Koyomi and his sisters which results in him noticing that he’s becoming more like a full-on vampire than before. In order to solve this mystery, he decides to get in contact with Yozuru and Yotsugi.

As it turns out, Koyomi is slowly becoming used to being a vampire due to his repeated use of his vampiric powers. While this doesn’t seem like a big deal to him at first, it’s revealed that this process is irreversible, but won’t progress any further if he refrains from using his powers.

At some point during their discussion, Koyomi’s sisters, Karen and Tsukihi, along with Kanbaru whom with they were staying, are kidnapped by another specialist who is using them as bait to lure out Koyomi and Shinobu.

Teori Tadatsuru is the specialist in question and is sort of a combination of Oshino Meme and Yozuru Kagenui. He specializes in the extermination of immortal apparitions like Yozuru but also attempts to mediate between humans and apparitions like Oshino.

Koyomi takes Yotsugi with him to help him confront Teori because he and Shinobu aren’t able to rely on their vampiric powers anymore to fight. While Yotsugi suggests using herself as a weapon to kill Teori, Koyomi doesn’t want anyone to die and also wants to preserve what he sees as Yotsugi’s last piece of humanity.

However, in the end, Yotsugi does end up killing Teori just before he fights Koyomi. Karen, Tsukihi, and Kanbaru are all found safe and sound after the confrontation.

In this arc, we also get a little bit of information regarding something or someone working behind the scenes. When Koyomi and Yotsugi arrive at the snake shrine where they are to confront Teori, they find Ougi Oshino who seems to know all about the current situation.

Further, before the fight between Koyomi and Teori, Teori comments on how he doesn’t really want to fight Koyomi, but that it instead feels as though some unseen force is pitting them against each other against their wills.

Conclusion

As with most of the entries in the Monogatari series, Tsukimonogatari is another 10/10.

While Yotsugi isn’t my favorite character in the series, she probably does have my favorite character design of the series. Also, her reference to Sailor Moon is a plus, something Mayoi has also done in the series.

Next time I’ll be reviewing the first season of Owarimonogatari which covers the arcs Ougi Formula, Sodachi Riddle, Sodachi Lost, and Shinobu Mail so it should be a bit longer than this one.