The second thing to mention about this season is how the plot structure is a rehash of Bakemonogatari, as it also consists of five arcs, and all of them are based around the same girls from that season.
Visually, Nekomonogatari: Kuro is a step back from Nisemonogatari for some reason, despite coming out later and being far shorter. The artwork is not as polished and although it had the action scenes that the previous season lacked, they weren’t as well made as the ones from the first. Second Season is the best one yet in that regard, as it has the same level of detail and polish as the previous full series, with, occasionally, what that one was missing. Also, there are permanent changes in the character designs which are directly related to the plot and characterization, which is a plus. Oh, and I noticed more CGI than in the earlier seasons, but it was integrated in a way that most anime can’t pull off.
In terms of sound, the franchise retains the same level of quality since it began, so I won’t bother mentioning it again moving forward unless I notice a drop or increase of it.
The problem with Nekomonogatari: Kuro was that, even though it wasn’t a bad season on its own, it combined the main issues of both previous ones, as it was mostly a setup like Bakemonogatari, and it had slow pacing while being heavy on fanservice like Nisemonogatari. The point of that entry was to expands Hanekawa’s character arc, show the circumstances of her family, and how her mary sue type of know it all and kind and intelligent girl archetype is nothing but a façade that she built around her to hide her pain and mental stress, and for the sake of easily get the attention and love she was never given, something that only ends up making things worse, as keeping the fake image of herself that she made only aided in worsening her condition regarding her aberration.
This is good stuff but overall the season still felt slow and not very serious, since for whatever reason it had plenty of gratuitous fanservice, even for secondary characters. Not only that but it also leaves an aftertaste of being incomplete, since whatever point was brought up in it wouldn’t get a proper closure until the next series, plus, despite what it was trying to say, Hanekawa was still running from her problems and very reliant of Araragi to solve everything for her. On top of that, since chronologically goes before Bakemonogatari, whatever tension it tried to build felt fake and artificial, not intense in the least. Which is why I find it pointless to talk about Nekomonogatari: Kuro and Second Season separately.
The beginning of the latter builds upon the character fleshing she had on the previous seasons, and I have to say that it did a much better job at what both Bakemonogatari and Nekomonogatari: Kuro tried to do. The first arc is not only about exploring Hanekawa and delivering the message that only you can solve your own problems, but also finally bringing a closure to that and having legit character growth for her.
The main reason why it works better now is having her being the actual protagonist of her own arc, as Araragi is absent for plot reasons and thus she actively has no choice but to face her problems herself. Also, since she is temporarily the narrator, the viewer gets to appreciate her perspective and introspection in full detail. Regarding this point, the exposition is overall decent although it could have been better. The aspect is shown in three or four different ways, with the first one being her inner monologues and also easily the best one, the second and third ones are the scenes where she talks metaphorically with other characters about her different views, with the better ones being those that felt significant and well written, while others felt more subtle, ambiguous and not very serious. And finally the fourth way, and the worst one of them all, are the scenes where Black Hanekawa speaks to herself out loud, which is plain bad exposition and could have been easily fixed by simply having them replaced with more inner monologues.
Anyways, Araragi being absent during this arc not only meant having a different narrator and forcing Hanekawa to do things on her own, but it also allowed the viewer to see her from different perspectives, both her own and those around her, while it also let the characters have interactions amongst them without the protagonist around. I mean, at the end of it he still has a last minute apparition and save, but to the most part this portion of the anime had the image of the perfect girl being absolutely demolished while she was confronted by everyone around her to stop running from her problems, leading her to face them and accept everything and the aspects of herself and her responsibilities that she was avoiding so far, with even a permanent change in her own appearance, and this time it did feel like Koyomi only gave a hand instead of fixing the issues of someone else himself.
Not only that but the arc still keeps introducing new characters like Izuko Gaen and anticipating future events, while also calling back to past ones, that weren’t adapted at this point yet for some reason. This is very good stuff for this franchise and genre, and honestly, the major problems in it were the fanservice, which was still nowhere near as bad as it was during past seasons, and the confirmation that the Araragi sisters have a brother complex, he himself has an Oedipus complex, and that Senjougahara has an Electra complex, basically, that everyone directly connected to the main character has incestuous tendencies. Gross, but at least all of that is rather secondary and nothing of it is directly related to the main point of what is going on.
The second arc shows what Araragi was doing while that was happening and I have to say that unfortunately it goes back to the usual stuff and is thus a step back in terms of quality. Its beginning is a mixed bag, since it also introduces more characters that will be important later on, or shows a bit more of others that were very irrelevant up until this point. The problem is that it does that with some pretty tacked on and seemingly irrelevant conversations.
Ougi is the creepiest looking and sounding character in the franchise so far and every time she was shown on screen it was equally uncomfortable and interesting to watch and wait for her own arc that would come out two to four years and three to five seasons later. With that said, her conversation with Araragi felt very pointless and the way it was tied with the plot was rather forced.
On the other hand, Ononoki, who so far was a character so minor I didn’t even bother to name her when she appeared on Nisemonogatari, changed her stupid way of talking, as the series itself addressed, and brought some very interesting and quite existential questions about herself and the main characters of the current arc, thus her dialogues felt better integrated than whatever nonsense Ougi was talking about. Too bad everything was left unanswered but at the very least it made me interested to watch her own story after this season.
Anyways after that, this arc lost me completely with three things. First, it started with something trivial and very silly. Second, it introduced time travel, one of my most hated plot devices in writing because it can only mean that the characters have to either make sure that something happens, or prevent it from happening and most likely erase all consequences at the end. Meaning, it can only be a type of story where the characters are reactive at best, they aren’t allowed to have free will because they are forced to make sure that events take place in a premeditated way, only to most likely be erased or forgotten by the end. This pisses me off, it even goes against the message of the show and the previous arc. Thank you Noein for being the exception with your bittersweet as fuck ending.
And finally the third, it was focusing on Hachikuji. She had the worst arc in Bakemonogatari because it was the most disjointed with the message, narrative and plot progression, as it was mostly pointless stupid talking before getting a conclusion that wasn’t satisfactory, since she didn’t pass away nor did she get any meaningful character progression, and she herself was a very passive character that wasn’t even aware of her own situation, so of course and she didn’t do shit for her own and others had to do everything, only for it to not matter in the least in the long run. Plus, seriously, this girl is completely irrelevant to the big picture, and is mostly an excuse for pedophile humor and letting the protagonist to be at his worst, which in this arc it wasn’t even limited just to her, as it was also shown through other girls, Needless to say, I wasn’t expecting anything from this arc in the least.
To its favor, I have to admit that having the characters realize how much they fucked up out of something trivial, showing more people living and appearing in this mostly empty town, making everything prior feel important and that it happened for a reason, and sending the overall message that you can’t use time travel to fix past shit or you’ll end up making everything worse is always welcomed. Too bad it wasn’t very serious about it, as a big part of the arc is silly comedy, and Hachikuji is still left as a very passive character that doesn’t do anything on her own. The arc may revolve around her, but she still barely takes part of it, she isn’t allowed to do anything even when she is the focus of the story.
The third arc is centered on Nadeko, who in Bakemonogatari had one with good messages, but also the most disgusting and highest amount of fanservice, and silly comedy, even referencing memes. Still, since I more or less already knew what was going to happen here, I was actually more interested in it than with the one before it.
And what an arc it is, as it basically combines the best aspects of the previous ones. It also has the main girl of it being the narrator, which allows for more introspection and characterization, it keeps making Ougi a mysterious but interesting character, while tying her to the main plot in a much more organic way, it shows more people in the city that no longer feels oblivious to the main characters, while visually making it clear how secondary they are in a much better way than simply making it seems like the important cast lives in a ghost town, it draws parallelisms between Hanekawa and Nadeko by putting the latter in a similar situation, it explores and criticizes her, it exposes how Shinobu, Oshino and Araragi messed up in some of their past actions, and it finally moves the story forward, while also being serious and free of fanservice to the most part.
It even flips on its own at some point making everything that you assumed about it to actually have happened in a different way, while also expanding on how messed up the main girl of the arc is since she can’t even discerns reality from her own made up illusions.
It also explores a scenario that’s rarely touched upon in the harem genre, what would happen if one of the girls does not accept not being the girl for the protagonist and snaps and turns on everyone else? Nadeko gets tired of being seen as the cute imouto type of character and gets overwhelmed by people placing responsibilities on her, while she is also confronted for always playing the victim, similar to Hanekawa, but while the latter was able to talk back and face herself, a younger, more immature and more emotionally closed and unstable Sengoku can’t do that, making everything go horribly wrong. And it presents everything not as edgy bullcrap like a certain ending of a certain infamous perverted school romantic dramedy turned into gore schlock in the last episode.
Heck, it even feels meta for Kana Hanazawa, who usually plays that same cutesy type of character, as she was tasked to perform as the snapped version of her usual self. Of course and it isn’t like that, as she would later on keep on playing the same kind of dere archetypes and act all cute in real life, but during the arc, it gave that extra feeling and value. Even the opening and ending were interesting, as the latter changed the usual art style for something visually distinctive and more creepy looking, while the former became a dark version of Nadeko’s intro in Bakemonogatari, with even some pretty messed up lyrics.
The only things I have to criticize in it is how it still feels like everyone else forced what happened onto Nadeko, and her change was kind of very sudden, but that does end up matching well with her petty reasoning and how she kept running from her problems and playing the victim to the point of no return. Another mixed element was the conclusion, which made me appreciate Senjougahara for how cunningly she can completely change a situation, but it also remained open because otherwise the franchise would be over, in a way that felt like one big plot armor. But other than those kind of passable issues, this was easily the best arc yet.
The fourth arc keeps on happening around the same time of the first and it’s the direct sequel of the second, it’s called Shinobu Time but it doesn’t focus on her, the name is just misleading to surprise the viewer with what eventually happens, and I got to say that it did a fine job at that. Unfortunately that means that she is still not fleshed out like the rest of the cast, because her story that started it all wouldn’t be adapted until three to four years and four to five entries later.
Not to say that nothing revolves around her however, since her backdrop story as Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade is told, and that is the best part of the arc as far as I’m concerned. Notice that I wrote told, instead of shown, as it is one big narration of her, which is why I found the manga version of that backstory better, simply because while it is still being told in-story, the reader is shown the events as a mini flashback, instead of what is done here.
The thing that stands out the most of this arc are the aesthetics, sometimes showing everything with one color or the complete lack of it altogether, or Kiss-Shot’s background in Japan 400 years earlier as scroll drawings, which is very appropriate for the time period, the previous ending being reused but with the relevant characters of this time, and even an opening that has the same creepy looking visuals and the best theme in the franchise so far, although with very limited lyrics.
It’s hard to talk about it without spoiling everything but basically, this arc has the same issues as the one that chronologically goes right before it, not much is going on in it, it’s just four characters occasionally being chased around by a ball of darkness, it has a lot of meandering with pointless conversations, it’s not very serious most of the time, Araragi is nothing but a pedophile throughout the whole of it, it is full of pedophilic scenes, both comical and dramatic that are supposed to be seen as serious and romantic, and the characters are not allowed to be proactive, as they are forced to followed a predetermined path.
At the very least, it has three positives, which are building up future events, reinforcing the message and theme from the second arc, and ending with a seemingly permanent death, but other than that, it is the worst part of the season, and the worst since Nisemonogatari, although nowhere near as bad when considering the whole of it.
The fifth and final arc is the direct sequel of the third, so this season has two patterns in it, it copies the plot structure of Bakemonogatari like I said, and it jumps around arcs across two points in time. For some reason, it goes for an opening with an early 90s art style mixed in, and a duet for the vocals done by the seiyuu of the main characters from the arc, which are Senjougahara, something welcomed, since she remained a rather secondary character since the first series, despite technically being the main girl, and Kaiki of all people.
Hitagi End once again has the positive of not having Araragi as the narrator nor even an active part of it, choosing instead to focus on his girlfriend trying to find a solution for their problems by herself, while also showing her at her most vulnerable and sincere, breaking her tsundere persona that she usually lets others see.
With that said, the actual protagonist and narrator of the arc is Kaiki, and what an interesting choice is to give that role to one of the main antagonists such as him, as it allows to flesh him out. Plus, giving his personality, view of the world, and age, from his perspective, everything that the rest does is childish and petty, which is true, and it is so reassuring and refreshing to see someone point it out, even if it is done in a kind of comical way.
Even though they are the main characters throughout it, the arc also shows the perspectives and action of other characters like Hanekawa, Gaen, and Ononoki who for some reason went back to talk in stupid ways and I like how Kaiki had her cut it off. Though I guess that could have been her way of trying to be, well, someone, and in a comical and meta way, trying to find her own character archetype.
Anyways, thanks to this narrative choice, it doesn’t feel like only one or two characters exist at the moment while everyone else does nothing, and because of the way it plays out, it gives a satisfactory ending to the arc chronologically right before it, while it also continues criticizing the pettiness of Nadeko and giving her a character growth, all while it sends a decent message, especially for the harem genre, it has Araragi realize how he can’t do everything for everyone else, explains certain actions and events from earlier seasons, and it still continues to anticipate future arcs and happenings, such as the importance that has built around Kanbaru throughout the whole season, which makes sense since the next one seems to be all about her.
Now for things I have to criticize about it. While having past occurrences happen because of the actions of some characters is good, it’s bad when that takes away a bit of the proactive initiative of some others. Also, Kaiki’s plan and logic was so flawed, it was obvious it was going to fail from the very beginning, but at least it led to Sengoku breaking his preconceptions and thus challenge him as well, and the overall resolution was good.
As for the finale, it doesn’t end the franchise as a whole, obviously, but for its own season, it feels appropriate and satisfactory, something that the previous ones didn’t have.
As a whole, Second Season has the best visuals, intros and outros, plot progression, characterization, writing, theme exploration and messages, while it builds itself well upon what was already shown, and it also does a good job in anticipating future events. It’s not free of issues of course, as it still has lots of pedophile shit, Araragi is insufferable throughout the whole of it, there are three unneeded recap episodes of previous entries, some arcs are not on the same level as others, and there is still stuff to cover. Besides that, it is by far the best season so far, and even though I still don’t enjoy this franchise, this was the first time that I felt like at least some of it was worth watching and recommending, and I now have the motivation to keep going with it. I give it an above average score that would be higher if it weren’t for the inconsistent quality among its arcs, as my ratings for each one will prove next:
Nekomonogatari: 5/10 for Kuro as a single entry and 7/10 for Shiro/Tsubasa’s Tiger, so 6/10 as a whole.
Hachikuji’s: 5/10
Nadeko’s: 7/10
Shinobu Time: 4/10
Hitagi End: 7/10
Final score:
