Recap: Araragi and Shinobu confront Nadeko after finding her in his room. With her transformation complete, Nadeko learns Kuchinawa’s true origin.

Jel’s Thoughts: Remember that time Nadeko prayed the chorus of “Renai Circulation”, turned into Medusa, then killed everyone? Think about that for a minute. This was the most brutal and dangerous Monogatari has felt since Kanbaru’s infamous intestinal swing from the original series. Given the story’s track record you’d expect they would have pulled their punches a bit with Nadeko’s descent into madness, but NOPE! Instead she completed her transition to psycho murderer with nary a glance back, and for the first time ever an arc concluded without any real resolution. I mean even Kaiki, the closest thing we’ve had to a villain, ended up being humanized to a certain extent. It does make you wonder how tongue in cheek the post-credits “trailer” really was, but even if that’s not what eventually happens I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of the Final Boss.

Surprisingly it was Senjougahara who ended up saving the day here with her calculated spite for the spoiled little girl. Monogatari has always let its battles be fought with words above all else, so it was a fitting way to put a cap on the situation for now. Maybe I missed it somewhere, but I didn’t realize she knew about Shinobu and how she was connected to Araragi, but that also supports the idea in my head that the two of them have this great relationship going this whole time and we just never get to see it. I suppose they say successful romance is boring, but I’m still kind of sad we don’t get to see more of their twisted, flirtatious dialogue with each other.

Getting back to the matter at hand, I have to say I found Otorimonogatari to be one of the best arcs in the series. It’s a perfect mix of heady dialogue and artistic flair with the visceral emotion of unrequited love – all played out physically in a way that can only happen in a supernatural setting like this. That’s pretty much the Monogatari series at its best and as we are nearing the final set of arcs I hope to see more of it. Next up is Onimonogatari and Shinobu’s first arc to herself, so we’ll see what they have in store for us.

Lifesong’s Thoughts: Holy shit, I knew Nadeko was insane, but it didn’t register how insane she really was until this episode. Last boss indeed, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Also, only Shinbo could make a girl talking to her hair this interesting to watch.

As shocking as the level of Nadeko’s insanity is, the part that got me best was Hitagi’s phone call. I’m starting to sense some real tragic vibes from this story now and I love it. I’ve never really considered that anyone might die in this story, but suddenly everyone’s plot armor is looking a lot thinner than it did before now. It’s going to be hard to wait for the conclusion to all of this.