Recap: With the Darkness threatening the entire town, Araragi and the girls argue over which one he likes best and look for good cell phone reception.

Jel’s Thoughts: You know, it’s hard to get motivated to write about a series when it feels like it’s being phoned in. After an entire episode of info dumping last week, I was hoping we’d get a lot more out of this week’s outing than just talk. Instead we got very little in the way of new information as the conclusion of 22+ minutes of episode was: “let’s talk to Gaen”.

I’ll admit I’m still enjoying the tension between Ononoki and Shinobu, but framing it all with Araragi lusting after the three girls is just so… pointless. Shinobu even drops the reminder that he has a girlfriend and that’s pretty much glossed over. I’m pretty tired of him perving out over Mayoi as well, it’s to the point where they’re clearly just doing it out of obligation. The entire first half of the episode could have been condensed to 3-5 minutes and I think we would have all been better off for it.

The scene in the mountains fared better as at least there was some mystery and sense of danger that needed to be addressed. The series has done a good job of building up the relationship with Araragi and Shinobu to the point where you actually care if they get separated. At least they did enough in that regard to keep me looking forward to next week, although I’m not really enjoying the fact I found myself in a similar spot at the end of last episode. Quick side note: I was really looking forward to a new Shinobu OP since she’s voiced by Maaya Sakamoto, an actress probably more known for singing at this point than VA work. There’s got to be some reason why they haven’t done one, maybe contract issues? Maybe she doesn’t want to sing in a little girl voice? I don’t know the answer and I’m not going to count that against the series, but I am kind of disappointed we haven’t gotten one yet.