Recap: Gaen, who knows everything, explains what the Darkness really, REALLY is as well as it’s true target. With no other options remaining, Araragi is forced to say good bye to one of his close companions.

Jel’s Thoughts: Normally I try and explain my opinions in a calm, rational manner but let’s be honest: this arc sucked. I’m fine with Mayoi hijacking the story, but most of it was spent on painfully slow exposition and any small emotional punch from the twist at the end was drained by the tacky and kind of gross conclusion.

I may have said this before, but I’m going to go a little more in-depth this time: If Mayoi was going to die, it should have been at the end of episode 5 of Bakemonogatari. That is clearly when her disappearance had the most emotional impact, immediately after resolving her original issue. Bringing her back as sort of the gag relief/occasional bro advice was fine, but any investment we had was spent. Especially after just re-visiting her past in Kabukimonogatari, all her loose ends were tied up from an emotional stand point and she was set to carry on as is. Having her disappear now just felt completely out of place, and I had trouble getting anything out of it despite the clear attempts to build it up as a huge moment.

The worst of it is the big kiss, which could have been adorable but just came off tasteless to me. Had she just pecked him on the cheek, especially perched on Yotsugi’s shoulders, it would have been a really cute moment and maybe bought back a bit of the sadness we’re supposed to feel at that point. But I suppose Monogatari doesn’t do things halfway, and instead we got Araragi tongue kissing an eleven year old. Guh, I feel gross having to say that. I could have almost accepted that as an extreme “she’ll never have a chance to do this” kind of thing but A. do eleven year old girls even want to do that? and B. the “sorry I bit your tongue” line was the dumbest, tackiest thing I’ve heard in a good long while. STAY CLASSY MONOGATARI, STAY CLASSY. How could anyone take that scene seriously after that, especially after  just enduring the incredibly stupid “ghost of a ghost” concept?

If anything I’ll give the series credit for finally putting Araragi in a situation he couldn’t fix, a rare scenario for any anime really. But with the final arcs covering Senjougahara and Kanbaru, I’m ready to say good riddance to Onimonogatari and move on. Hopefully Koimonogatari (or “Love Story”) will actually stay on target and focus on Araragi and Senjougahara’s relationship – easily the best part of the series. With two girls essentially out of the picture now (I don’t think Nadeko’s coming back to join the harem folks), I hope will get to see more and more closure as the end of the series approaches.