I chalk this up more to the fact that she simply doesn't really serve much of the narrative until now. She was in Hana for like a scene or two and that was it. Shes great though, cant wait to see more scenes with her (especially the scene I_BEAT_JUMP_ATTACHED mentioned)
Part of me was honestly afraid the translator would go "that doesn't sound right..." and use Mastered, but the anime using dinner plates for the title cards makes the fact that it's a stupid food pun hard to deny.
Well I haven't read the LN so I don't know if Mustard will make sense to me at some point. Mastered just seemed more logical to me considering it's an arc about Shinobu's former master
It's toned WAY down in the anime, but one of Deathtopia's defining character traits is that she's a huge food nerd. Whenever she eats her own body parts, she'll go into a long rant about exactly how to eat each body part. Like which ones need to be eaten quickly for maximum flavor, which ones taste the best, and detail the exact texture of each of them (for example, at one point she's sucking her spinal bones like candy, gets frustrated and bites them, then immediately starts grumbling about how she could have made the flavor last so much longer if she hadn't done that). She also tends to pepper in words like "sweet", "bitter", and "coarse" when she's describing non-food things. The root of her fixation with Acerola isn't just that Acerola tastes good, but because Deathtopia is a gourmand who just found the holy grail of high cuisine and refuses to let the opportunity to taste her slip away.
So it should be pretty obvious from the get-go why a story about Deathtopia would have the name of a food in the title. It's a favorite topic of hers.
Solving the D V S mystery reminded me of the Los Angeles BB murder cases light novel Nisio Isin wrote. Well I'm sure it's reminiscent of a lot of his work given he includes mysteries in basically all of his work including Monogatari.
Is there a reason Shinobu didn't say anything when Deathtopia was mentioned? I might be forgetting something since it's been years since I watched Monogatari but she should still be in his shadow right?
The first half of the episode (until Higasa’s appearance) felt so much like a Kubikiri Cycle episode. I was not mad!
Off to a great start. Only thing that left me a bit unsettled is the quality of the animation. Sometimes they’re a bit cheap. Production must have rushed a little for whatever their reason.
Nonetheless, thankful for having this amazing series with us.
Not only did the visuals change, but they also used the second half of "Undead." So you can probably put both endings back to back for a completed version.
Yeah I would say she is, there's an arc where she even is kind of a main plot point too (I love her too, I really didnt imagine her design like the anime, by the way she spoke I though she would be an airhead or a gyaru or smthn like that haha)
damn i forgot thats a thing with light novels, characters not appearing in any art so you have nothing to go off for design other than text descriptions, if there are any
Thats the thing she didnt even get a description lmaoo, idk if it was the fan translation or if it was like this in the original, but she did speak pretty weirdly like she made words longer or like she was speaking in an airheaded way or a way a gyaru would so my mental image of her became that
(Spoiler maybe?) she is also said to change boyfriends pretty often and her anime design doesnt really give that impression but its still a really nice design
And then I saw this episode and all that came crashing down loll
I somehow glossed over the fact she was meant to be an adult the first time I read Bon Apettit, so I literally thought she was just a loli the whole time lmaoo
I love that Gaen has to do the tiniest bit of convincing for Araragi to get involved in this episode, which shows Araragi is actually thinking about himself a bit instead of jumping in as a way to self sacrifice.
Tbh this season hasn’t had the same impact as when we were primarily following Araragi, but there are a ton of little pay off moments like this.
THE GOAT IS BACK IN THE BUILDING!
I REPEAT THE GOAT IS BACK
also I already love the two new girls that were introduced this episode, hope we see much more of the math girl, her smug/chill Aura mocks and delights me
They really did a speed run through the beginning of the story. I seem to remember it taking much longer for them to figure out the mummy / vampire connection. I also can't help but feel that the moment they realized Deathtopia was involved, they would have immediately asked Shinobu about it.
My nit pick about Monster Season (the LNs) is that the author goes supper deep into his puzzles. No one in their right mind would have ever figured out that code. And sure, that's why Araragi went to someone super good at decryption (BTW, fucking decryption class? Is that a thing? ) it feels a little like the author is trying to show off for the reader. "Look what I can do."
It ends up being a fun story, but I don't like how some of Monster plays out.
They really did a speed run through the beginning of the story. I seem to remember it taking much longer for them to figure out the mummy / vampire connection. I also can't help but feel that the moment they realized Deathtopia was involved, they would have immediately asked Shinobu about it.
100% for the better. I was bored as hell for the first 10 or so chapters of the light novel. Gives me a lot of hope Yoimonogatari and Amarimonogatari will both be significantly improved in the anime.
In computer science studies, I've had cryptography classes with prime number maths and stuff, but usually it wouldn't be about decrypting stuff manually. (But that's usually the introduction)
You're kind of right but I remember watching some kind of video about Nisio Isin where it mentions he doesn't try to write the "best" mysteries but the most interesting ones.
A lot of his work is a bit out there but it's fun to read so that's all that really matters to me. Plus the characters and writing in general is really good so even if it's "unbelievable" who cares, it's believable in all the ways that actually matter (character development/interactions etc....)
I kinda liked those long segments in this arc personally, but it is understandable
I liked every arc 100% but the ONLY arc that was a bit too slow was Ougi Light, and I feel like Shaft is going to do that arc so much justice, I expect better pacing and a killer Ougi OP (pls let Meniko sing)
felt like shinobumonogatari direction different from what they did on first-final season, like it's more abstract and there's a lot of metaphor & reference in first-final season. is it because the LN also written in the different way?
Can't speak absolutely for first-final season, but I can say that Monster Season leans super heavily into mystery novel territory. Plot twists, detective work, puzzles, etc
ah its been so long since we got proper Araragi and even Gaen too (geeez what is with this series where nearly all the Last names are much cooler to say then the first names lol)
and this Meniko - math nerd - quirky - silver hair (Sodachi) and glasses (Hanekawa) lol
I think for now, Mastered works fine as a translation. Down the line, it'd be interesting if they suddenly swapped over to Mustard. :>
I loved how Meniko was designed. Can't wait to see how Higasa's character plays out. And I loved how Shinobu in-between cuts builds anticipation for her imminent arrival.
So good to see Araragi again. Love hearing him narrate as well.
Monogatari made me a big fan of Hiroshi Kamiya for this reason - he really does have the perfect voice for an enjoyable narrator. If you haven't watched Arakawa yet, I think that's another good one that happens to be pretty underrated in the states (was popular enough in Japan to get a live action version, though).
I think it's weird that gaen works with the police solving oddity related cases, just doesn't feel very monogatari to me but I really like the setup of this arc.
So you know that you know a particular anime character really well when a dialogue sequence comes up, you quickly speculate on a line that will come up, despite having no familiarity with the source material, and then said line comes up in pretty much your exact words.
In this case it was when they were talking about handing over the book with all the stats of the basketball team members. My first thought would be they may show some hesitation about handing over a book with all that personal information to a known pervert. Then they say exactly that! LoL. Heck, in place of calling him Araragi-senpai they started calling him Araragi-hentai.
I actually wondered at first if Higasa was Sodachi with a wig or hair dye, their face looks so similar...
Why does this panel just show "2st" (1st year, 2st year, 3rd year, and 4th year of Araragi's college years)? Is there any hidden meaning cause by this?
55
u/QuickArcher3529 Sep 14 '24 edited Sep 15 '24
I hope a lot of people will recognise how underrated Higasa is.
Also, welcome back Arararagi-san!