Second Impressions – Mononogatari

That was a substantial improvement on the first episode of Mononongatari (which to be fair I was quite ambivalent about).  The core premise here is interesting even if it is fairly derivative, but the execution in the premiere left me cold. It was fine, “competent” was the word I used – but there was nothing distinctive or notable about it that I could discern.

What changed?  Well, it’s not like we’ve crossed over into AotY territory here or anything for starters, but everything just seemed more focused.  Hyouma had nowhere to go but up but he did at least do that, and the other residents of the Nagatsuki villa started to become individuals.  And that’s a key, because Hyouma’s inability (or unwillingness) to see them as individuals is more or less the heart of the story.

I’m not clear on exactly why the tsukumogami of the estate are so fiercely loyal to Botan, but it’s absolutely clear that they are.  So much so that they bear the stigma of being traitors to their own kind and are loathed for it.  They do it for her, apparently – sealing (and assessing the worthiness of) other tsukumogami is apparently part of the conditions for their presence in the human realm.

Botan makes it clear that this loyalty goes two ways, and that she’s earnest in referring to her six servants as her family.  As such she’s furious over Hyouma’s condescending and threatening attitude, and tells him he’s to be kicked out of the house after three days.  That won’t work for him of course since it means the end of his time as a saenome (if his grandpa is serious, anyway).  So he has three days to get the residents to accept him.

It’s the combative Nagi who makes the first overture, perhaps not so surprisingly as it seems.  He understands Hyouma better than most because he’s the most like him.  Nagi takes Hyouma out on a straightforward sealing job, but the next one – in the company of Suzuri and Kanami – is much more interesting.  Suzuri is the most interesting of the tsukumo-gang so far to begin with, and the job itself is to decide whether a tsukumogami who wants to stay in the realm of the living is fit to do so.  Suzuri and Kanami both have a key role in this, and are quite forgiving when the process goes very badly after their identity is revealed.

Ultimately I think Mononogatari is going to focus largely on the question of what makes humans and tsukumogami different in the first place, since in this mythology they seem to feel very similar emotions.  That could be intriguing, as could the uptight Hyouma’s response to having his preconceptions (and prejudices) shattered.  I see a lot more potential here than I did after the premiere, though the jury is still out on whether Mononogatari has the inclination and intention to achieve it.

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5 comments

  1. N

    I too liked this one better than the premiere episode and we get some true interaction between Itadori, errr… Hyouma and the tsukumogami of the residence. The first meeting him and Botan doesn’t go well, though both acknowledge separately that perhaps they were a bit too harsh that time. Hyouma has 3 days to get along with everybody, going so far as to make a sign on the wall to show which ones have accepted him. He manages to get half of the team on-board by the end of the episode.

    The 2nd job was indeed more interesting that the 1st one, which was a straightforward sealing mission that we’ve already seen before. The 2nd one is something like an interview for residence or citizenship. Something goes wrong, but Hyouma is able to hold back his usual, “Punch first, ask questions later”, routine. He’s learning and is willing to learn. I like this kind of character development and this show might be a keeper.

  2. Yup. Like I said, characters don’t have to be fully formed in the first episode. We’ll see where it goes but this ep was pretty solid.

  3. B

    Yeah, Mononogatari manga actually started in 2014, 4 years before Jujutsu. As a manga reader, I very much prefer Hyouma to Itadori. But its funny watchingt this and realizing how different early Hyouma was compared to the current Hyouma in the manga. His character development is just amazing, too bad we probably won’t ever get to that point.

  4. E

    I find myself loving where this series *could* go. It feels like the author loved the Attack on Titan premise (look at those character designs for Pete’s sake!), but hated when it went way off the rails. Thus, this series may be a “what if Eren and Mikasa lived in a world that was a little less vicious” show. Or “what if Eren didn’t break bad and was actually able to pull himself back accept his trauma and heal” show. Lots of unanswered Q’s still, but looking at this show in that light makes me hope for the personal and emotional catharsis that AoT never delivered.

  5. B

    Nope, that’s just the anime design, the manga looks nothing like AOT and in fact, has much better art than AOT. And no, as someone who read the manga up to the latest chapter, I don’t feel anything about it is similar to AOT.

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