I’ll say this for Mononogatari, it’s certainly gotten eventful.  The development has been quite linear, really – the structural integrity of the plot is kind of impressive.  But now that we’ve arrived at the clear biggest watershed moment of the series so far, we got an episode that was actually stripped down in a way.  The focus here was on the clash of the titans, plain and simple.  Great forces which have been carefully arrayed to facilitate this conflict, thrown into battle.  All the underlying tensions and intrigue are still there, but in the main this was a very straightforward outing.

Amidst all that, Tsubaki being a berserker feels kind of small potatoes.  I mean yeah, it’s disturbing – especially in the context of what happens if she takes over the Kyoto Saenome (and we already know the current guy did so by force).  I almost felt sorry for Tsumabiki, just for a moment.  But that passed pretty quickly when she started talking.  This is an all hands on deck situation, the odds are stacked against the good guys, and if Tsubaki’s dysfunction makes her a stronger opponent then so be it.  Berserk away.

I wasn’t that keen on Tsumabiki’s explanation of why the Bureau had decided to throw in with the umbrella clan.  Chaos, a new audience, okay – but that frankly seems a little out of character to me.  And I wonder if it does to Fukie, too – maybe I imagined it, but I thought there were hints he might not to totally comfortable in the company he’s keeping.  Tsubaki is right about one thing – with so many opponents arriving on the scene, that means their allies (Taiju, his sons, the Nagatsuki tsukumogami – have been taken out.  But those are not all the potential allies they have, I think…

So Botan is the “key”, then.  The key to unlock the door between the world of the living and the dead.  And what’s inside her is apparently a “living God”, though the exact meaning of that is still not determined.  Tsubaki and Hyouma are more than holding their own when it’s just the umbrella and Tsumabiki, but once the rest arrive they can do little but urge Botan to flee as they try and buy her time.  Hyouma remembers his duty to protect her, even when Shigure (that’s “our” umbrella’s name) introduces the rest of her clan, the Warazamawashi, and one of them seems certain to be the one that killed his siblings.

I’m thinking that one is most likely Tenjitsu, who’s presented as a leader among the group and whose face is never revealed.  Tenjitsu certainly gives off big bad vibes even among this company, though the biggest bad is clearly the one inside Botan.  Things are looking pretty grim – especially as Fukie has paralyzed Botan to prevent her running (I’m not convinced she would have).  But there are still X-factors out there.  Kushige has to awaken and enter this fray at some point.  And the almost-forgotten Kai, who’s been portrayed as one of the (at the very least) biggest badasses among Kyoto’s tsukumogami.  How does he come down on all this happening on his turf?