I must confess the last couple of episodes on Mononogatari have been a bit of a downgrade for me. The budgetary limitations have certainly shown themselves in this fight – there were a ton of still frames this week, though the staff is doing a decent job with what they have at their disposal. That’s not a huge deal for me honestly, but the show has also lost some emotional resonance. The narrative downfall of the Bureau has been a disappointment, and an awful lot of this fight is folks standing around yelling at each other about what’s going to happen (and why).
In any event, the return of Kushige to the fray pretty much seals the deal for the B of TM. The scales are definitely stacked against the Bureau now, and having dragged that lame-ish bit about reviving the living god because they wanted a bigger audience as far as it could, the series now has the Bureau happy to bite it as long as they respect their opponent. I really liked them as characters when they first joined, but the writing has not been kind to the Bureau, and not much around them in the past two episodes has made any sense.
Meanwhile the Warazamawashi are only too happy to stand by and let the Bureau soften the Trousseau-Hyouma combo up a little bit. Tenjitsu declares Hyouma his prey, and sets about taunting him full time. Having slipped on the skin of Hyouma’s brother that’s not hard to do, and he has some of Hayato’s memories as well. As for the other Warazamawashi members they busy themselves with the other Nagatsukumogami, though I do find it irritating that Kushige, supposedly the strongest of the lot, settles in to protect Botan and basically sits the battle out.
This whole thing with Hyouma and Tenjitsu really out to be a big emotional payoff, but it’s leaving me kind of cold. Even that bit with Haori calling Hyouma “Son-in-law” sort of fell flat. It looks like Kai and his loli assistant are finally going to be entering the scrum next week – maybe that will liven things up a little. The way I gather it their presence would be in violation of all sorts of house rules, so I’m curious to see who would be responsible for freeing them up to take part (and how).
Nicc
September 13, 2023 at 6:48 amI have to agree about the Music Bureau. I still can’t tell what they really wanted. The “wanted a bigger audience” wasn’t a good motive to begin with. During battles, it was almost like they wanted to be beaten and they were indeed satisfied when they were. Tsumabiki even gave Hyouma words of encouragement before she expired. Whatever act they were trying to put up, the Bureau seemed to like the humans that they entertained. Oh yeah, and Kushige returns right on the nick of time. This frees up Haori to go on offense and to seal the fates of the Music Bureau.
Right, there was lots of standing around and talking. I’ve gotten accustomed to this sort of thing from other shows, but the padding stands out. There’s a good bit of that as the Warazamawashi now takes their turn. Hyouma and Tsubaki head back into the battle and the match-ups are set. Of course, one of them is Hyouma vs Tenjitsu. Tenjitsu not only has his Hayato’s face, but also his memories and he taunts Hyouma with that. This is where we learn that Zouhei knows who killed Hayato and Kusui, but kept it from Hyouma. Granted, it makes sense considering how Hyouma was like at the start of the series. Now that his primary motivation is no longer revenge but to protect, his door pulls seem to have fully accepted him and now he can unlock their full powers.
I don’t know how far he can go even with a power up since he’s still badly injured, but the preview shows that Kai will show up. Perhaps the still unseen Yachimata clan had something to do with his deployment? Next week is the season finale and so the battle is going to wrap up one way or another.