The first finale of the season is Mononogatari, and I call it that because this time there’s no announcement of more anime on the way.  I think it could still happen (there’s plenty of material, and I was surprised it got two cours in the first place), but on the whole its popularity seems a bit niche.  Mononogatari is a show that’s always been in the middle for me.  I always liked it, I never loved it.  It did very little over 24 episodes to annoy me (and that’s no faint praise), but it pretty rarely wowed me either.

That’s about where I land with the finale, too.  It was  pretty good, left the series in a satisfying place.  But it didn’t really resolve much of anything, and I feel like the series peaked about four or five weeks ago and sort of coasted to the finish line.  It was never bad – Mononogatari has never been bad, really.  It just didn’t do enough with what seemed like a really good setup a few episodes back.  Apart from one showcase moment there was a bit of ant-climax to all this, but also enough climax to suggest the staff wanted this to be able to serve as a finale if necessary.

Apart from the Bureau, it doesn’t seem as if there were any casualties among the major cast.  Taiju was fine (just threw his back out) and so were his sons.  The final showdown is basically prevented not by the arrival of Taiju and his legions, but of Kai’s loli disciple – the implication being that Kai himself is preparing to enter the fray.  He’s enough of a badass to send the Warazamawashi scurrying away, clearly this not being a fight they’re prepared to take on.  But they promise to do all the nefarious things we know they plan to do.

As Taiju notes, things are still a bit of a faff here.  Botan’s freaky side has been revealed for all the locals to see, and the paper umbrellas have made it clear that they’re not giving up until the living God inside her is released (or they’re destroyed).  Plus there’s the whole matter of the Bureau and the great family that was supposedly supervising them, the mysterious Yachimata.  But that’s for later (in the manga at least) – for now they’re all friends and it’s time to hail some cabs and head to the hospital, where Hyouma will spend the next two days passed out.

After that, the next order of business is a nomikai (drinking party), which Taiju says is a Saenome tradition after a big battle.  Hyouma gets trolled into thinking he’s the guest of honor, but in fact that designation belongs to Kushige.  And Kushige delivers the clear standout moment of the episode.  Not only does he finally speak, but it’s in the voice of Ohtsuka Akio, as larger than life as it gets with seiyuu.  What happens with Kushige now that the villa has been destroyed?  Presumably it’s going to be rebuilt in some form or another, and he’ll slip back the role of protecting it.

Finally, some bonding time for Hyouma and Botan, with the Trousseau watching over them somewhat greedily.  It’s a full-on courtship now complete with aiaigasa, but gilding the lily is the pair of them stumbling on a traditional Shinto wedding.  Each of them notes that the other would look great in their respective prospective costumes, though this seems more on the order of slipping out rather than pointed.  In any event it’s pretty much a given that the two of them will end up married, so I look at this as the anime delivering an amuse-bouche in the event it’s not around to serve the main course.

On the whole, I’d say the second cour of Mononogatari was stronger than the first, even with its relatively modest final run.  Certainly the highest peaks were higher this cour, and as I said this isn’t a series that has a lot of real lows.  I’d certainly be pleased if it managed to score a full adaptation, though it’s hard to say that’s a likely outcome at this point.  There’s certainly a niche (that word again) for shows like this in anime, though they’re never going to generate a lot of buzz or conversation.  That’s one of the appealing things about Mononogatari, in a way – it’s refreshingly free of hype and tropes and just itself in its unassuming, semi-anonymous way.