Opening Songs
OP 1 - Orange Mint (Saori Hayami)
Ending Songs
ED 1 - Border (Claris)
Genre: Comedy, Supernatural
Episodes: 1
So instead of getting another full blown season of the beloved "Monogatari", we get another one time screening event similar to the likes of "Hanamonogatari" (which I might add, was one of the best things that ever happened to the series). "Tsukimonogatari" further relishes more of the story for us, this time focusing on a character that has never gotten her own ark before: Ononoki Yotsugi, the kuudere loli doll like character that we've seen from time to time. She's made regular appearances since her debut in "Nisemonogatari", but we don't see too much of her to the point that she's considered one of the series's main characters. Anyway, here we are, with an entire ark dedicated to this adorable, emotionless, indestructible little girl. Can Shaft's insane art style and the crazy story telling of the "Monogatari" make Ononoki a character that we'll all come to love? Will her ark stand out like the others? Let's find out.
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| The loli dream |
The opening song is "Orange Mint" by Saori Hayami, who is the seiyuu for Yotsugi. Surely, she sounds different in this one, which is right since the song IS for Yotsugi, a character shrouded in mystery and question marks, yet still remains as a girl who likes to fool around. It fits the character, and while I'm not too big of a fan of the actual song itself, I'd say that its a good opening theme...for this ark at least. The ending theme is "Border" by Claris. Now, this is the NEW Claris, without one of its former members (they used to be a duo, but one of them left to further her studies or something). Well, they might have lost some of their old groove, but "Border" is, by heart, a Claris song. It sounds similar to what they have done before, and this one has a more cheerful undertone, which I do enjoy quite a fair bit.
Rating: 7.5/10
I'd like to say that "Tsukimonogatai" was as great as the recent "Monogatari" arks, but I'd actually be telling you a lie if I said that. Sure, its a standard "Monogatari" ark, but that's all that it is. There's not much of a "climax" here like these arks usually would have. Sure, the lore is there, explanations are solid as usual and the sexy onee-chan character is back (Kagenui is awesome), but there didn't seem to be a lot of..."character" in this one. Ononoki might not be the most interesting character ever, and I'm sure that I enjoyed Kagenui's company more than Ononoki's for this long episode. The focus shifts back to Araragi, and its actually great to see him back in action after not taking the lead for so long (Kaiki's arc was so amazing that we completely forgot about Aragagi, Kanbaru handled "Hanamonogatari" masterfully). Still, while he's an entertaining character as always, I'd rather see another one of the side characters take charge, because its always nice to have a different perspective (I'd kill for an arc where either Meme or Gaen takes the lead role). "Tsukimonogatari" works, but its not as amazing as the previous arks were.
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| Having a heated bath with your little sister then kissing her? Now that's wack. |
As mentioned earlier, for "Tsukimonogatari", Aragagi takes the charge once again as the main character. He goes around his usual daily routine, and somehow ended up taking a bath with his little sister Tsukihi. As they wash and grope each other in the bath covered in soap and bubbles, Aragagi notices that his reflection does not show in the mirror. To not let any of his sisters find out, he sends them on a slumber party at Kanbaru's house...but somehow all of them ended up being kidnapped, Karen, Tsukihi and Kanbaru, all together. Panicking, he tries to ask Shinobu, but she recommends seeking an expert's opinion about this. Meme's still out of commission, Kaiki is out of the question, so he decides to contact Gaen. Before he could do anything, Gaen gives him information to seek out Ononoki, who happened to be meeting up with Kagenui. Aragagi was turning into a full vampire and he had to stop using his powers so care freely, and it seemed that the girls were all kidnapped by a man named Tadatsuru, an outcast occult expert. Aragagi has to work together with Ononoki, to stop this crazed man and save his sisters.
"Tsukimonogatari" starts and ends as a very standard ark for the "Monogatari" series. It doesn't execute very wonderfully nor does it do anything too spectacular for it to be donned as another amazing entry in the series. Instead, it does what it usually does, giving us an ark about a character that's honestly not very interesting, but manages not to screw it up. That by itself is a merit. I'll wait to see what they can pull off next, because the series is not quite over yet.
Peace.
