Saturday, December 28, 2013

Nekomonogatari Black: questions of love?

Sweet dreams or dark nightmares?



A prequel to 'Tsubasa Cat' from Bakemonogatari series, NEKO BLACK lays out exactly what happened during that unforgettable, gold-tinted week; the week when Araragi Koyomi fell out of something that was not a first love




The main draw of Hanekawa ?



Usually, in a Monogatari story, there's one topic of conversation between Araragi and one of the people he interacts with that catches my attention. In Bake, it was Hitagi in Mayoi Snail and the episode where she gave the stars away; in Nise, it was Kagenui and the choice between Kaiki, Oshino and her own points of view. This quick review is terribly late because I wasn't quite so interested possibly because the theme was 'love'



How does a person know that he or she is in love? Is it something he/she just knows? Is wanting to touch them love? And what makes a person fall out of love?



It's to his sisters that Araragi turns for advice about love



Hanekawa is one of the three heroines in the Monogatari series that fans get behind as their choice for Araragi. And Neko Black is the series that both raises and dashes those hopes. Araragi does say at one stage that he's actually way beyond being in love with her, to the stage of wanting to die for her. But by the end of the week, he decides never to speak a word of it to Hanekawa, to bury it instead as something that was not a first love that he had fallen out of.



What's wrong with Hanekawa?



Why? What happened that made him seal away those feelings? I think that it was Hanekawa's attitude towards herself, an attitude of not valuing herself, which had enabled her to convince herself that getting abused by her father was fine and to be expected. To be blunt about it, it disgusted him. Araragi's nature is to try to help others, but he also understands that sometimes, people have to want to help themselves first. If they don't, then no one can help them resolve anything. And that's what Hanekawa's problem here ultimately was.



TBC, or course.



p.s. two sidenotes:



Oshino and Shinobu continue to steal the show



but something that continues to amuse me is this:



Naoetsu, where the bulk of the Monogatari series takes place, is definitely close to the sea. Why then, does Araragi say in the drama CD that he's never seen the sea!?! And why did Hachikuji play along with it!?!
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