M.S.S.S Episode 5

End of Nekomonogatari Shiro arc. End, or atleast, the next checkpoint to Hanekawa's search of humanity.

Surprisingly Complex: M.S.S.S Episode 5

Won't going to lie, this episode is probably going to my books as one of my favorites from the whole series. The irony of it being, that as the writer of my blog, it doesn't give me much, because all is pretty much laid bare. The only thing that this episode emphasizes is that Hanekawa is from development standpoint at least as important character as Araragi. The confession is one of the first times we actually see actual emotions on her. And boy, there's some character developed really called for there. We've seen her in two full seasons and one OVA, and not once has she lost a percent of her cool. Now it's very different, even though she is in the "black" mode, in which she actually isn't.

Notice how Araragi didn't get energy-drained when he patted her? It means that Hanekawa has successfully become one with the cat, so "Black" Hanekawa doesn't exist anymore. She still could drain the Tiger, which mean she is in control. Now that she also has the Tiger in, she might be able to generate super-heat. The question whether she actually has the powers in the future is important, because if so, she can be of help... Even more than before. But somehow I feel that the whole point is that by consuming them they lose their unnatural power.

Isn't it by the way kind of ironic that Hanekawa becomes human by consuming the supernatural that departed her? Even though they are made of her own parts, it's still an interesting thing to think about. Of course, it could be also taken as a classic example of "accepting your Demons" in a more literal sense.

I actually read almost the whole novel in the process of waiting for this episode, yet steering clear of spoilers. The novels have actually little more depth because of the style the anime went for, where you must do the thinking. The novels' way of speaking to the reader is actually not too dissimilar of the way I write these blogs, which is damn creepy. Remember my first example, the falling Senjougahara? Yeah, it was explained there, and the wording was almost identical to my way of writing it (At least the translation was). I do swear I didn't read it before I wrote my blogpost.

I really loved the artstyle of the Wandering Hanekawa -scene. It really shows how differently Hanekawa and Araragi think things through. If you're wondering "Where did we see Araragi analyze anything?" Well, we have to go way back. To the first episode of the series. Even though we never saw anything even resembling the black scene of randomness when we see him and Senjougahara arrive to the Eikou Cram School for the first time, just... Compare. I loved both scenes, but I think this was executed better.

Araragi says that he loves Senjougahara more than Hanekawa, but the important point is: Is Araragi's feelings toward Hanekawa love? NO! It was addressed in Nekomonogatari Kuro that it's not love. Just for the people wondering.

META-REDUX: HANEKAWA

This part is no longer viable, as of now, Hanekawa's character has taken a solid 180º. Or so we are told. Of course, Hanekawa is always Hanekawa, at least externally. This touches merely the inside part, of which we didn't actually know too much before now.

I could really argue that within these five episodes, we've learned more about Hanekawa than we have in the whole past series, and I think that's the point. She is way too central of a character to be just written from someone else's perspective. Or more like, her character is hard to analyze without the internal component. Why, you may ask? Because the line between "think" and "do" is very far in Hanekawa's case. The things she does, their justifications, and what goes through her mind doing it are three separate things. The things she does are very normal, their justifications are understandable, but what goes through her mind thinking about it? Different dimension. She doesn't think about the things she does in the same way normal people do. She does them (Or more like did) out of the fact that it's seen as normal procedure. She tried to become real, but she missed the whole point. Her own ignorance got her wanting the wrong thing, and as such, do the wrong things. She was just wrong.

In the end of this episode Hanekawa takes all her dark sides inside and finally turns into a real human. Does this mean she wasn't before? Not really, but it's a question worth asking, because the follow-up-question: "What does it mean to be human?" Exactly. It's a question best left unanswered.  

Anyway, Hanekawa's avoidance of the dark side, or her "dimming the dark" out of her life made her unable to see the sides of the world she should've seen from the beginning. She dimmed the dark out of her life, out of her body, creating more harm to everyone. Whether she did this knowingly or subconsciously is left to debate, but the idea stays. Hanekawa thought that to become real all negative aspects must be exterminated. They couldn't be exterminated, so she exiled them. What she missed was that those negative aspects make us who we are. 

There isn't always much to write, but a writing person still writes.

TL;DR?

Well, Hanekawa is human now, so... Yippee?