Koyomimonogatari EP 7 and 8 Reaction (OPs)
Added 2025-08-09 18:00:43 +0000 UTCDiscussion about Tadatsuru at the end!
Comments
I love both of your enthusiasm watching and theorizing about this show! Rewatching with you guys is such a treat. I definitely noticed and appreciated a lot more of the dialogue filled with symbolism/character relevance to Sengoku and others this time around for ep 8. and LOL Nesa recommending a show, 'bro, did you even give it a chance? at least watch the first 300 episodes...'
Russell Gambardella
2025-08-14 23:44:11 +0000 UTCA small correction about what happened in Otori. Nesa: "The reason she [Sengoku] knows all this stuff is because she speaks to the snake god". Sengoku never spoke to the "real" snake god before she ate the talisman. That part of Otori was made up by her. She gained a fair amount of specialist knowledge in Bake, when she tried to save herself from the curse, and she probably had more talks about oddities with Araragi. That knowledge helped her fabricate the story about the "snake god" forcing her to find his body. Ougi guided her (by telling her where the talisman was) and provoked her (by confronting her about her "victim complex") to "enshrine" the snake god. This episode of Koyomimonogatari implies Ougi's motive - "to keep the balance". Having Sengoku as a god of the shrine should theoretically do just that. I love the theorizing and the discussion at the end. I wasn't even close to your level of comprehending the show on my first watch. If you're hooked by the mysteries now, then you're probably fated to keep rewatching this show over the years, because every new piece of information and context makes the previous scenes, lines and interactions feel new, fresh and exciting.
Gromzi
2025-08-10 23:25:26 +0000 UTCI was planning on watching Pupa btw, but for the sake of Chillih please no 😂.
Vanesa Georgieva
2025-08-10 08:15:15 +0000 UTCMan chillih talking about wanting to do a podcast discussing about theory crafting on monogatari reminded me of my first time watching this show. I felt so blessed to have watched this show for the first time with a friend that is equally as blind of the series. On some episodes we just had to discuss for literal hours after the episode ended which was crazy. Honestly, I probably won't be this addicted with monogatari if I didn't watch this alongside someone else at the start. Idk, personally watching character driven stories with so much mysteries surrounding it is so much more fun to analyze than story driven stories with mysteries.
Oisif
2025-08-10 05:47:48 +0000 UTCLMAOOO, "Is araragi's porn drawer now a shrine". That's such a line
Oisif
2025-08-10 05:29:19 +0000 UTCChillih: "they're not open minded at all". Nesa: "They're losers". 😂
Lucy Steel
2025-08-10 04:32:57 +0000 UTCScottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume maintained that our emotions (which he referred to as “passions”) not only motivate our actions and judgments, but also shape the very process of belief formation. He further proposed that belief in supernatural agents was rooted in motivated reasoning. It might be some temperamental disposition that makes the tea club members believe in a ghost (perhaps they enjoy a bit of ostension or simply find the idea romantic), and Tsukihi believe in a naturalistic world that is (at least in principle) intelligible. However, by feeding Tsukihi a story that flatters her, Kanbaru and Araragi also provide the “passion” that motivates her to believe it. In the end, I think Kanbaru hints that Tsukihi might simply act as if she accepts Araragi’s explanation (“going along with it”). A caring big brother, of course, would be motivated to believe in the trusting nature of his adoring little sister, when in fact she is simply happy that he took the time to listen to her and consider her problem. Regarding episode 8, we have a bit of a Ship of Theseus situation: how many parts of a Shinto shrine can be removed before it ceases to be the same shrine? The implied answer would be all of them—except for the shintai (body of the god) or sacred relic. However, the shintai is not at the shrine, but neatly tucked into the pages of a porn magazine. So, is the shrine of the Polar Snake still the shrine of the Polar Snake? Or is Araragi’s porn drawer now a shinza (seat of the god)? What if people were to enshrine, say, a snake skin instead (think: DanDaDan), and collectively agree that this new shintai is and always has been the one true relic of the Polar Snake? I think the episode nicely revisits the show’s themes of identity, authenticity, and belief.
Russell's teapot
2025-08-09 23:49:28 +0000 UTCReally cool discussion! Yep, there's nothing quite like Monogatari XD There are so many things going on and things to take away in the series as a whole, don't feel bad if you need some help understanding things here or there. I've been pleasantly surprised with how open-minded you guys have been and willing to engage with the story and characters. The reason why half of us understand it so well as we do is because we've watched it so many times (the other half are geniuses I guess.) I know I certainly didn't understand everything the first time, but I definitely knew it was special and could resonate with the lessons and meaning the story was trying to portray even through the goofy fan-service and sexual themes. This is a show that's incredibly enjoyable to revisit. Even though the fanbase is relatively small, they are definitely passionate and willing to seek out prospective new Monogatari appreciators. That's how I got here hehe
Jaron Clark
2025-08-09 21:27:42 +0000 UTC"I feel like each anime needs a chance to take a look at it." Me considering giving you 80 dollars and having a hard time deciding whether to force you to watch Pupa, Hametsu no Mars or Brynhildr.
Furude Rika, now in a deadly rap battle with the Nipah virus
2025-08-09 21:27:09 +0000 UTCI am also in the mood to learn about math. Maybe some magic sprinkled in there too.
Oshi
2025-08-09 21:16:37 +0000 UTCHonestly I really like these eps because they are somewhat short and add to the overall story with foreshadowing, hints, and adding onto messages. But man I really want to learn about math 🧮
Lena
2025-08-09 20:13:12 +0000 UTCThe Chillih cook at the end was great, and I love that y'all are continuing to think about how episodes from a previous arc connect. I went back and checked for myself since you mentioned, and yeah, comments really did pop off on that episode haha. And re: people being turned off by Monogatari, I honestly think its a really particular type of show. Its one of my favorites, but not something I could ever blindly recommend. Gotta get someone who's either super open minded or already experienced anime fan. The long dialogue (sometimes whole episodes are one scene), the philosophical pontificating, quick cuts, misdirection, unreliable narration, frenetic visual pacing, huge flashes of text, transliterated Japanese puns, 80's manga references, cultural values of Shintoism, lolis, over the top Looney Tunes style character animation, heavy use of callbacks to recurring gags, etc. The show is literally a brick wall compared to something like March Comes in Like a Lion which is so approachable, grounded, and straightforward that I even watched it with my mom. But I do agree that there are still plenty more people who could persevere just a bit and enjoy it because it really is an "opens your mind" kind of show. Or at least it made me look more critically at things going forward. Again great cook at the end though. I loved you bringing up Tadatsuru again. As this is my first time actually watching in this order as well, I definitely see how thematically this ties in now. To the point where I almost typed out spoilers but then realized stuff hasn't actually happened yet. It just connects so well and I didn't get that until now. Platinum Cook-show.
Tony Wegner
2025-08-09 18:59:17 +0000 UTC
