Monogatari Episode 23 Reaction
Added 2025-07-18 20:57:39 +0000 UTCThis episode absolutely blew us away...
Comments
I needed that laugh π
Nathan Elkin
2025-11-07 01:40:06 +0000 UTCWanna know something else that will blow you away? We ALWAYS knew what Nadeko had in her closet. Her Bake opening literally shows us. lol This is why I always recommend watching the openings. They're the most masterful use of openings I've ever seen in anime. They tell you so much, but only once you know what it's telling you. If you don't, it tells you nothing.
LAR Games
2025-10-27 08:38:41 +0000 UTCWanna know something else that will blow you away? We ALWAYS knew what Nadeko had in her closet. Her Bake opening literally shows us. lol This is why I always recommend watching the openings. They're the most masterful use of openings I've ever seen in anime. They tell you so much, but only once you know what it's telling you. If you don't, it tells you nothing.
LAR Games
2025-10-27 08:38:36 +0000 UTCThat reaction at the end was what I was expecting for Mayoi. lol
LAR Games
2025-10-27 08:34:24 +0000 UTCAgree with this completely. He spent several eps talking confidently about how she was an idiot, a gullible airhead, and how anyone other than Gahara and Araragi would probably be able to fool her easily. When Hanekawa mentions the closet, he lies to shut her down because even he thinks what's in there is meaningless. Mentioning her drawings really feels like he was clutching at straws for anything that might delay or trip her up. When she reacts so strongly, I think he sees her for the first time as she actually is: an anxious, insecure child. Once he realizes that, he speaks from the adult perspective, and I think you're right that part of the reason it works is because he opens up to her a bit, too.
SleepDeficitHawk
2025-07-20 03:26:48 +0000 UTCI think Kaiki was 100% improvising after Nadeko saw through his deception. Hence why his voice suddenly sounds so much more genuine and emotional when trying to reason with her, partly because he's desperate for his life but also because he genuinely believes what he's saying. In order to get through to her he even opens up more about himself, explains the emotional reason behind his love for money and elaborates on his relationship with Senjougahara. Things he hasn't done with anybody else.
Doccyy
2025-07-19 20:16:57 +0000 UTCPeak episode, peak arc, peak anime, peak reaction!!! I don't have actually much to say since the other commenters already talked about the most important points of this episode but I just wanted to mention that I really enjoyed your reaction lol It's so funny how Chillih literally mentioned that Kanbaru is fine in Hana but both of you forgot about seeing Kaiki in Hanamonogatari haha. Kaiki has really deceived you with his narration of this story didn't he? Also as an Ougi enjoyer the Ougi slander at the end was unacceptable...
Exter
2025-07-19 15:21:09 +0000 UTCAHHHHHH IT'S SO GOOD. Seriously best arc of the series. The way kaiki opened up the scam with talks about how wishes that are spoken out loud won't be granted, and how he connected it to how sengoku kept her true wishes so tightly shut is honestly art. But I think what stood out for me the most in the arc were two things. One is kaiki's message to araragi. Stay away from nadeko, never associate with her again. With you around, she's going to get weaker. And the second one was his line towards nadeko, asking if she would become worthless if araragi dumped her, how everything aside from araragi is worthless, and in her priorities, was everything other than araragi trash. All this time, we've seen araragi save multiple girls out of their problems. Cuz that's just what a harem protagonist do. Save girls and make them all like you. Putting aside the "only you can save yourself", he did at multiple points help them one way or another. But not nadeko. His effort in helping her just kept on making her spiral down to worthlessness. Cuz she was designed from the start to be the cute little sister character trope that fell in love with the protagonist that already has a girlfriend. Where all she has to do was act cute and devillish to try and steal the MC. That's what the usual story wants from her type of character. Her becoming a God, I saw it as her way of escaping from the trope. But it wasn't working. She was still strung around by the story (through ougi). Which is why kaiki's words to her hits hard. The only way for her to escape... is literally through getting out of Araragi's story. She could only be happy once she's out of his life. Which again, comes through with a genius writing decision, to make KAIKI narrates the arc, making kaiki the protagonist, and pushes araragi out as a 3rd party, making it seem that araragi no longer has control of the story. And to literally make nadeko's dream a manga artist, where now she has to draw/make her story on her own, since she's no longer part of araragi's story. Literal peak
Oisif
2025-07-19 03:46:59 +0000 UTCFirst of all, I apologize in advance if my English isn't good enough to clearly express my thoughts. This episode is definitely my own favorite episode in all monogatari series for sure. Also it's my favorite candidate to be my anime favorite episode ever. I believe novel readers are better equipped for a full analysis (Iβm not one yet), so Iβm just going to speak from my personal experience with the anime. The visual direction in Monogatari is already top-tier by default, so what makes this episode special for me is not just that. This episode speech is just insane on a whole different level (because monogatari speech was always insane), I literally wanna challenge anyone on Earth to find an anime episode with a better speech β and one that hits just as hard narratively. This episode is packed with enough thematic content and dualities to inspire multiple philosophical and sociological theses. Some examples would be: - You don't need to be a hero or an altruistic person to save someone. - Immature altruism can be more harmful than helpful. - Pragmatism beats idealism in the long run. - What is the true value of the irreplaceable? - Sometimes lies can protect people β so why are cynical people inherently seen as "bad"? And finally β though Iβve already implied it β this episode doesnβt just contain all these ideas. It presents them with an incredibly coherent, sharp, and beautiful narrative. What a masterpiece.
Mauricio Iparraguirre
2025-07-19 00:14:45 +0000 UTCOne more thing I forgot to mention in my other post, and I feel it's already too long for me to go back and add it. There's even more subtle foreshadowing and parallels between Kaike and Nadeko. Nadeko has been hinted at several times to be an old-school anime/manga fan and more nerdy than she belies. Multiple times she referenced a lot of knowledge about Doraemon, but yet she doesn't have anything anime-related in her room or on her clothing. In the very beginning of Otori, she lists off several attributes and facts about herself in a monologue. Favorite manga: 80s works. Favorite games: Retro. Favorite music: Folk songs. But she's never shown talking about any her "favorite things" except for rare slip ups with Araragi, before she returns right back to her cute, innocent persona. Anyways, Kaiki also seems to have some sort of background in manga. Whether it's canon or not is debated, but implied he's to have some artistic talent as well. The drawings he scribbles in his journal when detailing the steps of his master plan to deceive Nadeko was fairly impressive. So impressive in fact, its the very same art that is used in the end credits/episode previews. Some theorize that he has a side gig as a manga artist, which would go on to explain why he has such seemingly detailed criticism of Nadeko's manga in the first place... But yeah, THIS is probably the main reason why people debate on novel vs airing order. There are other reasons too, but Kaiki is probably the most debated one. If you watch in airing order (like I did my first time tbh) you see Kaiki start off as a villain, have his first encounter end anticlimactically, and then suddenly he starts suspiciously playing the hero until he "saves the day" and then dies. Which is still very effective storytelling, but some people argue that the novel order is narratively better and I think the argument has some merit. In novel order, we are introduced to Kaiki as a villain, he storms off anticlimactically, and is a nuisance in the background here and there like usual. Then we cut to the future after Araragi and Senjou have graduated and we run into him from her perspective, and we are understandably suspicious of him. She tries to get away, only for him to not let her and reveal that people aren't always black and white. Finally, he narrates the story of Koi as sort of a hero and we learn even more tidbids about his true self before he deceives us again at the very end and makes us wonder what was true and what was false the whole time....
Jaron Clark
2025-07-18 23:36:53 +0000 UTCGreat analysis! It's wild to think a younger Kaiki and Nadeko were at least somewhat similar. It makes sense that Kaiki's unique awareness and honesty (with himself) is so charming, as it's the product of immense pain, struggle, and growth. Also, I never made the connection between all the mentioned traffic accidents which was a very cool detail. It's interesting how Senjougahara and Nadeko appropriately had opposite reactions upon hearing his traffic accident stories, truly demonstrating them as being "worlds apart." I really want to see more regarding Kaiki and Kanbaru's mother and am also now curious if the man who tried to rape Senjougahara is actually dead or not.
Russell Gambardella
2025-07-18 22:54:12 +0000 UTCKaiki got you good. You've even seen that he's alive after this and he still spun such a convincing story to make you think he actually died here. In the very beginning of the arc: Ep 1 "So in this story, you should be constantly wary of what's true and what's not." Kaiki is such a fantastically interesting character, because he's so content with playing the villain and not ashamed to perform immoral actions for the greater good but at the same time honest with himself and others in a strange, twisted way. He's the perfect embodiment of the "imposter" in so many aspects. He is a fake villain, a fake homewrecker, a fake liar, a fake exorcist. But because he is outwardly such a fake he can be even more real (effective) than the real thing. He can do things that even the hero can't. Like Kagenui mentions at the end of Nise, Kaiki believes in the theory of fundamental evil. On first thought it seems very pessimistic, but if you really think about it his line of thinking provides a lot of hope for humanity. "Thus if a person does good things, that is not their true self but rather a lie." Being "good" is living a lie, thus being an imposter, a fake. Kaiki posed that an imposter is far more valuable than the real thing BECAUSE of it's desire and deliberate choice to be the real thing. If people are born evil, then people who overcome their selfishness in order to help others have even MORE power. If the world is full of bad people, then all the good things that happen mean so much more. To me it seems like he's had to learn a lot of lessons the hard way in his life from his own tragic past. He was fine with being labelled a con artist, a villain, a money-grubber, but when Kanbaru later implies he was in love with her mom, he hesitates. Only after seemingly deciding to open up to her does he acknowledge it, but even then I feel he wasn't telling the whole truth. He likes to use "traffic accidents" as a tool to deceive people. When he first had the standoff with Araragi and Senjo he suspiciously spun her another one of his tales: Nise Ep 7: "Oh right, Senjougahara. I have a story I think you'd like to hear...it's about the man who almost raped you, way back when. He was hit by a car and died...in a place with no connection to you, in an event with no connection to you...that's the quality of the past you love so much to dwell on." Interestingly, right after this encounter she mentions how she's mustered the courage to move on from her past and move forward with her relationship with Araragi... He used the same tactic on Nadeko in an attempt to deceive her here, but it turns out she was even more of a con artist than he was...never once had she revealed her true self to anyone. He mentions this episode that he loves money because it can buy anything, but also mentions that really it's just that money is replaceable and he hates irreplaceable things. What is the most irreplaceable thing of all? I dare say it's love...He lost the one thing that was irreplaceable to him, his unrequited love married to another man nonetheless. He didn't seem to mind though, at least he could admire her from afar and use her to look up to as an ideal and an excuse... wait a minute that's exactly what Nadeko is doing to Araragi. Kaiki lost his unrequited love to a traffic accident and only then did he realize how wrong it was to hold on to that for so long and how much it destroyed him. He vowed to never value something irreplaceably like that again. That particular event seems like it must have fundamentally changed him and made him who is today, the man who lost everything he cared about but still perseveres. Unafraid of being labelled as a conman, a villain, a terrible person. To me it feels like this man must have gone through the worst fires of self-loathing to come out the other side as self-assured as he is now. And it's incredibly symbolic how he is the one to help Nadeko realize these lessons that he himself had to learn the hard way. Wallowing in self-pity gets you nowhere. Be true to yourself even if you have hide it to others. Never put all of your self-worth into one singular thing.
Jaron Clark
2025-07-18 22:31:59 +0000 UTCJust your friendly periodic reminder that Hachikuji is dead. lol
magnificent_owl
2025-07-18 22:29:00 +0000 UTCIt was actually so wholesome and endearing to see how much you both cared for Kaiki from the perspective of forgetting he's not DEAD - like Hachikuji (lmao sorry I couldn't resist) - but I'm glad you aren't unecessarily suffering anymore having been reminded of Hanamomogatari. :)
Russell Gambardella
2025-07-18 22:21:59 +0000 UTCThis arc catches my attention because it's about love (Koi), not just Nadeko's unrequited love, but also the love between Araragi and Senjougahara. Araragi has always refused to tell or show us much about his love life, but in this arc, Kaiki has been giving us crumbs of their relationship through Senjougahara. So, thanks, Kaiki. π
Ry
2025-07-18 22:16:05 +0000 UTC.... i don't know what to say but thank you
Vanesa Georgieva
2025-07-18 21:20:08 +0000 UTCRemember that Hanamonogatari takes place after this, and Kaiki was alive. Remember that he's a chronic liar, and he was the one telling this story.
Vintage
2025-07-18 21:19:22 +0000 UTC
