Monogatari Episode 17 Reaction
Added 2025-07-05 13:43:38 +0000 UTCHachikuji pretends to leave us!
Comments
This episode NEVER fails to make me cry. I feel like if Nesa ever rewatches this, she'll be crying the whole time.
LAR Games
2025-10-27 04:54:56 +0000 UTCAhhhh the writing made my head tremble. The way hachikuji reused the casanova line in that last scene in regards to araragi wanting to choosing everyone in contrast to shinobu using it when he kissed her. The little details of ononoki with gaen, her little nudge of help to get hachikuji to araragi's eye level without getting asked for. The way they kept on hitting us with a lot of "sorry I bit my tounge" throughout all their interactions as a buildup for this last climatic farewell scene. Also a bit of clue were given out in regards to gaen, she kept on saying "I know everything" but the way she explained things were literally about how she managed to connect the lines between all the dots (clues) that she managed to gather through her insane information gathering skills with such insane accuracy that she called it as clairvoyance. I remembered crying during hachikuji's confession, when she said "we haven't been doing our back and forth recently", I broke. Seriously, if loli's can't be seperated from Anime&Manga medium, then I wish that every loli is at least 20% as good as hachikuji
Oisif
2025-07-06 06:11:00 +0000 UTCIn episode 16, after landing in the mountains, the first exchange we are treated to goes like this: Araragi: “Where are we?” Ononoki: “I don’t know, Devil Boy”. At the beginning of episode 17, Araragi reiterates “We ourselves didn’t even know what mountain we landed on”. Yep, they were lost. Being lost is indicated by a lack of knowledge about your own whereabouts. And they were lost because of Hachikuji. Not necessarily through her curse as the lost cow/snail, but indirectly through fleeing the Darkness hunting her down. This nonetheless suffices to fulfil the condition of Hachikuji’s ‘job description’. When they move down the mountain to contact Gaen and end up in a settlement where all knowing Gaen is already waiting for them, I don’t think there is any reason to believe they arrived at the Gaen residence, as Nesa phrased it. She simply anticipated where they would be (down to the door they would knock on) and made the necessary arrangements. She knows everything, after all. Hachikuji already was pretty shoddy at her job back in Bake, shutting herself off behind a standoffish façade to try not to lead people astray. “Don’t talk to me. I hate you!” Staying more or less alone with herself for eleven years. I think OP 2, ‘Kaeremichi’, illustrates this isolation very well. While she was somewhat dodging her responsibilities before, she completely stops misleading people and even actively guides Araragi after. The ‘lie’ begins when she reappears, claiming to have been “promoted” from Earthbound to Wandering Spirit. She wasn’t. She simply slipped through the cracks. Oddities exist because people believe in them. They cannot change themselves lest the Darkness devour them. But sometimes, under the right conditions, they can BE changed. The Meddle Cat is changed, as Oshino phrases it, through being possessed by Hanekawa (quite monstrous in her own right) instead of the other way around. Heart-Under-Blade is changed into Shinobu (the heart radical written under the blade radical) and bound by Oshino through his family name. There lies power in names. It is implied that Heart-Under-Blade could have become the goddess her worshipers made her out to be. As it stands though, she too did not fulfil her ‘job description’ and remained a pretender. As did our sweet “Wandering” Spirit with the courage to tell a lie. In the end there seems to be no place on earth for a ghost that has already passed on, a contradiction in itself. Finally, it's quite understandable that a lot of people find it hard to stomach the abundant use of (more or less sexualized) Loli Baba in contemporary Japanese storytelling and see it as the cop out to get away with lolicon high jinks that it (also) is. The way in which the Monogatari series explores this trope in fully fleshed out characters with their own internal conflicts mitigates this to some extent. This goes especially for the climax sequence of this arc. While the stacking of Lolis is ridiculous on its face, I think it does an important bit of characterisation via visual storytelling. There are untold ways in which Hachikuji could have moved in for a surprise kiss. (Ononoki illustrates one among many just an episode earlier.) Instead, Ononoki lends Hachikuji her hight, so she can meet Araragi at eyelevel. The scene indicates not the eleven year old girl she appears to be, but the 21 year old woman she would have been, who often shines through in the seemingly anachronistic wisdom of her dialogues, and who now finally confesses her love to Araragi. Having met grown up Hachikuji during the Mayoi Jiangshi arc enables us to be competent readers of this scene. To me Ononoki’s act of solidarity and compassion also helps to add a new dimension to her character which, hidden behind the flat affect, had up until now mostly been humanized via her dislike of Shinobu.
Russell's teapot
2025-07-06 00:48:16 +0000 UTCThis is such an important lesson for Araragi to learn. Something hes struggled with for a long time is how to deal with loss. He always manages to scrape by and squeeze out a satisfying ending for himself, or at least avoiding the worst outcome of any situation. But not this time. Hachikuji was never supposed to remain in this world after finding her way home. She was the Lost Snail, she was cursed to always be lost and drag others into her misery. When we first met her, Araragi mentions how she pushed everyone away because she didn't want to affect them and was forced to wander alone. Her remaining after breaking the "curse" that bound her to this world is the contradiction, both narratively and causally. It's too convenient. It's tragic that we don't get to hear more of Hachikuji, but it makes her moving on so much more poignant and powerful. The denial is understandable, but ask yourself how would she be able to be written back and be able to have a place in this story narratively and have it feel satisfying? It would be pretty hard in my opinion, and wouldn't it take away from the lesson that Araragi so desparately needs?
Jaron Clark
2025-07-05 18:33:01 +0000 UTCIn this episode, Nesa and Chillih learn that denial isn't just a river in Egypt
magnificent_owl
2025-07-05 17:24:23 +0000 UTCConsidering how much they loved Hachikuji, I have been anticipating their reaction to this episode for a long time. I expected an "I don't want to watch this anymore" but got denial instead. Going through all the stages of grief, this must be more serious than I thought...
Alex
2025-07-05 15:49:36 +0000 UTCThis man literally sold his soul to Mephisto (magazine) because how else can he write them so fast?!
My abba taught me a few things too, like how to rip the skin off by using my own mouth
2025-07-05 15:36:07 +0000 UTCNesa finally enter her villain arc by supporting Araragi to kiss Hachikuji 😂 talking about character development
Lucy Steel
2025-07-05 15:24:43 +0000 UTC*Hachikuji kisses Araragi* Chillih: "...you know what, sure." He's officially been reformed lmao. Also, in relation to your talk about NisiOisiN's writing, if you guys have already watched Death Note, you should definitely check out the book"Death Note: Another Note - The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases." Unlike Death Note, he authors this story (which is referenced to have taken place in universe by the original author but is never explicitly written about). It's very different from the Monogatari series as it's plot focused/an airtight mystery, but equally insane how he manages to neatly pack in this gem in like a mere 170 pages.
Russell Gambardella
2025-07-05 15:12:53 +0000 UTCHonestly, same haha. I was in denial for a while after.
Tony Wegner
2025-07-05 14:59:53 +0000 UTCThis episode is such a great meditation on death and loss. Even the timeline of her sticking around for "extra innings" for 4 months only for the day to come and go suddenly, without warning, is very similar to how old age takes people. You know the day is coming, but when it happens you think "No, not today. That's not real." I totally understand the perspective about trying to find clever ways to bend the rules, but fundamentally I think this show is more about acceptance than cleverness. And I really respect Hachikuji's decision to see how she used to be, refuse that, and to accept her ending. This sassy lost child is so admirable. And yes, the tower of lolis going in for a kiss is iconic lmao. Like to me, even more than the toothbrush thing, this is the emblematic moment of "you just have to watch it". I cried real hard the first time watching this, and trying to rationalize literally anything that happens in this scene is the work of a madman. But its such a great book-ending to her character. You're totally right in that there are some moments (and this is definitely one of them) where you just sit back and are like "Damn, how do you actually write this. Like how did you DO this?" And as hard as it is to believe, as an english-watching audience, we're still missing so much of the Japanese language significance of parts too. I literally cannot fathom NisioIsin. He's like a writing tesseract.
Tony Wegner
2025-07-05 14:59:02 +0000 UTCIn the end, Hachikuji had the courage to lie to a friend.
Ry
2025-07-05 14:51:42 +0000 UTCI think it's important to think back to Shinobu, or rather, Miss Heart-Shot. The most powerful Vampire wanted to die for Araragi's sake, where she already killed numerous people along her long life, but even then, Araragi refused to let her life end. He selfishly demanded her to live. In that respect, this is his first time dealing with loss, with the death of someone close to him. No matter what logic or childish tantrum he threw, Hachikuji could not be saved.
Skeletan
2025-07-05 14:42:00 +0000 UTC*episode ends* "that's not real." 😢
Russell Gambardella
2025-07-05 14:24:07 +0000 UTC
