Isn’t Senjougahara just fabulous max? Though not quite as awesome as Shinobu.
Summary
Araragi ends up only being able to take half of the Wreathe-Fire Bee’s poison from Karen, and heads out to Senjougahara’s house to talk to her about Kaiki. When she mentions going to meet with Kaiki to settle her own problems with him, Araragi convinces her to take him along, on the grounds that Karen has been one of his previous victims. When Araragi goes out to look for Karen after Tsukihi tells him she has gone missing, Shinobu appears and implies offering her help in searching, as she can track Karen from the scent of her blood.
Impression
Both Senjougahara and Shinobu in one episode. You can’t possibly ask for any more. Although Senjougahara seems to have picked up a few more unique traits to say the least, one of them being the obsession switch from staplers to red pencils. They’re as deadly, if not more than her other large arsenal of stationery, especially when she sits there scarily, manually sharpening them using a knife. I’m sure it must have shocked Churaragi-san to nearly have his eye taken out too.
The insulting is entertaining and all, but I was pleased to see that interaction with Senjougahara spent more time on how she felt about Kaiki and the situation with her family’s inevitable breakup. Staple Stable is as legendary as always, and the flashing through of the original Hitagi Crab arc was really reminiscent of the original series quite a while ago. Their banter and wordplay between each other is often so complex that most of the time, I’m left with a loss at what to even say o.O Talking about her family means there’s always a seriousness in her tone, though she doesn’t stop striking random poses, some of which I’m sure would excite innocent Araragi’s mind. Not that Sengoku and Kanbaru haven’t already taken his mental virginity, that is.
As amazing as Senjougahara is, I’m still firmly in the Shinobu camp, and SHAFT has continued to appease with healthy doses of Shinobu each week. Actually, I was under the impression that, being a vampire, going out under sunlight isn’t a good idea, and they quite…graphically described what happened to Araragi when he tried sunlight in Kizumonogatari. I mean, Araragi himself is afraid of (though not harmed by) it, and he’s just a former vampire. Shinobu must really be wanting to help, despite her tsundere attempt to try and save face. Anyway, locating Karen would be far easier with her help, which boils us down to the final confrontation with Kaiki much faster.
Note how I haven’t mentioned much about Araragi meeting Hachikuji – all I’ll say is that I disapprove of the lack of sexual harassment being used as a conversation starter. I know there was that trauma from Kanbaru and all, but it’s just no fun when Araragi’s name isn’t mixed up anymore xD Talking to Tsukihi was like something out of a murder mystery, where the detective tries to calm down the emotionally fragile witness.
We’ve had a long build-up and everything that’s happened thus far has been explained to great detail – though I’m not opposed to this arc, I’m slightly itching to get on to Tsukihi Phoenix, since the oddity itself sounds like a much greater threat than a snail, crab, monkey, snake or bee. But why do I get the feeling that Kaiki will be involved again with Tsukihi’s problem, especially since whatever Araragi does to solve things with Karen will probably have Kaiki lose out?