So apparently Crunchyroll’s release time has changed, meaning the fansub time will change from now too T_T I nearly died yesterday without my weekly Shinobu Nisemono fix. Anyway. Karen Bee finale!
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Summary
Araragi finds Karen and tries to persuade her from going to find Kaiki, and as they fight he mentions how Karen and Tsukihi’s wills are all derived from others, and that they have no will of their own, their actions only being a form of self-sacrifice. Karen agrees to leave everything with Araragi, and he goes with Senjougahara to meet up with Kaiki. However, Kaiki isn’t interested in being enemies with Araragi anymore, and promises to stop conning the middle schoolers and leave the town, mentioning that the Wreathe-Fire Bee oddity in itself was a fake, and that Karen will recover in three days time.
Impression
What’s wrong with doing something for someone else? What’s wrong with self-sacrifice? Even if…even if we’re fakes, what’s wrong with that? Has it ever caused trouble for you?!
I find myself completely taken aback and impressed at how aptly everything turned out – as the title of the sequel implies, everything is a fake. Not just the Fire Sisters, but Kaiki, the Wreathe-Fire Bee and even the legend behind the oddity. And the one thing that seemed insignificant at the time but ended up being the foundation of the entire arc was that fakes will only be fakes, but can sometimes be even more than the real thing.
From what I got out of it, it seems that Karen’s illness was all hypnosis and an illusion, the Wreathe-Fire Bee didn’t even exist in the first place (…thanks, Oshino) and the ordeal wasn’t even a problem, but Araragi, or Karen rather, made it one. Kudos, Studio SHAFT. Kudos, Nisio Isin. Maybe if you ask nicely, Shinobu will let you pat her head now. She totally should have been an adult when she asked for the chest groping, but I guess a loli is fine too.
I was surprised that Araragi was so diplomatic as to take all those hits from Karen and still not give up, but I’m sure the vampire powers played their part. It was brilliantly choreographed though, and Karen was scary to have that kind of power as a middle schooler without any influence from oddities. All along the show’s been vague on the exact reason the Fire Sisters are “fakes”, but thanks to that amusing black-and-white like something out of a 1920s drama romance, it’s all down to Karen and Tsukihi being kind people I guess. Everything they do is a self-sacrifice for the good of helping others, and if you put it that way, then although the Fire Sisters don’t know it, Araragi is a total hypocrite. Hmm, let’s see now, people he helped for the sake of helping…Senjougahara, Hachikuji, Kanbaru, Sengoku and Tsubasa. And if you count Kizumonogatari, the biggest sacrifice he made was to help Shinobu. Hypocrite much?
If I had anything to criticise about an already fabulous max episode, it’d be that Kaiki lost interest far too quickly. True, it fits his personality as a money-obsessed con man, but to just lose interest and leave so easily without a fight since it didn’t involve in him making any cash? That’s…no fun anymore =/ As a fake though, he sure was good at making fake charms, so it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to say that his whole self is a fake threat. What was interesting was his past “relationship” with Senjougahara, who for some reason fell in love uhh, I mean “liked” Kaiki in the past dodges a stapler I’m sure Araragi’s already forgotten though, after all that hot sex they had that night. He looked surprisingly worn out with messy hair cough
Finally, here’s my first attempt at a full-length image, since I know everyone’s secretly a Fire Sisters fan ^^ I’m still figuring out how to get rid of the lines my screenshot program makes when it takes caps, but to be honest I’m surprised the thing fitted together correctly in the first place xD
