Stupid sexy Oikura.
Impression
Is it wrong that I found her voice really erotic? How Much-chan spent the episode talking about how shitty her childhood was, and all I could think of was ‘shit, her voice is hot’. And when it got all soft as her bitterness increased, that was just hnnnngg. It didn’t help that she was wearing hardly anything either. And in twintails. But hey, at least she didn’t kill her mother, right?
Sorry, that escalated a little too quickly. I finally get why Oikura made her silent plea of help to Araragi in the way she did – and why she even made it at all, in the hopes that he’d pick up on things and inform his parents. It really would have been a stretch to expect him to do something like that just because his parents were police officers, but that wasn’t the crucial factor – it was that his parents have taken care of Oikura before. In other words, there was a precedent for them taking her into custody, and so she wasn’t just relying on some wild delusion that Araragi’s parents could save her just because of their profession. Now that I know this, I can see why she feels so salty about it – because the issue now turns on the fact that Araragi apparently has a terrible memory, and has forgotten about Oikura three times now, all at different stages of her life. Even Sengoku remembers (it was nice seeing a non-yandere Nadeko by the way, I’d forgotten how cute Smoke Weed Everyday could be). From my point of view though, it didn’t look like she was sucking up to him during those tutoring sessions – it looked like she was just being nice and helping out of kindness. Of course, that’s because we’ve only ever seen it from Araragi’s viewpoint.
I agree with Hanekawa, as ever – Oikura has not tried to make herself happy at all. It was a shit childhood, yeah, but all she’s done to rectify that has been to stay in her room for two years and wallow in hate and bitterness. And when she tries to think in positive terms, it makes her seem more broken than she already is – who forces themselves to think that it’s a good thing their mother hasn’t disappeared so that they can continue to claim benefits? That’s darker than it first sounds. It feels like she’s given up, and the way she’s coped with it makes her less sympathetic than she really should be – because it was a hard life. My heart went out to her when she said she’d thought her house was the norm all along, and that she thought Araragi was just showing off with how calm things were with his family. So I can see why she’d make Araragi the target of her hate, and why (in her mental state) she’d choose to blame it all on him, but it’s ultimately not his fault, is it? He is, to some small extent, to blame perhaps, but the way Oikura has turned out is mostly due to her parents and ultimately herself.
Hanekawa has had domestic violence issues too, hasn’t she? If anything, I hope it’s her who gets Oikura back on the right track. It feels like it’d be Araragi who does it, but her hate for him might be too ingrained for things between them to change so easily, even if she’s aware that she’s just scapegoating him for convenience. Hanekawa is definitely a better person to deal with this than Ougi, by the way – if it was Ougi, she’d probably make Oikura feel so bad about herself that her mental state becomes even more unstable. Ougi may be useful for other things, but healing is definitely not one of them. In asking for help from Araragi and Hanekawa (and I was surprised she even asked anything of them at all) maybe she can some to some sort of closure, if nothing else. She definitely needs it.
It pains my heart to be unable to watch this currently, but regarding your opening statements about Oikura: YOU ARE (NOT) ALONE.
I said it before back in episode 2, didn’t I? One word: HOT… and I’m still wrapping my mind and heart around why I think so.
Also, I now realize I totally left you hanging when you asked: “You’re curious? …How much? (HAHAHA, GEDDIT?)” 🙁
I admit that even up to now I haven’t wrapped my head around the “Much-chan” phenomenon. Enlighten me?
It’s fine, it was fairly rhetorical anyway! Arararagi mentioned it in the first episode I think: ‘Oikura?’ is also a (probably informal, from the sound of it) phrase which means ‘how much?’ She wanted to be called Euler (from the ‘Oi’ at the start of her name I suppose) due to her maths prowess, but ended up being nicknamed How Much by her classmates in English.
She is hot, but I feel bad for liking her just for that given that Monogatari has such a strong focus on character personalities and interactions (which is the main criterion in answering the ubiquitous ‘best girl’ question in this series). A good example is Ougi. Her sleeves are very comfy, but holy crap everything she says and does is creepy to the point it would outweigh even the comfiest sleeves ever.
Oh man. How’d I forget that? Then again I’m not very fond of remembering how a character was “mocked” unless it’s very subtly done as if an indication of one character’s discontent or even malice towards another 😛
As for my thinking of Oikura as hot, I’ll admit I do very much like her character design, but it was really the way she acted that attracted me. Then getting to know what she’s been through made me actually want to care about her a lot.
I guess I have a bias towards a personality like her because of the person I love, just being plain honest. It’s interesting to see someone who’s usually calm or even a little reserved just be very outgoing and sharp, even if it about something unpleasant. But knowing that it stems from their suffering, even if you’re suffering as a result, it then becomes a matter of who’s the bigger person and if that’s “you” then you start leaning towards wanting to resolves things and lead them back to happiness.
I remember when I first started watching Monogatari and I increasingly admired the way Araragi helped others. I’m finding this whole situation with Oikura very relatable, especially with the lack of apparitions affecting the main victim this time around. I never imagined I would have helped someone in a similar way to him, but before actually seeing him do it since the scenario I speak of happened long before this season. In fact, it was before Owarimonogatari’s first volume was released.
…But speaking of apparitions… I’m REALLY hoping Oikura herself isn’t one with all this talk of “a better child” or “a child other than her would’ve been better”. If that weren’t bad enough of a possibility some people are wondering if her mother didn’t just ROT away in that room quite literally and Oikura just didn’t see her as anything other than more trash as some sort of psychological defense D:
Now having watched this, I think I can say that this has been my favourite episode of the Monogatari series as a whole.
I watched every season leading up to Hanamonogatari daily starting at some point in winter of 2013 and never found myself thinking “I enjoy this episode more” or “I enjoyed this episode less”. The same could be said when it came to the seasons as a whole. The same could possibly be said of the characters to some extent, since I never felt anyone was meaningless and I just approved of the actions of some more than others. Of course in looking at the characters the truth about my feelings for Monogatari are certainly that I enjoyed some things more and some things less than others. In any case, I was just happy to experience more Monogatari.
Still, I think having a conscious thought about something is significant, so perhaps it’s unfair for me to label this episode as my favourite ever. Unfair as it may be, I think it’s not unjustified. Here is the first person who involved themselves with Araragi and who Araragi involved himself with, who he couldn’t help. At least not directly.
Sengoku, well, she was off on her own in a sense leading up to becoming what she did once she was saved from the snake curse initially. After that it was up to Kaiki and Araragi practically had standing orders to stay away from her after he managed to resolved the incident and even her “identity crisis” through his own methods.
What I love is that despite failing Oikura the first time, as well as every time that he met her again – and even if it had only been one time before – he now gets to come to terms with it. With her. And help her… At least, there’s a chance that he will be allowed to do so in a meaningful way, but it’s better than having to stay away.
Yes, I really love that <3