Well, that escalated quickly.
Impression
It’s ironic that character designs change all the time, given the budget.
As happy as I am that we’re starting another arc featuring best girl, it’s sometimes the case that whoever’s featured in the title ends up getting less of a spotlight than anticipated. A good example is Mayoi Jiangshi, where Shinobu played just as big a part as Hachikuji did, and in turn Shinobu Time was more about Hachikuji than anyone would have expected. And this season’s Ougi Formula was, well… it told us nothing more about Ougi than what we knew already, since it focused mostly on introducing Oikura. So having Shinobu Mail start off with half of its first episode with Kanbaru wasn’t too surprising. As fun as Kanbaru and her high sex drive are (she’s heading late at night to some place she doesn’t know, to meet someone she doesn’t know!) at about the halfway point I was lamenting that I might not have much to write about for this episode. Then the ghostly suit of armour happened.
Is this what they mean by the ‘mail’ in Shinobu Mail? I thought it meant ‘mail’ as in letter, but it may be the armour equivalent instead. I was extremely confused at first, but upon piecing together the reference to Kiss-shot as the ghost’s ‘master’ and the realization that this was set during the time when Araragi and Shinobu had their ties severed as a result of the supernatural darkness (i.e. most probably Ougi) it’s clear that this is the former servant Kiss-shot had when she was still a full-powered vampire. What I don’t understand is that I’m sure the former servant committed suicide by entering sunlight on purpose – why is he still alive, and why is he chained to a suit of armour? I certainly remember the sword Shinobu had (think Tsubasa Family, when she lent it to Araragi to fight against Black Hanekawa) but why does he want it back now? It’ll be an interesting arc, if only because this is a fated meeting between Shinobu’s past and current servants – one being a full vampire, and one being a mostly-cured human with lingering vampire traits. Also Yotsugi hype. Yay, peace peace.
I’m really hoping that this ends up being an ‘action’ orientated arc of Monogatari. In general, there’s a lot of talking heads and character interaction, but there still is a noticeable difference in that some arcs have a lot of fight scenes and supernatural combat – examples being Koyomi Vamp, Mayoi Jiangshi or the end to Tsukihi Phoenix. In contrast, others are purely comprised of talking, like everything so far in Owarimonogatari or Suruga Devil (which was a brilliant work of art, despite being almost completely devoid of Araragi and involving a completely new character). An example of one which I thought would be more the former than the latter is Nadeko Medusa. So if they end up having to fight the ghost to get rid of him, then we’ll be getting some action. Or is he just after his sword? What can Araragi even do, given that Shinobu isn’t even around?
