[Reaction] Hanamonogatari, Episode 1

Why does Kanbaru have long hair now?

Well, it only took eight months of waiting, but finally, at long last, the first episode of Hanamonogatari is available with English subtitles, and of course, as per usually with this franchise, I have no idea what to expect. But first, if you're a little confused on the order of this franchise in question, allow me to enlighten you. The Monogatari franchise started its bizarre run with the delightful first entry Bakemonogatari, an anime which stunned me and people everywhere. Then it was followed up with the worse-in-every-way sequel Nisemonogatari, an anime which practically made me quit the franchise in just how disappointing it was. Then, a few months later, a little bird told me that the latest installment: Monogatari Second Season, was actually pretty damn good, to which I responded, "you're stupid, there's no way this could be any good again." But of course, I was the one who was wrong, and now that series is one of my favorites of all time. So, when a 5-episode series called Hanamonogatari was announced, a maybe-concluding entry that promised to wrap up the final mystery that surrounded the secondary character Kanbaru Suruga, I got appropriately hyped. But now that the first episode has aired, I don't really know what to think. 

     Before I continue though, it's probably in your best interest to have a mild grasp on what the Monogatari franchise is about. While I'm not going to be spoiling anything, since this is a sequel, I might be referring to characters that you have no knowledge of, no yeah, watch out for that. Now let's get started. 

We open with Kanbaru, likely a few months after Monogatari Second Season and the cliff-hanger that it was left on. Nearly everyone else from the franchise is now gone, Araragi, Senjougahara, and Hanekawa have all graduated from highschool and moved on with their lives. We don't know where Shinobu or anybody is, or whether a certain person is still alive. In this slightly depressing setting, Kanbaru lives through the gloom of everyday life and her curse, until she stumbles upon Ougi, you know, that twisted psycho-path who might have killed [SPOILER] and be secretly responsible for every single bad thing has happened in the franchise so far? Yeah, that guy. I hate that guy. Anyway, he tells Kanbaru about a rumor that a highschooler calling herself a "devil", is able to solve any problem, as long as she deems it moral or something that isn't simply out of her hands. And yeah, since Kanbaru is not sure if she's actually the "devil" or not, pretty much the entire episode was her trying to find the "devil", which she did, and had a pretty length conversation with her, before leaving, all her questions answered. And that was the episode.

    

 It's no secret that Monogatari isn't exactly known for the plot as much as it is for the character interactions, I mean, half of Nisemonogatari has just Araragi screwing around doing bugger all, but it's kind of odd that everything has wrapped itself up by now, in the first episode. I guess is Monogatari, and some twist is going to come up, but even so, we have precious little to base the next episodes on, unless they decide to go back to that unresolved plot-line that revolved around Kanbaru and was introduced in Nisemonogatari, and still hasn't been resolved. But if the franchise decides to keep that mystery untouched in Hanamonogatari, all we have in terms of plot is that slight snag that came up when the identity of the "devil" was revealed, though really that could be answered very easily using the rules of this universe. Also, the first five minutes of the episode was Kanbaru monologuing about her cold and detached mother, which looking back on everything we know about Kanbaru(which is basically, for whatever reason, she's really important and people want her) could turn out the be extremely important in the terms of a potential character arc.

So when all is said and done, there's not a lot to talk about with this episode. I have my faith that things will pick up from here though, and we won't just have Nisemonogatari all over again. My biggest hope that if this is the franchise pulling the plug, I really want the mystery around Kanbaru all tied up, because currently, besides maybe from the real identity of Ougi, it's probably the most important mystery in the entire franchise, one that will wrap up a lot of questions. I almost don't care about this new plot about the "devil" in light of it, unless they tie together somehow at the end. Well, this is Monogatari, so if they do answer my questions, it will be in the most dialogue heavy and round-about way possible. 

Goodbye for now guys.

Click here for my other reaction on the first episode of Sword Art Online II.

Or if you like reviews, click here for my review on Gatchaman Crowds, or here for  Higurashi no naku koro ni.

What am I watching this season besides from Hanamonogatari? Click here.

Follow me on Hummingbird: http://hummingbird.me/users/QReviews