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In one of my preceding posts I had promised to look at some classics. What constitutes a classic certainly lies in the eye of the beholder β brilliant animation, a deep story and rounded characters certainly are part of that magic mix. While most shows are seen and forgotten, a classic stays with us and can be watched and rewatched.
The very multidimensionality of a classic makes it an impossible subject for a blog post. Contrary to my normal practice I'll therefore only look at one arc of what for me is one of my all-time favourites, the Monogatari saga. Over time, I'll surely look at other parts, but for today my subject is the lost snail are of the first installation of the saga, Bakemonogatari (first, that is, in terms of release date, not of it internal chronology).
The surface plot can be summarised in a few words: After a fight with his sisters β of all days on Mother's Day, high-school student Koyomi Aragi flees the family home and takes refuge in a deserted playground. Nobody seems out on that Mother' day, so Koyomi prepares for a lonely day sitting on the bench. Hover, shortly afterwards his classmate Hitagi, whom we know from the first two episodes, passes. by by pure chance, and they verbally spar. Even before, we see a primary school girl with an enormous backpack is seen near the park's entrance, obviously lost. We later learn her name to be Mayoi Hachikuji.
Koyomi decides to help Mayoi find her way back home, initially quite against her will. This seemingly trivial task proves an impossible feat for both Hitagi and Koyomi, who keep turn in cycles without finding the house. Only with the advice of Koyomi's mentor Meme do they finally discover a way to fulfill their mission. The episode are their ends on a bombshell- Hitagi's surprise confession of love to. She and Koyomi affirm their joint commitment to each other.
Koyomi returns home to finally celebrate Mother's Day with the rest of his family.
Much of the tension of these three episodes doesn't come from the surface plot. On one level, it is created through Tatsuya Oishi's unique visualisation style in which he as director creates surreal, highly styled landscapes. The camera darts from the eyes and the characters' bodies to the abstracted equipment of the playground as backdrop. In between shots we see screens with kanji adding yet another dimension of semantics β they often add a running, though quite indirect commentary to the text. The opening theme song for the arc adds its own level of expectations and semantics β in hindsight it actually encodes Mayoi's whole tragic story.
However, for me the dynamics largely stem from the often biting dialogues of the four main players in these episodes, Koyomi, Hitagi, Mayoi and later on also Koyomi's and Hitagi's classmate, Tsubasa. Hitagi is frightfully sharp-tongued and in their dialogues runs rings around Koyomi (and tells him so) β "je vais jouer avec ta mesquinerie comme on peut l'attendre d'une amie", as it says in the French translation (Bakemonogatari, episode 3, 15:11).
The plot is shaken up by the revelation that Moyoi is, in fact, dead, killed by a car ten years before and ever since trying to get home. Only those who don't want to go home can even perceive her (it later turns out that Hitagi couldn't). It is a story of loss, of desperate search, of homelessness β but ultimately also of help and of coming home.
Mayoi is not only lost, she is destined to lead others to loss β hence the inability of the actors to come home. She claims to be a lost snail: θΈη is the spelling that the story adopts for snail; it is a less common out of a number of possible forms of writing the underlying phonemes. However, it is only on the choice of this particular spelling on which the magic works:
Mystic Messages β The Magic of Writing
This sad story is counterbalanced by a love story that is among the most mature that I know β mature not in the sense of being sexy (which it isn't), but emotionally mature. Needless to say that Hitagi revels herself to be way more mature than her future boyfriend: "J'aime parler avec toi, Araragi [...] je veux qu'on parle d'avantage. Disons que je veux faire un effort pour mieux de connaitre" (episode 5, 21:00).
Bakemonogatari β Japanese website
Bakemonogatari β English website
P. S.: One day I hope to add a comment system to the log. Until then, please feel free to share your comments on Mastodon, where you can reach me under @temperedTea@mk.absturztau.be