Monogatari just keeps getting better and better Disclaimer: This review has spoilers for the whole Nisemonogatari anime Kizumonogatari III movie and the short story Tsubasa Song from Mijikanamonogatari. It also includes some lewd scenes. https://anilist.co/manga/181463/Mijikanamonogatari/ This part was excellent in every meaningful way possible. I dont really know what I was expecting exactly after coming from Bakemonogatari and Kizumonogatari but I can say that I wasnt expecting any of the things that happened here for sure. Nisemonogatari is weird lewd fun and deep. I knew this season was going to be all about Koyomis family though or to be more precise about his little sisters but I didnt expect it to be that good and interesting honestly. Introduction Obviously this anime is a continuation of Bakemonogatari so it cuts straight to the chase. We know that after Bakemonogatari Tsubasa and Hitagi started tutoring Koyomi so after a lot of lessons something urgent comes up that makes Tsubasa take a day off. Thats when Koyomi considers that hes a free man for the day. A short while after that we met his youngest sister: Araragi Tsukihi Her character is quite peculiar. She speaks with a kind tone most of the time but she gets mad very quickly platinum mad specifically when Koyomis the one to blame. She really cares about her older sister even though sometimes she doesnt really act like she does. After some time fighting Koyomi notices that his other sister Karen is not in the house for some reason. While he wonders about where she could be he suddenly remembers that Nadeko said that he should go to her house more often. Thats why he decides to give her a call and ask if he could go over to her place to hang out. Obviously Nadeko accepts enthusiastically she wouldnt want to miss an opportunity like that. To be honest even though we obviously know about Nadeko from Bakemonogatari I didnt expect her to be that... seductive with Koyomi. Even so just the fact of Koyomi being that unaware of it makes the whole situation a lot funnier. On his way to Nadekos house Koyomi comes across Mayoi like always sexually harassing her as well as usual. I must admit that the entire conversation with Mayoi was really funny but it also introduced some character development for both characters as well. Im talking specifically about the part where Koyomi says: You arent going to disappear are you? Referencing the disappearance of Oshino Meme obviously. That really shows how Koyomi is really attached to the friends hes made over these last months and even though he cant consider himself to be one hundred percent human things like this really show his human side and how much hes willing to sacrifice for everyone. Moving on Koyomi finally reaches Nadekos house and when he sees her shes quite... different. Shes using a different hairstyle and different clothes as well and as I said before shes acting really seductively towards Koyomi. The whole interaction between the two is really funny the twister thing as well. Im glad Nadekos arrived at their home because otherwise who knows what Koyomi wouldve done for being that clueless and naive. After leaving Nadekos place Koyomi receives a phone call from Suruga and after a little chat he decides to go over to her house. The phone call itself was really weird though most of Surugas jokes consisting of her talking about how shell strip something that I find really disturbing considering that theyre friends and that Koyomi is dating Hitagi but anyways I see it all as a joke in the end. On the way to Surugas place he finds someone else: Araragi Karen Koyomis older sister. Shes very strong athletic and independent most of the time. Shes one of my favorite characters probably because her seiyuu is Kitamura Eri and I find her attitude quite charming and amusing. After that random encounter with his sister Koyomi finally arrives to Surugas place and when we thought everything would be normal well... he finds her lying on the floor completely nude I dont know what I was expecting honestly. She doesnt really care about Koyomi seeing her in that state concerning but at least Koyomi cares a little more about it as he has a girlfriend and all. As I said before I dont really care that much about these kind of scenes because I know Koyomi doesnt mean any harm and I know that he would never betray Hitagi in any way so I just brush it off with a laugh for the time being. Just a little while after this Suruga tells Koyomi something that weve all been thinking of: Its easy for girls to take advantage of your kindness so be careful. I appreciate that even though she acts weird with Koyomi she doesnt mean any harm to him. Her advice is absolutely correct as well we just saw Nadeko abusing his kindness in her favor without him even noticing but anyways I hope Koyomi starts to see through peoples intentions a little better from now on. After talking for a while Koyomi decides to leave but when he gets outside he sees an ominous man at the entrance with his eyes fixated on Kanbarus house. Later on we learn that this man is none other than: Kaiki Deishuu With all of this information I can start explaining a couple of things about the whole Karen Bee arc. Basically this man right here is a liar an impostor one that tricks kids selling them solutions to their problems that most of the time cause even more problems to those kids asking for help. Also hes the first man that offered to help Hitagi but obviously that was a lie and he was only after her money. Thats why right after Koyomi tells Hitagi about him she literally kidnaps him to protect him from Deishuu. This only shows us more of Hitagis protective and obsessed personality. Obviously even though she has that tsundere attitude she really cares about her boyfriend and would do anything to protect him. Anyways that doesnt last very long because after a while Koyomi receives a message from Tsukihi asking for help. Koyomi rushes over to his house to understand whats going on. There he finds his two sisters and a Tsubasa with a new haircut obviously Koyomi doesnt react to it because if youve read the Tsubasa Song short story youll know that he himself is the one responsible for cutting her hair. There he tries to understand whats going on with his siters but no one would give him an answer not even Tsubasa. After a little while talking to Tsubasa he learns about all of Deishuus doings at his sisters school and how they want to stop him because theyre the Fire Sisters and all. He also learns that Tsubasas been contacting his sisters for some time now but shes hiding a lot of information so Koyomi decides to take a bath. This bath might be one of the most important moments of Nisemonogatari unironically. Not because of the fact that Shinobu took a bath with Koyomi as well even though that was peak but because she reveals a lot of information in the process. She tells Koyomi that his bigger sister Karen was inflicted by an oddity called the Flame Wreath Bee. This oddity causes a giant fever to people affected by it. Also there was another thing that catched my eye in the interchange between Koyomi and Shinobu. She says that shell never forgive Koyomi for what she did to her and that hell never forget her for what she did while being KissShot AcerolaOrion HeartUnderBlade. Up until now after watching Kizumonogatari I thought Shinobu didnt remember anything about her previous life I thought she didnt have any of her memories because of Meme saying: Shed lose everything she iseven her name Obviously that only meant that she would be so insignificant as a vampire that she wouldnt even be worth of her original name. But leaving that aside I really love the dynamic between Shinobu and Koyomi they dont like each other but they need each other they help each other. In a way I think that its horrible but beautiful at the same time. After that very long bath he goes to where his younger sister Tsukihi is. Thats because he wants to understand what happened to Karen and why she got inflicted by the oddity. After hesitating for a long time Tsukihi finally starts talking along with Tsubasa as shes in it as well: Karen being one of the Fire Sisters with her great sense of justice knows that she must do something about Deishuu. She finds where hes hiding thanks to Tsubasa and confronts him but that plan doesnt go very well. Deishuu explains that hes a con man and that he wants to get as much money as possible from middle school kids. After all of his explanation he starts to approach Karen and with just a singletouch in her forehead she becomes paralized. On his way out he takes the little money Karen has left on her wallet and leaves. With Tuskihi and Tsubasas explanation now we understand more about Deishuus motives while also understanding more about Karens situation. Tsubasa also mentions that in some way her sisters act just like him trying to help others just like he did with all of his friends before. It seems that being selfless runs in the family. I think thats enough explanation of the events of the anime given that this review is for people that have already watched it before so Ill start to give my opinion on key moments of it: Koyomi getting rid of the fever kinda We already know that Koyomi gives Karen a kiss to pass the fever to himself and even though he wasnt able to get rid of it entirely he takes most of it to himself. This is when things start to get weird but Ill talk more about it later when we reach Tsukihis arc. For the time being I just think that its a little weird how he starts to feel attraction to his younger sister but I know that most of the time he just wants to help her to be a good brother. Deishuus confrontation This has to be one of the best moments of the whole arc well mostly because its the culmination of it and its one that gives us a lot of explanations about Hitagis past as well. We already know that he was the first person that offered Hitagi help to get rid of her crab and they also confirm that probably because of him all of the tragedies that happened afterwards were because of him as well. One thing really sticked with me though was him saying that Hitagis abuser died in a car accident. Even though we cant really trust him because hes a con artist I want to trust him on this one mostly for Hitagis sake. Another thing thats worth mentioning is Hitagi explaining how in the past she always treated every person that tried to help her like a knight in shining armor and that if someone else wouldve helped her instead of Koyomi she wouldve probably date them instead. Thats why shes glad Koyomi was the one instead of another person because she thinks he was really the best choice. Her declarations are really sweet and even though its kinda sad how desperate she was to fix her problems Im also glad of how things turned out in the end. With all of that taken care of it seems that Hitagi was finally able to move on dropping this famous quote: Tsukihi Phoenix This arc is shorter but its really interesting as well and Id say that it has a bigger impact on the whole series. Following the events from Karen Bee we have some weird stuff happening as well this time around and that would be... the toothbrush scene. Im gonna be honest I liked that scene and even though it might be a little uncomfortable to watch in the end its really funny to watch but I think it also serves some kind of purpose as well. Not only we see Karen using a very different outfit shes using tighter clothes this time and a skirt but we see her acting different towards her brother. Obviously all of this is out of character coming from her she would never act like that in the past but thats because she has some ulterior motives her wanting to meet Suruga because she sees her as the ideal athlete. Following comes the famous toothbrush scene and even though it is weird I understand that its meant to show how Koyomi and Karen cross boundaries to understand each other better as brother and sister. NISIOISIN didnt have to go that far on this one but Ill let it pass because as I said before its quite funny. Moving on Ill start talking about some of the key aspects of the Tsukihi Phoenix arc. First we get the introduction of two new characters. The first one is a woman that is supposed to remind us of Meme even though shes quite the opposite of him: Kagenui Yozuru Shes a weird character with a mysterious aura surrounding her. She starts asking about the school that Meme was using as his base of operations which gives us an idea of what shes plotting. Not only that but she refers to Koyomi as Devil Boy and to Karen as Hornet Sister meaning that she already knows about the oddities because otherwise she wouldnt have used that terminology with them in the first place. Later on she mentions that a certain girl will ask them for directions as well in the future because shes looking for the same place as her. The girl in question would be: Ononoki Yotsugi Shes even weirder than Yozuru her way of speaking is very robotic not only because of her tone but because of her pronunciation as well. At the moment of their encounter Koyomi was talking with Mayoi and she also refers to Koyomi as Devil Boy but in this case she refers to Mayoi as Snail Girl. This also means that not only she can see Mayoi but she can see their oddities as well. I said with a posed look Then we start learning interesting stuff about Koyomis younger sister Tsukihi when Koyomi notices that old scars that were supposed to be permanent werent present on his sisters body. In that moment I immediatly thought about the posibility of Tsukihi being a vampire as well but it wouldnt make sense so I discarded the idea. After that awkward situation between Koyomi and his nude sister he and Shinobu go out for donuts at Mister Donut as they were holding a one hundredyen sale and it might be another one of my favorite moments of the anime. We were able to see Shinobu using a very cute hat so she wouldnt be struck by the burning sunlight and we also learn that as shes not a full vampire anymore she wont be able to get burned by sunlight like before. Right after that Koyomi decides to ask Shinobu about the two persons he just met before and Shinobu reveals that the similarity in their name Yozuru and Yotsugi is not a coincidence. Thats because Yotsugi is in fact an oddity and just like her shes bounded to Yozuru by name because shes a familiar or shikigami . That explains Yotsugis weird behavior from earlier in some way. In the store besides from the donuts they also find Deishuu eating peacefully. Aside from the awful surprise of finding him there they start asking him about Yozuru and Yotsugi. For the price of ten thousand yen he reveals that those two are a team that specializes in oddities but in this case immortal ones. We all know how everything goes after this with Koyomi arriving home and all but right at that time something clicked inside of me and I realized that the oddity they were looking for was the one and only Tuskihi. I did not expect them killing her right at that instant kinda agressive but it certainly confirms the point of Tsukihi being immortal an immortal phoenix. This phoenix is actually another oddity called the Dying Bird which dies and reincarnates as a child in the womb of a mother in this case Koyomis mother. Tsukihi has no idea about this phoenix that gave her the power to heal all of her wounds and Koyomi plans to keep it that way. Following that we have another questionable scene of Koyomi kissing his younger sister but Ill also let it slide just because it was to show that even though Tsukihi might not be his real sister Koyomi didnt feel a single thing kissing her which means that shell always be his little sister no matter what. Quite wholesome in my opinion. To close this anime we have one of the most epic moments ever. First with Shinobu transforming into the version of herself that looks like a 17yearold Teenobu thanks to Koyomis blood for some reason I didnt know she was still able to do that. Cool detail her having a donut in her outfit Second with the awesome fight that follows afterwards. Not because of the fight itself mostly because of the meaning of it. Yozuru certainly was against Tsukihi existing as she was a fake an impostor but Koyomi thought that even though his sister might be an impostor he loves her anyway it doesnt matter if he has to lie to his older sister or to his parents hell still do that because he loves her a lot. Shes his little sister after all. Even though Yozuru and Koyomis opinions clash she has no reason to keep fighting after all of that. One thing that also really sticked to me was one thing Yozuru mentions. Not only the fact that she Meme and Deishuu were all part of the occult club in the past but the fact that back then Deishuu asked a single question: Given the real thing and an indistinguishable fake which is worth more? Based on everyones answers we can see how different and similar they are to each other. First with Yozuru saying that she thinks the real thing is worth more then Meme with his sense of balance saying that theyre equally valuable and finally Deishuu saying that the fake one is worth more because even though its a fake in the efforts of become real it became more real than the real thing. I think this anime was amazing. Filled with information and great analogies based on real life philosophy. Cant wait to see how everything evolves with these newly introduced characters because they certainly are really interesting. Monogatari really is an amazing journey.