Bakemonogatari E3: “Mayoi Snail, part 1”

The second animal-related supernatural affliction to be dealt with is a three parter. Either there are some subplots going on in the meantime, or this snail is one hell of a tough miniboss. Begin!


Araragi's opening narration says that it is now Mother's Day in Japan. I looked it up, and as best I can tell Japanese Mother's Day is the same as most other countries, so I'm not sure why he felt the need to specify "in Japan."

Granted, he then follows this up with the statement that no matter how much they love or hate their mothers, how close or distant they are from them, every Japanese citizen enjoys Mother's Day equally. Which...well, there's either some seriously botched translation going on here, or Araragi has some kind of weird emotional complex about mothers. Of course, given what we learned about Senjyo's life story in the previous arc, today is going to have to be extra hard on her. Depending on how much of her emotions she got back from the moon crab last episode, of course.

For his own part, Araragi is just sitting in a city park, enjoying some quiet and solitude on a sunny morning while he waxes sentimental on maternity. He rode his bike here just fine, so his extra 90 kilos of body weight evidently aren't stopping him from doing most of the things he likes, though I imagine he must be getting winded pretty frequently. On the bright side, this HAS to be building some serious muscle as well.

On the topic of his surplus body weight; might Araragi have also gotten at least some of Senjyo's misplaced love for her mother? That would make a lot of sense, and it would explain why he's being so sanguine about everyone's feelings toward their mothers.

Also, the park is a sprawling, multilateral expanse of raised, rectangular surfaces lined with multicolored scaffolding, with 40 feet of extra space around each piece of playground equipment. Because, well, you know.

He eventually gets up and meanders around this psychedelic complex, sitting down frequently here and there to rest as he goes. Eventually, he spots another person in it.

Or...maybe on the street near it? It's hard to judge distances and spatial relationships in Shaft Perspective.

That someone turns and runs away from him with her comically oversized and overdecorated backpack bouncing after her, and then turns around again and angrily shouts at him for...some reason. Is that one of his little sisters? Looks smaller, but it's hard to tell, we only saw them really briefly before. Anyway, her fleeing prompts the show to launch into a custom OP dedicated to her.

It's cutesy, super energetic in an almost aggressive sounding way that clashes with the little girl singing voice, and completely insane in the best possible way.

In terms of shoutouts, on top of just capturing and exaggerating the cutesey shoujo milieu, I'm seeing some Sailor Moon, some shots that might be riffing on Serial Experiments Lain, and a few others that I know I've seen clips or trailers from.

We've only seen a little bit of this character up until now, but this intro sequence probably tells us everything we need to know about her.

Also present in the sequence are a few shots of her examining or poking at a snail. So, I guess she's going to be the patient this time?

...come to think of it, given the grayness and stapler motif of the previous arc, is every couple of episodes going to have its own OP based on the patient or curse being dealt with? That's pretty cool, and an impressive willingness to spend resources in unconventional places. Also, I hope that means this beautiful madness of an OP will be sticking around for two more eps.

After the OP, another newcomer arrives in the park, this one proactively approaching Araragi. It's Senjyo, and her way of greeting him demonstrates that however much she changed after the ritual, she still has at least a little of her Senjyoness to work through.

To be fair, she tells him right afterward that she just meant this as an affectionately teasing greeting. And she *appears* to be genuine. Either the mean mouth was a quirk of hers from before she had genuine malice behind it in the wake of the crab's emotion fuckery, or it's just become second nature to her over the years since then.

What follows is some wordplay and discussion thereof that unfortunately doesn't translate into English, but I'll generously assume that it would be very clever and funny to a Japanese speaker. As she approaches, in her "street clothes" that look pretty close to a fetishy maid outfit, she plays the sexy and sophisticated part 150%. Shaking her curves for him while keeping up the erudite, slightly mocking or condescending, tone as she marches straight toward him.

Maybe her sexual interest in him was genuine all along, then? Let's see if this is the beginning of her finding healthier ways of expressing it, or just more bizarre teasing and power-tripping.

Also, the camera does some pervy close up shots, but they're pretty clearly from Araragi's perspective (making the focus of the scene his reactions to her rather than the audience's), and the framing is more silly than sexy, so it doesn't feel anywhere near as sleazy as some of the previous arc's cheesecake. So that's cool.

She tells him that she just bought this outfit, and wanted him to see it before she tries wearing it to school or the like. He's not quite sure how to react to this, and she does still seem to be delighted by her ability to fluster him. He recovers when the topic of conversation turns to what each of them are doing here. He was just randomly bike riding. She, apparently, was nostalgic for what used to be her old neighborhood, before they built a park and playground over much of it.

They talk a little about dealing with an elusive past. No explicit mention of Senjyo's mother or the reptilian way she's spent the last few years viewing the world, but explicitness is hardly necessary. She's back here because she's thinking about her childhood, back before her disease, the cult, the assault, and the heavy emotion moon crab rabbit woman god.

Senjyo then shows a bit more vulnerability herself, and seems actually slightly nervous when she asks to sit next to him. She's still reveling in the power of her sexuality, but not totally confident in it despite pretending to be, which really is convincingly teenaged. She's also being less psycho about it, fortunately.

Upon obtaining permission, she sits next to him. Very closely. She says that she really wants to thank him more tangibly for what he did for her, and to apologize for what she did to him before. He stammers that it's really Oshino who she should be thanking, but she reminds him that she's already paying Oshino money. For Araragi, she has something else to give.

There's got to be some sort of symbolism with the shadows there, but it's probably a Japanese thing I'm not familiar with. A little help here?​

She did promise him a crab dinner before. Seems like she might be wanting him to try some Nasu shellfish as well.

He keeps on insisting that he really doesn't need to thank her, honestly. She keeps getting more hinty. Leaning in further, making him withdraw nervously in place on the bench beside her, until she's literally leaning over him telling him that she really, really, really wants to thank him somehow other than crab restaurants. Finally telling him that if she doesn't, they won't be able to become friends on equal terms.

Dunno what he was expecting her to say, really. While she's pretty brazen as a matter of course, there's still a lot of cultural conditioning against actually asking for it in as many words. Also, given her whole domineering temptress shtick, I suspect that for her the real turn on is being sought after and begged. So, yeah, he's going to have to show a little bit of initiative for this to work. Just a tiny tiny bit, that's all she's asking for.

Also, the shot above is followed by this bit of absolute genius:

From an objective perspective, she's not looking any less silly or awkward than he is.

Araragi stammers uncertainly about the whole "friendship" angle. Seemingly taking it at face value and deciding that she's just been teasing him this whole time rather than actually fishing for something. Damn what is this kid's deal? I was nervous, oblivious, and had low self esteem at that age, but even then I would have had trouble even imagining being *that* repressed. Even through the filter of comedic cartoon exaggeration. Maybe this has something to do with his vampire past?

They start absentmindedly playing on the playground equipment while she asks him for something, anything that she can do for him. She offers silly suggestions, like fighting a Saiyan or granting him three wishes or the like. This girl really likes her anime, doesn't she? I guess she watched a lot of it during her friendless, emotionally deadened high school years. Then, she tells him that just to make this easier on both of them, a *personal* favor would be a better suggestion than anything out there.

She continues providing suggestions more of that nature.

She comes back to the apron thing a lot. Combined with her new outfit, this is really giving me the vibe that she's projecting her maid fetish onto him.

She also makes some odder ones that...well, either they're to contrast the kinky ones, or she's into some much odder stuff than maids.

Araragi's body weight seems to be catching up with him, based on how his torso is sagging as he rides the thingy after Senjyo. Which, well, is in turn creating other issues for him.

Once again, I love how the cinematography makes this cheesecake for the character, but not so much for the audience. It gives you the option of putting yourself in her place as well as his, rather than just the usual objectification of one party and audience surrogate status of the other.

He eventually tells her that if she did anything sexual as her favor, it would be hard for them to have a friendship afterward. I don't know if he was trying to ask a question with that or not, but she doesn't take it as one. Or, at least, pretends not to take it as one out of sheer frustration at this point. She tells him that he has a point, so fine, nothing sexual. Not that she'd expect him to pressure her into sex anyway, she quickly adds. After all, he's a virgin, and as a rule virgins aren't greedy.

He gets indignant at her harping on the virgin thing yet again, and asks her how much more experienced she is. "Very," she replies, and tells him that she's had sex countless times, with multiple partners. Yeahhhh I'm not buying it. Even if her previous behavior didn't suggest that she was still getting the hang of seduction despite her enthusiasm for it, no teenager is going to honestly say they've had sex "countless" times. At that age, you remember. Unless you've been an underaged prostitute or something, which I don't think is the case with Senjyo. He pushes her on the subject, and she soon admits it.

Commercial break. How do I know that? Because there's a caption that appears onscreen that says "Commercial break (in televised showings)" of course. Cute. When we return from our hypothetical commercial break, Araragi and Senjyo are sitting on the bench once more, talking much more sedately. Araragi finally cracks, and says that there is something she can help him with, involving one of his little sisters.

Well, actually involving both of them, but one in particular due to some events earlier that day. His little sisters are both inquisitive to an intrusive extent. What Araragi calls "5W1H." This has led to some strife.

They also are much closer in age than he is to the two of them, and they're very close with their mother. Araragi, meanwhile, is very distanced from their mother, for reasons he doesn't go into. Vampire-related reasons? Possibly. Anyway, on Mother's Day it's all lovey-dovey between his sisters and his mom, and he feels like a stranger in his own house.

Is his father not around any more? No mention of him, so maybe not.

So, this morning, he finally decided to just blow it off. He got up early, got his bike, and started heading out. His little sister Karen (weirdly Anglo name, there. Is there a Japanese name that coincidentally is also "Karen?") happened to catch him, though, and demanded to know where he was going and why. He didn't want to have to explain to her about his resentment of her and their sister's better relationship with their mother, so he just ignored her and took off. So I guess she then followed him here to the park, and ran away while angrily shouting back at him when she saw him looking at her.

So, his opening ramble about Mother's Day was ironic. He kept a totally straight face for the delivery, so I didn't consider that as a possibility, but yeah. From his perspective, everyone BESIDES HIM enjoys Mother's Day.

Senjyo seems understanding, and sympathetic. But she also isn't sure what exactly he wants her to do about this. Realizing that there's not really anything she can say to his sisters that would help, Araragi tells her that he just wishes he wasn't so petty and emotionally cowardly. She tells him that, sorry, but she's not a psychotherapist and she doesn't have even the slightest idea how to help someone with that. This leads to Araragi breaking down over how pathetic and hopeless he is.

Hmm. Senjyo's probably deciding she's not really interested in being more than friends with this guy after all, at this point. Honestly, I think they probably both have a bit more growing up to do before they're ready for more than that, at this point. I'm not sure how old they are exactly (Senjyo said she was a minor, but they've also been in high school for at least a couple of years, so probably in the 16-17 neighborhood, possibly 18 in Araragi's case), but given that they both spent a significant period of time in supernaturally arrested states they probably have a bit of catching up to do with regards to emotional maturity.

For now, she just tries to pep talk him.

Damn did these animators put effort into the shadows.​

Granted, she does so in her backhanded, sarcastic way, with "affectionate" insults that she probably really does mean affectionately but that it's hard for him to tell. Especially considering that, you know, a couple days ago they wouldn't have been affectionate at all, and she'd probably be driving screws into his fingerbones with a power drill while saying them.

Also she tries to...um...lighten the mood? or something?...by segueing into a musing on hentai incest tropes.

Well, I'm back to sympathizing with Araragi again now, lol. See kids? THIS is your brain on anime.

Araragi tries to get her to stop, and seeing his averse reaction she randomly muses on the possibility of him marrying a pair of sisters who aren't his own siblings instead.

Well, "weird sexual fixations" is a step up from the issues Senjyo had a couple episodes ago, so...still progress, I guess.

She and Araragi start arguing about perverse hypotheticals of sister-marrying, while the visuals get incomprehensible.

I'm gueeeessing there's more untranslatable wordplay going on with the visuals, here?​

Eventually, the conversation settles back to the matter at hand; what, other than solving Araragi's family issues and emotional immaturity that she has no ability to meaningfully influence, can Senjyo do for him? Help him study? Help him graduate? Then, when turned down from those two, help him do nothing?

He starts getting mad. And also talks about how he's fearing more "abuse" from her, which...well, okay, maybe he's still reasonably paranoid due to the stapler and death threat incidents, despite her apparently having gotten at least some of her higher emotions back. But, that's not really how his resistance to her advances have been framed throughout this scene, so now it's coming across as more of an excuse or a deflection.

Also, they start getting superdeformed occasionally.

I'm sure this is a parody of something. The endless back and forth without anything new being said, the really inane close-up SD shots of their faces, it feels like mockery of something specific. I'm not familiar with whatever that thing is, unfortunately, but it's still pretty decent visual humor.

Also, Araragi has this little tuft of hair on the top of his head like superdeformed Edward Elric's, and it...straightens...when he's excited. Not just when he's sexually excited, but that's definitely one of the more frequent causes.

Finally, Senjyo just goes for it. Though at this point I'm not sure how sure she really still is about wanting this.

He asks her what would happen if he said yes. She just matter-of-factly tells him that he would get a girlfriend, no further details provided.

He's silent for a moment, before saying "no, I don't want anything like that." She tries to keep a straight face, but doesn't entirely succeed. Whether or not she actually is still into Araragi after all this, being rejected is obviously something she has trouble dealing with. That fits, given how fascinated she seems to have been so far with her budding sexual power. Having it ultimately no-sold by the guy who it SEEMED she had wrapped around her finger is a visible blow to her ego.

He tells her to just buy him a soda or something. She morosely says "Okay. How unselfish of you. You really are a man of integrity." While looking miserably away from him.

Looking uncomfortably away from her, Araragi spots his little sister again, now inside the park and looking up at the local map on a signpost. He...oh, oops! He looks at her curiously, and whispers "That girl is here again."

...

Okay, so that little girl ISN'T one of his sisters. That actually kind of threw me. We only saw Araragi's sisters very briefly at the end of the previous episodes, we heard a voice clip of one of them shouting angrily at her "brother" right around his first sighting of backpack girl, and his story to Senjyo made it sound like one of them might have followed him here to the park.

The whacky OP was about THIS girl, not his sister Karen.

Was the show deliberately trying to make the audience think that's who backpack girl was? Not sure. I guess part of the problem is that some time passed between me seeing the last Hitagi Crab episode and starting this one, which gave me time to forget exactly what his sisters looked like.

...

Araragi tells Senjyo he's going to go see what's up with the girl. She asks why, and he just says that "he has a feeling."

I'm guessing he noticed some detail that suggests the kid might have a supernatural malady for Oshino to make money off of. Either that, or he just needs any excuse to take a break from Senjyo right now.

Senjyo tells him that if he tries to talk to that little kid, he'll just get his feelings hurt. Araragi silently fumes about how Senjyo really, really needs to drop the pedophilia and incest jokes, and heads off to ask the backpack girl if she needs help.

I just now noticed that her backpack looks kind of like a snail shell. And her hair or ribbons could suggest eyestalks. Nice visual touches, there.

He asks the kid if she's lost. She gives him a distinctly unfriendly look, and tells him that she doesn't like him and would prefer to not speak with him.

Cut ahead to him slumped on the bench next to Senjyo again, admitting that his feelings have, in fact, been hurt.

Still, when she asks him what the hell the kid said that's gotten him so put out, he just steels himself and says he's going to go try again. Senjyo asks him what he's trying to accomplish, exactly, and he just growls that that should be obvious.

It...really isn't obvious. Also, given where Senjyo's mind tends to go with the most minimal of provocations, I don't think Araragi giving her that sort of answer is going to lead her to conclude anything good.

Araragi returns to the little snail girl, and sees that she is now checking a little piece of paper in her hand against the big neighborhood (or city? I can't really tell the scale) map. He asks if he can see the paper she's holding, and maybe help her figure out where she needs to go on the map. She just pulls the paper away from him turns her head away in disgust.

After sulking beside a baffled Senjyo for a couple more minutes, Araragi gets up and tries yet again.

This time, he walks up behind the girl and pushes her head into the sign.

What the fuck, dude?

She demands to know what the hell that was. He simply, almost smugly, explains that he wanted her to talk to him, and he needed to get her attention somehow. So that he can help her.

She points out that no reasonable person would ever want help from someone who just randomly snuck up and bashed their head into something. Much less a young adult who did that to a literal gradeschooler.

Araragi introduces himself. She makes fun of his name, tells him it's too feminine for a man and that she doesn't trust him, and then repeats her demand that he fuck off and leave her alone.

...

Eh. Late two thousands Japan. The casual homophobia that the show seems to expect the audience to empathize with is, unfortunately, just a fact of life. At least it's just a throwaway line and not a big plot point or character arc or something.

Still, that's a sigh and an eye roll from me.

...

Still, when pressed, she gives him her own name in return as Mayoi. Before then telling him to please, please just leave her alone already. He insists that she doesn't need to be afraid of him, really, he's the most harmless person in the entire city. For a moment he seems like he's making progress, but then she (seemingly unintentionally, by mixing up his words when he tells her he's "harmless to man and beast" and she calls him "Mister Man-Beast") insults him, he raises his voice, and she cowers before his shouting, and he's back to square one.

He keeps pushing. She keeps getting irritated and uncomfortable. Finally, she kicks him in the stomach, and he retaliates by grabbing her foot and swinging her around by it. She screams, making it clear that she's literally in fear for her life now, but then manages to get free by grabbing his hair-spike-thing (a little unfortunate, given the phallic symbolism it's previously had assigned to it...), yanking herself over his body, and elbowing him in the back of the head as she descends behind him.

May Chang, is that you in disguise?

The fight continues for a bit, but ultimately ends with the tiny gradeschooler sprawled out, semiconscious, on the pavement, and the (fairly muscular) late high school boy standing over her. Surprise, surprise. Mayoi might be impressively strong and agile for her age, but his size advantage is just too great.

Now, this fight was really cartoony and slapstick in its portrayal. The last stage of it even did the dust-cloud-with-fists-sticking-out-of-it visual gag. I'd take the meaning of the sequence to just be "Araragi is really, really pushy and/or desperate to get more customers for Oshino, and also even worse with children than previously established" with some slightly bad taste physical comedy.

But, then Araragi gives us a voiceover that ixnaes that interpretation. It's his future self, narrating about what an awful person he was back at this time.

So yeah, the show wants me to take this literally, and to treat it with - if perhaps not the same severity that you'd actually judge a person who did this - still a serious black stain on Araragi's character. We ARE supposed to go "dude, what the fuck?" at him here.

This actually recontextualizes some things from the previous arc. For instance, Senjyo still isn't justified in stapling the inside of Araragi's mouth and threatening to kill him and his family. I'd still be judging her way more harshly were there not a supernatural cause for her behavior at that point. BUT, if Araragi is the kind of person who would beat up a little kid for (essentially) being rude to him, and his classmates knew as much, then...well, it changes things. Like I said, Senjyo's response to Araragi snooping around after her was still disproportionate and sadistic, but her paranoia about him and general quickness to resort to violence start to look much more understandable.

It will be interesting to see if she's still into him after this confirmation of the worst rumors about Araragi. If so, then that might suggest that the whole cheek-stapling thing might not have been so far removed from her pre-crab self after all, heh.

Anyway. Araragi laughs maniacally over the prone 10 year old he's just vanquished. The sound brings Senjyo over, and yeah, she does not look impressed.

The location key on the mapsign behind Senjyo has some very improbable captioning that fits the situation quite well as she listens to Araragi try to spin this in his own favor. Nice bilingual bonus, too.

He tells her that in any case, this little girl is lost and needs help finding her way home. Senjyo says that the neighborhood has changed a lot since she lived here, but she supposes she could still try. They help Mayoi wake up again, and Araragi tries to convince her that she just dreamed about being beaten up by him.

She either buys it at least for now, or pretends to.

Araragi picks up the piece of paper that Mayoi dropped, and tries to hand it to Senjyo so she can figure out where Mayoi is trying to get to. And we see that no, Senjyo is NOT okay with what Araragi just did, and she has revised her feelings about him considerably.

This whole time, it seemed like Araragi was the close-to-normal one. Nooope.

So, he grudgingly reads the address, visibly wondering where things even stand with him and Senjyo now. Senjyo says that she doesn't know that exact adress, but she knows the general area, so hopefully Mayoi can find her way from there. She seemingly cares more about helping the child in need now than anything to do with Araragi.

Then, Mayoi tells them that her situation isn't exactly what Araragi and Senjyo have assumed. It's not that she's unable to find her home adress, exactly. You see, she's a lost snail.

Not that a snail has gotten her lost in some cursed way. Rather, it's that she, Mayoi, is a snail, and she is also lost.

End episode.


I'm going to have to see the next part of this arc before I have anything to say about it.