Ep. 1 Hitagi Crab pt. 1

Ep. 2 – Hitagi Crab pt. 2

Brief Summary:
Koyomi, a high school student catches a girl that fell off the stairwell and remarks while carrying her that its as if she has no weight. He later consults with the class representative in order to learn more about the mysterious girl.

As Koyomi leaves the classroom he is confronted by the girl who introduces herself as Hitagi Senjogahara. Hitagi forces a razor blade into Koyomi’s mouth and tells him to keep her secret about her weightlessness. She then pulls out a stapler and staples one of Koyomi’s cheeks as a warning.

After waiting for the pain to subside, Koyomi rushes down the stairs to catch up to Hitagi and tells her that he can help her with her weight problem. Hitagi is skeptical and is convinced only when Koyomi shows her the area that she stapled. She is shocked that there is no wound and he tells her that he used to be a vampire until a person named Oshino helped to cure him.

They travel to a seemingly abandoned building and when they arrive at the top floor they are greeted by Oshino who says that a god is responsible for her lack of weight and only Hitagi can truly cure herself. Oshino tells her to take a shower and return at midnight for the ritual.

Hitagi showers and comes out completely nude, much to the surprise and embarrassment of Koyomi. She puts on her underwear and tells Koyomi that she is giving him special service as thanks for today. Throughout the conversation Hitagi somewhat teasingly insults Kyomi about everything from his virginity to his intelligence.

At midnight they meet with Oshino who takes them to a makeshift shrine that he set up. He hands Hitagi a small saucer of sake, saying that drinking it shortens the distance between gods and humans and begins to ask her a few basic questions. When Oshino asks Hitagi to tell him about her most painful experience she reveals that her mother was a part of a cult. One of the cult leaders tried to rape Hitagi and in defense she hit him with a spiked shoe. Her mother was punished because of this and the family was broken up.

Oshino tells her to open her eyes and when she does she sees a huge crab standing in front of her. She is extremely surprised by its sudden appearance and is unable to say anything. The crab becomes impatient and smashes Hitagi into a wall. However, Oshino pulls it off of her pins it to the ground with his foot. Oshino decides to destroy the crab, but Hitagi stops him saying that she was just surprised and she will follow through with her duty.

Hitagi kneels before the crab and apologizes to it and thanks it for carrying her burden. She begs to the crab to give back all of her memories even though they are painful. Hitagi decides that she has to shoulder her own problems and make the best of her life now. This convinces the crab to give Hitagi back her weight and emotions.

Hitagi recomposes herself and apologizes to Kyomi for all the things that she has done to him. She expresses her thanks for the events that occurred because she made a good friend (Koyomi) in the process and wishes that they can continue to have a good relationship, much to his delight.

When Koyomi wakes up in the morning, he finds that he now weighs 100kg as opposed to the 55kg he was before.

Thoughts:
Very crafty play on words with omoi, coinciding with the theme of carrying one’s own burdens nicely. The whole plot of the first arc was somewhat confusing but I thought that SHAFT did a pretty good job of explaining it through dialogue and their trademark use of visual metaphors. Sometimes the conversations can get a little drawn out but overall, its hard to say if Bakemonogatari is lacking in any department.

Its nice to have some quality anime again and after the second episode I can safely say that Bakemonogatari will be one of the best if not THE best show of the summer.

Hitagi fan service ftw.

The next episode starts the Mayoi arc and if SHAFT follows the light novel then…
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I’m looking forward to the next episode.

-exo