Review contains spoilers for Owarimonogatari and possibly Zoku Owarimonogatari but I dont know about the last one I havent seen it in like 3 years Koyomi stone A short tale involving the rumors surrounding a failure and expanding upon Araragis complex to forget any sort of failure hes been involved in. Though the woodworking project had been a failure with Araragi abandoning it and forgetting about it later destroying it out of humiliation it succeeded in transforming into something more meaningful to other people. In truth it couldnt be applied to its original use but it had found use in other ways though Araragi has stated in Tsukimonogatari that he doesnt think of failure and sadness as something positive so obviously his more pessimistic pastself thought even less of failure. In total this arc is mostly nonrelevant to anything apart from some neat little themes of how ghost stories are spread based on assumptions and how art can be interpreted in multiple ways depending on perspective how rumors can transform depending on the interpretations and how a overactive brain searching for deeper meaning can look past the simplicity of a situation and truly believe in something greater that isnt truly there though in truth Hanekawas over analysis of the situation is hardly different than other students who saw the rock underneath the wood as a makeshift shrine. Theres a certain joy to seeing something unique in something mundane. Of course this story is just as much about how poor of an artist Araragi claims to be and yet a piece created by accident ignited the imagination of so many. Its a good thing he didnt end up kicking that rock though but if he did I guess hed still have learnt it was made of concrete. Koyomi Flower A short tale involving a warning misunderstood as a tragedy in this instance giving good reason as to why something should remain forgotten. Tragedy is mysterious to those outside the loop and thus memorials planted next to sites of past traffic accidents normally meant to draw attention to in an attempt to honor a deceased loved one may in turn lead to more accidents because of its distracting nature. Its this bouquet that reminds Senjougahara of another bouquet shed forgotten about the other bouquets that lie on the rooftops of Naoetsu High and with that memory recalled she tasks Araragi with ensuring theyre still there. Just as Senjougahara haphazardly stepped into the road because she was distracted by the memorial bouquet Araragi climbs the side of his school to reach the roof and climbs down the same way and inspect the bouquets even climbing further onto the water tower of the school to get a better view of every roof. Its a little absurd to think that items left with the intent of warning others of danger and the possibility of tragedy could lead people to put themselves in further danger to uncover their meaning. Its mentioned that danger signs are a little too ubiquitous and that having signs up saying people have died here can lead to more people dying there but the inverse is very much true that a lack of information keeping the message cryptic can lead to people putting themselves in further danger in order to obtain the truth. If anything a greater punchline would be that Araragi went through all this effort to find the truth and just ended up forgetting about it that it didnt really matter that much in the first place. Sometimes its not a great idea to overthink something small as something more than it most likely is that going too far for something like this will just lead to your disappointment in its inconsequence. Sometimes its better to just acknowledge the existence of something and forget it as the blossoming couple decides to be the best option in the end. Koyomi Sand A short tale involving a sandbox and a criticism of Araragis narrowminded thought process. His inclination that a situation told to be one of aberrations from Hachikuji was the result of either aberration or human action when the truth of the matter slipped between his fingers like grains of sand. Its actually kind of funny that he was so dead set on picking between the forked path of the cause being either aberration or human that he completely overlooked that when he left the sandbox he had to dump out the sand in his shoes that sand traveled into the crack of his shoes and displaced itself from the box. Perhaps it was because of the mysterious bouquets he mentions briefly in this arc that hes so sure its down to the simple two options but as he finds out or should I say is reminded sometimes nature just naturally displaces things in a frightening way and thus appear more intimidating to humans and are subsequently given the idea that something is amiss. I also think it was pretty funny for Hanekawa to treat Araragi like a child after learning hed been investigating playing in the sandbox since it was fairly dangerous. Its because Araragi believed it was a human or aberational phenomena that he put himself in a dangerous scenario though it was without him knowing and because he brushed off the possibility of nature as the cause by saying that it was too improbable that wind or rain couldve caused it again thinking too closemindedly that Araragi was left unsatisfied until someone reached out to him. You cant blame aberrations for every human problem and you also cant blame humans for every aberration problem but you also cant blame both of them for every natural problem. Ive honestly always found this story a little confusing and I still kind of do in the sense that the moral is a little harder to grasp than the other two. Ive been sitting here for probably 10 minutes trying to figure out a poetic way to end this but I honestly kind of cant I think the punchline of the story sums it up pretty well in that natural phenomena are just as scary as the supernatural that we live amongst real demons even when in the form of cracks in the cement. Koyomi Water A short tale involving a filthy room a bath with water reflecting the image of your future soulmate and an incorrigible idiot. Walking the roads of life may be a much slower way of transportation and in that case someone who sprints will reach their destinations faster but blowing past everything and taking the path you believe to be the best choice without much thought leads to more instances where you need to double back and take an escape route to amend your mistake. To this extent I suppose leaving your trash laying around your room is only natural for someone who lives only within the present moment and only looks ahead in life. What does this have to do with the bath? Nothing really but thats just the nature of it. You learn new things about people every day and sometimes it doesnt really have to do with what you did that day. Well it does have something to do with the bath a little bit. A bath thats water is so fresh you can see your future lover in your reflection or at least thats what Kanbarus father told her. A story he had probably made up to tell to his future wife before theyd gotten married twisting the time hed seen a distorted reflection in the water of his bath as a child and mocked it up to be the story of him seeing the image of his destined true love. Its true that storytellers are liars however its the audiences own bias that can prevent them from believing the story an author spins as Senjougahara and Araragi both arent as obsessed with romance as Kanbaru is. In this sense even if the story may be true they still wouldnt believe it because theyre not the types to believe in these romantic stories. Though when Araragi calls Kanbaru asking what she sees on the waters surface She just says she sees her chest and abs beneath it. That she doesnt have a reflection in the first place yet still buys the story her father told her incorrigible idiocy. I suppose its not as if this belief hurts her in any way however as it does make for interesting idle banter when she invites guests over. Koyomi Wind A short tale involving a snake the ways of a swindler and simplicity. Swindlers depend on those who are vulnerable in order to deceive them in the same way that snakes depend on their prey not noticing them while they lay in the grass. So in a way even if you were privy to a swindlers ways a good swindler would take advantage of your cautiousness. Awareness of a viruss outbreak in no way prevents you from catching it yourself in fact its with this caution and search for understanding a certain angle that you leave yourself open to being hit from an angle you hadnt minded. That there is always an opportunity for a swindler to swindle you even if you were to investigate and understand them simply understanding their methods allows them to take advantage of what you know. With the gift of hindsight we as the audience can now see Nadekos own swindle in action as she wins over Koyomi by simply being cute in reaction to what he says which gives him incentive to give her more information about Kaiki. The most important thing to learn from this story is that luck the way the wind blows will always play a role in how a virus spreads and how easily youre deceived. To be in an unlucky situation and have someone reach out to you with unknown malicious intent to be unlucky in that youve made contact with someone who carries malicious intent to be unlucky that youre unaware of how to avoid someone with malicious intent or to be unlucky in that you believe someone with malicious intent. Kaiki only tells 50 of the truth and thus deceives a truthhungry Araragi when downplaying the role of luck within his business. Its because the wind blew in his favor that he deceived Araragi and earned a sum of extra cash by doing so. The best way to avoid a virus is to nip it in the bud as Araragi says but he ignores the possibility that confronting the virus can also lead to his own infection. At the end of the day its like Araragi says The wind isnt blowing my way today luck is the biggest con of them all. Koyomi Tree A short tale involving a tree fear and justice. You live your life accustomed to the mundanity of your surroundings where you grow up and where you frequently visit are molded into your mind as how you commonly view them which is why when changes are made to the way your house looks or a new feature entering your neighborhood feels so jarring because the amount of time you spend merely existing in that area makes you comfortable with it as the setting for your life the background pieces. Its because you feel as though you know the places you visit so frequently that youre caught off guard when you discover something that had been there since before youd begun frequenting it. To apply this to a realworld scenario earlier today as of writing this Id learned there was a feature at my job of nearly two years that was quite handy that Id never taken notice of because Id been so busy well doing my job. It takes more effort to appreciate the things surrounding the mundane places in your life when youre so focused on your daily tasks so oftentimes you just pay no mind to things that seem to be extra or unimportant. The shock of learning of this longexisting detail in a recurring site of visit can lead to confusion which often leads to fear. So when students described as cocky see a mysterious tree that they hadnt noticed in the dojo they frequent as often as their schools they keep their findings to themselves whether it be to focus on training or wariness of admitting unease until someone dared to speak their mind about the existence of the tree nobody had bothered. When so fixed on continuing the workflow and the mundanity of life of course youd want to remove something that could distract you as you run down your road. Its like when theres a small mistake in your writing and you cant just let it go so you have to stop what youre doing to erase it. Pencil graphite isnt living however so the question of snuffing out a life because its viewed as a minor annoyance doesnt apply to that analogy. To win her fellow students over its decided Karen should lie about the tree being a God of martial arts as a way to diminish their frightened state. People in fear are susceptible to cons and people who are cocky are susceptible to authority. So to lie about a tree being a God of the sport they work so hard at mastering is to win in both fields. Even the cockiest student couldnt face up to someone they believed to be a God and risk losing their karate abilities or something. A good way to frame it is that its like Kaiki and Hanekawa agreed on the course of action. That its because the virus had reached its final state that Karen was able to spread a new virus and profit off the situation. Funnily enough perhaps lying about the tree being a God changed the situation from being of natural cause to the being of abberational cause but change is just a part of life isnt it? Koyomi Tea A short tale involving a ghost pride and tea. People often create stories to reflect their feelings in an absurd or imaginative way often having a message or purpose behind them. Sometimes people tell stories to spice up their own mundane life which is why so many people believe in superstitions like ghosts and the like. Ghosts have a very low probability of actually existing though since theres no real way of knowing for sure it leaves a window of possibility open that allows personal opinion to dictate its validity as a true or false entity within our world. If you apply logic ghosts and by extension aberrations cant exist. Their existence doesnt make any sense if you apply the rules of reality to them. Even though it cant be true that small possibility is all some people need to be convinced if they really wanted to be. If you believe to be true then it may as well be true and if your friends trust you they may also believe in your truth. Not everyone is going to be believing however and there will always be those whore too logical to believe in things that are even the slightest bit illogical. If you were to simplify the statement further not everyone is going to believe in the same things as you and wont conform no matter how much you try to convince them. Lies are only believable by those willing to trust them and truth is only believable to those who trust it isnt a lie. The world is an infinitely complicated place where everything seems to contradict and though Araragi likes to make his little and littler sisters out to be childish because of their simplified view of the world he still simplifies the lies he tells himself to make himself out to be more mature. That it was him who took Karens side because things were looking bad and not because Hanekawa swayed him. The punchline the lie Araragi tells his littler little sister to cease her plight pleases her immediately. Kanbaru asks Araragi sometime later about why she said Ill buy it that it was unclear who she had bought it from the club members or her older brother. The truth was that it probably didnt matter a lie was all that was needed to quell her upset feelings. That she felt the need to insist the truth so harshly upon her classmates rejecting regrettably rare heartfelt praise from her older brother all to end up satisfied with a halftruth. A plausible lie as since the virus of frustration had reached its peak Araragi introduced a new virus disguised as a cure. The truth is really that there isnt any onesided action no matter if the doer is a professional swindler or a pseudovampiric highschooler sometimes a satisfying lie is better than the hard truth. After all Araragi wouldnt be anywhere near the same at this point if he hadnt believed in the rumor of a vampire. Koyomi Mountain A short tale involving a shrine stories and meaning. There is often no real meaning in whatever human beings do. The conclusion of overanalyzing to find a true conclusion is always that there is no meaning usually analysis of actions leads to split end possibilities nothing ever gets wrapped up in a nice bow. To remove the meaning from your action is to delay or cease the action in its entirety because we do things with an understood goal in mind but if we were to think about everything involved in our decisions we wouldnt do anything because theres too many variables. You cant predict the future no matter how hard you think and sometimes things just dont go your way whether it be a childhood friend swallowing a beyond powerful charm or being unhappy with the location of the you designated place of worship. Its true that not building roads is just as meaningless as building a road nobody will walk on but in that sense hypothetical scenarios are just roads nobody walks on. If you dont take the steps yourself you dont know what will happen no matter how hard you think. Someone like Ougi and of course by extension someone like Araragi are the types to lose themselves in thought to overthink situations and miss the entire point of what they were thinking about. The meaning Ougi draws by the end of her story is that human ingenuity is something thats annoying to her that doing so much work just for the same result is meaningless and frustrating to think about. After speaking with Nadeko however Araragi finds a much more practical conclusion in that the builders didnt haul all the materials up the roadless mountain and instead built the shrine with the lumber from the trees they had to clear out once they arrived at the top. What you think and how you think reflects your current life the reason Nadeko was able to come to a sound conclusion was because she only has one reason for building a road she cant even see the end of because her love for Araragi guides her everywhere the counter to a splitend reality is a conclusive lie. Though both Ougis or Nadekos conclusions are plausible its never going to be known how such a thing actually played out and all you can really do these hundreds of years later is guess the road forged from nothing by those courageous builders has decayed and been replaced by a set of stairs in the present. Their path can only be walked through storytelling now but just because its nothing but a story doesnt render it meaningless unless nobody tells it anymore. Koyomi Torus A short tale involving donuts selfishness and love. There is no more meaningless lie than to hide something as something hidden will always be found unless you place limitations on its accessibility and the only person youre fooling when keeping something hidden is yourself. If someone were determined to find something theyd find it. Looking at it that way youd never be able to understand that sometimes people hide things from others because they want them to be found. To believe in the entirely practical answer is disbelieving in an impractical one theres a practical reason how donuts are made theres a practical reason why a donut shop would make donuts but theres no practical reason why someone would spend more time money and effort to make donuts at their own home. Love isnt something that can be explained practically the only actions you can rationalize in that way would be actions committed out of selfishness that this will be done this way because it rewards me rather than this will be done this way because someone else will like it theres really no reason to go out of your way to do something for someone else especially if its more practical and less time consuming to rely on someone else to do that thing for you the act of spending your time to make someone elses day a little better is one done out of a disregard for your own self but thats what makes it all the more meaningful. You could say its done because you want them to continue seeing you positively or see you more positively but thatd just be overthinking something that should remain simple. Love is sometimes the only reason you need to do something simple as that. Overanalyzing a meaningless scenario with an already positive outcome trying to find a negative one is more meaningless than the original scenario that sometimes you should just take what happened at face value and accept the kindness done unto you. Regardless of whether or not the donuts shared ratio were 3:2 or 4:1 Araragi ate the most donuts and upon further analysis he only concludes that his lack of trust and unwillingness to accept Shinobus kindness caused him to overlook the truth pointed out by Hanekawa that Shinobu had stuffed the final donut into the largest donut that it turns out she really did sacrifice her desire to eat another donut because she wanted Araragi to have the rest. Intentions hidden both because she wanted them to be found and because they didnt need to be uncovered like a powerful talisman sandwiched between dirty magazine pages. Koyomi Seed A short tale involving a doll compassion and a smile. A smile an expression of happiness is something many people strive for something that many people are willing to sacrifice to obtain whether it be for themselves or someone else. People like to be happy. Simple as that its sought after because its valued and because its valued people are willing to sacrifice themselves whether it be physical or social to make someone else happy. Some people are even willing to sacrifice the ability to use their index finger temporarily to make someone else feel a bit better. Its true that great kindness is often hidden in plain sight but sometimes great kindness is hidden behind lies. Well I say lies but it was more that what Ononoki said was only 50 of the truth there was something they were looking for that was instantly recognizable that something being only recognizable after they finished searching but thats because what they were searching for was an after they finished searching scenario if that makes sense. Its more of a misunderstanding that wasnt cleared up so its about the same as a lie. The entire point of the search was to waste time. Though Araragi monologues about his day getting worse because of this running into Kaiki wouldve ruined his day twice over. It may have even ruined his life. Ononokis attitude was indeed influenced by Kaikis negative remarks but if they had ceased their bantering and she werent rude to him hed be less focused on looking for something which would make him not only less distracted but also more bored assaulting him with an acid tongue is a very certain way to get him to do as hes told. Harshness is sometimes a means to a pleasant outcome. Though Ive concluded this nicely here I would also like to add that though its apparent that Kaiki is the one who influenced Ononokis attitude in this story that shes mimicking how Kaiki went about saving Senjougahara and Nadeko I might have to disagree. I think part of it is Araragis own influence as Kaiki is never honest about his intentions. Koyomi Nothing A short tale involving and . The name of this tale is very true to its nature nothing really happens in this story. Or at least the climax is hardly different from the opening pages. Im struggling to even ascertain the point of this even now But at this point Im willing to settle on the thought that its a story about insensitivity towards hostility that though the previous tale were about insensitivity towards a being who cannot outwardly express emotions this tale were about a being whose outwardly expressed emotions are harsh and perceived as violent. That when someone is seen as an overwhelming negative force in someones life they stop thinking of them as being a human and more of as an obstacle or machine that its their nature to be a certain way that negatively impacts your life and so they can never act out of consideration or kindness towards you. That a person who if they wanted someone to do something would stop at nothing to achieve it violently cannot alternatively stop at nothing to get someone to do something nonviolently. Its not classy to rough up people with no combat experience though its her job to kill Araragi if she needs to. I doubt she truly enjoys a onesided duel with him outside of her obligation. Though violent humiliation gets a point across more directly simply tricking Araragi into coming back to the abandoned shrine the next day is enough to teach him a lesson especially if hed prepared. Violence cant solve everything if its avoided and sometimes you just have to take the long road. Koyomi Dead A short tale about death shogi and rebirth. All things come to an end eventually. Nothing is permanent and at the same time nothing is fixed. Just because youve avoided one possible outcome doesnt mean something will come out of left field and catch you off guard. This can apply to anything in life whether it be life threatening or not in fact it applies quite nicely to Shogi which is basically just Japanese chess. For instance just because you baited your opponent into losing their queen doesnt mean they were unable to surprise you with a move your arrogance hadnt allowed you to see which could lead to them turning the tables on you and gaining an advantage. You can surmise an impossibly high number of moves could be made during a game of Shogi with 100 of those being in response to a previous move even the first move is in response to the move of whoever is chosen to go first and with this thought in mind you reach the point of this entire sequence of tales. In every conversation you have with someone there is an infinite number of moves you can make however this doesnt only exist within your perspective and everyone has this unimaginably long list of choices they can make at any given time. There is such an overwhelming inescapably dense complexity to everything that has ever happened and ever will happen and its impossible to take everything with everything in mind at every given moment in time because you wouldnt be able to reach a conclusion. However dimming your options down to scantron fill in the bubble choices can narrow your perspective and lead you to a conclusion that makes you out to be negligent or inconsiderate. Balance is usually what people consider to be the best option for anything but balance isnt always attainable and is impermanent and so its up to you to make a choice about how to make your choice so you can make the best choice in any situation where your choice is needed. It doesnt have to be this complicated though in fact it usually isnt. You tend to do these things subconsciously once you understand they should be done and only done when involving things you care about. Theres a theory that anything you do will have an effect on another and that it will continue to ripple in which case anything thats ever happened could be made out to be your fault but if you were conscious of it you wouldnt have done it. The theory is too harsh to believe because it encourages you to do nothing. Nobody can really predict how small things could snowball into something bigger because thinking of how anything could foreshadow anything wastes time you could spend testing to see if it really does. The whole point of foreshadowing is so you can look back and reflect on what has already happened because theres a certain satisfaction in understanding how you couldve done something differently and knowing youve grown as a person since then. But this also brings a sense of forlorn that you couldve done something and you didnt understanding how you couldve changed in a different way and anguishing that you hadnt. Neither of these are permanent scenarios and neither are mutually exclusive but thats just because lifes just a big joke and youll only hear the punchline when the epilogue starts but you never really know whether that joke will be worth it or not and thats just part of the experience. Nothing in life really makes sense and nothing has a concrete answer but thats whats so funny about it. You can make any slight blunder or mishap into a joke if you think about it in the sense of ah I guess what I did yesterday did actually have an effect on today or some other similar line of thinking. That just because nothing really makes sense doesnt mean you cant find a sort of comfort in the mutual senselessness. That just because you keep having curve balls thrown at you unfairly and without pattern doesnt mean you should just give up. I think with all of what I said in mind I dont need to go on for longer than I already have and Ill instead quote the last punchline of the novel because I think it perfectly fits what Ive said. Thank you for reading good night and keep in mind And is the punchline that you failed the entrance exam because you didnt even make it to the test site Mister Araragi? Come on it cant end with such a lame joke.