Kizumonogatari: Part 2 (Nekketsu-hen) – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.

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Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

In a sort of weird way, Kizumonogatari, thanks to us witnessing the birth of Hanekawa’s crush on Koyomi, sort of becomes a romance. Just one which features more violence than gore than your usual monster/ girl romantic movie.

Trigger Warning(s):

Blood (Excessive) | Gore (Body Mutilation, intestines being exposed)

Characters & Storyline

Koyomi Araragi

Koyomi has 3 of Shinobu’s hunters to face off against. Dramaturgy, Episode, and then GuillotineCutter. How exactly is a newborn vampire supposed to defeat them, much less not lose his humanity in the process? No one explains this. Oshino warns him about using his full strength, for then he may turn full vampire, but when you have a vampire who hunts his own, a self-hating half vampire, then a vampire exorcist, how is a boy supposed to not go full vamp to take them down?

The plot to retrieve Shinobu’s limbs aside, there is also a bit of a love story. In the series, it becomes clear that part of what stresses Hanekawa isn’t just her family situation, but also Araragi. For, as you’ll see in this movie, before Senjogahara it seemed there was a real chance for Koyomi and Hanekawa. There is flirting, a bit of a fantasy of a vampire and a girl having small chat. Then, of course, there is the usual Monogatari ecchi of flashing panties, among other things.

But with Hanekawa being human, Koyomi in pursuit of returning to such, and three beings looking to finish Shinobu off, how in the world did everything end up ok in the end? Especially when Oshino isn’t playing more than a negotiator in all this?

Highlights

Awesome Fight Scenes

Alright, Araragi is like many a anime lead who primarily gets their butt whooped for awhile then makes a grand comeback. But you got to admit that when he takes an ass whipping it isn’t like when Goku or Usagi take one (Is it wrong the only two examples I can think of are DBZ and Sailor Moon?). Because the Monogatari series, arguably, has never tried to really be mainstream, in the sense of acceptable for kids, it is as bloody as a Tarintino film, and sometimes as insightful and drowned in pseudo-philosophical monologues. Which, to me, perhaps is why I always like this series. It gets bloody, does more than shows bruises, and it really shows the damage done to a body when two supernatural forces face off. There is blood, guts, limbs ripped off, and while Koyomi’s wins seem fast and cheap, they usually come just before you can get acclimated to the violence.

The Romance Between Koyomi and Hanekawa Is Cute

It’s easy to forget that while Senjogahara and Koyomi are together for most of the series, it is perhaps the relationship with Hanekawa which has always been the more healthy alternative. There is something sweet, very high school, about their relationship and while the line becomes drawn, to a certain point, once Senjogahara steals Koyomi’s heart, you sort of wonder how did she beat Hanekawa again? For truly, while there is nothing awe-inspiring, enviable, or something to make you swoon about Koyomi and Hanekawa in this movie, if you have followed the show, it does make you sort of wish, in an alternate universe, Koyomi did pick Hanekawa. For the foundation they laid together is just too cute. Even if it comes off like one of the better Monster meets girl type of romance flicks.

Criticism

On The Fence

Not As Funny or Quotable As The Series

As noted in the part 1 review, everything is very to the point. With that, most of the musings which have led to quotable moments are gone. Also, a lot of the comedic moments are gone too in order to make a tighter production it seems. Which, while in the first part this was jarring, you kind of come to appreciate it now. In a way, it shows growth over the course of all the releases. It allows for the serious moments to be a different tone and not have some comedic edge, it makes it so when ecchi moments happen they still have a touch of being comical, but with how Hanekawa is treated it is her trying to win Koyomi over or be vulnerable. When we see Shinobu nude it isn’t made to be perverted or sexual, to a point, but to show how she is more complete. More whole because what was stolen from her, her dignity, pride, her power, is returning. In a thinking about this too much way, her losing her limbs was like being raped. She was left as defenseless as a child and so she was shown as a child. But now with time, and the right people to depend on, she is able to find herself again, consume and accept back the parts of her which were lost, and become the women she once was again.

Overall: Positive (Worth Seeing)

No longer jarred but not fully entertained, the 2^nd part of Kizumonogatari may maintain the to the point storytelling of part 1, but you learn to appreciate it for you realize the show has said all it could. Now it just wants you to know how it all started before saying goodbye.

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