By the end of Monogatari SS 18 we are no closer to figuring out what that blackness was, and I didn’t particularly mind the wait.
Shinobou gives us a lot of hints and things for speculation. She spent so long in that village that oddities became common there. She appears to attract them, and that might have something to do with the blackness showing up. Maybe it was some other god, jealous that people were worshiping Shinobou, who didn’t really do much to deserve it. I mean, she fell into that lake and stopped the drought but that was an accident. What else did she do, besides giving them more rain from time to time? Well, I suppose that’s enough for people to want to worship you; I hadn’t really thought of it from a god’s point of view. Just people with powers. Anyway, since the show seems to want to draw a line between gods and oddities, maybe her being one and the other, like she nearly was, was enough to attract that thing. And now that it’s back, what is she and Araragi going to do about it? And why did it show up here? If it just shows up if she spends too much time in one place why didn’t she encounter it in the Antarctic? I keep thinking up more questions …
Never mind. The quibbles are secondary. Visually, this was one of the most amazing episodes yet, and maybe the most simple. It was mainly Shinobou giving a long soliloquy. When she started and the camera slowly scanned by a long, beautiful mural I thought to myself that I hadn’t seen that effect before in this show, or at least I don’t remember it. Then they did it again, the pictures on the screen showing the story as Shinobou was telling it. Besides being great to look at, the murals also helped establish the story in a historical past. Some old artist might have been making these murals from a legend in the area. When they did show the present day, when Araragi asked a question, I began to feel disappointed. Happily, they spent most of the episode with these scrolling images. But that said, now that the story is done, I’m ready to get back to the question at hand: just what the hell is that darkness and what can they do about it?
Not much to Non Non Biyori this week, but I don’t expect them to throw out little gems like last time. This time it’s the thrilling beach episode, where I have to ask the same question Kazuha asked to Hotaru: “Are you really in the fifth grade?” Other than that it was more jokes about Komari’s height and lack of build, and some business where Natsumi gets too much pepper in her ramen and tries to switch with Komari without her looking. And there was one of those annoying “OMG we’ll miss the last train” things. In fact this was an episode where just about everyone found ways to be annoying. Apart from Renge, of course.
Kill la Kill 6 continues to sow plot things without doing much to them. After a pointless scene where Ryuuko confronts Aikuro (where all that happens is that she hears the term “Nudist Beach” for the first time and we get a closeup of his glowing nipples), we get Uzu, one of the for elites, asking and getting Satsuke’s permission to fight Ryuuko. So they do. Ryuuko wins. So he sews his eyes shut so that he can sense everything, which makes him close to godly, they fight again, and this time Ryuuko loses, well, would have. So now has even more formidable enemies to battle later, ho hum. What’s interesting is that Uzu is potentially on the same level as Satsuke. I wonder if the show is planning to have a mutiny at some point. Oh, and a mysterious Ragyo is introduced, sort of. More development, not much action apart from the physical kind we expect from this show anyway.
Teekyuu 30 had a gag every 3.75 seconds! Excellent. Of course, when they come this fast you have no time to laugh at them …
Too Old for Anime 
The nipples in KlK made me laugh 🙂
Regarding Monogatari, I can’t quite remember but does it go something like oddities need human belief to make them real, so if there’s no humans in Antarctica then no oddities, i.e. no darkness? (I believe that’s why Shinobu had to leave).
You could be right, and I had to laugh when Shinobu talked about showing off her abilities to polar bears and penguins. So it seems all these … things only appear where humans are, which makes us seem like a contagious and repugnant species indeed.