MUSUBIMONOGATARI

DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

NOVEL ActionNademonogatari
NOVEL ComedyShinobumonogatari
NOVEL ComedyMazemonogatari

REVIEWS

• 

  inspirashamul

  90/100
  A send-off to the parts of life that were full of energy. .

  Off-season: Suspended or reduced activity. The time of the year where an activity is not fully engaged in.

  Those are the definitions I found when googling it although I only really know the context in terms of sports. But I guess you can say that any kind of career has an off-season. Students have an off-season in the summer in the States for summer break while Youtube has an off-season in January it terms of ad revenue that flowed in during the holidays slows down considerably. You could even go further and say that everything has an off-season if you are not currently on it at full steam. Things have seasonality to them. They ebb and flow with interest so when we are in a valley, we are considered off or low in energy. But that doesn't mean the love isn't there. What interests me which this final volume in particular is the nature of the off-seasonness is explicitly stated by Araragi even though it's been in the back of our minds the entire season from Orakomonogatari to Musubimonogatari. The fools that reunite I guess. We learn about things in a nonchalant way and we meet others who have had the same experience as Araragi or maybe even worse or maybe even less but nonetheless immortals. Of the members of the Rumors Squad that have a simple human, the low-energy version of the squad, at the head but at the end of the novel. 3 full novels on with 1 quiet volume off.

  Araragi seems to have both reverted and progressed as a person in his time in university. He seems to have both broken up with and gotten back together with Hitagi. For what reasons, we don't really know. But his perspective has been shifted. He is no longer the immature teenager that he was back in this town 4 some years ago but just an immature adult. The subtle ways that he drops this information to the reader that is probably more invested in the relationship breaks the rose-tinted lens that I definitely view Araragi and Hitagi. Throughout the entirety of the volume, this was something that eating at me. Yes they weren't perfect and we saw their flaws front and center but how could they have broken up? For that kind of reason? We aren't privy to this and Isin uses it in a fascinating way to show the reader that even if their relationship is off right now, it is always come back on at the end. Even within the lows, you will find a relative high.

  I know that Monster Season has some characters that were ever sidelined or omitted so maybe this is Araragi accepting that fact that they can have their shine to grow just like Nadeko did in Nademonogatari as they come to completely different answers to their past selves. While Nadeko chooses to stick by her past self and see that dream of love through, Araragi is ok with his past getting cut apart and spread by the wind of age as Ougi has changed, Hitagi has changed, Mayoi has changed, he might as well should go ahead and change so that when he looks back at 30, he can give himself a little chuckle.

  This is my own send-off to these reviews. Some good, some bad, some hidden, some shown, but still happy with all of them. Looking back of them gives me a hint of nostalgia but what wouldn't at this point. I am getting too old to begin with, but thank you for sticking around. I'll come back when Monster Season is fully translated before starting something I have to wait an eternity for.

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• NOVEL

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