MONOGATARI Series: OFF & MONSTER Season

Episode 8

This episode is all about one thing: showing us the transformation of the kind, humble Acerola into the supremely arrogant and evil Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade. This is done by attempting to solve the puzzle: “How does one kill a woman when any attempts to harm her will cause the perpetrator (even a vampire) to kill themselves?”

The simple answer is you can't—at least not on purpose. Her power works in such a way that it reacts to any attempts to harm her. Trying to save her and hurting her in the process does not cause her power to activate. That said, there's no way to accidentally kill a person on purpose so Acerola and Suicide-Master are forced to try another tactic.

Basically, the core issue is that Acerola is too beautiful—both inside and out. Logically, to lessen her power, all you need to do is make her less beautiful. Following this idea, Suicide-Master comes up with the idea to have her act differently. If she acts as vulgarly as possible, perhaps that would weaken her power. Thus Acerola starts to speak in a haughty tone, disregard manners and cleanliness, and dress in more provocative clothing—i.e., act in the way we would normally associate with Shinobu (especially in her more adult forms).

All this raises the question of how much of Shinobu's personality (as we've seen it) is an act, and at what point does an act become reality. Even in Kizumonogatari, we can see that she has hidden depths. After all, the whole final act of that story is her acting as monstrous as possible to try and get Araragi to kill her—and for her death to save him in the process.

Then, as the series continues, she is slowly able to become more straightforward with her inner feelings but the outer act mostly continues. It's likely that she is doing this because her constructed vulgar personality, plus the fact that she became a monster, are the only things that hold her original curse at bay. If she acts as the beautiful person she still is at her core, the curse will return, killing Araragi and all those around her. So, in other words, even at the end of her centuries-long journey, she still can't both be herself and have those she cares for love her for who she is. The best she can hope for is someone like Araragi who can glimpse the person inside and accept the vulgarity that covers it.

And because that is likely too horrible a fate for any person to bear indefinitely—especially an immortal vampire—Suicide-Master gave her a single way to both stay in character and release her most pure and positive emotion: joy. While she has her derisive “ka-ka” laugh, she also has a second laugh to express true happiness. Knowing this re-contextualizes more than a few key scenes across the entirety of Monogatari, making some all the more tragic and some all the more wonderful.

All in all, this was a great little arc and I can't wait to see its conclusion as the series continues. After all, since Suicide-Master met Shinobu at the start of her journey, I'm excited to see her reaction at the end.

Rating:

A Few Fun Scenes to Rewatch:

• Owarimonogatari Episode 18: When Shinobu is reunited with Araragi, she lifts him and spins him around (and later when she bullies Ononoki).

• Nisemonogatari Episode 11: When Gaen challenges Shinobu to fight.

• Monogatari Series Second Season Episode 10: When Shinobu and Araragi face off against the parallel world Kiss-Shot.

MONOGATARI Series: OFF & MONSTER Season is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.