The lateness of this post can be attributed to my recent slacking of doing much in the way of things – I am into my second week of my 12-week gym cycle, and the second week is always the hardest to keep up with, through hard experience. So other than being tired, I also had the extreme lack of motivation to do anything long. In fact I know I mentioned on ghostlightning’s post (link later) that I will make a short post for this episode, but the problem was that I read quite a few others’ (including his) thoughts on it and now I have more than I would write on my own.
Anyway as the title suggests, Freud is a fundamental part of this episode and the arc itself, which I will go into only at the end, when I talk about my general impressions of this episode, and the arc. Edit: I added extra thoughts that I should originally have done but forgot to about Freudian psychology in the general impressions section, you may go straight to page 5 if you have already seen my post in its entirety, to see the new thoughts.
First of all some of the information in this post is owed (as well as the discussion and the Freudian theme) to other bloggers, and thus a mention must first be made of their posts and what they supply in terms of material or thoughts to this post in particular. Please be sure to read through them first, as references will be made again and again (without links) to the content they bring to light.
Shadow (the very same guest writer that just signed on recently to help write for me) talks about the episode in-depth, providing some very good extra material for my post.
ghostlightning refers to the inauthenticity of the relationship between Senjougahara and Araragi, as well as other things throughout the show so far, in his episodic. Another highly recommended read.
Omni’s post was read by me before I even watched the episode itself. Why do you do that, you might ask. I find that Bakemonogatari, as has been mentioned often by now and by me too, is all about the dialogue. Even if you know what is going to happen, the dialogue is what clinches the series for me. How much of this show could be as good without the dialogue that makes it so enticing for people willing to read more into it like me? In any case, Omni’s post is only relevant for the fact that he, like me, thought the countdown to Senjougahara’s appearance was amusing (the 3-2-1-0 effect).
Kurogane feels Senjougahara is the MVP of the series, and quite rightly so – in a recent post I just found, Martin made somewhat the same comments in his post about Bakemonogatari and Senjougahara. How can she not be the MVP of the series? Since the first episode, has she not challenged our perceptions about the stereotypes of tsundere (among others), even though she said she was one herself?
Cuchlann contends that the geographies of the settings of Bakemonogatari reflects Araragi being stuck in an abyss of his own making, and only by focusing on himself does he get out of such a funk. I contended (in the same post in a comment) the opposite – that Araragi needs to focus on others to get him out of it.
Finally, 2DT provides the basic premise for why I decided to use Freudian psychology for the theme of this arc itself. If you are unfamiliar with Freudian psychology, please read up on the Wiki article (it is called psychoanalysis). Take note that even though I am a psych/sociology student, my memory of Freudian psychology is a little hazy (and I never did like how he made his observations and his conclusions are controversial, to say the least), so I will keep it to the basics regarding the effects of the ego, superego and id (different Wiki article).
And now, on to the episodic proper.
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Thank you for the entertaining read. I couldn’t even listen to music as I read it, as I wished to give it my full (As full as strainer like mind can be.) attention.
Something about Araragi that I wish I said, but a commenter (Zyl) did: http://ghostlightning.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/bake08/#comment-5262
It contextualized Araragi among characters of his kind, and is rather interesting for doing so.
ghostlightning´s last blog…I don’t mind mindscrews, I really don’t; so just tighten it, deeper!
A few notes:
Gary Payton is retired now.
A way to resolve the speed issue is that Kanbaru is very fast in short distances, but due to endurance or something is fairly slow over long distances. This way no one is faster than her on the shorter distance of the court versus a track. A fast break usually does not span the full distance of the court (mainly coming off turnovers by the other team or steals), and it depends on where players are because you can pass the ball up to a player nearer the basket to initiate the fast break.
It is also harder to exactly measure speed in basketball game situations because it is not as controlled. Players start running from different places and don’t always run (fairly) straight routes like on a track. This way it would be tougher to definitively say someone was faster than Kanbaru since the evidence itself is less definitive.
Adrian: Thanks. I edited the general impressions to include more on the Freudian structural model of id, superego and ego so you might want to read it again since you read this before I added them in.
ghostlightning: Yes, an interesting thought from Zyl indeed.
Shadow: Huh, so GP is retired. Sad.
So am I good in short distance sprints but suck at long-distance trials. But that still does not solve the basic problem – track also has short-distance sprints such as 100m. Arguably it may be longer than the length of a basketball court by far, but we all know both fast breaks and running in a court and sprinting on a track for the speed is essentially the same thing. Plus, she did not inform the devil in what kinds of situation (long or short distances) she wanted to be faster – she just wanted to be faster. Therefore all situations in which she can somehow be slower than others (despite the ambiguity of basketball situations involving running) will still be factored in since the contract will not care about all these two-sided facets, but rather just aim at making her faster in all situations.
Then again ironically, she could have made herself faster by training hard enough (due to fear of the devil) so that in a sense, the devil achieved its contract and saw no need to do anything else to her opponents.
Didn’t know about a gym obsessed otaku in this place! which gym do you frequent?
Once again, amazing posts. Do you actually do research on the spot for these posts, or are you well versed in these Freudian theories prior to watching this series? It is a pain to do all the research just to do a proper post on each episode. Ghostlightning’s post is also well researched, thanks for the recommended feed.
Kudos to the hard work put in man!
Looking forward to future bake articles!
I’ve realized something. Despite how Araragi mishandled the situation, acted like a hypocrite, and was otherwise naive in believing everything Suruga said, Hitagi didn’t do anything really perceptive or insightful.
Why is it that she confronts Suruga now? She apologized to Araragi before saying “Even though it’s my fault for not being able to settle my accounts with people.” Shouldn’t she have confronted Suruga after seeing the first beat-down Araragi got? Does she need Araragi to be saved by her actions to motivate herself to get over whatever fears she has?
About the Rainy Devil’s arm … perhaps it symbolizes “what was once a part of you will always be a part of you”. Araragi still has some vampire powers, Hitagi did not return to the personality she had before, Mayoi is still a ghost, and Suruga still has her arm. You’ve done something; you can’t undo it. You thought something; you can’t un-think it. I think calling the arm a “scar” is the most appropriate way of putting it.
As for the Shinobu scene … I found it strange not only for that reason, but another as well. Araragi gently held her and smiled at her, even though he’s been indifferent/ignoring her up until now. I can’t help but think that maybe Araragi liked or had a ‘connection’ with the ‘former Shinobu’.
@Zero: isn’t it because Araragi lied and keep the matter about kanbaru away from her?
and isn’t Araragi a lolicon? =o
@ano: Yeah, I think you’re right that Senjougahara didn’t do anything initially because Araragi never told her that Kanbaru attacked him. This was why she was angry that he broke their “promise.”
@ZeroOBK: What you said the Rainy Devil’s arm makes a lot of sense, I hadn’t thought about it that way.
Shadow´s last blog…Bakemonogatari 08
@ ano: He did keep the matter away from her, but he didn’t exactly put a lot of effort into it. Araragi mentioned Suruga stalking him to Hitagi. Hitagi then finds Araragi shortly after he leaves beat up with his bike trashed. Araragi says that he wasn’t paying attention and hit a pole. I would be surprised if Hitagi didn’t guess that there might have been a connection.
f4chaos: I frequent Jurong East gym, and I live in TPY lol. Next time just combine your comments into one, you can still edit your comments for 15 minutes after you made your first. I also did mention, I am a psychology/sociology student, so yeah, I do know these, though my memory of Freud is hazy by now. Besides I only touched on his structural model, not his actual psychoanalysis, which is the basis of Freudian psychology.
ZeroOBK: Senjougahara did trust him after all, she might have her doubts about the accident, but since he did not seem to want to pursue it further, she left it there, trusting that he will be honest to her if it had been an oddity. Of course, when she found out later, she was not happy about it. Nice thoughts about the scar, and as for Shinobu, Araragi did get attracted to the vampiress who turned him into a vampire, at least that was what was hinted at from the first episode’s “OP animation”.