Judgment Commentary! | Hanamonogatari | Episode 5 "Suruga Devil, Part 5" [Reaction + Discussion]

Thanks man! The anime and novels complement each other beautifully so I guarantee you'll enjoy it! If I had to say, Kizu and the first volume of Owari are must reads, since they are the ones with the most cut content

Really enjoy reading your summaries. I'm excited to start reading the novels. The Final Season box set is supposed to arrive at the end of this month.

jaidoru

Hachikuji died lost and became a Lost Cow, Rouka died collecting misery and became a misery collector. Even though she herself doesn't know it, that's probably why she is able to take the devil parts so easily, since they are a sign of desperation of those who wish upon it. Now, onto novel stuff: the anime does quickly mention how the boys hated Numachi for being better than them playing football and how she could hold off a whole other team by herself while playing basketball, but the novel focuses a lot more on those aspects of her life, specially on how she chooses to play defense so the games aren't too easy and how, even while being the famous star from the team all around other schools, she didn't get along at all with people from her own school cuz the boys and players felt intimidated and the other girls thought she was too boyish. There's even a passage in the novel where she praises Kanbaru and Higasa for being able to fit in really well with the rest of their team when they’re very talented. She didn't know basketball was a team game because she always felt alone when playing. About Momma Gaen and her "If you can’t be medicine, be poison. Otherwise you’re nothing but water" quote. It's not that difficult to figure out but she's basically saying that be it good or bad you gotta stand for something. So, at the end by calling Numachi "muddy water" she's saying that even if her stance as misery collector isn't plainly good nor bad she's still someone that shouldn't go unnoticed by others, while also joking with her old nickname, the Inescapable Swamp, since the kanji for "Numachi" means "swamp" as well. In the books, Kanbaru also calls herself a "flash flood", not "clear as mud", and follows up with a "water you?" (what are you?) pun to her mother (ofc that's only translation, the pun is different in jp). Cutting hair is always seen as a turning point for the Monogatari charaters, whenever they change their hairstyle it means they changed and important thing about themselves, reached a turning point of their lives and symbolises the begining of a new life. Funny enough, I think that's one of the reasons for Tsukihi to change her hair every arc, her being a phoenix, a bird that dies and starts anew and all. Counting Kanbaru, the other 2 people Araragi helped getting a hair cut were Hanekawa, when she first cut off her braids, and Tsukihi, as stated in a short story. With this, we conclude Kanbaru's arc. It wans't about doing good or bad, just a story about a girl spending her youth.