©Nishio Restoration/Kodansha/Anipu
Every time a “.5” episode comes around, I sigh. Most of the time, “.5” is just shorthand for “recap of the episode.” The creators had more holes to fill than they had episodes to produce, so they just spliced together a few key scenes from recent episodes, recorded narration, and called it a day. of this episode Story Series: OFF & MONSTER Season But nothing else.
This episode is not a retelling, but tells the origin story of the legendary Strange Kiss, Orion the Blade, and Heart Under the Knife, in the form of a fairy tale. Now, we’ve heard parts of this story before, but never in detail the tragedy of Shinobu’s life.
Shinobu is a woman defined by loneliness—a loneliness she can never truly escape, until the incident occurs. Story series. It was no fault of her own, at least initially. She was born beautiful—beautiful in everything one saw in her. No one even bothered to get to know the people inside. They were so obsessed with the shell.
So Shinobu hoped that people could see her true identity──but found that her inner beauty far outweighed her outer beauty. It was so great that people began to give up the things they cherished most to praise it, not gifts, poems and songs – which for most people was their life.
The tragedy of this story is that even with all this happening, no one could actually see her. They still see beauty and nothing else. Shinobu’s true wish was to have a friend, but instead of getting one, she was left with a mountain of corpses that offered only the most superficial parts of her. At least before that, there was someone around her – a family member who loved her. But now, she’s truly alone—and will remain so for hundreds of years.
All of this gives us an in-depth look at Shinobu – most notably her role in Kizuna Monogatari and Owari Story. Her relationship with Shishi Rui and Araragi is far more than a relationship between monarch and minister. They were able to see her in a way that no one else could – not just as a mythical beauty or even a legendary vampire, but as herself. With them here, she is no longer alone. Now more than ever, it’s easier to understand why Shishi Rui’s suicide left her fundamentally broken—so much so that she would rather die than have the same thing happen to Araragi.
What this episode delivered only made it better. rather than the art style you would expect Storythe episode instead shows a series of static scenes made from sheet metal cutouts. Then, we get Death of Sakamotothe voice actor of Shinobu is reading a fairy tale. It was fantastic from start to finish.
I honestly don’t understand why this episode is called “.5” since it’s only half as long as a normal episode. Not only is it a beautiful work of art that stands apart from the rest of the series in its own unique way, but it is also an important one Story Convey backstory in a unique way. It pains me to think how many people will see “.5” and skip this entirely. Indeed, it will be their loss.
grade:
Story Series: OFF & MONSTER Season Currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
