Ononoki kisses Araragi. Araragi kisses Shinobu. Shinobu Mayoi kisses Araragi. What is fanservice and what is important to the story? This tale and even every tale like Bakemonogatari throws the line away and claims that it is both important to the story and fanservice. With Hitagi and Araragi it was a pivotal moment that encompassed the last shackle her body had under the night sky of what is precious to her and share it with the man she is in love with. Beautiful in both mediums anime and LN and even if I am very apprehensive to the 3 scenes in this singular Onimonogatari they also serve both purposes as well. All of the kisses were a stolen moment. With Ononoki it is justified in two folds: to wake Shionbu up as the step on the shadow didnt work and that Ononoki doesnt really understand common sense I dont think thats the right term for it but I cant think of a replacement with the excessive muscle touching. With Shinobu it is justified? Araragi did it so we dont get 150 pages of Kizumonogatari promotion even though we did just a different slice of Shinobus past. With Mayoi it is justifies in three folds: she was halfasleep with Ononoki did it so thats where the idea probably originated from the best slip of the tongue joke because its the physicality that Araragi uses to reaffirm that Mayoi is still next to him throughout the arc and the fact that Mayoi delayed the final encounter enough so that Araragi couldnt say goodbye until after the fact which is something that Mayoi knows well because of the various amounts of conversations they have had across the different entries thus far. But even with all these incredible moments I am disgusted by it. Theres no way around it and the biggest reason I am so conflicted when it comes to Araragi as I love his dynamics but I also hate them. But thats not really important here I guess. Back with a reoccurring segment in these reviews which is the placement of this arc as the penultimate of Second Season. As the entry before was centered around lying to yourself and this one extends that. With Nadeko she turned into something else which is fine. Araragi turned into a vampire. Hanekawa turned those memories into Black Hanekawa. By lying about turning into something is deadly and only for aberrations. Since humans lie to themselves and others all the time. Aberrations arent allowed that privilege which is an interesting distinction to take. Even the fact aberrations cant tell their own stories as the narrator is an extension of that. But this is broken with the Short Stories that were released with Onimonogatari BDs. I dont have anything to comment this time on their relevance to the actual story because the format of this set of 8 stories Tsubasa Board Mayoi Castle Shinobu Science Suruga Palace Nadeko Mirror Hitagi Salamander Yotsugi Future Ougi Travel where two characters talk about a book and I have only read like 2 of them in the past so I just added the others to my plan to read on Goodreads. But you see Koyomin theres no such thing as an acceptable lie. This is a really interesting line because at the end of this tale Araragi does not tell others who werent involved that Mayoi is gone. Although it comes from this fear of letting go it also fights against the absolutes that Izuko establishes. I will end this review by telling you that I accidentally spilled water all over my copy and it has doubled in size and wont ever fit in the boxset again but I gotta let that go too and buy another copy I guess.