Welcome to Winter Watch, a look at the latest anime season. Among the many shows being broadcast, Nisemonogatari is perhaps the most anticipated one as it is a direct sequel to fan favorite Bakemonogatari.
Episode 5: Karen Bee, Part 5
Summary: The side effects from Karen's curse prove too much for her to handle and Koyomi offers some TLC to help ease her pain.
Air Date: Feb. 4, 2012
Run Time: 24:10
Warning: This article contains spoilers. We recommend watching the episode here first.
This episode begins with Tsukihi poking fun at Koyomi's small circle of friends while Tsubasa tends to Karen's illness. After Karen's side effects have calmed down and an accidental slip of his bath towel, Koyomi walks Tsubasa home. Along the way, the two discuss Karen's affliction and Tsubasa's growing friendship with Koyomi's sisters. After returning home, Koyomi asks Karen what happened when she confronted Kaiki and we find out that not only did he attack her, but that he has been cursing middle school students as well. Karen's fever kicks back up and in an effort to ease her discomfort, Koyomi strips her and wipes the sweat off her body and, with the help of Shinobu, comes up with a rather risque way to get rid of her curse.
When Kaiki was introduced a couple of episodes back, I mentioned that he made a mark on me and seemed like he had potential to be an interesting villain. This episode confirms that. Kaiki has firmly planted himself near the top of my Mindblowingly and Amazingly Sleazy Anime Bad Guys list. When confronted by Karen about why he's been spreading curses around the city, he has zero hesitation in saying that it was simply for money, with a hint of disgust that anyone would assume it was for any other reason. When asked why he specifically targets middle school students, he states that they have the best combination of access to money and being easy to fool. While his methods are definitely deplorable, there's something refreshing about his motives being so simple and straightforward. His goals aren't world/societal domination and, unlike far too many anime baddies, his actions aren't the result of some sad childhood or misguided attempts at a lonely person seeking companionship. He's simply a greedy, manipulative bastard who wants money and doesn't care about how he gets paid.
Much like how I've lessened my praising of the visuals to avoid sounding like a broken record every week, I'm not going to harp on the plethora of tricky content that shows up week to week either. Rest assured though, just like how the visuals are always impressive even if I don't go on and on about them in every article, the fanservice and trickiness is present and plentiful as well. These features, as well as the brisk, witty dialog, are very much the pillars that the series builds itself on top of.
Verdict
Villains are usually my favorite characters in a series and this episode of Nisemonogatari fully introduces one that I've immediately grown attached to. Kaiki's combination of levelheaded suaveness and reduction of right and wrong to monetary values has pulled me into his web and I'm dying to see what he does next.
- William Taylor ( sickvisionz ) is lazy by nature, procrastinator by trade. You can also find him on Twitter @mrsickvisionzand on Tumblr at In My Lifetime
This episode proved that Kaiki is a well crafted antagonist.
I find Karen's laziness adorable. Hahaha. I wonder what will Koyomi do now to save Karen?
hmm well straight forward and simply bad villains are one of the things I don't like about western media. The grey parts of anime were what made me like it. So along with the trickiness it seems like I need to put this show on the back burner then. Good to know.
Kaiki has that Wesker walk, lol.
The reason Kaiki works so well as a villain is because he is making a comment about the futility of capitalism. Kaiki's claim that 'it is all about the money', is a comment on how consumers look for ways to exchange their money for other things (like objects/services etc.), and then consumers try to find value in those things based on how much they spent on the thing.
It is part of the very system of capitalism that allows for such scam artists like Kaiki to come about. Which is what makes him an interesting character. At this point it sounds like his only motivation is just to exploit the capitalist system and show how ridiculous it is. This is a good start, and I doubt we'll get much more explanation of his character given how short the series is, but it would be interesting if we could see what made Kaiki go to these lengths.