monogatari spoilers!!!

I’ve only briefly touched on why I loved the Sodachi arcs so much, so I’m gonna expand on it more. Both the character writing and narrative writing are amazing.

Firstly, it touches on the topic of abuse well. When parents don’t get along well, it’s not uncommon for the child to get caught in the crossfire, and that’s what happens here. Nisio writes the situation very well; the things Sodachi says about it reflect what you would see irl.

Victims of domestic violence often normalize their experience, in the sense they think that’s it’s nothing abnormal. It was only when she was exposed to the Koyomi household that she realized how ugly her experience was. The difference was excruciating, thus she ran away.

Despite being abused by her parents, she refuses to take direct action against them, because she knows what would happen to them if she did. Maybe she still cares for them, feels like she owes them, or would feel guilty if she reported them, much like a normal, real, child.

Sodachi’s initial family situation aside, the writing of her thought process in the present is brilliant. In the face of trauma, people try to convince themselves that it was normal, or it’s not rare, that they don’t have the right to be sad, or think life’s unfair.

They try to convince themselves that they’re fortunate just because they’re alive, because the truth that the world was that unfair to them can be incredibly painful to bear. This dialogue is so raw and realistic, I love it so much.

She also copes by trying to blame Araragi for her situation. Can we blame him for missing the signs as a middle schooler? Maybe not, but like I said, the fact that the world can be that unfair is a hard truth to face, and it can be much easier to just pin it on someone else.

Last thing regarding Sodachi, but Nisio nailed her view on happiness as well. From experience, when you’re in that state of mind, it seems like some unattainable state, some feeling of euphoria. Koyomi saying that it’s just nothing like that hits the nail on the head.

These arcs are an odd moment in the series where somebody suffering doesn’t rely on an aberration, but Nisio shows he’s perfectly capable of creating a character who struggles in a realistic manner.

These arcs do the most for Koyomi since the kizu movies. They establish why Koyomi is extremely pessimistic at the start of Kizu, and what allowed him to continue to become the person he is today.

They also show that justice doesn’t always prevail; everyone in the Araragi family has their own brand of justice. Koyomi saves others with oddity troubles, the sisters do what they deem is ‘right’, and the parents are cops. All of this, yet Sodachi wasn’t “saved”.

Ougi’s use of Sodachi’s situation to make Araragi question himself was brilliant. Koyomi operates on a self-serving sense of justice, doing what he believes is right. His failure to save Sodachi, although it was a while ago, challenges this sense of justice.

Furthermore, it inspires guilt. Even though he failed to save someone, he got to where he is using what they gave him. He thinks, “do I really deserve what I have?”.

Ougi makes him realize what he may have been thinking subconsciously, and the very reason for her existence. She does his best to try to make him think that his adolescence is “wrong” here, which is referred back to in Ougi Dark.

Something I found really neat was that Sodachi brought Koyomi to her using a riddle in a letter and said goodbye to him using a riddle in a letter as well. Incredibly poetic.

So in conclusion, these arcs bring a character with beautifully written struggles and expands on our MC. When you consider Ougi Dark, the purpose of Ougi’s movements here are crystal clear, and exemplify how great the narrative of Monogatari is.