Bakemonogatari and Escapism - A thread

After my rewatch, I found an overarching theme that all the story arcs in Bakemonogatari contain, which is escapism. And each arc depicts it in a different way

Hitagi Crab: This arc revolves around Senjougahara, who suffers from the Heavy Stone Crab, an oddity that takes away a person’s weight and personality. Senjougahara had discarded the heaviness of her memories and the feelings-

-towards her mother, cutting all ties with the person who brought her suffering. So she met the Crab that could take away the burden of her memories. However, this resulted in her losing her weight and personality.

Through the help of Araragi and Oshino Meme, Senjougahara realizes that no matter how painful her memories are, they’re still hers to bear with so she apologizes to the Crab and thanks it, promising that she would bear her own burden.

Senjougahara learns that she should not run away from her memories because those are what mold her into the person she is

Mayoi Snail: This arc revolves around the Lost Snail Hachikuji. Araragi left his house not intending to return for a while in order to escape the responsibilities of his family since he was in an awkward position with them. Then he meets Hachikuji

After his experience with Hachikuji, who died before she could be reunited with her mother on Mother’s Day, Araragi realizes how precious family is. He learns that he shouldn’t run away from the responsibilities of his family because of how precious they are

Suruga Monkey: This arc revolves around Kanbaru Suruga and the Devil’s Paw that took over her left arm. The Devils Paw made Kanbaru do horrible things to make her wishes come true since it always reads the negative side of a wish.

However those wishes were still things she wished. Even if the process wasn’t what she intended, she still wished for the outcome and Kanbaru tried to escape from that reality.

Kanbaru had wished death upon Araragi because of her jealousy of Senjougahara’s relationship with Araragi yet she desperately tried to escape the fact that she had done so. Araragi believed that since he was the cause of it, he should die.

The issue is resolved when Senjougahara realizes that she had mistreated Kanbaru and makes amends which actually satisfied the true condition of her wish, which was getting closer to Senjougahara.

Nadeko Snake: This arc is much more complex and doesn’t directly display escapism as clearly as the others but it’s still evident. Nadeko is cursed by a classmate in her class after she turned down a love confession. In order to free herself from the Snake oddity-

-she sacrifices snakes in order to save herself. There’s a lot more involved in Nadeko’s character at this point in the story but in shorter terms, Nadeko was running away from her guilt. At this moment in the story she was an insincere person-

-and that Insincerity is expanded upon further in Nadeko Medusa

Tsubasa Cat: This is the final arc of Bakemonogatari and this arc truly capture the theme of escapism. This arc focuses on Hanekaea and the issues she faces. This arc parallels the events that happened in Nekomonogatari Kuro, where black Hanekawa is released-

-due to the years of stress created by her family issues. Tsubasa Cat focuses on Hanekaea and the truth of her mental state. Hanekawa is in love with Araragi yet can’t bring herself to confess due to the fact that he’s in a relationship with Senjougahara which led to stress

Instead of facing Araragi herself and confronting him to admit her feelings, she uses Black Hanekawa to let out the stress she’s recieved from shutting her feelings in and do the job for her.

DConclusion: Bakemonogatari actually teaches a lot of valuable life lesions, in this case is specifically about escapism. Hitagi crab tells us not to run away from our experiences, Mayoi Snail tells us not to run away from our responsibilities/family, Suruga Monkey tells us to

-face our inner demons and pay attention to the people around us, and Tsubasa Cat teaches us to face the reasons for our stress instead of bottling our feelings up.