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Kanbaru & the difficulties of forming an identity
THREAD/CHARACTER ANALYSIS ^~^
THREAD/CHARACTER ANALYSIS ^~^
Monogatari is a story about moving on with your life despite the depressing conflicts, facing your conflicts instead of escaping them, and forming an identity to live by, and its characters all embody these overarching themes excellently.
Kanbaru in particular embodies the theme of importance of individuality & forming beliefs that you stand by & live for even at the cost of your loved ones. Kanbaru's story is about moving past the burdens that drag you down & learning from them for self betterment.
This is exemplified with her story with Numachi. Kanbaru never formed a strong personality that's dominant enough for her to be able to make decisions on her own, she always relied on Hitagi or Araragi for support & used them as a backbone for her decisions.
She never went out of her comfort zone to challenge herself because of her insecurities & moral crisis. She doesn't have a sense of identity, so she never takes action against anything because she doesn't have an identity to act by.
Kanbaru is lost in her suffering, she doesn't understand how humans form their personalities, so she's in an endless loop of relying on others for her own benefits, and in that sense, she lost so much of herself. Kanbaru never does anything regarding the conflicts surrounding her
she never tries to understand her conflicts & to solve them, because if she does, she fears the chance that she might cause trouble for others. She doesn't value her desires, she bottles them up & moves along. When she sees Numachi in trouble & writhing in her conflicts, she
feels like she should do nothing about it because so long as no one is harmed, Kanbaru's desires are worthless. In Monogatari, character changes happen through unique & quirky interactions that give a character arc more perspective, allowing the characters to broaden their vision
of life & themselves. Araragi encourages Kanbaru to take action if it bothers her because that's enough reason for her to go out of her comfort zone & to take action against what's bothering her, Rumachi's self destruction in this case.
How an environment shapes a person's individuality is an overarching theme in Monogatari, and that's embodied through Kanbar's dynamic with Araragi, as she absorbed his strongest heroic trait, which is the desire to save yourself by your own based on your true identity, to
struggle for what you wish for. With that trait, she gathered the will power to fight Numachi & in that fight, she fulfilled her desires and for the first time, was able to act honestly based on her beliefs and identity.
Kanbaru's identity issues & dishonesty stems from her over relience on her upperclassmen as a means of escapism, & her overcoming these conflicts & facing her issues head on displays her magnificent character development.
The best way to put her development into perspective & show how much she has developed is to compare her behavior in Bakemonogatari to Owarimonogatari. In Bake, Kanbaru refuses to face her intentions, she refuses to accept herself, & relies in the monkey's paw to fulfill her
desires, she chooses the easy way out. In Owarimonogatari, she confronts Shinobu about her behavior because she sees herself in Shinobu & tells her off into settling her deal with her minion instead of escaping it constantly because that'll only pile conflicts up on her shoulders
In conclusion, Kanbaru is a horny, enthusiastic, energetic person who's very immature in an adorable, endearing way yet still very considerate of others & has overcome her identity crisis to lead a happier life by living by her own beliefs
This thread wasn't as detailed as I wished I would be, but that's due to exams kicking my ass the last few weeks, so sorry about that lmao. Plus, Twitter's character limit prevents me from being much more detailed. In any case, hope you all enjoyed reading this write up ^~^
Next thread will probably be a Nadeko/Hitagi End thread but yeah, look forward to that I guess
