10 Second Anime - Monogatari Series Second Season - Episode 22

Monogatari Series Second Season - Episode 22

First step in a good con: Know your mark. Kaiki takes the job to deceive a god and gets down to business. Oh, and Nadeko is as mad a Mad God you expect to be.

While it looks like Kaiki is playing detective with a trench coat and sad sack hair style a la Columbo, he's actually doing what a conman must do before he starts his heist: know your mark. This is a caper story, so a bunch of little heists have to add up to a big heist.

In fooling Nadeko's parents to let him into their house, using a great tactic in playing a father who's little girl is also missing and a friend of Nadeko, he gets quite a bit of personal information. Plus, noticing how Nadeko's photo album only has pictures of her, with her fake cute smile, sticking in the question of pictures of Nadeko's friends, since his non-existent daughter might be in those. But, no pictures of friends, only Nadeko. Troubling. But not as troubling as the unopened closet, that even 3 months after she's disappeared, Nadeko's parents still haven't opened.

Seeing as her parents really don't know their daughter at all, it's time to meet the mark herself. And what an introduction! Offering a 10,000 yen bill should make any god happy, but Nadeko is super happy with her first visitor. She is just as deluded as when we last saw her, if not more so and manic. Kaiki picks up on the things we already know about her: how she doesn't like being called "cute," how oblivious she is now of her appearance, and just how vapid she still is. She wonders how she hasn't had any more visitors when the temple has been all fixed up. Just not being aware of other people's perceptions.

I'm not sure if Kaiki has enough information to come up with a plan yet, but he knows for sure that this Mad God is mad. Loving someone so much that she has to murder him, and letting an unrequited love stay unrequited because it stays perfect that way. We're seeing another reason this chapter is called "Passionate Love Story." Another wrinkle is how Kaiki noticed how often Senjougahara mentioned the doings and thoughts of Hanekawa. He's definitely going to need to bring her into the heist, but do so without Araragi finding out. And for some reason, Nadeko still has her scrunchie, in which she had placed her delusions of a snake god fragment. Could be nothing, or it could be the key to the whole deception.