After many years, the Monogatari series has finally returned! The “author” of the first episode of this Off & Monster Season is Yotsugi Ononoki. She has been tasked with keeping an eye on Tsukihi Araragi, who on the outside might appear to be Koyomi Araragi’s little sister; but in reality she’s a phoenix, an immortal apparition. It’s unclear whether Ononoki is there to protect her or to kill her in cold blood when it becomes necessary. Tsukihi herself wouldn’t know either, but I have to add that she probably never asked herself the question, because to the best of her knowledge, Ononoki is merely an inanimate doll. This changes one day, when Ononoki is sitting in Tsukihi’s room, ready to enjoy some ice cream. Licking the lid of an ice cream cup is not an unusual thing to do, but it’s a different story when your lifeless doll does it. So when Tsukihi barges into the room, the jig is up. Ononoki can no longer pretend to be a lifeless doll, so she must think of a new cover for her mission. She somehow manages to convince Tsukihi that she’s a magical girl who has come into this world to defeat a monster, after which she’ll return to being a lifeless doll. That’s a convenient story, but the trouble starts when Tsukihi insists on fighting the monster together. Ononoki should’ve anticipated this—Tsukihi is a true ally of justice after all.

This new season starts off great, with some of the best animation the series has had. The voice acting is on point too, as we’ve come to expect from this series. It’s a joy to listen to Saori Hayami’s voice acting as Ononoki, despite her character being emotionless. The other voice actors in this episode do an excellent job as well. I enjoyed the music, especially toward the end of the episode. I found it pretty difficult to keep track of everything that happens on screen, but that’s part of the Monogatari experience, of course. This first episode is a complete arc by itself, and I found it to be a solid one. It doesn’t go as in-depth as some of the other arcs, and is definitely more focused on the comedy. In a sense, this arc seemed to raise more questions than it answered. But it does so in a way that Monogatari fans will probably enjoy—by giving us a glimpse into the lives of some of the girls who have changed a lot since the series began. Because I’m so invested in the series, I’ll probably watch each episode as soon as it comes out. This high quality episode has raised my expectations for the rest of the season. However, I must confess that as the years have gone by, I’ve been less able to excuse the problematic elements in this series, such as the sexualization of underage characters, despite the “layer of irony” the series protects itself with. As long as this season stays away from that, I’ll keep watching.

MONOGATARI Series OFF & MONSTER Season is streaming on Crunchyroll.