© 西尾維新／講談社・アニプ
This episode is all about one thing: showing us the transformation of the kind, humble Acerola into the extremely arrogant and evil Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade. This is done by trying to solve the riddle: “How can someone kill a woman when any attempt to harm her will cause the perpetrator (even a vampire) to kill himself?”
The simple answer is that you can't—at least not on purpose. Her powers work in a way that they react to any attempt to harm her. Trying to save her and hurting her in the process doesn't trigger her powers. That said, there's no way to accidentally kill someone on purpose, so Acerola and Suicide-Master are forced to try a different tactic.
Basically, the core problem is that Acerola is too beautiful—both inside and out. Logically, to lessen her power, all you need to do is make her less beautiful. Following this idea, Suicide-Master came up with the idea of having her act differently. If she acted as vulgar as possible, perhaps that would weaken her power. So Acerola began speaking in a haughty tone, disregarding manners and cleanliness, and dressing in more provocative clothes—that is, acting in a way that we would normally associate with Shinobu (especially in her more mature form).
All of this raises the question of how much of Shinobu's character (as we've seen it) is an act, and at what point does that act become reality? Even in Kizumonogatari, we could see that she had hidden depths. After all, the entire final act of that story was her acting as monstrous as possible to try to get Araragi to kill her—and her dying to save him in the process.
Then, as the series goes on, she gradually becomes more open with her inner feelings but the outward act mostly continues. It's likely that she does this because her built-in vulgarity, coupled with the fact that she has become a monster, are the only things that keep her from being cursed in the first place. If she acts like the beautiful person she is at her core, the curse will return, killing Araragi and everyone around her. So in other words, even at the end of her centuries-long journey, she still can't be herself and be loved for who she really is by the people she cares about. The best she can hope for is someone like Araragi, who can see past the person inside and accept the vulgarity that covers it.
And because that would be too terrible a fate for any human to endure indefinitely—especially an immortal vampire—Suicide-Master has given her the only way to both maintain her personality and release her most positive and pure emotion: joy. While she has a mocking “ka-ka” laugh, she also has a second laugh to express genuine happiness. Knowing this recontextualizes many key scenes throughout Monogatari, making some more tragic and some more wonderful.
Overall, this was a great little episode and I can't wait to see how it plays out as the series continues. After all, since Suicide-Master meets Shinobu at the beginning of his journey, I'm excited to see her reaction at the end.
Rating:
Some interesting scenes to review:
Owarimonogatari Episode 18: When Shinobu meets Araragi again, she picks him up and spins him around (and later when she bullies Ononoki).
→ Nisemonogatari Episode 11: When Gaen challenges Shinobu.
Monogatari Series Season 2 Episode 10: When Shinobu and Araragi confront the parallel world Kiss-Shot.
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The MONOGATARI: OFF & MONSTER Season series is now streaming on Crunchyroll.
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