This is 7Mononoke – Mono for short – here to welcome you to Anime Rants! Summer ’23 has been over for some time now, but I still have three or four anime series left to complete from that season. One of those series is the Mononogatari: Malevolent Spirits (Season 2). If I can stay focused, I should be able to finish it up soon. Today, we have reviews for episodes 7, 8, and 9. Let’s Rant!

---

Episode 7: Turbulence

First, let me give a quick recap of events. The Kadomori groups who are out hunting problematic Tsukumogami have their hands full. For some reason, there are many enemies today, and they are acting strangely. Meanwhile, three paper umbrella spirits ambush Haori and her group, trapping them inside multiple magical barriers.

Just as Taiju starts figuring out what’s happening, an attack on the Kadomori estate begins. The ones responsible are the Music Bureau, who have been secretly working together with the paper umbrella group. The old lady attacks Hyoma, the big drummer attacks Taiju, and Fukie controls enemies as puppets to make them attack the Kadomori outside. The musical enemies demand to have Botan, but Hyoma refuses.

Honestly, I was bored for most of this episode. But then I realized that the Music Bureau were traitors, and that definitely caught my attention again. I didn’t see this plot twist coming at all. Since I really, genuinely like the three musical spirits, their betrayal was difficult for me to accept. Who knew they were scheming against Botan and the Kadomori clan all this time? It’s really disappointing.

Obviously, Hyoma would never give up Botan, but it was surprising that Taiju Kadomori reached the same conclusion. I was skeptical that he would protect Botan. The way he explained it was like this: Botan may have a dangerous entity inside her, but right now, she is nothing more than a human. The Kadomori clan’s job is to protect humans from evil spirits. Therefore, Taiju is duty-bound is to help her. Not bad, old man.

---

Episode 8: Unseasonal

Tsuzumi (the big drummer guy) fights with Taiju, while Tsumabiki (the old lady) teams up with the pink umbrella spirit to fight Hyoma. Elsewhere, Fukie is attacking the Kadomori exorcists using brainwashed Tsukumogami puppets. It seems like Taiju would be overwhelmed quickly, but he awakens his most powerful Tsukumogami servant to help: Okuu, the spirit of the estate itself. The Kadomori sons also turn the tide against Fukie when reinforcements arrive.

As for Hyoma, he bravely defended Botan to the best of his ability. But with two against one, he was losing, and sustaining serious injuries. Rather than kill Hyoma in cold blood, Tsumabiki tries to convince Botan to leave him of her own accord. Botan resists, choosing to trust in Hyoma. I thought this was a really sweet scene. I’m also rather impressed with Botan for standing her ground. Honestly, I had expected her to give up after seeing Hyoma’s wounds.

Botan’s decision paid off. Just when things looked hopeless, Tsubaki showed up to help. She is the prodigy of the Kadomori clan, always eager for a flashy battle. But as Hyoma pointed out, something is off about her today. We know Tsubaki has a very sadistic side, and it shows more strongly in this episode than ever before. She laughs insanely as she fights the two enemies. The episode ends there, with the battle raging on.

I enjoyed this episode more than the previous one, but there is an issue worth pointing out. The show seems desperate to stretch out this content as much as possible when there’s not much to work with. We had a 1.5 minute recap, and the pacing of the episode was slightly slow. When you factor in the intro and outro songs into the 23 minute episode, that’s not a lot of new material. I hope this issue doesn’t continue. On the plus side, episode 8 also featured fight scenes that were somewhat better than usual.

---

Episode 9: Advent

Again, I’ll quickly recap the events of this episode and then offer some thoughts. Tsuzumi and Fukie leave their current battles to meet up with Tsumabiki. All four paper umbrella spirits are also present, and we learn their names for the first time. (The only one that matters enough to remember so far is Shigure, the pink one.) With so many enemies against them now, Hyoma and Tsubaki tell Botan to flee while they fight to make way for her escape.

Unfortunately, Botan is glued to her spot by the hypnotic power of Fukie’s flute. She can do nothing but watch Hyoma and Tsubaki desperately struggle to stay alive. Shigure approaches Botan and reminds her of past trauma by suggesting there was someone else who died trying to protect her in the past. Flashbacks of Satsuki’s death invade the girl’s mind. Terrified of seeing her friends die in front of her, Botan loses control of the entity within her. The Marebito God is finally awakening.

My first thought about this episode is that I’m still disappointed in the Music Bureau. I appreciated hearing their motivation for capturing Botan, and it makes sense in context of their characters. They are chaotic by nature. But since I liked them – especially Tsumabiki – I can’t help feeling let down. I wanted them to be reliable good-guys, or at least maybe chaotic-neutral. Sadly, they’re very willing to commit violent and evil acts in the name of chaos.

The issue of stretching out content past its natural length continued in this episode. The best example is the flashback of Hyoma’s siblings being murdered by the paper umbrella spirit. We have already seen this flashback like three times. There was no need to repeat it. Audiences have not forgotten how traumatizing it was for Hyoma. We don’t need to be reminded of his core character arc halfway through the second season. That scene was definitely a time-filler.

My final note for today is that I enjoyed episode 9, even though I did have some complaints. The visuals were impressive at a few different points – at least, impressive for the budget of this anime. Additionally, the musical components were fantastic. I need to find the OST online and listen to it more closely. The plot isn’t great, but it’s also not terrible. I’m excited to see the last three episodes next time.

Thanks for reading~

---

PATREON