Uploaded July 2016 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

---

I started this video 2 years ago as a vent/character study and finally finished it. I put off working on it and started new projects but kept coming back to it and adding bits and pieces. It's the longest video I've made in yearsss and I can't believe I did the whole song. It's a pretty raw edit, but I'm proud of it. I relate a lot to Hanekawa's character. Hanekawa (like myself) does not reach out to others to tell them her feelings/problems because she is afraid of burdening or bothering them so she keeps herself at a distance because she does not want to smother them. Even when she's unbearably hurting she doesn't ask for help. This is probably because she always felt like a burden to her essentially adoptive family (they did treat her like one). I feel like that caused her to grow up thinking everybody feels that way towards her, and it ended up hurting her relationships with people she cares about. That's why the beginning of the video where she asks for help is such a big deal! She realizes her flaws and goes out of her way to do something about them despite how difficult it is.

I think Daughter wrote this song from the POV of someone who is very clingy in relationships and feels as if she smothers everyone she loves, but I interpreted it as somebody who is so afraid of being that clingy smothering person that they distance themselves from everyone they love.

But yeahhh, I've spent a lot of time on this despite it not being very effect heavy, and it's a project that's pretty close to me. Also, the animation of this arc is incredibly beautiful!!! While watching all those episodes I was entranced.

Side note: All the quotes are paraphrased because I couldn't concisely fit what was said incase anyone was wondering why the spoken japanese wasn't perfectly matching the english quotes. Sorry about the japanese subtitles on the right during the first scene T.T I couldn't find a copy of the episode without them.

Song: Smother by Daughter
Fandom: Monogatari Series: Second Season, Nekomonogatari, and Bakemonogatari