The 4th episode of Nisemonogatari digs into the plot , however, the action continued to center around Koyomi’s relationships with the women in his life. The episode begins with Karen arguing that she is fine escalating to the point where Koyomi was about to hit her when Hanekawa entered the scene. She revealed the information about Kaiki and what the sisters were up too while also messing around with him. Finally, Shinobu makes an appearance as Koyomi takes a bath.
This was another episode that centered around three separate acts. The first was the response to Tsukihi’s message in the last episode. Karen was clearly unwell though continued to deny it to Koyomi. The real interesting part of this scene was the shift in behavior as Hanekawa entered the scene. Before Koyomi was seen as the stronger party to the conversation, when she enters the scene Koyomi stops what he is doing and the sisters move in to protect Koyomi.
Their behavior was as fake as Koyomi said it was. Then, as he left the room, he proceeded to call the sisters fake heroes because they lacked the strength to get victory. The issue of fakes and strength came up again later.
First, Hanekawa entered Koyomi’s bedroom and proceeded to exert absolute authority over him. They first talk about their own relationship compared to Koyomi’s with the other girls. Considering Hanekawa’s situation, he knows he can’t act with the same level of desperation that he does with the others which would cause her stress. So he pretty much has to go along with anything she does. That starts when he starts adding -chan to his sister’s name because she was. He tries to correct himself but she forces him to use it. Such is the extent of the mind games she played on him is that late in the conversation he corrected himself again on the names only he had actually called them correctly the first time.
Her influence even spreads beyond Koyomi. In getting Hitagi to allow Koyomi to return home, she threatened to make Koyomi her boyfriend. I think this says a lot about Hitagi’s own insecurities with Koyomi. She complies because she has doubts about Koyomi’s feelings about Hanekawa.
Then, on to the bath scene, which is really the first time Shinobu had talked at length. It was only when the conversation was wrapping up that something interesting came up. As a part-vampire, Koyomi’s life span remained an open question. Would he live for a normal amount of time or would he live hundreds of years as Shinobu had? She uses her own experience of having all of her past relationships torn apart by time as a temptation for Koyomi to kill her and return to being human. He tells her no, and they they will live on as long as they are meant to live on.
Most of the earlier parts of the conversation had been focused on the boredom of living for so long. Not taking baths for hundreds of years, having to listen to Oshino’s interminable lectures; the sorts of things that are rather lonely. The reconciliation between the two at the end was touching from my perspective. Koyomi would not kill her, but he was willing to see all of the relationships he will ever form destroyed by time just so she wouldn’t be alone.
So the plot moves forward with Karen in a bad way, Tsukihi complaining about Koyomi growing up and Kaiki essentially being a supernatural monster. I still think it’s another 3 or 4 episodes out for a conclusion to this story. Hopefully next week will have a lot more to talk about.
Lower Mid-Table 
Shinobu was ♥ Especially Ami Koshimizu’s voice work as Shinobu was outstanding, added an entire layer to already good dialog and chemistry between Koyomi and Shinobu.
Tsukihi is plain frightening… 0_0
I actually thought it seemed like Maaya Sakamoto trying to do an impression of Aya Hirano doing an impression of Holo from Spice & Wolf. A very inconsistent performance, though endearing in a way.