Nadeko Sengoku

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Nadeko Sengoku (千石 撫子, Sengoku Nadeko) is Tsukihi Araragi’s childhood friend and an acquaintance of Tsukihi's brother Koyomi Araragi. She was a victim of a painful curse that caused her to manifest scars that resemble snake scales, and during her attempts to cure herself of the curse, she met Koyomi once again after not seeing him for a long time.

Arcs

Two arcs are named after her:

1. Nadeko Snake
2. Nadeko Medusa

Appearance

Nadeko is a young girl with dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. During the times when she was still cursed by the jagirinawa, her outfit consisted of a waist pouch, an orange newsboy cap, a pink blouse, an orange jacket and a pair of baggy denims — all of which were designed to hide the scars that covered her body. She also always casts her eyes downward, and her bangs covering her eyes.

She later changes her style to a more comfortable set of clothes after being relieved of the curse, and she shows a preference to wearing skirts.

It can be assumed that her newsboy cap represents the "snake" that cursed her, as its shape resembles a snake's head.

Personality

Nadeko has a shy personality, and can be easily amused. She's quite protective of her hair (particularly her forelocks) thinking that it's her place to guard more than her panties.

She later develops a dependence towards Araragi (whom she calls "Koyomi-onii-chan") which slowly intensified as the events relating to the snake curse puts a pressure on her.

Background

Nadeko has been familiar with the Araragi family as Tsukihi (whom Nadeko affectionately calls "Rara-chan") had played with her when they were small. During one of those days, she meets Tsukihi's older brother Koyomi, then a sixth-grader, and would also soon become one of her friends when he fixed Nadeko's bike. She began to call Koyomi "Koyomi-onii-chan" since then. Her visits to their house soon ended about six years ago and, unfortunately for Nadeko, Koyomi appears to have forgotten about his first encounter with Nadeko.

During middle school, she rejected the feelings of a classmate of hers, causing her to be targeted by the jagirinawa, which came in the form of a charm handed over by a mysterious person.

Plot

Nadeko Snake

This section contains content from Bakemonogatari.
Nadeko has been visiting the Kita-Shirahebi Shrine, where she sacrifices live white snakes in an attempt to cure a curse that has been tormenting her for some time. In one of her visits to the shrine, she was seen by Koyomi and Suruga Kanbaru, who were en route to the shrine to place an ofuda (a kind of Shinto amulet) to the ruins of the shrine. The two later discovered her practice of slaughtering white snakes upon arriving at the shrine grounds, although they were unable to talk to her about it. Nadeko was also seen by Koyomi and Tsubasa Hanekawa the day after that in the local bookstore, reading books about the occult, which further increased Koyomi's curiosity of her condition.

Nadeko was later taken by Koyomi and Suruga to the Araragi residence for some questions. There, they discover that she was put under a curse, more specifically the jagirinawa (蛇切綯), and was going to die if the curse is not lifted soon.

With some help from Meme, Koyomi and Suruga perform a ceremony which aims to release the snake curse from Nadeko's body, with Nadeko willingly participating. Although Nadeko was calmed by the presence of her "Koyomi-onii-chan", she soon discovers that there is another curse tormenting her, and it is a second snake curse sent by a classmate which she had rejected before. As Nadeko struggles for her life in the hands of two jagirinawa, Koyomi fights the oddities alone in a life-threatening stuggle. His intervention, although at the cost of a broken leg and arm, releases the jagirinawa from Nadeko's body.

After the encounter with the jagirinawa, Nadeko, Suruga and Koyomi stay over at Meme's place.

Tsubasa Cat

Nadeko visits Koyomi at his school the day after she becomes cured of the curse of the jagirinawa to personally thank him and Suruga for their efforts the night before. Nadeko was only able to meet with Koyomi because Suruga sprinted her way out of the school gates by school's end, and ends up handing to Koyomi the school swimsuit Suruga lent to her for the ceremony the night before. During their conversation, she notes how different Shinobu looks at her and Suruga compared to how she does at Meme or Koyomi.

Later, Tsubasa suddenly appears, causing a flustered Nadeko to run as fast as she can away from the two, possibly out of embarrassment. The conversation Tsubasa and Koyomi had afterwards talks a bit about what happened to Nadeko, although the topic is quickly changed to Hitagi's relationship with Koyomi.

Karen Bee

During summer vacation, Nadeko decides to invite Koyomi over to her house, taking the opportunity after both of her parents go out for work. By this time, Nadeko has long abandoned her "mostly-covered" style of clothing, and wears a comfortable set of clothes, with her forelocks combed back. Upon leading Koyomi into the Sengoku Residence after a long time, they play a few games, including Twister and The Game of Life, with the intent of attracting Koyomi's attention. Meanwhile, they talk about several things, especially about rumors that a certain charm that resembles the one used to curse her is still spreading within her school. Unfortunately for her, her mother arrived before she could fully proceed with her plan.

Koyomi commented that she has a glare just like a serpent.

Nadeko Medusa

In Nadeko Medusa, during October, Nadeko met a girl named Ougi Oshino, and after which she was able to see a white snake.

In Nadeko's class, the atmosphere is strained because of the curses that happened in Nadeko Snake, and since Nadeko is the class rep, she's been pressured to do something about it. She called Koyomi for advice, and after which, the serpent told her to go to the shrine, where it pressures her, as the snake wants her to atone for what she caused by finding the remains of the snake when it was alive. She tries not to involve Koyomi, but he manages to find her at night and takes her to his house. She wakes up next to Tsukihi and managed to bring up the topic of Koyomi's girlfriend, in which Nadeko feels resentment toward Hitagi and ended up snapping at her teacher and to her class. The serpent then tells Nadeko that its remains were in Araragi's house so she goes there and rummages Koyomi's room.

She found Koyomi's hidden magazines and saw that the bookmark was the remains. The serpent tells her that, as a reward, it'll grant her a wish and unsurprisingly, she wants Koyomi to like her back. Koyomi returns and saw what she was doing and cautioned her to put the bookmark down. Because of misunderstanding and some of Shinobu's provocation, she then eats the bookmark and becomes an oddity.

It turns out that the serpent this time was just Nadeko being delusional, as she's been going crazy since she found out that Koyomi had a girlfriend. Nadeko then tries to kill Koyomi, but Hitagi interferes and asks her to wait until after graduation. The book ends with Nadeko welcoming Koyomi, Hitagi and Shinobu back at the snake shrine in March, with Nadeko saying: "Koyomi-oniichan, I'll give you all my affection, OK?".

Hitagi End

Nadeko willingly let herself be "tricked" into reverting to a human by Kaiki after he told her that love and happiness aren't the only aspects of life, and that she should try pursuing a dream like her secret manga drawing hobby. Kaiki then told Koyomi Araragi to keep out of Nadeko's life from then on for her own sake since Koyomi's continuing presence in Nadeko's life would only hurt and weaken her, not help her.

Trivia

• Nadeko's first name is the alternate reading of the name nadeshiko (撫子), which is derived from a flower of the Dianthus species. The word "nadeshiko" is also used to denote a perfect woman under Japanese standards. Literally, the name means "lovable, caressable girl".
• Meanwhile, Nadeko's surname means "sieve", with the literal meaning of "a thousand stones".
• Nadeko's birthday is on June 3.
• In the official guidebook, Nisio Isin did an interview with all of the voice actors, and asked Kana Hanazawa on what character she would like to play, in which Kana Hanazawa replied that she'd like to play an evil character, probably becoming the basis of Nadeko Medusa.
• It seems Hitagi and Shinobu both dislike Nadeko.