Monogatari Series: First Season

Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Bakemonogatari, Monster Tale, Kizumonogatari, Wound Tale, Nisemonogatari, Fake Tale, Nekomonogatari: Kuro, Nekomonogatari: Black

Japanese: 〈物語〉シリーズファーストシーズン

Information

Type: Light Novel

Volumes: 6

Chapters: 107

Status: Finished

Published: Nov 1, 2006 to Jul 28, 2010

Genres: Action, Comedy, Mystery, Romance, Supernatural

Theme: Vampire

Serialization: Mephisto

Authors: NISIO, ISIN (Story), VOFAN (Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.92¹ (scored by 16,183 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #16²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #273

Members: 58,858

Favorites: 3,098

Resources

Wikipedia

8.92

Ranked #16Popularity #273Members 58,858

Light NovelMephistoNISIO, ISIN (Story), VOFAN (Art)

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Volumes: /6

Chapters: /107

Available on Manga Store
BAKEMONOGATARI
Part1
$9.99

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Synopsis

This is a story, a "ghostory" of sorts, about scars that bond, monsters that haunt, and fakes that deceive.

The story of Koyomi Araragi begins through a fateful encounter with the all-powerful, blonde-haired, "hot-blooded, iron-blooded, and cold-blooded" vampire, later introduced as Shinobu Oshino. Their tragic rendezvous results in the end of Araragi's life as a human and his subsequent rebirth as a vampire—a monster. However, this encounter is only the start of his meddlings with the supernatural. Koyomi's noble personality ultimately sees him getting further involved in the lives of others with supernatural afflictions. This is his desperate attempt at returning to a normal human life, in a paranormal world filled with nothing but tragedy, suffering, and inhumanity.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

This entry includes the first season of the Monogatari Series.

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Background

Monogatari Series: First Season was published in English by Vertical Inc: first with Kizumonogatari as Kizumonogatari: Wound Tale on December 15, 2015; Bakemonogatari as Bakemonogatari: Monster Tale in three volumes from December 20, 2016, to April 25, 2017; Nisemonogatari as Nisemonogatari: Fake Tale in two volumes from June 27, 2017, to August 29, 2017; and Nekomonogatari: Kuro as Nekomonogatari (Black): Cat Tale on November 28, 2017. Vertical also released the series in a box set.

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Related Manga

Sequel:	Monogatari Series: Second Season
Side story:	Bakemonogatari Short Stories, Monogatari Series Heroine Hon, Nisemonogatari Short Stories, Monogatari Series: Off Season, Mazemonogatari
Alternative version:	Bakemonogatari
Adaptation:	Nisemonogatari, Kizumonogatari I: Tekketsu-hen, Kizumonogatari II: Nekketsu-hen, Kizumonogatari III: Reiketsu-hen, Bakemonogatari, Nekomonogatari: Kuro, Kizumonogatari: Koyomi Vamp

More characters
Characters

Senjougahara, Hitagi

Main

Oshino, Shinobu

Main

Araragi, Koyomi

Main

Hanekawa, Tsubasa

Main

Hachikuji, Mayoi

Main

Kanbaru, Suruga

Main

Sengoku, Nadeko

Main

Araragi, Karen

Main

Araragi, Tsukihi

Main

Kaiki, Deishuu

Supporting

Reviews

Sep 29, 2023

Halalex

Recommended

This review is for people who are already fans of the show, wondering if the novels are worth reading. And the short answer to that question is a resounding "YES"! They are very much worth your time, even coming from someone like me, who usually doesn’t read books otherwise.

On certain days, ‘The Monogatari Series’ might just be my favorite anime, and holding something in that high of regard often comes with you wanting to find out more about the work. The natural progression for me was to read the novels, which not only made me once again realize why I love this story so ...

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Apr 24, 2023

KeiNmari

Recommended

The anime is a masterpiece, but the light novel is just even more of a flawless masterpiece, the Monogatari Light Novel is probably the major reason that drew my attention more towards the world of light novels. Except for Nisemonogatari in the light novel season 1, the other three stories in this, Bake, Kizu, Neko Kuro are all just 10/10 masterpieces with Nise alone being a 9/10 in the light novel. The ln displays more detailed text and gives more detailed info to the readers while reading and I love how it holds just 20 pages long or exceeding even more than that with a ...

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Mar 2, 2024

unrealgentleman

Mixed Feelings

Spoiler

Is Bakemonogatari an intelligent series?

Bakemonogatari tries to be a smart anime. Yet I think Bakemonogatari is moreso an example of the death of parody.

Parody has a function. Parody is a form of critique: a way of deriding the status quo. A critique is successful when it introduces a new way of thinking. Bakemonogatari tries to be a parody. It tries to critique, and yet rehashes and strengthens the templates it borrows from.

What exactly is the point of the one-note cookie cutter characters like Kanbaru or Hachikuji or Senjougahara or Araragi? They seem to be critiques, over the top parodies of tropes that exist elsewhere ... in anime. Yet, Nisioisin paradoxically celebrates their tropic and generic qualities. It is supposed to be unproblematically funny when Hachikuji is a brat or when Kanbaru is a pervert, the reader is never challenged for liking the tropes that these characters represent. Perhaps the viewer has a light hearted chuckle to herself when Araragi sexually assaults Hachikuji, self-abasing herself at how dark her humor is. Yet this is hardly subversive in any way. We do see dark aspects of the character's lives: perhaos showing a more subversive side to the novels. For example, Senjougahara has her parents roped into an evil cult. Yet the darker themes and deeper aspects of the show are not something that are not used in other stories in Japan, in other words, even at the stories darkest moments, we rarely see anything particularly ground breaking or subversive. Even movies like Akira dealt with the topic of cults for instance, so do many Japanese horror flicks like Higurashi. Even in those moments where Bakemonogatari tries to break the status quo, it borrows from pop culture in ways not particularly subversive. Yet seemingly parody seeks to critique the status quo. Bakemonogatari is not parody, it is simply referencing a pop-cultural phenomena, similar to other forms of modern pop-culture like the Simpsons or Big Bang theory. It is not an intelligent show in this regard then. So, Bakemonogatari does not use its characters for parody: a means of subversion and like many other light novels it reuses basic templates... That's fine, not everything needs to be parody or particularly subversive. Yet are its characters at least deep or good, even if ultimately reused templates?

When we do see a character's back story, it is often glossed over, not affecting the character at all. It is often basically window dressing. For example Hachikuji does not act particularly different from when we first see her even after being reunited with her home which was found to have been destroyed. All this to say that Bakemonogatari is not particularly subversive when it delves into dark themes and nor is its character writing very good. Its treatment of Hanekawa's abuse is just incredibly overt and forced at times which took me aback. There is really no room for ambiguity which I think makes the characters come off less deep than they should have. When it is not talking about dark themes, it is not very subversive.

There is word play, yet the word play is often using merely utilising references or the punch lines can be seen a mile away. It is sometimes funny yet not enough for one to consider the series particularly clever.

Quite fairly, people might suggest that I am reading the story wrong: Nisioisin has no agenda, he is simply presenting over the top characters based off of templates for entertainment value. If that is the case, the story is not an intelligent story, it is doing something similar to the Big Bang Theory or the modern Simpsons. These are shows often critiqued for a lack of intelligence. It merely references with no mind to that which it is referencing which is intelligent writing. This is of course fine: not every show need be ground-breaking, yet for a series that tries to be smart, it is quite a jarring viewing experience. Maybe we should ask:

Is bakemonogatari entertaining?

I do not think the books are very entertaining. The books have the same structure. There is a mysterious girl who has feelings for Araragi. Araragi saves the girl, the girl is thankful and the story ends. Hachikuji is an exception, not confessing love for Araragi. Yet the other girls are all uniform, loving Araragi for no reason. I do not critique this on the grounds that this is not intelligent writing. I critique it on the grounds that it is boring and charmless. When one can predict the story perfectly each time, the story just gets very very boring.

What makes the story more boring and charmless is the lack of characters other than Araragi and the girls + Oshino (maybe Gahara's dad if you'd consider him relevant at all). While this is certainly an authorial decision -- and a brave and commendable one at that -- it makes the story very claustrophobic and tiresome. So I'd say it isn't entertaining.

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Poll: Monogatari Series: First Season Chapter 21 Discussion Phaetons_Folly - Aug 5, 2017	1 replies	by Nachoalpe »» Apr 1, 3:32 AM
How are the chapters divided? Omid_ - Feb 29	3 replies	by Omid_ »» Feb 29, 8:10 AM
Poll: Monogatari Series: First Season Chapter 10 Discussion Bheaze - Feb 10, 2014	1 replies	by gannoncannon55 »» Jan 22, 1:59 PM
Poll: Monogatari Series: First Season Chapter 9 Discussion Bheaze - Feb 10, 2014	1 replies	by gannoncannon55 »» Jan 22, 1:25 PM
Poll: Bakemonogatari Chapter 8 Discussion kage-bunshin - Jul 6, 2010	6 replies	by gannoncannon55 »» Jan 2, 12:35 AM

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