Ranked #16

Kizumonogatari (Novel)

I'm assuming that the one who reads this is already familiar with Bakemonogatari. Review is still pretty much spoiler free.

Kizumonogatari is another light novel to Nisio Isin's monogatari series. Published after Bakemonogatari while chronologically taking place to time before Bakemono's story and therefore being its prequel. Characters are about same age as in Bakemonogatari so chronologically these two are really close to each others.

Story answers questions like how did Araragi and Tsubasa Hanekawa met, why did Araragi became vampire, who actually are Shinobu and Meme Oshino and how did things end up to the situation like those were in Bakemono. Actual plot is all about Oshino Shinobu (the young blond girl sitting in the corner in Bakemono) and her "relationship" to Araragi.

I have always respected Nisio Isin as a story writer, that guy has balls and Kizumo is yet another one where he really shows them. No other writer makes whole chapter about breast massage between serious moments, and just to quote Araragi: "Possibly she possesses a bust that cannot even be compared to. Moreover the shape was also splendid." While story is beautiful and emotional, making that could be stupid, that could ruin the story, but NO. Nisio Isin really knows what he is doing, he makes it all work (if that is enough of a word to describe it). All in all, everything in Kizumo is completely brilliant.

Have you ever heard of a main character who is mad at story writer because he makes story to weird to be adapted into an anime? Well Kizumogatari has that. Araragi stopping Meme doing certain things because they can't have anime adaption otherwise. Actually, he says it like "You can't adapt this into an anime, you just can't!" SHAFT is making the anime adaption btw. Because Kizumonogatari is so high quality light novel, the anime has every potential to be great. By great, I really mean great. I'm really strict when it comes to rating, atm less than 4% of the manga I've read has gotten rating over an 8 from me. Kizumono is a 9 all the way.

I didn't write to much about the actual story since I don't want to spoil anything. Imagine that all I said are just nice adds and the actual story is the one that makes this great. The point is; you don't want to miss this. The level of brilliantness and uniqueness is to high to be ignored since Kizumonogatari really is outstanding. The mean score is currently 8.70/10 on MAL, to me, this is one of the really rare ones which actually deserves it. Feels like I couldn't give this all the praising it deserves, I still hope I actually convinced someone to read this.

And, here you can read it in english online:

http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Bakemonogatari/Koyomi_Vamp/Full_Text read more

How much is your life worth it? Would you sacrifice yourself in order to save a stranger? What if you knew that the stranger had a much greater place in the world than you? Would it make a difference if she was actually a beautiful blonde vampire?...

Kizumonogatari is the introduction to the supernatural world of the Monogatari Series. It tells the story of Araragi Koyomi, an ordinary high schooler who lacks social skills and has no friends, but is by no means unhappy. He meets Hanekawa Tsubasa in a very convenient situation explained with lots of details in one of the first chapters; she is an honors student from the same school as Araragi, she is friendly, easygoing and very kind, so very kind it makes you wonder if her kindness is real. Somehow they both become involved in a chain of events regarding the presence of vampires in town. Being aware of the existence of superior beings such as vampires, as expected, changes the reality for Araragi. But this novel is not just about Araragi's new perspective but mainly about the relationship between him and Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-blade, between human and vampire, after all this is their story.

Kizumonogatari manages keep the story interesting. Action sequences are great, each one builds up for the next and they are very well described. Dialogues are very entertaining, even though the discussions of a few topics seem out of place and irrelevant, these are still amusing. There are seven characters in this novel. Main characters are more likeable the more you know of them and supporting ones are very relevant for the development of the story. Additionally, what I also liked about this novel is that it shows the difficulty of understanding between humans and vampires. While they both have justice, satisfaction and common sense, these differ according to point of view; in order for a person to understand a supernatural being, you need to put your humanity aside and think outside the box.

Overall, Kizumonogatari is engaging and fun to read. Action settings are amazing, characters are interesting and so are their developments throughout the story, and finally even random dialogues and sequences are funny but they don't decrease the tension of the story in any way. For those who know Bakemonogatari, you already know most of the characters of this novel but you haven't seen them the way they are presented here, and also, if you're missing out on Kiss-shot you're missing out a lot. read more