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: 8.93¹ (scored by 15,529 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #16²

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

Popularity: #270

Members: 57,078

Favorites: 3,045

Resources

Wikipedia

8.93

Ranked #16Popularity #270Members 57,078

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

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Chapters: /107

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BAKEMONOGATARI
Part1
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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 3 volumes from December 20, 2016 to April 25, 2017, Nisemonogatari as Nisemonogatari: Fake Tale in 2 volumes from June 27 to August 29, and Nekomonogatari: Kuro as Nekomonogatari (Black): Cat Tale on November 28, 2017.

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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, Nekomonogatari: Kuro, Bakemonogatari, Kizumonogatari I: Tekketsu-hen, Kizumonogatari II: Nekketsu-hen, Kizumonogatari III: Reiketsu-hen, 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

May 27, 2013

Jamesml9411

Recommended

If you are here, it means either you are a big fan of Nishio Ishin, or saw the anime Bakemonogatari and fall in love with it. Monogatari series, as expected from Nishio Ishin, is full of Japanese word plays and definition intonation; what I mean is it is hard to understand from just reading it once. From here and now will be a review of the book, not the anime.

Before getting into review and "a bit" of spoilers, here is the timeline of the story

Kizumonogatari -> Nekomonogatari Kuro -> Bakemonogatari -> Nisemonogatari

Now let's start this.

Bakemonogatari:
Consist of different girls possessed by different Kai'i(Oddity or strangeness). Senjogahara ... Hitagi possessed by a Crab, Kanbaru Suruga possessed by a Monkey, Hachikuji Mayoi possessed by a Snail, Sengoku Nadeko possessed by a Snake, and Hanekawa Tsubasa (re)possessed by a Cat. Each had a reason to why and how they where possessed to these oddities and you can find that out by reading the novel or already know from the anime. Araragi Koyomi basically helps these young ladies to remove these oddities from them, and the point is he only "helps", not actually "saves" them. Bakemonogatari, as it's name is a collection of stories(monogatari) of monsters, or oddities(Bakemono).

Kizumonogatari:
Koyomi Vamp. Yes, why wouldn't have our dear main male character not be possessed by a oddity? Araragi Koyomi, one day, meets a Vampire, Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade, on the way back to his home. Kiss-Shot was heavily injured, and Koyomi gives up all his blood to her to save her, and from this, Kiss-Shot turns Koyomi into a Vampire. Kizumonogatari is the "Beginning" of the all the monogatari series. The point to pay attention to this story is not only thrilling battle scenes or the beauty of Kiss-Shot, but more of our dear almighty class-representative, Hanekawa Tsubasa. Kizumonogatari is a story where one and others hurt each other creating scars (Kizu) to each other.

Nisemonogatari:
There is a real and there is a fake imposter of that real. Now, which one has the more value?

Nisemonogatari features the story of Araragi Koyomi's cute little sisters, Araragi Karen and Tsukihi, the Fire Sisters. "Fire" is one feature to keep in mind for Nisemonogatari and Nekomongatari Shiro, but for Nisemonogatari, fire comes from the name of Karen and Tsukihi (Ren = fire, hi = fire). Karen is self-proclaimed "Moreu Onna" (Burning women), which she meant to explain her extraordinary passion towards everything. Tsukihi, is not passionate, but has a personality of that of a fire, hysteric. Main point of the story to pay a close attention is the Kaiki Deishu's logic towards fake and false. We can even say that Kaiki is the main character of the story, rather than Karen and Tsukihi. Nisemonogatari is a story where what can be called fake/imposter (Nise) and the true value of the world.

Nekomonogatari Kuro:
The talk of there being no such thing as right, is right.

Nekomonogatari Kuro is, yes a story of a cat(neko), but it's not that cute at all, or rather, a bit gruesome; Nekomonogatari Kuro and even go par with the Suruga Monkey from Bakemonogatari. The story takes place in between the Kizu and Bake, and is about Hanekawa Tsubasa and her meeting with a Cat, and more about the family of Hanekawa. Beginning starts with Koyomi's confession to Tsukihi that he can't stop thinking about Hanekawa's breasts, comedy, and then rapidly turns into serious story. Nekomonogatari Kuro, in another way to say it, Tsubasa Family, is about Hanekawa Tsubasa and her life in her family. The reason why Kuro (black) is added to it, you can find it out by yourself. Main point to pay attention to this story is the family issue, and the Oshino Meme's logic and Araragi Koyomi's logic towards people, or more about Hanekawa Tsubasa.

Nishio Ishin thank you for publishing books in out of time line for sakes. But still, I loved it, especially Nisemono and Nekomono Kuro. For people who are not a great fan of reading too much words, or not interested in beauty of Kanji and their true meanings, I really do not recommend any of Nishio Ishin's novel, but for the rest, Monogatari series is the best to know Nishio Ishin's writing style.

ps. All of them are available as anime so if you are confused or auditory learner, then go watch it after/before. It will make more sense.

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Jul 11, 2020

abystoma2

Recommended

Would NisiOisiN have been born in 18th-19th century in Europe, I’m sure we’d all be learning about his literary masterpieces in school and how his genius helped molding the face of literature. Regrettably, he’s from a mere small island nation in the current year, so he won’t get all of the attention he deserves. Then again, this enables him to include in his work all those tidbits and tropes we came to love (and dismantling them on the way), so that is also a win situation.

What started as something the author wrote pretty much just for the fun became one of the most beloved ... franchises, and not for no reason. Monogatari Series is in fact an experiment, or a string of those. Even after becoming success, the series is still written for a fun, and it shows. In a good way. The narration is experimented with, sometimes with a specific challenge the author gives himself for a specific volume, which keeps the series fresh end entertaining to read. The novels employ a significant amount of meta humor and meta commentary while not hurting the story and its seriousness at all. NisiOisiN is one of the few authors that can mix comedy and drama without one of those hurting and decreasing the power of the other one. The plot twists are delightful the experience, with the author often pulling a high quality bamboozle on the reader that subverts previous expectations but only adds to the overall enjoyability of the story, not taking away any of it.

The characters are written in a way that really shows NisiOisiN mastered the craft of novel-making. Each is enjoyable, unique and with characterisation that is the exact opposite of shallow. Starting right with the protagonist with his unreliable narration that adds a whole another layer to what is portrayed in those books, the rest of the cast too keeps unveiling their characters and is given more detailed portrayal of how their inner workings work – which is something that keeps getting better and better as the story progresses and more puzzle pieces and bamboozlement comes into light and as the characters go through several character developments. This is of course helped by the non-chronological sequence of event that helps with revelations to in a retrospective to the ongoing timeline. Of course, mentioning specifically what is it that makes those individual characters great would be spoiling the content not only of this novel series but of the sequels too, so I’ll leave that to the analysis content creators as those character studies already exist on other platforms and by other people.

The illustrations of those novels are stylish and too a work of quality, which my only complaint being that there only a bit of them. Contrary to the usual light novel format with bunch of illustrations at start of the book with more of them through it, we only get one or two illustrations per volume here, which is regrettably low number.

Overal, Monogatari Series is an unique piece of fiction of which I have thoroughly enjoyed every moment of reading and that I would wholly recommend. Yes, even if you’ve already seen the anime - both because the writing is so good it deserves to be experienced in its original form and also because some of the meta gags work only in a novel form and were not included in the anime because of that.

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Jun 8, 2019

Riskzz

Recommended

Oh boy here we go !

The monogatari series. The number 1 highest ranking light novel here in myanimelist...

If your'e new here and your'e not familiar with the monogatari series nor read the light novels, but you are indeed curios, then let me help you

First thing you have to understand, the monogatari series, more specifically its author nisio isin doesn't really care about the order of the story
( the prequel to monogatari, which is kizumonogatari got released after bakemonogatari ) its sounds weird and it causes a lot of controversy in the fandom too... in my opinion you can either start with kizu or ...

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