Monogatari Series: First Season

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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 ... bakemonogatari they are both enjoyable. But after story progresses we jump more and more in the timeline . So don't be surprised!

AND HERE IS THE REAL DEAL
The monogatari series is ALL about the characters!!!!!
Story ? you may ask, doesn't matter! It's basically nonexistent. Characters go from point A to point B and here you go. That's it. If you expected a world breaking story with the biggest plot wist ever developed, than you will be disappointed. As i mentioned earlier the series is all about the characters their dialogues, and monologues. And nisio isin's wordplay/ writing style.
He loves making references and long pages of dialogues. Most of the time nothing really happens, just 2 characters interacting with each other.
We have some nice discussions about girl panties, the meaning of love, life and friendship. But sometimes the author decides to throw in some meaningless tool and lets his imagination go wild. We basically have 10 pages where nothing happens, Araragi is just thinking about some girls panties that's all. But you don't have to take those seriously, it just shows how a high school boy thinks and feels. WARNINGS: the series, especially kizumonogatari can be stupidly sexual sometimes. In the first season " first 7 books from kizumonogatari to nekomonogatari white " we have our main protagonist aka Koyomi Araragi as narrator. I was really impressed how strange/weird he gets sometimes, but to be honest i was obsessed with Araragi. He is a loner, a bad student, who doesn't want friends. He is generic at first glance, but he's actions and the way he sees the world, people and other situations makes him stick out. It was really interesting getting to know him better and understand him.
He truly shines as a main character and as an individual.
Every word that leaves his mouth, can be used as an awesome quote. "Worlds how powerless" or "I think you should call the verbal abuse police then"

Short story

1) If you start with kizumonogatari / wound tale

It's a story about how Koyomi Araragi a high school loser met the missy class president and helped the world's most fearsome vampire
This is how everything started. You can read this first, or you can read it after nekomonogatari. The story here is surprisingly good, and i loved the "twist" at the end. But if you can't handle a 10 page long description of underwear, than i'm sorry but the series isn't for you...

2) If you start with bakemonogatari / monster tale

Bakemonogatari is a collection of short stories about troublesome girls, demons gods and possessed souls. Our main protagonist Koyomi Araragi already has some experience with this kind of stuff, which are monsters, and unnatural events, so he decides to help the girls in need. Here we have some hints about Araragi's spring break, which is the story of kizumonogatari. The plots are basic, but we get to know the characters and Araragi.

Overall

I think it's a great experience, but the series isn't meant for everybody. You either fall in love with it, or you throw it in the garbage bag. There is no in between.


Afterword

Hope it was helpful and sorry for making some grammar mistakes, i am just a human afterall c:

The Monogatari series is one that has alluded me for some time. Like with Durarara!, the hype train came and gone. Their anime both- astonishingly- adapted all the volumes of their source materials, and have long since fully aired. However, they looked so charming that I HAD to try the originals for the sake of the fact that I really don't care for anime that much. And finally, in 2019, I slowly sunk my teeth into the first third of the Monogatari franchise.
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Story AND Characters- What Even is This?/10

This is a strange series. Basically, we have a supernatural slice-of-life, similar to Durarara! Except unlike Durarara!'s ... nonchalantly over-the-top cast and sense of humor, Monogatari- so far- is the exact opposite. Monogatari is all about meta-humor and nuanced wordplay.

Monogatari is a character study in disguise as a supernatural harem. The main character, Araragi, is a hypocritical masochist who has been through some HELL. Ever since his run in with a vampire in Kizumonogatari (which is set BEFORE Bake but was published AFTER because the author is so "META"), he's had to help various girls like Best Girl Senjogahara and Other Best Girl Kanbaru with Best Man Oshino the Memelord.

These girls are all tormented by inner demons, literally and figureatively. Literally, as in they are being cursed by literal yokai and spirits. Figuratively, as in these are all real life human issues. And the latter thing is my least favorite aspect of Monogatari.

I think Monogatari is a very charming series so far, but I personally don't care about what it's trying to do. I know what it's doing; it's trying to deconstruct the harem genre by making the self-insert male and his girls deceptively complex and human. But... I dunno, maybe it's because my selectiveness has spared me from the hundreds of thousands of hours of factory-produced harems and rom-coms that Monogatari puts to shame, or the fact that I don't find human psychology that interesting, but I'm not floored by it.

As for Monogatari's writing, though... oh boy! You've ever heard of SAO's notorious information dumps? Well, Kawahara is holding Nisioisin's beer! A chapter will often start with Araragi meeting up with someone on his way from point A to point B and say something to the effect of "Good morning, X-san!" Fifteen plus pages later, and those same two characters will finish their intricate philosophical conversation about the meaning of life, their game of "Let's retroactively analyze Araragi-kun's psyche", or... panties. It's... different, and I'm at odds with it. The real problem is that it gets redundant and feels like padding. A lot of the times Araragi meets up with someone by happenstance it's ON HIS WAY to the actual plot of the arc and then the entire chapter ends up being spent just roasting him for the umpteenth time, especially if he's with Senjogahara or Hachikuji. Not that I don't like a good "nothing happens" story (like Grand Blue), but Monogatari HAS arcs and ORVERARCHING NARRATIVES, and the actual proper storylines are legitimately really good, so the nothing happening bits are AGONIZING in this case. But don't worry; it's perfectly justified by having Araragi apologize to the reader after intentionally wasting 100+ pages of time. *sarcasm*

This feels like an unintentionally pretentious writing style, plus it reminds me a lot of the abhorrent writing of some Western YA novels that I hate. For example, there's this vampire character, see, and if their name is ever mentioned in dialogue OR narration, we must be reminded that she's the "iron-blooded, hot-blooded, yet cold-blooded vampire". I can suspend disbelief over her having hot and cold blood at the same time, but calling her IRON-blooded?! FUN FACT: Blood HAS iron; That's the whole basis behind the Metallica fight in Jojo! Why call it "iron-blooded"? Because it SOUNDS COOL on a surface level, and people'll eat it up (not literally though, or else they'll become vampires too...). It makes me feel like the series is pretending to be smart.

But the thing is, Monogatari pretends to be smart really well. Like I said for the twelfth time, it's charming. I didn't expect to see a perverse guy screaming his perverse ideals and feel like it's an uplifting battle shounen moment. I didn't think that a book would describe panties for 5+ pages. It's not terrible! But I can also see how people wouldn't enjoy it. It depends on what kind of person you are. If the characters didn't have legitimately interesting personalities (unlike some other "human" protagonists who have less personality than rocks), then I would without question hate this series.
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Art- Not that Much/10

This one only really has volume cover and chapter cover illustrations. However, the presentation of the cover art is very visually surreal, and is probably what would get people into the series if it weren't for the anime.
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Overall- 8/10

I'm really at odds with this franchise so far... I enjoy the personalities of the characters (except Hanekawa) and how the harem tropes are seamlessly integrated into the drama. But... at the same time, I don't enjoy the whole infrastructure of talking about random crap until the good stuff happens (at least it always gets to the good stuff within the volume, unlike Overlord) or how it sometimes thinks it's smarter than it is. If it weren't for my PTSD with Western YA "masterpieces" like The Fault in Our Stars, I'd likely enjoy Monogatari marginally better.

I'm definitely willing to finish the series, but it's not the masterpiece of a genius, it's merely the pretty darn good work of a decently talented writer.

The Monogatari Series is quite possibly one of the weirdest series I've ever experienced. Yes, even weirder than Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (Araragi's Bizarre Adventure sounds like a suitable title not gonna lie). But after reading it, this series has definitely become one of my all time favorites, and I would definitely recommend to anyone interested (however there's some rather iffy subject matters that might turn some people off, if you're interested there's a video about it on youtube).

What makes Monogatari so enjoyable are definitely the dialogue and the characters in the series. The banter and interactions these characters have with each other is not just ... witty and comedic, but can also at times be thought provoking and contains some genius wordplay. That said, before one embarks on this journey, it is necessary to warn that a sizable chunk of the dialogue and the monologues are well...filler. They're totally random, and don't affect the story in the slightest at times. But that's part of the appeal of Monogatari; it was written "100% as a hobby", as NisiOisin likes to call it, and you need to read it with a different mindset in order to properly enjoy it. The characters are all really solid in the first season, however the story and characters have yet to peak in the first season, hence it's not a perfect 10/10.

The First Season starts off with Bakemonogatari: Hitagi Crab, and it is a fantastic first arc that sets the tone and style of the series. Unlike a lot of shows, I think it's quite easy to tell if you would like this series with just the first arc. If you felt extremely bored and negative about this first arc, then you should definitely drop the series. If you were put off by NisiOisin's very unorthodox storytelling style, but you're still intrigued, then read on. I was honestly put off guard at first, since the way NisiOisin writies with regards to the Monogatari series is something that I've never seen before, but after completing all the subsequent arcs in Bakemonogatari I was sold. Overall, Bakemonogatari is a solid introduction into the world of Monogatari and the the characters that inhabit it.

Kizumonogatari is a prequel to the story, detailing how our MC Koyomi Araragi became a half vampire. It is a far more action packed and also slightly darker installment compared to Bake, though I would say personally reading action scenes isnt as interesting as dialogue. Kizu does a great job in fleshing out Araragi, Shinobu, Hanekawa and Meme's characters, and the ending is truly beautiful and well executed. My only major gripe is the first half, with not much going on other than Araragi training to beat up vampire hunters. Even then, his interactions with Hanekawa still makes this a fantastic read.

Going back to the events after Bake, Nisemonogatari is a worthy follow up, introducing more crucial plot elements into the story like the specialists and fleshing out the Araragi sisters. There's much more fanservice in this installment compared to Bake though, which might turn off some readers due to the incest undertones. Even then, the exploration of the whole concept of "fake", the new characters being introduced and a nice balance of action and drama with comedy and dialogue makes Nise still just as fun to read.

Lastly, there's Nekomonogatari Black, which is another prequel, this time concerning Hanekawa. This is probably the weakest book in this season, even then, it's still really enjoyable. Araragi and Hanekawa's relationship is the main focus in this book, and sets up the events of Neko White in the next season.

Overall, a fantastic introduction to the Monogatari Series.

Confession: I used to be a Monogatari hater.

What? Why? The answer being that when I first engaged with the series, first watched Bakemonogatari around a year and a half ago, the anime adaptation frustrated me. Unfortunately, I was just too much of a realist to enjoy the surreal style---I didn't want the iconic, infinite staircase---I'd have rather had a plain, boring one. Not to mention that my personality was likely incompatible with the style of the story. As Nisioisin puts it (forgive me for my awful paraphrasing), the books are mainly about having a bunch of silly conversations. Watching the anime, I was getting frustrated ... and wondering if anything worthwhile was going to happen. Go on, laugh at me. Only later, would I become the kind of person who would be sold on that premise.

So I bought the books. All of them, to be precise, simply because I was sure that there had to be *some* reason that this series was so highly acclaimed. Buying 20 books at once without reading any of them first, you might consider that slightly reckless---and I would agree. However it's something that I now, evidently, don't regret in the slightest. I mean, have you *seen* the cover of Bakemonogatari Pt. 3? It's gorgeous. Oh yeah, not to mention the words printed behind the cover are novel and entertaining too.

How could I possibly regret getting into a series that is just so funny and charming, that's unlike anything I've read before? The clippings section on my Kindle is clogged up from me saving all the best jokes and quotations.
But of course, that's not the only good thing about this series. Yes, it's funny, written in flowing and engaging prose, but it can also wound you. Hell, you can tear up reading this series. It can be poignant and emotional, just the same as it can be childishly funny and frivolous.

I could end this review by saying that I loved it and writing the conclusion, but for now let me also run through each of the instalments that make up this first season.
Bakemonogatari is where the story originates. It's pretty good. I would hesitate to say it's as good as some of the other instalments. I must say that the conflicts/aberrations are on point throughout, but still, not my favorite. I liked Suruga Monkey and Tsubasa Cat especially, and I enjoyed the humor of Mayoi Snail.

Kizumonogatari is brilliant. How to express my feelings on it... Let me just say that I can understand why Vertical published it before Bakemonogatari. It's the potential of Bakemonogatari realised. It's funny, it's iconic, and best of all, it is genuinely touching. It's so memorable and good that after I finished reading it, I didn't bother to move onto Nisemonogatari for a few months. I just felt so satisfied. If I had to review this book on its own, no question, it would be a 10/10.

However, I couldn't stay away for long. Eventually I started to crave more of that signature Monogatari quipping. Luckily, Nisemonogatari was the perfect one to start reading for that. Nise turns the quipping and the jokes up to 11, getting more and more meta, as well as making use of the full cast of characters to crack jokes with. It's like the world that the story takes place in became a lot brighter. It's very silly, but it's heartwarming too. I liked Karen a lot. Naturally, I loved it.

Okay, last one then. Nekomonogatari (Kuro). Imagine, a book where around a quarter of its overall length is taken up by one conversation. Impressive. Not as intensely satisfying as Kizu, but the emotional drama was very enjoyable. It genuinely tugged at my heartstrings.

Now, if I had but one criticism of the series, it would be that the action sequences are resolved rather easily. Kind of suddenly, even. Never will there be an intense struggle to solve a problem. Even if Araragi is practically banging on death's door from an intense fight, there is never a climax where you would say that they really had to fight to reach it. To compare it to another series, imagine if every conflict was resolved in the same way that A Certain Magical Index's Daihaseisai arc was resolved. There's a struggle, there's a fight, but at the end of the day, it's kind of meaningless. Sometimes that can even be refreshing (like in Nise pt.1), but it's just the nature of the series.

But, overall, what I really want to say is that the Monogatari series is hyped for a reason. You can start out one of the novels laughing your ass off, then read the last few chapters while tears well up in your eyes. Yes, believe the hype.

If you are like I was and didn't enjoy the style of the anime adaptation, yet you don't find yourself averse to reading stories filled with long, meandering and frivolous yet hilarious conversations, then I whole-heartedly recommend reading the novels. And if you did enjoy the anime adaptations---loved them, even, then I still highly recommend reading the novels. You get all of the narration, all of the meta jokes, and indeed, all of the content. There was actually a fair amount of cut content in the anime adaptations. Yes, if you can believe it, a seventy seven thousand word long book like Nekomonogatari Kuro could not be adapted in its entirety in just four episodes. And if you enjoyed Nisemonogatari's anime, then wait until you read Nisemonogatari Part 2. It's like a whole different experience!

And most importantly of all, if you haven't seen the anime at all, know nothing about this series and aren't averse to reading, then I still recommend reading it. Take it from someone who is typically hype-averse, this time, believe the hype!

Overall, I massively enjoyed this series. It's like nothing else that I've read. The best entries in this first season are worthy of incredible scores, but to round out this whole first season while anticipating that the highest highs are perhaps yet to come, I am going to give the series a 9/10. I'm glad I gave the series a second chance.


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Now for some pathetic complaining, please, spare yourself the time and move on unless you are the kind of person who cares about name order and honorifics, because I'd like to do some nit-picking with the official Vertical translations.

Tell me, what is the name of the protagonist of the Monogatari series. The main one. Last name Araragi? Is it Araragi Koyomi? Or is it Koyomi Araragi? What about his girlfriend? Is it Senjougahara Hitagi? Or is it Hitagi Senjogahara?

If you answered Koyomi Araragi and Hitagi Senjogahara, then there is absolutely nothing to worry about. These translations are perfect. Enjoy!

However, if by chance you are umm... well, particular(?) about things, then you can read on.

My brain writhes in pain, sending a deep sense of rejection throughout my body whenever I am forced to parse a sentence containing the words Hitagi Senjogahara. I feel so distracted that I can't even read the page that I have open. I fall out of my seat, crawling desperately to my computer, where I am compelled to 'fix' the epub files by myself. Finally, all of the pages say Senjougahara Hitagi. All is right in the world.

Unfortunately for myself, I am the kind of person who cares about this sort of stuff. Also unfortunately for me, in the official translations, it doesn't quite swing my way. They use Westernised name order and mostly omit honorifics (bringing them back only in certain situations). So when Araragi says Karen-chan and Tsukihi-chan, someone comments on it, then after that, the honorifics are kept intact inside of that novel. If that was going to be the case, why not just use honorifics throughout? (Because they didn't need to, duh? [Shut up, get out of my own monologue! I don't need to listen to common sense!] Come on, they're trying to appeal to a wide demographic, including people who don't know what honorifics are or don't care about them. [Look, if I didn't have bad opinions on localisation that actual translators laugh at, I'd have ended the review a few paragraphs earlier.])

Let me tell you, it took effort for me to adjust to the GJM subs of Railgun T (Huh? Wasn't this a review for the Monogatari series?). Gone were such unlocalised terms as 'Onee-sama' and 'Daihaseisai'. I was incredibly torn up by it. My pathetic baby tears flooded my neighborhood, destroying massive amounts of property. I woke up the next day and didn't even pull back the curtains. However, after I went on a spiritual journey and reached a state of miniscule enlightenment, I was finally able to accept that the subs were excellent and that I could understand why they localised these terms. I grew as a person, but still, I have not triumphed over my need for Japanese name order.

All this to say, if you're like me and get all particular about that, you might find yourself mildly inconvenienced (I mean TERRIBLY AWFULLY TORN UP) about that fact. But really, it's a nit-pick. The translations are excellent. But if you're like me, my pro tip is that you can fix it yourself by doing a mass find and replace in notepad++ if you open all of the text files inside of the epub files.

{The art rating in the rating list: I believe that art doesn't matter in the quality of Light Novels, so I rather rated it in regards to the Writing & Prose}

The Monogatari series is a set of stories which makes up an overall story.
And it is this overall story which is highly praised as the Monogatari series.

First, I should give my ratings of all the stories individually presented in the Monogatari Series: First Season.

Bakemonogatari: 7/10
Kizumonogatari: 9/10
Nisemonogatari: 8/10
... Nekomonogatari: 9/10

Now to critique the story, characters, and writing style.

The individual stories can be divided into parts of 2 types.
Idle Conversation, consisting of Araragi talking with a girl over idle matters.
Action, parts that progresses or brings an end to the story; consisting of fight scenes, Oshino Meme giving lectures, and resolution to the story.

The main problem I had was with the idle conversations. The silly conversations Araragi had with the other characters; on some parts I couldn't fully grasp the joke because of its cultural nature, and on others I simply couldn't find it funny; most of the word plays also turned out a little stale.
An important thing to note here is that I believe these problems mostly arose because I read the translated version (the official English one). As people often say, "The Monogatari series can never be properly translated"; the intricate word plays of the Japanese language that Nisio Isin does and the cultural parts of the book are what makes it so difficult to translate.
But as I kept reading and reading, the silly jokes and unique conversations that Araragi has with the characters started to grow into me, and I ended up liking them by the end of the 5th book.

Now the best part of the Novels, the action parts.
Monogatari series has some of the best fighting scenes I've read. They are very well portrayed, and has the perfect pace and intensity.
Oshino's lectures can sometimes get a bit confusing because of all the cultural and language parts (Kanji characters and stuff), but overall they can be understood by the end.
All the stories itself here are good. Some of them can be very simple, but its the simplicity which makes them good.
It's easy to get confused and question the past of some characters, that's because the novels are not in chronological order. You shouldn't think too much about the parts that you don't know, and enjoy the main story that the book is telling, because little by little the series reveals everything.

All the characters here are unique in their own way and most of them are pretty interesting.
It's a character driven story, so you can expect there to be good characters. And by the end you could find a character you very much like. (Meme's my favourite so far)

And lastly, I presume you already probably know, Monogatari has very good writing.
No problem with the conversations and understanding who's talking when (as with a lot of other Light Novels).
Also uh, I'll add that the translation was done really well too; I didn't find any grammatical problems or weird lines.

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 ... much but also surprised me with how different the experience was from watching the show. It really is one of those works that completely lives and dies by the medium it’s presented in, be that in the form of a book or an animated show, and that is without changing a single setting, character, or story beat.

And the story really is adapted to an absolute tea in the show, you’re not missing anything by sticking to the anime, and that’s in part due to the fact that everything that’s exclusive to the novels just wouldn’t work in a visual medium. Many of the jokes and “written visuals” in these books are simply unadaptable, a fact that the show compensates for by having jokes and visual cues that wouldn’t work in a written medium. It’s an amazing relationship that can only be understood by experiencing both incarnations of the series, which is why I highly recommend, for any fan of either version of the work, to consume the two of them. In both cases, they are stories that fully utilize the medium they are presented in in order to create wholly unique experiences that no other piece of media has ever replicated.

If nothing else, these novels give a lot of insight into what an amazing time NISIOISIN has writing these books. It's evident that his mind works in a completely different way than most humans, which lends itself great to creating stories like this one. It kind of just warms your heart a bit.

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 ... bunch of simple conversations with majorly two characters with witty humours and wordplays. NisiOisin is honestly just super talented, i can't believe just how he could write such books, the monogatari ln also holds a bunch of deep meanings and text which are usually forgotten by anime watchers. Well this train to the first season was a fun and delightful 10/10 overall, i am still in second season as i am writing this review.

Banter,banter, banter, all the way through!!
Nearly 70-80% (if not more) of each vol consists of banter, word play, conversations (great ones) back and forth.
And the remaining part is story, that too with conversations mostly again!
And there's always a twist or two for every story.

So... If u enjoy banter, word play, quirky conversations, jokes, back and forth btw characters for mostly unnecessary things (but interesting) and great characters, then go ahead and READ THIS monogatari series!!(u can also read all of nisio isin,author for this series,books)

Story: Interesting, unique, always a twist(mostly)!

Characters: Amazing!! Different personalities, flaws, problems, etc.
...
Pacing: No pacing! Just conversations all the time lol.

Art: Almost no art apart from starting pages.

Highly recommended even if u watched the anime series!!
(I gave this 10 rating while reading this after watching the whole anime which I really enjoyed too and I always hate repeating stories but loved this! Infact u should try both anime and novel series!)

[An Audiobook Review]

I am a rather slow reader. Although I’ve never been tested, I believe that I have been living with a mild case of dyslexia all my life. Because of this, it usually takes me just as long to read something as it would take for someone to say the words out loud, or even longer. Because of this, I found that audiobooks are a great way for me to get more “reading” of proper novels done. If it takes this long for me to read anyway, why not just have someone read to me?! So, when the English publisher Vertical decided to not ... only translate the original light novels for one my favorite anime franchises of all time, but also release audiobook versions of some of the books, it got me very interested.

Since it appears that no one else on MAL has specifically reviewed the audiobooks for this series, I figured I’d take up the task of being the first. Unfortunately, Vertical has not yet fully committed to the audiobook releases of this series. While they will be releasing their 20th English book in traditional reading formats by the end of the year (concluding the “Final Season” of the series), they have only released 5 of those books in audio form with no announcements for further releases at this time. And weirdly enough, they first released the audiobook for Kizumonogatari, the “first” book from the First Season, kind of. Then they released Nekomonogatari (White), the first book of Second Season. And most recently, they released the three parts of Bakemonogatari to get them to the half-way point in the First Season releases. So that is what my review is for: The first 4 books (or 3 books by the original Japanese release since Bakemonogatari was originally split into just 2 parts) of the First Season, the first 59 chapters. Are we confused yet? Well, let’s just get into my category breakouts:

-----Story - 9 out of 10-----
For those who may not be familiar with the Monogatari Series (and works from the mind of NISIOISIN in general), they are pretty much the light novel/anime equivalent of the “mumblecore” subgenre of films. While there is a plot going on in the series, about 90% of the story is made up of characters just chatting with each other about random things. And even when the series does cover actual plot points, the true meat of what’s going on has much more to do with the feelings and motivations of the characters. The supernatural elements that are used as a springboard for most of the conflict mostly amount to window-dressing. So yes, on the surface the Monogatari Series is about our lead character and narrator Koyomi Araragi as he encounters and deals with various supernatural creatures, usually in the form of or connected to various cute girls/women. But in reality, it’s mostly just about people BS’ing with each other and working through their feelings and trauma. If that doesn’t sound very appealing to you, then you may want to stay very far away for this series. However, if that sounds like something you can get into, then man are you in for a treat! This is some of the most fun BS you can ever listen to!

-----Characters - 10 out of 10-----
The next category breakout in my reviews for manga/light novels is usually the Art, but for the purposes of this review I decided to roll in the Audio performances into that category. Because of that, I felt it was important to talk about the Characters before discussing the performers who voiced them in the audiobooks. And in case the score here didn’t already tip you off, I absolutely love the characters in this series! Senjougahara and Araragi in particularly are two of my most favorite characters of all time, and a few of the others could easily rank in a Top 100 List of characters if I decided to make one. All of the characters feel like real people as they talk about various random things and they have great chemistry with each other. Well, mainly there is great chemistry between Araragi and all of the other characters. The stories in these first few books are pretty much exclusively told from Araragi’s point of view as the narrator and characters rarely interact with anyone other than him while “on screen”.

Since Koyomi Araragi is the main character and first-person narrator, I should definitely go into more detail about him as a character. In some ways, he is a bit of a typical anime protagonist “nice guy” who just wants to help people. He gets thrust into the world of supernatural beings because he decides to help Kiss-Shot (aka Shinobu), a beautiful vampire woman who was dying in a pool of her own blood. But what makes Araragi different from and more fun/interesting than the average anime protagonist is that we get to hear a LOT of his thoughts and they’re written in such a fun way that it’s hard to not just smile constantly while he does things like going on for multiple minutes describing the view of a girl’s panties when a gust of wind blows up her skirt. So yes, some of the talk in this series is a bit on the perverted side. In a way, the Monogatari Series can be seen as a bit of a harem genre deconstruction with all of the different girls that Araragi interacts with. Although, the biggest subversion of that genre is that Araragi ends up entering an official romantic relationship rather early on in the series.

All in all, I think the characters in this series is just wonderful. Araragi’s quips and over-the-top reactions. Senjougahara’s “acid tongue” and wonderfully cool “tsundere” demeanor. Hanekawa’s public face of the perfect class president and kind advisor to cover up her pain. Kiss-Shot’s playful yet deadly existence as a legendary vampire. Meme Oshino’s sly, almost-slimy know-it-all nature and pseudo-assholery. Hachikuji’s hyperactive childishness as one of Araragi’s most fun conversation partners when it comes to absolutely random BS. Kanbaru’s open perverted nature in her love for both Araragi and Senjougahara. And Nadeko’s weird awkward shyness but with something a little more underneath the surface.... Every character is just a load of fun to follow and I can just listen to them talk about random crap for hours. Oh yeah, that’s exactly what these audiobooks are! In a way, the Monogatari Series audiobooks are kind of like listening to people on a podcast with very little focus to what is actually talked about. This definitely isn’t for everyone, but if it sounds interesting to you, then definitely give it a try!

-----Art/Audio - 9 out of 10-----
Since the category breakouts for these reviews are built with manga and light novels in mind, and since art tends to be the least impactful of these categories when it comes to light novels (and especially when it comes to audiobook versions of light novels), I figured I’d talk about the audio work of these audiobooks here.... But first, to get it out of the way, VOFAN’s cover art for the Monogatari Series is rather nice and it is pretty cool that Vertical commissioned new unique artwork for the covers of their releases as well.

Now, on to the more substantial (and tacked-on) part of this section! Also, this is the main part of this review that will be very different compared to a review of the traditional book releases of the series. Since the Monogatari Series is all about conversations between characters, there were four different voice actors/readers cast (two male and two female) to take on the different roles in the audiobooks. They are all experienced English-dub anime voice actors with at least 10 major roles under each of them and audio production was done by Bang Zoom! Studios. For those interested, here is the cast and the roles they play:

Eric Kimerer:
-Koyomi Araragi

Cristina Vee:
-Kiss-Shot/Shinobu
-Tsubasa Hanekawa
-Suruga Kanbaru

Erica Mendez:
-Hitagi Senjougahara
-Mayoi Hachikuji
-Sengoku Nadeko

Keith Silverstein:
-Meme Oshino
-“And Others”

Now, I’m a pretty adamant sub-only anime fan, so I was honestly a little weary of this series being “voice acted” in English. However, as I had previously enjoyed other audiobooks, I wanted to give this a shot. And in the end I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the performances. Since I haven’t watched any of the English dubs that these actors performed in, I had no frame of reference for their previous works. But overall, they all did great with their main roles. The voice acting for Araragi and Senjougahara in particular were pretty much perfect in my opinion, which I was not at all expecting. The thought of Senjougahara especially worried me as she is one of my favorite characters ever and she has a very particular way of talking in the anime. But Erica Mendez did an absolutely wonderful job with her. I also didn’t expect the essence of Oshino’s Japanese voice to translate over as well as it did in the English audiobooks. Kiss-Shot was also very well done. Hachikuji, however, was probably the roughest for me to get into out of the main cast. While not absolutely horrible, I felt like Erica tried a little too hard to emulate the whole “Japanese girl voice” thing which is one of my least favorite things in English dubs of anime. But Hachikuji as a character was so much fun that I was able to get used to the voice after a bit. The remaining main characters of Hanekawa, Kanbaru, and Nadeko were mostly just passable and inoffensive performances, though they all have a few shining moments as well. For me, just being “inoffensive” was about how high my expectations were going in on the voice acting overall, so I was happy to have those expectations exceeded.

With what I said so far from the above, I feel that this category could have still warranted a full-10 grade. However, I felt that there were two major missteps in the voice acting that were just so distracting/disappointing that I ended up having to ding this category by a point. Both of these come from the “And Others” roles by Keith Silverstein. He did the reading for all of the male characters other than Araragi. Again, I think he did great as Oshino, but the rest of his readings were a bit of a mixed bag. The most significant of the two missteps that I want to talk about was the character of Episode in Kizumonogatari. One of the three vampire hunters that Araragi confronts on behalf of Kiss-Shot, Episode is a vampire himself and has the body of a high-school-aged pretty boy (though his actual age is much different). So, what kind of voice does he have in the audiobooks?? The DEEPEST possible voice imaginable! Really, I don’t understand what they were thinking here. I know that Eric Kimerer had to put in a lot of work being Araragi’s voice since he’s the main narrator, but could he have not done the voice of Episode instead of Keith Silverstein? That voice was just so distracting. My other significant issue in Keith’s “And Others” roles is a little more nitpicky and personal. It’s with the voice of Daddy Senjougahara in Bakemonogatari Part 3. In the anime, the talk Araragi had with Senjougahara’s dad is one of my favorite moments in the series (that episode in general is one of my favorite episodes of anime ever). And I just really felt like the voice Keith used for Daddy Senjougahara didn’t really fit. He seems like he’d have a calm and cool kind of voice, subdued yet a little intimidating. But in the audiobook he sounded way more chipper than I felt he should, sounding a lot like a radio DJ. It was kind of jarring and took away from one of my favorite scenes in the series.

And that’s pretty much it. Overall, aside from a couple of missteps, I felt that the audio production was phenomenal. Hopefully they don’t have too many missteps in Nekomonogatari (White) and any other books that they might release as audiobooks in the future.

-----Enjoyment - 10 out of 10-----
Again, the Monogatari Series is a personal all-time favorite of mine. I’ve absolutely loved every piece of anime from the series that has blessed my life. I can’t get enough of the silly and stylish ramblings of this lovable cast of characters and their weird little stories with a touch of supernatural flair. And not only did I love the audiobooks just as much as the anime, but they’ve actually caused my love for the overall series to go up a few notches, going from my #5 favorite series of all time to my #3! That might not seem like much to some people, but I’ve been seriously into anime for about two decades now and my personal Top 10 when it comes to anime/manga series hasn’t had any real movement in the last 9 years until now. These audiobooks are simply a blast to listen to and should be a must for any Monogatari fan, but can also be a great way to introduce someone to the series, especially if you’re not into Shaft’s animation style or happen to be a dub-only anime fan.

-----Overall - 10 out of 10 (Conclusion)-----
In the end, I’ve decided to go ahead and give the Kizumonogatari and Bakemonogatari English audiobooks a full 10 out of 10 overall score. Now, this does come with some very clear caveats. If you prefer your stories to be plot-heavy and have very little interest in characters just talking with each other a lot of the time, then you will likely not enjoy listening to these. I will say that Kizumonogatari is much more plot-focused than Bakemonogatari, but that’s just when you compare the two. And as I also mentioned, there is some perverted subject matter talked about at times which won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. I’ll make the comparison again to podcasts: If you enjoy listening to people just talk about whatever and having fun doing it, then I think these audiobooks will be right up your alley. And with that in mind, I’ll close with a bit of a lame call to action. If you will be so kind, PLEASE buy these audiobooks! They’re all on Audible, so if you happen to subscribe there consider throwing a Credit at Kizumonogatari to give it a listen and if you like what you hear, pick up the rest. If these audiobooks sell well enough, maybe they’ll continue to release them! Thanks for hearing me out and have a wonderful day! ^_^