A FOREWORD TO THE MONOGATARI SERIES: JAPAN'S ODDITY OF A MASTERPIECE.

written by S. V.

It is nigh impossible to comb through the many layers of the Monogatari series to find a singular talking point to base an article off of. As one of the most baffling pieces of media ever made it often leaves it’s viewers leaving it confused, yet not without imparting the complex worldview of its author upon them. In every way possible it is a brutal assault on the senses, from its directing that forces one into the conversations held by the characters, the inconclusiveness of many of the story beats in due part to the fallacies of unreliable narrators to some scenes so outwardly sexually coded it’d be better for the narrative if they simply weren’t there at all. To some extent it more often disgustingly written than it is emotionally so, pandering to the deepest depths of a degenerate fantasy. But it doesn’t. There is no nudity shown and characters are always forced to slow down and reflect on the depravity of their sexual desires. The story knows when to stop, almost to an eerie degree almost as if what the author, Nisoisn, knows that they are going too far. However, this all, despite being in some ways inexcusable for its horniness, serves to be one of the most real depictions of human struggles in modern media only seeming to age better the more self-isolationism becomes common within the modern social sphere. 

Image from - edomonogatari.wordpress.com

Monogatari is a Japanese light novel series written by Nisoisn, illustrated by Vofan and has accumulated 29 volumes as of current since the publishing its first chapter on the 10th of August 2005. It has also received an anime adaptation animated by Studio Shaft and is currently progressing through the series’ Off and Monster Season. 

In short, Monogatari follows Koyomi Araragi, a third year in high school, as he helps those around him with their own personal issues which are manifested as aberrations, supernatural creatures ranging from a 500-year-old vampire to a life-draining cat. Helping him is a lousy mentor, the scruff Hawaiian shirt wearing Meme Oshino, who does not help with the situation at hand but gives the affected the tools to be able to save themselves. To some extent Araragi runs against his ideals, being unable to sit by seeing someone toil by themselves, stemming from his apparent saviour complex which is his hamartia for the near whole of the story. This is something that is most glaringly demonstrated during his “hellish” stint during spring break.

However important Araragi’s experiences during spring break are, even more so as it is the first arc to happen chronologically, they are not necessary to the events of Bakemonogatari (Monster Tale) the book which released first. When reading the story as it was originally meant to be experienced one will not be treated with the answers immediately, not understanding the how Araragi became a pseudo-vampire and his relationship to the mute vampire Shinobu, now bound to life within an eight-year-olds body, a relic of her former self. A rather odd choice narratively as for the first one thousand pages of monogatari you never see Shinobu in her past state or really get all too much mention of it. It is only after the two-volume long Bakemonogatari that one gets the information about her and in that same vein Araragi in the prequel Kizumonogatari (Wound Tale), a book that more successfully introduces the characters than the previous installation was able to do before immediately launching into the main conflict of the first arc. However, for some in ordained reason, like the rest of monogatari, it just works.

I wouldn’t even go so far to say that this is even a compelling way to begin a mystery. Sure, you could claim that it starts off in media res, forcing the reader to come so rapidly to terms with Araragi’s vampirism that they fill in the gaps of what happened by themselves and the slivers of information given to them about Meme and Shinobu but this simply wouldn’t compute with the excessively high ratings that Monogatari has achieved. Not everybody is able to imagine up a backstory to a character they barely know or care about which goes against the mass appeal the story has within the anime sphere. Rather I would say that opening the story with limited context allows it to feel much more realistic than it would be if it started with Kizumonogatari. By introducing Araragi after he has already undergone a significant shift in his thinking it makes him inadvertently come off as much more human than most other characters would be on the offset as he has already undergone so much struggle similar to how somebody would be in real life. Furthermore, the sheer absurdity of the disbelief which the audience must suspend contrasted to the comparatively bland classroom conversation makes you directly question what you are currently reading, something that makes you want to read more just to get a sense of what is actually going on, finding layers upon layers of subtext ingrained within every single line. In many ways this speaks to Monogatari’s nature as a comedy in the traditional sense, hitting jokes and references that even out-pace gag manga in their absurdity. Additionally, this also highlights the series even more traditional form of comedy similar to the great poems of Dante Alighieri similar to that of what is called his magnum opus, Inferno. They both set out to examine the human condition by the use of one’s individual evils, however where Alighieri condemns all acts of sin, Nisoisin takes a more neutral stance. The Monogatari series is exceedingly modern, even from its first instalment, managing to outpace most writers of the 21st century in it’s thematic resonance. One of the numerous main themes of Monogatari is that everything operates in the moral grey and the younger members of the cast grappling to accept that fact due to the inherent need to find a villain that they can pin all of the blame on. In any case a characters evils stem mainly from the POV characters, ones which one is meant to sympathise and care for, explaining exactly why their situation had led them to the choices which they had currently undergone. The narrative doesn’t absolve them of their wrongs but in a lot of ways it doesn’t punish them outright either. Individual evils spurred on by gradual bursts of emotion are treated for what they really are in real life, human. Sure, if someone goes too far they will be faced with the consequences of their actions but Monogatari is a narrative that believes in redemption, being able to give attempted mass murderers a chance to reform and reflect as is the case with Sengoku Nadeko within her later arcs.

Furthermore, Monogatari deals with the obsessive behaviour that stems from one’s innermost desires and lusts which in a way is hypocritical to the façade that a specific character puts on. Everyone is human and therefore, as Monogatari will wholeheartedly claim, a hypocrite. Ones emotions will express what one will desire rather than their thought-out fallacies ever could. Or in another interpretation of the story, truth is non-existent when factoring in the human condition, something that is more fully explored within Nisemonogatari (Fake Tale). Despite not being the character that is easiest to explain within his hypocrisy, Koyomi Araragi is the one that one must begin with in order to properly understand the series message, especially with his arc within Kizumonogatari, the aforementioned prequel novel.

Koyomi Araragi in Bakemonogatari: Image from Crunchyroll News

Araragi follows a similar design trend to that of what I call the protagonist-Kun similar to the main character of the visual novel Kusoge which parodies the dating sim-Esque genre which Japanese high school shows often fall into. A protagonist-kun in this sense is an archetype of the “average” male highschooler, an introvert who isn’t the most popular in school and has little friends. Take for example Sakuta from the Rascal does not dream of series or Tadano from Komi can’t Communicate. Often these

characters like the ones above will act for on a sense of duty to help those around them, sometimes sacrificing their own self-interests for their, regularly female, classmates whom they form a close bond of affection for. 

Araragi encompasses this troupe in all of its extremes to such an extent that it can be defined as satire. Within his introduction in Bakemonagatari he has a singular friend in the class president Tsubasa Hanekawa but in the prequel novel he is well and truly alone. After joining a prestigious high school known for its highly academic students by barely passing the entrance exams, Araragi quickly falls behind his peers failing near all exams but math which he doesn’t particularly excel in but is okay at. Due to this he stops socialising with others fearing mockery and regularly skips classes that he has no interest in. Even if he does attend he barely listens. This, unlike other protagonist-kuns, nets him an almost celebrity status of in the school, something that Araragi is unaware of due to his total severance from society. Everyone believes that he is a delinquent but, as the story highlights several times, rather he is a washout. A delinquent has something going on in their life whereas Araragi has nothing in his. 

In order to justify his loneliness, he totes himself as him being as “intense” of a human that one can be. Araragi thinks that the perfect way that he should live is as a tree, something that does not need to harm anything to exist or interact with any living thing for that matter. Therefore, what Araragi desires is total solitude, something that he already has, bar his rousing from bed each morning by his sisters. However, Hanekawa denounces this fallacy in their opening dialogue exchange. A tree despite it not directly attacking anything will still leech of the corpses of others, nutrients in the soil and starve the other plants of their resources. Rather, Hanekawa says that he should become something which is completely inorganic such as a mineral. The choice of a mineral specifically could represent that she is trying to force Araragi to help support another as it would be used in the composition of an organism for growth and repair. Araragi seems to gloss past this, still being set in his mind that he desires to become a tree. Maybe this is because he doesn’t want to admit that Hanekawa is right, something that could stem from his isolation and his hundreds of hours pondering potentially becoming meaningless. But rather what this actually is that Araragi still desperately wants to remain human which leads to the major hypocrisy of his conflict in Kizumonogatri. Araragi wants to reject humanity but is unable to do so as deep down there is still a desire to maintain it.

This is something readily apparent when in the next major scene, he encounters the legendary vampire Kisshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade who appears not so legendary now laying limbless and bleeding on the floor. An oddly stupid name for what is the main emotional crux of Kizumonogatari. First she tries to mock Araragi into saving her to which he does the normal thing and starts running away from the scene. His natural response brings the two characters to a conclusion and exposes their hypocrisy directly to themselves. Firstly, Araragi understands that he fears death and still wishes to live. Secondly Kisshot now knows that she too fears death, removing her from her quest which is revealed later to be to commit suicide. Upon her realisation that death scares her she screams out in fear calling for Araragi to return and “Save her”.

Kisshot and Araragi in the third Kizumonogatari movie: Image from Crunchyroll News

He, following his protagonist-kun building blocks in the extremes, decides to throw his body away for her to sire, which would restore her strength. He does this as he realises his life is ultimately meaningless, he cares for no one and no-one cares for him, probably even less so if he was an actual tree. In order to make his existence worthwhile he will give it away to save another, not caring in this moment that the one that he is saving is a monster who would cause more harm than good. However, Araragi is consumed in the moment, in his pathetic life and his noble sacrifice that he fails to notice that fact. He returns to Kisshot and offers himself up, something that she accepts with a genuine “Thank you…”.  The Kisshot who before thought herself above everything else now was able to accept the human concept of humility and acknowledges that she could not be saved by being alone. 

In one action the two main characters have completed their arcs and the story would end with a sweet epilogue where Kisshot mourns Araragi’s death and turns a new leaf in under seventy pages. However, this is not written by the generic scriptwriter who goes with the standard linear graph for character growth. This is Monogatari after all. 

Characters in Monogatari follow arcs which I would describe are written far more in the style of “Realism”. This is where a character is able to regress after an arc is completed, something that is nine times out of ten going to hurt the story. Sure, it is more human to double back on ones statements but it does not feel narratively satisfying that a character would seemingly unlearn a lesson that they and the spectating audience learned together, becoming more and more of an issue depending on how much one believes in them. However, there can be cases where this works well. The example that comes the closest to mind is where in Call of the Night, ironically another vampire story, the deuteragonist refuses to make the main character into a vampire despite her being adamant in doing so in a heartfelt proclamation some 100 chapters earlier. This is able to succeed due to the characters decisions being unable to accomplish the way they originally wanted due to another revelation that they had alongside their revelation form their original arc. The “realism” in this sense works to add an element of tragedy to the story where the two characters are fated to not be with each other. Their existences collide, something that one is able to a conclusion to with a plot summary alone. Therefore “realistic” character arcs need to be accompanied with an element from the plot or the setting that is able to fully justify this. Despite Monogatari already breaking story conventions by doing this, it breaks even more by making it so that the elements listed above are not what cause a definitive shift within a characters mindset. Rather as with the rest of the series Monogatari decides to justify with its characters and the fallacies that they had apparently got over. This happens in the story multiple times such as is the case to the end of Tsubasa Hanekawa’s arcs ,before her (and the series (bar Koimonogatari)) best book Nekomonogatari: Shiro (Cat Tale: White) where even though her character conflict should be still finished it lingers, bringing the reader to a similar conclusion to Hanekawa. Someone’s struggle doesn’t end as soon as they say or think it does. Real change takes time accomplish and won’t happen overnight like they do portrayed in media. One is able to regress and return to their previous fallacies. This is what makes her subsequent journey of self-improvement even more so satisfying and relatable which is an exceptionally odd word to use considering she was only able to reach this conclusion due to the spirit of a life-stealing cat possessing her. 

Araragi undoes his mini arc as even though he is given a second chance at life by Kisshot, who turns him into her thrall, he is unsure whether he wants to return to being a human at all. Of course, he doesn’t voice this to Kisshot who seems to be intent on restoring Araragi back to his original form. Even though saving Araragi appears to be something that is directly selfless, as she is was only able to receive enough blood to keep her alive in a childlike state, it is ultimately proven to be selfish as she tasks him with receiving her four limbs from the vampire hunters that plunged her into this predicament in the first place. Araragi also ponders if his life is even worth living now, which he is unsure of. He now has what he dreamed of, a purpose, that being to restore Kisshot to her prior strength but he still feels that he is being dragged along. This is reminiscent of what Kizumonogatari is in its fundamentals. A tragedy. In the prologue it is stated directly that the story will not end with a happily ever after, similar to that of a chorus foretelling the fate of the protagonists, take for example the chorus in Romeo & Juliet or the witches in Macbeth. Interestingly, instead of a third party assuming the role of the chorus, Araragi is the one to narrate the misfortune of his own story. This is particularly interesting as it directly showcases that one of the characters survives the tragedy, something that contradicts what is expected of a traditional narrative of that type. Similarly, a protagonists hamartia or fatal flaw will be established within the opening scene, however the first instance it can be said to appear is where Araragi finishes his character arc by saving Kisshot. One would be inclined to believe that Araragi’s flaw is his philosophy, that being alone would amount to his happiness, however his flaw is instead his heroism. He cannot leave someone to figure out their issues on their own or let someone go out on their own terms, in this aspect the victim of his being Kisshot. Monogatari further breaks conventions of a tragedy by making it so that Kisshot does not die in the end, rather the tragedy is her being kept from that eternal peace by Araragi. 

The reason why Kisshot returned to Japan after 300 years was to in some way honour the memory of her first thrall and eventually take her own life. She was attacked by the three vampire hunters who stole her limbs and left to die on the floor. In that moment one can infer that she suffered a fundamental realisation as to why she couldn’t commit suicide earlier despite her boredom. She is afraid of death, especially if it doesn’t mean anything. In this sense the hypocrisy that is the basis of her character is the desire to die despite being afraid of it. Therefore, she mirrors Araragi by fearing that what they desperately try to accomplish. When he saves her she sees what she saw her old thrall in him and therefore decides to turn Araragi into her servant. She would task him to retrieve her limbs so she could return to her full strength, having absolute confidence in his abilities and have him kill her. The act of a thrall slaying it’s master in this case would restore him to being a human, allowing to Kisshot to atone for her past sins of not being able to give her thrall that. In response he ended his own life by stepping out into the sun. This forms the basis of the trauma that consumes her. Kisshot, after saving Araragi, concludes that if he is ging to die she must do so in a way that means something. According to her plan she will get Araragi to kill her and get him to return to being a human, a rather tragic plot. However, this is where Araragi’s hamartia comes into play. Upon learning of Kisshot’s true intentions behind their duel, he refuses to kill her and rather calls upon Meme Oshino for a solution to the situation.

Meme Oshino in the Kizumonogatari trilogy: Image from Umaiyomu.wordpress.com

Meme Oshino is a helper to Araragi and Kisshot managing to organise the duels between him and the three vampire hunters who had stolen Kisshot’s limbs for a fee of five million yen. He is a Hawaiian shirt toting chain-smoker who refuses to light his cigarettes for the fear that he wouldn’t receive an anime adaptation if he does so, but paramount to all is that he serves to balance the interests of humanity and the supernatural. Originally he achieves this by stealing Kisshot’s heart from her before she was to duel the three vampire hunters which set both parties odds to that of fifty-fifty, leaving it up to a coin flip of fate wether which side would prevail. He would’ve let Kisshot die if not for the intervention of Araragi which reset the balance. Him becoming her thrall was something completely unexpected to him. In the end he returns Kisshot’s heart to Araragi without a fight where he originally expected to combat him as he uncovered her plan to commit suicide, which would reset the balance as she and Araragi would no longer be vampires, one cured of their condition and the other one now being dead. He stays to his commitment to the balance to the very end of Kizumonogatari, as his solution to save Kisshot whilst returning Araragi to being a human is to combine their two spirits together, making Araragi and Kisshot now mockeries of a vampire. 

The real tragedy rather than death is that Araragi never returns to being human and Kisshot never achieves the freedom and closure that death would be able to give her. Both exist now in a stasis, being unable to exist without the other, however Araragi seems to have dominance over her. He is the one needs to give Kisshot blood so she can survive and has control over how she appears due to his vision in his subconscious, which is the form of a child. This could stem from two things. Firstly, one trying to ex-honour the story of it’s unsavoury aspects would claim this is due to Araragi’s first impressions of Kisshot in her child-like form. However, a part of Monogatari’s meta narrative is coming to terms with the evils of an individual alongside their more positive elements. It is for that reason that Araragi’s hamartia is his saviour complex. For the entirety of Bakemonogatari this is partly treated as something detrimental only to him. He hands Senjogahara the tools for her to “save herself” as Meme would say, forces Hachikuji to face the fact that she isn’t returning to her mother, help Kanaburu confront her own fears, remove the snake charms put on Nadeko and finally try to delay Hanekawa’s transformation into black Hanekawa. However, in the listed cases the only ones who were actually able to heal are those who were able reach the conclusion that they should change of their own volition. Senjogahara could move on as she was the one to ask for the return of her memories. Hachikuji was only able to move on as she acknowledged that her mother was gone and similarly the case with Kanaburu. On the other hand, someone who was saved in no part of their own admittance like Nadeko leads to further problems as is clear with the role she later takes on in the ending chapters of Ototorimonogatari as an antagonistic force. Despite Araragi saving them nothing is accomplished as he does not allow them to get over the complexes that led to them being led into their situation in the first place. Another case where something similar happens is with Hanekawa in Nekomonogatari: Shiro where she is only able to conquer the aberration troubling her when she accepts it as a part of herself. Sure, Araragi fights and defeats it but it is Hanekawa who keeps it sealed as she now has got a grip on her own personal problems and is working through it. However, none of this has happened yet by the time Bakemonogatari has finished. At the time Araragi looks like your standard protagonist-kun or in other words the exalted hero. The first time his saviour complex is shown as directly dangerous is in the ending of Kizumonogatri where he saves Kisshot who clearly did not want to be saved. This adds on another layer of tragedy. Both of the two would’ve saved themselves in that one action solidifying the character arcs they established by page sixty. Araragi would’ve saved himself by becoming human and Kisshot would’ve been able to save herself from the guilt and boredom that came as a consequence of her immortality but Araragi had to deny both of the opportunity. Araragi remains a vampire and now Kisshot loses her identity as the queen of all aberrations. Now she is nameless, only being given one by Meme Oshino who bestows his last name upon him alongside her new given name Shinobu. A pun as the first character in the name reads heart and the second character, reading blade, is underneath it making it a play on Kisshot's last name, Heartunderblade.

Shinobu Oshino (formerly Kisshot): Image from Crunchyroll News

And now after asserting that Araragi is not a good person one can ascertain that he in fact does harbour some attraction to a child’s body, something that both the story and the reader see as uncomfortable. Many times, Araragi denies this in prose but his arousal is clearly apparent in his actions. As a vampire in its purest thematic sense reflects human desire, often that of the sexual kind, and as Araragi desires a child’s body he subconsciously forces Kisshot to take upon that form. However, this also causes Kisshot to be more of a mockery of a vampire than Araragi could ever be. Now bound to a form controlled by another’s fetish she must live out her life in boredom once more, deprived of her death, relief of her guilt and her dignity. That is “the epilogue or rather the punchline” of Kizumonogatari.

The aforementioned phrase is something that is repeated or referenced in nearly every ending monologue of the Monogatari series. This once again links back to it being a traditional comedy, exploring aspects of the human condition and seeing it ironic in its tragedy and its flaws. In a sense the viewer, having an omniscient view of the narrative akin to that of a god, is left with no other choice but to guffaw at the stupidity of an individual not too dissimilar to themselves.

Monogatari is such a hard series to understand, not because of the unreliable narrators or the non-linear storytelling, but of the realism and complexity of the characters. Each detail is carefully thought out and displaced within dialogue or the limited prose. Ultimately it is fascinating that one could create such a gripping story from what is essentially twenty percent assorted ramblings. It is not even that Monogatari is exceptionally impressively written in the technical aspect of the craft compared to other books such as the classics like the Great Gatsby or To Kill a Mockingbird. A key element of most stories, the setting, is near entirely absent in the narrative. This leads to a disassociation from the world as it is not fully believable but Monogatari does not suffer from these problems. Again, the answer for this is within its characters. By removing a key pillar of a story, it is forced to make the pillar of characters twice as large to support the narrative. Every single one has a similar level of depth and complexity like that of Araragi and Kisshot in Kizumonogatari and that is only one book out of the twenty-nine that have currently released. Monogatari is able to excel in its narrative as the fundamental mastery of dialogue and subtext is so insanely powerful, something that can only be really understood if someone were to read or watch it for themselves. And that is why if you have not experienced the story I would highly recommend they do so, even if they would have to skip past some of the more odd sequences. Treat this almost as a foreword telling you what to look out for, however the interpretation that this article is able to put forward is only one of many conclusions that can be withdrawn from such a series. After all Monogatari is only as confused as the humans who created it.