Monogatari Series: First Season

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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Nov 4, 2011

Karhu

Recommended

Preliminary (18/107 chp)

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 ...

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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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Feb 17, 2012

Ravell

Recommended

Preliminary (18/107 chp)

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 ...

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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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Jun 3, 2019

Natsuki_Hyundai

Recommended

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.
~~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~~~
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.

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Oct 2, 2021

Fguyretftgu7

Recommended

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.

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May 21, 2022

lullabymahjong

Recommended

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 ...

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Jul 15, 2021

RayRaivern

Recommended

{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.

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Apr 24, 2023

KeiNmari

Recommended

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

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Sep 29, 2023

Halalex

Recommended

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

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

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Oct 23, 2023

VardhanD

Recommended

Preliminary (88/107 chp)

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.
...

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Oct 10, 2020

pluvia33

Recommended

Preliminary (59/107 chp)

[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 ...

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