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MonogatariLogo

The Monogatari Series is a supernatural-themed Light Novel collectives written by Nisio Isin and illustrated by Vofan.

The series mainly center around Koyomi Araragi, an Ordinary High School Student-turned-half-vampire who has to deal with the odd happenings around him involving urban legends, myths and spirits, both benevolent and malevolent.

The Light Novels usually follow the title formula of [Story name]-gatari, in which the title almost always contain a pun. Inside each novel is a story or collection of stories, named with [Protagonist] [Keyword] pattern.

Originally started as short stories written by Nisio Isin for several magazines, the stories are later collected and released in organized Light Novel format. The saga contains the following, most of them have been adapted into animated form in one way or another:

  • Bakemonogatari - Ex-vampire Koyomi Araragi helps people around him from supernatural problems. Adapted as an anime series in 2009.
  • Kizumonogatari - The prologue to Araragi's story, telling his encounter with the golden-haired vampire Shinobu, then Kisshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade. Originally planned as a movie for 2012 release, it was later made into a trilogy of movies instead, starting from the beginning of 2016 and ended in January 2017.
  • Nisemonogatari - As various rumors circulated around the city, Araragi was led to his encounter with two more specialists who have connections with Oshino Meme. Adapted as an anime series in 2012.
  • Nekomonogatari (Kuro) - Tells the story of Hanekawa Tsubasa's family life, and how she originally became possessed by the Sawarineko. Adapted as an anime series in 2012.
  • Nekomonogatari (Shiro) - Tells the story of Hanekawa Tsubasa, whose repressed hysteria gave birth to a new kind of Oddity, a fierce fire tiger. Adapted as part of Monogatari Series Second Season in 2013.
  • Kabukimonogatari - When Araragi is desperate to work on his Summer homework, Shinobu helped him went back in time. However, their wacky time travel story turned upside down in a flash... Adapted as part of Monogatari Series Second Season in 2013.
  • Hanamonogatari - Stars Kanbaru Suruga, as she investigates the rumor regarding a Devil who collects misfortune and the current life of an old rival. Broadcasted in 2014.
  • Otorimonogatari - Tells the story of Sengoku Nadeko who encounters the Polar Snake God, and the downward spiral of her sanity. Adapted as part of Monogatari Series Second Season in 2013
  • Onimonogatari - When an enigmatic darkness starts going after him and Mayoi, Araragi had no choice but to seek for help. Also tells a portion of Shinobu's mysterious past. Adapted as part of Monogatari Series Second Season in 2013
  • Koimonogatari - A direct continuation of Otorimonogatari, tells about the (combined) effort of Hitagi (and Kaiki) in cleaning up the mess from Otorimonogatari. Adapted as part of Monogatari Series Second Season in 2013
  • Tsukimonogatari - Tells the story of Araragi, who suddenly became a full-fledged vampire again, and a mysterious specialist who is connected to both Kagenui and Yotsugi. Broadcasted in 2014.
  • Koyomimonogatari - Bits of short stories set in-between the previous stories. Adapted into a series of downloadable broadcast through a smartphone app in 2016.
  • Owarimonogatari - The stories expand on Araragi and Shinobu's past; a forgotten childhood friend of Araragi, and the first servant of Shinobu... While behind the scenes, a sinister darkness lurk for the climax of their story. Turned into an anime adaptation; the first two volumes were aired in Fall 2015, with the third volume followed in Summer 2017.
  • Zokuowarimonogatari - The "after ending" part of Owarimonogatari, telling the story of Araragi who finds himself in a mirror world where everyone's life is inverted.
  • Orokamonogatari - First of the "Off-Season" books, it tells the story of some of the characters during certain periods of the main story.
  • Wazamonogatari - Also dubbed "Episode Zero", this book mostly consists of origin stories of certain characters, including the fabled vampire Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade.
  • Nademonogatari - With the help of Yotsugi, Nadeko was able to draw multiple personalities for herself. However, things get awry when they went out of control.
  • Musubimonogatari - Set as the finale of the off-season stories, introducing a young adult Araragi and a new set of characters, while also elaborating on the future of some of the old characters.
  • Shinobumonogatari - As the mummified bodies of female Naoetsu High students were found, with familiar-looking bite marks in them, college student Araragi and his servant Shinobu has to be on the move to investigate to find whodunnit.
  • Accumulated short short stories found scattered across promotional materials such as character data books or series guides. This includes the "Hyakumonogatari" and "Atogatari" stories.
  • Tsugimonogatari - A story that was teased at the end of Zoku-Owarimonogatari. Supposedly set to be the beginning of a set of "Next Season" book, it's most likely what later develops into Orokamonogatari of the "Off-Season" books.

In 2009, studio SHAFT managed to adapt the first story into anime form, with the franchise later becoming one of the studio's more well-known Widget Series for its surrealism, Avant-garde style, quirky characters, and just general weirdness.

The light novels have a fan-translation here. There were set to be twelve novels in the series, with the last three announced for release on 2012... As a finale for the main story. It turns out that Nisio Isin would continue to write off-season stories, with no visible end on sight. Musubimonogatari was then announced to be the last of the off-season books, setting up for a new concept of young adult Koyomin working as policeman (actually an employee of Gaen Izuko's new network od Oddity investigators), with many new characters. This new set of stories is branded Monster Season.

This page is for the general information of the series and Tropes that tend to overlap or constantly appear in the series. For Tropes that are purely exclusive to a certain story, please list them in their respective pages.

Tropes used in Monogatari Series include:


  • All Myths are True: One of the premise of Oddities in the series. They came into existence because humans have been passing down and believing their mythical existence for long. On the flip side, if there's not enough human influence to continue their existence, an Oddity would simply vanish from existence.
  • Animation Bump: There are several examples:
    • The bath scene in episode 4 of Nisemonogatari is pretty well-animated.
    • The fight scenes in general. Examples include Araragi vs Kanbaru in Bakemonogatari and Araragi vs Yozuru in Nisemonogatari.
    • Bakemonogatari episode 15; the entire episode is virtually movie-quality.
    • The first half of Owarimonogatari episode 10, in the same vein as the above Bake example.
  • Art Shift: The art style constantly change in the anime, usually as parodies to certain works or to create atmospheric tension.
  • Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Most of the characters resemble the key Oddities in their cases. Examples include Nadeko's snake hat/hoodie, Hanekawa's constant cat smiles and Karen's black and yellow training suit.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Hanekawa at first seems like a very sweet and shy bookworm at first glance. However, later on it's revealed that she has a much darker side, and can actually pull a Manipulative Bastard. Even Senjogahara actively fears her.
    • Both Araragi and Karen are terrified whenever Tsukihi gets angry.
  • Big Bad: The villain of the first two books is revealed in Nisemonogatari to be Deishuu Kaiki, one of the five con men briefly mentioned by Hitagi. In addition to his exploits in Nisemonogatari, he's the one responsible for the divorce of Hitagi's parents and spread the word about the snake curse that eventually targeted Nadeko in "Nadeko Snake".
    • Meanwhile, the villain of later stories in the series (and in an extension, the main story arcs as a whole) is none other than Ougi Oshino, an alleged relative of Meme's.
  • Big Brother Instinct:
    • When he mistakenly believing that Karen is being bullied in Nisemonogatari, the first thing he do is demanding the names and addresses of everyone involved, including Karen's teacher.
    • He also went in murderous rampage the moment he saw Tsukihi gets blown off in episode 9 of Nise.
  • Body Horror: May count for some of the afflictions by Oddities, such as the monkey's hand and the constricting snake.
  • Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Araragi as the sane guy; while a number of characters had their share of being on the other end, the more constant stay-ins are Kanbaru and, surprisingly, Shinobu herself.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Senjougahara once discussed about how her voice actor is excellent. Araragi responds accordingly.
    • Straight from the novels, we have Oshino explaining that he's never portrayed with a lit cigarette because it would make the anime adaptation difficult.
    • When Ougi demonstrates to Araragi a "What if" scenario about him being Easily Forgiven by Oikura in Owarimonogatari, Araragi questions whether there's such a great character in this work.
  • Catch Phrase: Quite a few characters have this. Some of them includes:
    • Hanekawa has "I don't know everything; just the things I know."
    • Gaen has "I know everything; there's nothing I didn't know."
    • Then, there's Ougi's Araragi-exclusive "I don't know anything, Araragi-senpai; you do."
  • Cessation of Existence: What exactly happens to Oddities that have been forgotten by humans.
  • Chronic Hero Syndrome: Koyomi insists on helping everybody he finds who has a problem, even when it means he'll suffer for it (and when he said suffer...)
  • Conspicuous CG: Pretty common, but the prevalence of Medium Blending and overall visual weirdness helps make it feel less out of place.
  • Debut Queue: Mostly in Bakemonogatari and Nisemonogatari, where each main characters are still established.
  • Design Student's Orgasm: All the openings and endings invoke this trope to varying degrees. The episodes themselves aren't immune either, since the entire series is very artsy.
  • Driven to Suicide: Cause of death for 90% of all vampires, including Shinobu's only other subordinate and Araragi, until Hanekawa talks him out of it.
  • Faceless Masses: Very occasionally. More often than not only the people that matter will be onscreen at all anyway.
  • Falling Into His Arms: How Koyomi met Sengoujara; he saw her falling down the school's spiral staircase, then he rushed to catch her. . . and as he did, he realised how unnaturally light she is. . .
  • Good Thing You Can Heal: Koyomi's Martyr Without a Cause behaviour means he gets a lot of mileage out of part-vampire Healing Factor. Hitagi states she's frightened that he'd do the exact same things even if he couldn't rely on his healing.
  • Hero of Another Story: There are a lot of stories told from the perspective of the other characters, even ones set during or around the time of one of Araragi's stories.
  • Hesitation Equals Dishonesty: Inverted, mostly. A good rule of thumb in this series is the more straightforward someone seems to be, the bigger the lie they're concealing.
    • Nadeko is hesitant and lacks self-confidence, and her "big secret" is that she likes Araragi (secret only to Araragi, really)
    • On the other hand, Suruga is quite forthright with her sexuality but no so much with her violent hatred towards Araragi for "stealing" Senjogahara from her. As it turns out, her provocative teasing of Araragi is probably a ploy to get Araragi to forget about Senjogahara, even if that means potentially having to seduce him. Although after the end of her introductory arc, her buddy relationship toward Araragi is finally genuine.
    • Zig-zagged with Ougi, as while she's never genuinely hesitant when telling something and many things that she said are actually true, she likes to omit certain details or tells it in a way that will advance her agenda.
  • Idiot Hair: Koyomi's distinctive feature, doubled with Expressive Hair.
    • Apparently the Idiot Hair runs in the family, as both of Koyomi's sisters, Karen and Tsukihi, are shown to have it. Confirmed in Tsubasa Tiger, when it's shown that their mother also has it.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming:
    • Each book is named "[Something]monogatari". Occasionally, they form puns.
    • Every story is named "[main subject's given name] [whatever case, theme or symbol is involved]", i.e. "Hitagi Crab", "Tsukihi Phoenix", "Koyomi Vamp", "Sodachi Lost", etc.
  • Image Song: The opening themes of the anime series are usually this.
  • Important Haircut: Usually, a character changes their hairstyle after their case is solved, to symbolize their "rebirth" as a new person.
  • Limited Wardrobe: All of the background automobiles are the same model of white convertible sports car. Downplayed later in the series, when there are more variants, but are still pretty limited.
  • Lovable Sex Maniac: Kanbaru, especially after she and Koyomi become best buds.
  • Lucky Translation: The portmanteau in the title works just as well in English (GhoSTory/MonSTory, pick one). The sequel book Nisemonogatari also applies ("ImpoSTory"), but the series' other three books, Nekomonogatari ("Cat Story"), Kizumonogatari ("Scar Story"), and Kabukimonogatari ("Slope Story"), don't, but they're not really puns in Japanese either... So maybe that makes it double lucky.
  • Male Gaze: When Koyomi is the narrator (which is in about 90% of the stories), it's guaranteed that a lot the camera will focus on the female characters' more risque parts.
  • Meaningful Name: As might be expected from someone who loves wordplay as much as Nisio Isin. They're on the character page.
  • Medium Blending: Used frequently, especially on the earlier seasons.
  • Minimalist Cast: Even though it's suggested that the world they live in is indeed populated, the named characters are the only people who ever appear (at least in good detail) in the show. Kinda creepy. Lampshaded when Karen asks how many friends Koyomi has.
  • Multiple Reference Pun: Executed in smooth and successful barrage each episode, as per Nisio Isin's fondness or Shout-Outs and wordplays.
  • Mystery of the Week
  • Panty Shot: The first time Koyomi saw Tsubasa, it was during a windy day. Then the wind got so strong, it lifted her skirt and showed him her lacy panties. . .
  • Running Gag:
    • Mayoi mispronouncing Araragi's last name, followed with her stuttering on the word "stuttered" itself.
    • Araragi tackling then sexually harassing Mayoi each time he encounters her.
  • Widget Series: One of the more infamous one produced by Studio SHAFT, which was already infamous for producing weird and surreal anime to being with. On a more down-to-Trope side, the series itself have many references and call-outs to various Japanese cultures, puns and in-jokes that people who aren't familiar with such things usually find the series bizarre.

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