Monogatari (series)/YMMV

Broken Base: The fanbase is very much split into three groups: the fans of more conventionally attractive girls (Karen, Kanbaru, Tsubasa and Tsukihi to an extent), fans of lolis (Ougi, Sodachi, Mayoi, Nadeko) and fans of Senjougahara. The first group likes the fanservice, and, in the case of Karen and Kanbaru, their bolsterous Tomboy personalities. The second likes the lolis for reasons such as moe and is almost universally mocked by the first group for their questionable taste. The two groups are united in their collective "meh" for Senjougahara, who has the largest casual following but is considered to be the blandest of all the girls, with a relatively conventional "anime girlfriend" persona. The other thing the two big hardcore groups unite over is Shinobu, mostly because she appears as a cute loli at first but is actually a powered down form for Kiss-shot, a 700 year old vampire queen that's smoking hot (to the point of many considering her to be the hottest girl outright).
Nightmare Fuel: See No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on the main page; Suruga's constant hysterical screaming of "HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE!!!" while savagely beating Koyomi is quite disturbing.
- Senjogahara can be a little frightening with her threats.
Crosses the Line Twice: Koyomi getting into a fight with a 5th-grader, beating her up (mildly), and then laughing about it. The fact that she's already dead may or may not make this worse.
Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: Episode 12 basically, especially the last few minutes. Nice things happen for a change in an otherwise screwed up world.
Crowning Music of Awesome: "Prologue", the track that plays over the "Kizumonogatari" montage in the beginning. Check it out on a Haruhi AMV here. It's badass.
- The violin piece that plays while Koyomi bathes in Nisemonogatari is rather interesting.
  - The piece with the bells near the end with Shinobu.
Ear Worm: All the songs, really.
Ensemble Darkhorse: Shinobu: Fifth place on the popularity polls while not speaking a single word and getting relatively little screen time is pretty impressive.
- Nadeko: Recent character popularity polls has confirmed that she is currently the most popular character of this show, despite her arc is the shortest among other sub-heroines.
- Suruga is also among the more popular girls, mostly due to being a basketball-playing Tomboy who's also insanely horny for both Koyomi and Senjougahara. Being a home nudist certainly helped things too.
Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Fans have theorized that all the oddities simply stand in for otherwise mundane life problems; the ones with the most merit are Hitagi's (her "weightlessness" being caused by an eating disorder) and Suruga's (well, extreme jealousy. There's barely a stretch there).
Fan Nickname: Ararararararagi-san. Attributed to Mayoi's frequent mispronunciation of Koyomi's name. See Running Gag on the main page..
Fashion Victim Villain: Deishuu Kaiki. A tie you could jump rope with, that one. And that dress shirt is damn near an actual dress.
Fetish Retardant: When the Meddlesome Cat grabs Koyomi from behind, he licks his neck in a very sensual way. What's the problem? That the Cat's tongue is sharp enough to open Koyomi's carotid artery.
Harsher in Hindsight: When Tsubasa finds Koyomi beating up Mayoi, she tells him that it's wrong to hit a child without telling them a justifiable reason. We later find out that Tsubasa's stepfather physically abuses her. It's likely a deliberate example; Tsubasa has Scary Shiny Glasses as she makes the former statement.
Hype Backlash: Monogatari was a fairly popular anime on Reddit for a while, and, as it turns out, the amount of Epileptic Trees grown there was staggering. After the initial hype wore off the anime immediately acquired a negative association with the stereotypical Redditor: pretentious, way over their head and far more shallow than it appears. After NisiOisiN revealed that the whole point of Monogatari was to have a fun, enjoyable story with likeable characters, the backlash mostly died down due to the Reddit camp backpedaling on their incessant theories.
Internet Backdraft: Thanks to an anonymous user now called "Gorespammer" relentlessly trolling and reverse-trolling the series, it's pretty much impossible to have a serious discussion about it on /a/.
Magnificent Bastard: As said by Koyomi in Episode 8 referring to Oshino: "You... Even compared to a devil, you're such a magnificent bastard."
Magnificent Bitch: Hitagi, especially in the date episode.
The Masochism Tango: Araragi and Senjougahara aka Crazy Tsundere Stapler Girl's relationship is about as weird and unlikely, and usually downright sadistic as it gets. And yet somehow it works, for them.
Memetic Mutation: Bakemonogatari is a slideshow.
Moe: Well, yeah. Though not really a harem anime, it has one guy and a bunch of girls, all of whom fall into traditional moe characterizations. In fact, some of the more Genre Savvy characters make fun of it, like Oshino's habit of calling Senjogahara Tsundere.
Rescue Romance: Shortly after regaining her weight, Hitagi declares her love for Araragi. It's somewhat subverted in how she believed that even if he didn't help her, she would've fallen for him anyway if she simply observed him rescuing others.
- Though in Nisemonogatari she comments how she might have fallen in love with anyone who rescued her, and feels extremely frustrated by this fact.
Squick: That cat spirit that turns her into a sex goddess? It's male. Stupid Sexy Tomcat.
Tear Jerker - The last episode. When Araragi realizes that when Oshino told him "I'm going to leave this city one day", that in fact was his way of saying goodbye, because he doesn't like formally saying goodbye. Whilst we already know Oshino is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, this shows that he is incredibly soft when it comes to goodbyes.
This Is Your Premise on Drugs: See above. Besides, it's by Shaft. What were you expecting?
Unfortunate Implications/Fan Disservice: The overall sexualization of Nadeko (as well as the bizarre treatment Araragi gives to Mayoi) trend in an unfortunate direction.
- The eighth episode of Nisemonogatari seems tailor-made to make people feel uncomfortable.
The Woobie: Once you get past the weird humor and puns, you realize the lives of the girls in this series SUCK.

Back to Monogatari (series)