Monogatari (series): Difference between revisions

{{work}}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* [[Adaptation Dye Job]]: In the light novels and Vofan's corresponding illustrations, Hitagi had brown hair. In the anime it's purple. There ''is'' the ending of episode six and the beginning of episode seven where everybody's hair is rather subdued and brown, but it's arguably due to lighting.

** In episode 13 her hair is quite visibly dark brown/black--even darker than in the original illustrations.

* [[All Myths Are True]]: There is the exception of the {{spoiler|wreathe-fire bee in "Karen Bee". Historical accounts of it were fabricated, and Karen's fever--characteristic of the bee's sting--was both harmless and caused by hypnotism}}.

** Note that this explanation {{spoiler|is questionable, as Kaiki is a notorious liar, especially so in this scene where he is called out for it.}}

* [[Animation Bump]]: There are several examples, and usually in warranted places like fights or demonstrations of acrobatic skill. Then there are things like one short cut in ''Nisemonogatari'' episode 4 where Shinobu and Koyomi are just talking and stretching in the bath yet are gratuitously well-animated.

** Special mention to ''Bakemonogatari'' episode 15--the entire episode is, visually, movie-quality. Even the flashbacks only use [[Animation Bump|Animation Bumped]] material from previous episodes.

* [[Asshole Victim]]: While never actually portrayed on screen {{spoiler|it is implied that the people who cursed Nadeko would become cursed themselves and constricted by the same snakes. Not that there is a whole lot of sympathy for people who placed a rather nasty curse on a girl just for rejecting a guy.}}

* [[Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance]]: Applies to most of the character designs; most invoke some type of [[Animal Motifs|Animal Motif]] while possessed by a monster which is removed once the possession is resolved. For example, Nadeko wears a cobra hood-esque oversize hat while under the effects of a snake curse but gains a completely different outfit after the curse is broken.

* [[Author Appeal]]: According to [[Word of God]], the reason for all the [[Brother-Sister Incest|fanservice]] in ''Nisemonogatari'' was that Nisioisin originally wrote it for himself and had no plans to publish it.

* [[Awesome McCoolname]]: Araragi considers one of Hachikuji's [[My Name Is Not Durwood|mistakes]], Shuraragi, to be one. For reference, "''shura''" means [[Hindu Mythology|"Asura"]] or "carnage".

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: In contrast to the happy endings of the other arcs, the end of ''Nadeko Snake'' in the anime has {{spoiler|Koyomi unable to defeat the Snake Constrictor. While he does manage to save Nadeko, Koyomi feels guilty knowing that the snake will attack the person who originally placed the curse.}}

* [[Black Comedy Rape]]: Even if it isn't exactly rape, it's certainly taking [[Refuge in Audacity]]:

** In episode 2 of Nisemonogatari, {{spoiler|Koyomi himself}} gets a taste of this.

* [[Blatant Lies]]: As would any child, Mayoi occasionally tells absolutely impossible lies. For instance, she claims to know three people named "Basugasu Bakuhatsu" (that's just a Japanese tongue twister, by the way).

* [[Body Horror]]: May count for some of the afflictions.

* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: {{spoiler|Invoked indirectly in episode 9, 20:20. Do you, the troper, [[Fetish Fuel|also have a secret fetish?]]}}

'''Araragi:''' Voice actress!? What is this, an anime!? }}

** Interestingly enough, the above line came straight from the original novel.

** This is also the reason why Oshino is often seen with a cigarette, but never with a ''lighted'' one. From the novels:

* [[Broken Aesop]]: Maybe. Araragi's anger when Hanekawa reveals that her stepfather hit her in a fight kind of loses its effect when you realize that Araragi earlier in the series not only beat up, but proceeded to "shamelessly molest" a fifth grader he had just met that day. [[Played for Laughs|But it was funny when he did it.]]

** It should be noted that even when Koyomi beat up Mayoi, Tsubasa reprimanded him--[[Harsher in Hindsight|it's abuse if you hit a child without giving a reason]].

* [[Catch Phrase]]: Koyomi gets a few catch-dialogues with other characters.

** With Tsubasa:

'''Tsubasa:''' I don't know everything; just the things I know. }}

** With Mayoi:

'''Koyomi:''' It wasn't on purpose?! }}

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]] in ''Nisemonogatari'' episode 6, where Hitagi speculates that the telescope Koyomi bought her as a gift will factor into the story's climax somehow.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: A good number of characters. Hitagi, especially, is seemingly incapable of speaking in a manner other than this.

* [[Debut Queue]]

* [[Department of Redundancy Department]]: Whole dialogues are repeated with no apparent reason. There is also Senjogahara's habit of repeating the same thing several times with different emphasis.

** Also, the quick flashes during dialogue of different coloured frames that display whatever colour they are. E.g. red frame, black frame, etc.

* [[Did They or Didn't They?]]: At end of episode 7 of Nisemonogatari, with {{spoiler|Hitagi and Koyomi.}}

** A much more disturbing example at the end of the infamous episode 8 of Nisemonogatari involving {{spoiler|[[Brother-Sister Incest|Koyomi and Karen]].}}

* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: The "staple stable" opening features what appear to be staplers in rough approximations of sex positions.

** During the car ride in Episode 12, Senjogahara runs her fingers along Koyomi's thigh. Cue cut to the gas meter dinging empty.

* [[Don't Explain the Joke]]: Lots of the great wordplay gets lampshaded or straightaway explained.

* [[Driven to Suicide]]: Cause of death for 90% of all vampires, including {{spoiler|Shinobu's only other subordinate}} and {{spoiler|Araragi, until Hanekawa talks him out of it.}}

* [[Dysfunction Junction]]

* [[Easily Forgiven]]: Koyomi is remarkably cool with {{spoiler|Kanbaru}}'s attempted murder of him.

* [[Evolving Credits]]

** Each arc has its own opening animation and song. Most of them weren't finished in time for initial TV broadcasts and were replaced by "Staple Stable" (Hitagi's OP) in all but one of the episodes in each respective arc. Later disc releases have the proper OP for every episode.

** The ''Nisemonogatari'' opening starts out as a charcoal silhouette of Hitagi surrounded by brightly-colored floating text. After giving Karen's opening a turn, it returns in episode 3 with Hitagi drawn in full detail, with both her and the floating text in pastel colors.

** The ''Nisemonogatari'' ending suddenly becomes very different in episode 4 (note that the old animation was too detailed to be a placeholder like the still of Hitagi in ''Bakemonogatari'').

* [[Fan Service]]: The first twenty seconds of the show is a gratuitous [[Panty Shot]] '''[[Mundane Made Awesome|in slow motion]]'''.

** It's not exactly gratuitous, since {{spoiler|this pantyshot is the event that triggers everything: Araragi becomes so obsessed with Tsubasa's panties that he goes out late at night to buy a porn magazine to forget about them, only to find the vampire Kissshot dying under a streetlamp...}}

** Episode 9. {{spoiler|Played with, as it is also supposed to introduce viewers to Nadeko's [[Body Horror]], and yet still comes off as fanservicey.}}

** And of course, Episode 15. During a rather fast-paced sequence where {{spoiler|Shinobu kicks the ever-living crap out of Dark Hanekawa,Shinobu gets a rather blatant upskirt. And of course, she wears nothing under there besides... a band-aid to cover herself. So yeah.}} Granted, it's difficult to see clearly due to the rapid nature of the scene.

* [[Flower Motifs]]/[[Visual Pun]]: In the "Ambivalent World" opening, Suruga jumps around a bunch of giant floating lilies. "''[[Yuri Genre|Yuri]]''" is actually the word for "lily," which started picking up lesbian connotations (further detailed in the [[Schoolgirl Lesbians]] page).

* [[Foreshadowing]]: {{spoiler|In Tsukihi's opening, there's a short part where her legs continue dancing without an upper body. That's exactly what happens to her when she gets attacked in episode 10.}}

** [[Epileptic Trees|The "red" cuts show up during scenes of strong emotion, while the "black" cuts appear more in scenes with ambiguous emotion]].

** This adds up to the movie surrealism. The black/red flash is shown on screen ''when the main hero closes his eyes''. It's not about reality, but rather protagonist's ''perception'' of reality.

* [[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.

* [[Gorn]]: See [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown]] below. While it may be portrayed in variant colors in order to "censor" it, the images alone are gratuitously gruesome.

** [[Aya Hirano]] - Shinobu Oshino (in the Drama CD, and she sounds a lot like Konata from Lucky Star.)

*** In Nisemonogatari (the first time Shinobu speaks in the series) she has been replaced by [[Maaya Sakamoto]]

* [[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 [[Idiot Ball|Araragi, really]]); on the other hand, Suruga is quite forthright with her [[Girls Love|sexuality]] but no so much {{spoiler|with her violent hatred towards Araragi for "stealing" Senjogahara from her.}} As it turns out, her [[Girl-On-Girl Is Hot|provocative]] [[Fetish Fuel|teasing]] of Araragi is probably {{spoiler|a ploy to get Araragi to forget about Senjogahara, even if that means potentially having to seduce him}}.

* [[Hey, You]]: Araragi introduces Senjogahara to Oshino in this fashion.

* [[Hypocritical Humor]]:

** In "Mayoi Snail", Koyomi objects to Hitagi implying that he's an especially kinky pervert. It should be noted that he's been trying to look up her skirt the whole time.

** Each book is named "''Blank-monogatari''". Occasionally they form puns.

** Every story is named "[the afflicted's given name] [whatever monster is involved]," ''i.e.'' "Hitagi Crab," "Mayoi Snail," et cetera. The details are off for a few of the monsters in the titles (in the cases of "Mayoi Snail" and "Tsukihi Phoenix", {{spoiler|Mayoi and Tsukihi ''are'' the eponymous monsters}}, and "Suruga Monkey" {{spoiler|isn't actually about a monkey at all}}) and there exceptions for the second word even being a monster, such as "Tsubasa Family" (although it does [[Abusive Parents|makes one wonder]]) and "Hitagi End".

** Played straight with Hitagi and Hanekawa.

* [[Incest Subtext]]: Nisemono 8 could easily be renamed "In which Koyomi and his sister Karen get a little too close to each other" and no one would probably notice.

** A good portion of Nisemonogatari has this. Prepare to feel uncomfortable.

* [[I Regret Nothing]]: Araragi in Episode 14 when {{spoiler|[[Catgirl|Black Hanekawa]] accidentally energy drains him while [[Chivalrous Pervert|pressing her breasts into his back on his bicycle.]]}}

* [[Ironic Echo]]: In Nisemonogatari episode 2, Kanbaru tells Koyomi [[Black Comedy Rape|"Stop struggling! It makes it harder to remove your underwear!"]], exactly what Koyomi told Mayoi in episode 1. He even looks like Mayoi in a [[Wild Take]] while screaming.

* [[Jaw Drop]]: [[Up to Eleven|And]] ''[http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3l913kqPH1qzqnxxo1_500.gif how]''!

* [[Light Is Not Good]]: Black Hanekawa.

** Lampshaded by Koyomi after Oshino suggested calling her Black Hanekawa:

'''Koyomi:''' But she's white. }}

* [[Limited Wardrobe]]: All the background automobiles are the same model of white convertible sports car.

* [[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'' ("Damaged Goods Story"), and ''Kabukimonogatari'' ("Slope Story"), don't, but they're not really puns in Japanese either...so maybe that makes it double lucky.

* [[Magic Skirt]]: Nisemono Episode 8. Karen, with a blue tennis skirt, stands on her hands. It's only after several seconds and a bit of coversation that the skirt even starts to fall down, just to stop short of revealing anything, after which Karen tries to hold it up. This is more just one of all ridiculous details that show up than any sort of censoring, as her panties are seen at other occasions.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: As might be expected from someone who loves wordplay as much as Nisio Isin. They're on the character page.

* [[Medium Blending]]

* [[Naughty Tentacles|Naughty Snake]]: See [[Orifice Invasion]]

* [[Never Trust a Trailer]]: The first trailer for the ''Bakemonogatari'' anime implied that the series would also cover material from ''Nisemonogatari'' and ''Kizumonogatari''.

** Intentionally done to avoid censorship because the images are REALLY brutal.

** Having {{spoiler|''his entrails ripped from his belly and used to swing him around the room until they tear off''}} sets a new standard in brutality.

* [[Official Couple]]: Koyomi and Hitagi.

* [[One Dialogue, Two Conversations]]: In "Mayoi Snail", Koyomi asks Hitagi if she can read the tag on Mayoi's backpack, to which she replies that she sees no such thing. Koyomi thinks that she just can't read the tag (he used his vampiric super-vision to read it) {{spoiler|when she meant that she didn't see any grade school kid at all.}}

** The same could be said of all of the 5 con men.

* [[Orifice Invasion]]: The DVD release of Nadeko Snake [[Captain Obvious|features a snake]] that {{spoiler|forces itself into Sengoku's mouth, reminiscent of...well...[http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/3/nd003.gif/ just look]}}.

* [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]]: The main plot of ''Kabukimonogatari''.

* [[Ship Tease]]: Excluding [[Official Couple|Hitagi]], Koyomi has it with [[I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me|Tsubasa]], [[Subordinate Excuse|Shinobu]] and [[Incest Subtext|Karen]].

* [[Shout-Out]]

** [[Fullmetal Alchemist|"Copper, 40g; zinc, 25g; nickel, 15g; hiding embarrassment, 5g; and spite, 97kg."]]

** In episode 3:

'''Koyomi:''' Are you saying you're more powerful than Shen Long?! }}

** Episode 9 has a shot of Suruga and Koyomi recreating the [[Yonkoma|Gaijin 4koma]] reaction.

*** She also makes a few manga/anime references so obscure that Koyomi goes on an all out rant a few times.

** Hachikuji parodies [[Detective Conan]] in episode 6 of Nisemonogatari.

** Nisemonogatari also contains a [[Shout-Out]] to [[Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger]], starting from Deka Master's [[Badass Boast]]<ref>"Cutting down hundreds of evildoers! The Guard Dog of Hell! Deka Master!</ref> to Deka Blue's [[Gratuitous English]] [[Catch Phrase]]<ref>Super Cool. Perfect.</ref>

* [[Sibling Yin-Yang]]: Present in the Araragi family.

** Three of the girls are fascinated by lame jokes from the same radio show.

* [[Surreal Theme Tune]]: Six of them in the first series! Let's see:

** Multiple clones of an extremely energetic girl populating a city? Check.

** A court in the middle of nowhere with floating basketballs and giant flowers (Easter lilies, no less)? Check.

** ''Nisemonogatari'''s ending has [[wikipedia:Hajime Ueda|Hajime Ueda]]'s art make a comeback, with the ladies of the first series on perpetually spinning and glowing wheels and train cars in one version, and in another, the Fire Sisters dancing and singing with ''detached limbs and heads''.

* [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]: "There was no girl with bright golden hair, pale white skin, and a flat chest who spoke in a haughty, old-style voice, but appeared to be around eight years old. You imagined it."

* [[Talking Heads]]: This is an ''extremely'' dialogue oriented show, but averted by Shaft's crazy visuals.

** To describe. Episode 3 is just Hitagi and Koyomi talking in a [[Seinfeldian Conversation|playground about random stuff]].

** At least until episode 12, where she goes full blown "dere" in [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|the best way possible]].

** Episode 14 Senjougahara while on the phone with Araragi

*** This being Senjougahara, {{spoiler|she switches to being deadly serious halfway through}}.

* [[Twelve-Episode Anime]]: With three more episodes aired online, and put on DVD.

* [[Twerp Sweating]]: Koyomi's afraid Senjogahara's scary-serious looking father will do this on their first date. Subverted in that the father is actually extremely grateful to Koyomi for both curing his daughter's condition and making her happier than she's been in a long time.

* [[Unreadably Fast Text]]: Episodes open with excerpts from the novels that start off a little too fast and rapidly become totally impossible to read.

* [[Unreliable Narrator]]: Araragi is rarely, if ever, honest about his feelings (platonic or otherwise) for the various ladies that pass through his life. {{spoiler|This trope is more true of the women themselves, who tend to lie about the conditions under which they obtained their particular supernatural afflictions until it becomes ''absolutely necessary'' to tell the truth.}}

** [[Rock-Paper-Scissors]], as far as [[Hot-Blooded|Karen's]] concerned. [[Dope Slap|Koyomi doesn't agree.]]

* [[World of Symbolism]]: During the the opening for Suruga Monkey arc Kanbaru can be seen running {{spoiler|after Senjougahara}} across a field of huge floating lilies.

* [[Yaoi Fangirl]]: Suruga.

* [[Zettai Ryouiki]]: Hitagi Senjogahara certainly loves this trope.

[[Category:Web Animation]]

[[Category:Light Novels]]