Monogatari (series): Difference between revisions

'''''Bakemonogatari''''' ("Ghostory") is the first novel in a series of [[Light Novels]] by Nisio Isin which center on Koyomi Araragi, a third year high school student who recently recovered from vampirism. One day, he meets a classmate named Hitagi Senjogahara when she [[Banana Peel|falls down the stairs]] [[Falling Into His Arms|into his arms]]. Discovering that Hitagi weighs next to nothing because her weight has been stolen by a crab god, Koyomi offers to help her and introduces her to Meme Oshino (not ''that'' [[Memetic Mutation|meme]]), the middle-aged homeless man who helped him recover from vampirism and who specializes in supernatural problem solving.

 

 

'''''Kizumonogatari''''' ("Scar Story") is the second novel in the series and is the prequel to ''Bakemonogatari''. It reveals the story of how Koyomi encountered the vampire Shinobu, then named "Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-blade", along with meeting Meme Oshino and Tsubasa Hanekawa. It will be adapted into a [http://www.japanator.com/bakemonogatari-s-prequel-kizumonogatari-getting-a-movie-19001.phtml theatrical film] with a release slated in 2012.

* [[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.

* [[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.

* [[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.

* [[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]]

** 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]''!

* [[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.

* [[A Man Is Not a Virgin]]: Subverted and lampshaded when Hitagi makes fun of Koyomi for being a virgin. Soon after, it is revealed that {{spoiler|[[Hypocritical Humor|Hitagi is a virgin as well]]}}.

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

* [[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."]]

{{quote| '''Hitagi:''' I'll fulfill whatever your wish is. Whether it's world conquest, or eternal life, or [[Dragonball Z|to defeat the Saiyans that are coming to earth.]]<br />

'''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]].

** [[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.