Literature / Bakemonogatari

The Monogatari Series is a franchise of Light Novels and associated media projects, with the original novels written by NisiOisiN and illustrated by VOFAN.

The series follows Koyomi Araragi, an initially mundane, if introverted, high school student who encounters a vampire just before his senior year. The experience draws him, and eventually, his family and friends, into the supernatural world of "aberrations", spirits who prey upon the emotional turmoil of humans, and the "specialists" who study and hunt them.

Much like the rest of Nisio Isin's work, Bakemonogatari parodies or otherwise examines a number of Japanese fiction tropes, particularly those typical to the Harem Genre. Each chapter focuses on a different girl and the affliction that ails them, each one an examination of a different anime girl stereotype. For example, main girl Hitagi is a Tsundere (or so she says), Hanekawa is the Bespectacled Cutie, and so on. Araragi himself is an Unreliable Narrator, so much of his opinion of who these girls are can bleed into their portrayal in the series, making it so that we often learn more about Araragi at the same time we learn about the girls.

The Monogatari Series contains the following titles:

First Season

• Bakemonogatari (Monster Tale)
  • "Chapter One: Hitagi Crab":^animeTV series Bakemonogatari episodes 1 and 2 On the way to class one day, Koyomi Araragi catches Hitagi Senjogahara as she falls down the stairs and discovers she is nearly weightless. After she reveals the cause of this, a crab deity, Koyomi insists on helping cure her despite her guarded act.
  • "Chapter Two: Mayoi Snail":^animeTV series Bakemonogatari episodes 3-5 Koyomi happens upon Mayoi Hachikuji, a grade school girl who can't find her way home.
  • "Chapter Three: Suruga Monkey":^animeTV series Bakemonogatari episodes 6-8 Koyomi meets Suruga Kanbaru, an old friend of Hitagi's, who hopes to prevent any harm caused by her wish on a monkey's paw.
  • "Chapter Four: Nadeko Snake":^animeTV series Bakemonogatari episodes 9 and 10 A love triangle has resulted in Nadeko Sengoku, a friend of Koyomi's sisters, being targeted by a malicious snake spirit.
  • "Chapter Five: Tsubasa Cat":^animeTV series Bakemonogatari episodes 11-15 Tsubasa Hanekawa's dark side—an energy-draining cat spirit—has resurfaced to menace her family.
• Kizumonogatari (Wound Tale)
  • "Chapter Zero: Koyomi Vamp":^animeTheatrical films Kizumonogatari I: Tekketsu, Kizumonogatari II: Nekketsu, and Kizumonogatari III: Reiketsu A prequel. The story of how Koyomi met Hanekawa, the aberration specialist Meme Oshino, and the iron-blooded, hot-blooded, yet cold-blooded vampire Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade.
• Nisemonogatari (Fake Tale)
  • "Chapter Six: Karen Bee":^animeTV series Nisemonogatari episodes 1-7 Koyomi's sister Karen ends up cursed herself after she tries to take down Deishu Kaiki, the man who was hired to curse Nadeko.
  • "Final Chapter : Tsukihi Phoenix":^animeTV anime Nisemonogatari episodes 8-11 Koyomi's other sister, Tsukihi, is targeted for death by the anti-aberration hardliner Yozuru Kagenui.
• Nekomonogatari (Kuro) (Cat Tale: Black)
  • "Chapter Nixed: Tsubasa Family":^animeTV special Nekomonogatari (Kuro) episodes 1-4 Another prequel, this time depicting Tsubasa's first possession by the cat.

Second Season

• Nekomonogatari (Shiro) (Cat Tale: White)
  • "Chapter Snug: Tsubasa Tiger":^animeTV series Monogatari Series Second Season episodes 1-5 After a house fire forces her to make temporary living arrangements, Tsubasa finds herself being stalked by a tiger spirit.
• Kabukimonogatari (Dandy Tale)
  • "Chapter Idle: Mayoi Jiangshi":^animeTV series Monogatari Series Second Season episodes 6-9 Koyomi and Shinobu time travel backward eleven years to prevent Mayoi's death.
• Hanamonogatari (Flower Tale)
  • "Chapter Change: Suruga Devil":^animeTV special Hanamonogatari episodes 1-5 Suruga encounters an old sports rival who is trying to gather the other body parts matching Suruga's monkey paw.
• Otorimonogatari (Decoy Tale)
  • "Chapter Chaos: Nadeko Medusa":^animeTV series Monogatari Series Second Season episodes 10-13 As stress mounts at school and in her personal life, Nadeko encounters a weakened snake deity who promises to change her situation.
• Onimonogatari (Demon Tale)
  • "Chapter Sneak: Shinobu Time":^animeTV series Monogatari Series Second Season episodes 14-17 Shinobu elaborates on her past and her attempts to defy the laws of nature.
• Koimonogatari (Love Tale)
  • "Chapter Romance: Hitagi End":^animeTV series Monogatari Series Second Season episodes 18-23 Despite her trepidation, Hitagi hires Kaiki to prevent her and Koyomi's impending deaths.

Final Season

• Tsukimonogatari (Possession Tale)
  • "Chapter Body: Yotsugi Doll":^animeTV special Tsukimonogatari episodes 1-4 Koyomi is placed under the protection of Kagenui's undead familiar, Yotsugi Ononoki, when a sudden resurgence in his vampiric traits makes him the target of another aberration-hunter.
• Owarimonogatari (End Tale)
  • "Chapter One: Ogi Formula":^animeTV series Owarimonogatari episodes 1 and 2 Koyomi meets Meme's self-proclaimed niece, Ogi Oshino. The pair find themselves magically locked in Koyomi's freshman year classroom, where an unsolved incident inspired Koyomi's previous commitment to being friendless.
  • "Chapter Two: Sodachi Riddle":^animeTV series Owarimonogatari episodes 3 and 4 Sodachi Oikura, a key figure in the freshman year incident, suddenly reenters Koyomi's life, and despises him for reasons he doesn't know.
  • "Chapter Three: Sodachi Lost":^animeTV series Owarimonogatari episodes 5-7 Sodachi's home life and family history are explored.
  • "Chapter Four: Shinobu Mail":^animeTV series Owarimonogatari episodes 8-13 Shinobu's first vampiric progeny has revived and targets Koyomi.
• Koyomimonogatari (Calendar Tale):^animeWeb series Koyomimonogatari episodes 1-12 A collection of short stories that document minor incidents and set up plot threads for Owarimonogatari II. These episodes are set one month apart throughout the first, second, and final seasons. Includes "Koyomi Stone", "Koyomi Flower", "Koyomi Sand", "Koyomi Water", "Koyomi Wind", "Koyomi Tree", "Koyomi Tea", "Koyomi Mountain", "Koyomi Torus", "Koyomi Seed", "Koyomi Nothing", and "Koyomi Dead".
• Owarimonogatari II
  • "Chapter Five: Mayoi Hell":^animeTV series Owarimonogatari II episodes 1-2 Koyomi meets Mayoi again under strange circumstances.
  • "Chapter Six: Hitagi Rendezvous":^animeTV series Owarimonogatari II episodes 3-4 Koyomi and Hitagi celebrate the end of college entrance exams with a date.
  • "Chapter Seven: Ogi Dark":^animeTV series Owarimonogatari II episodes 5-7 Ogi Oshino's true nature is finally revealed.
• Zoku Owarimonogatari (End Tale Cont.)
  • "Chapter Final: Koyomi Reverse":^animeTV series Zoku Owarimonogatari episodes 1-6 Koyomi finds himself in a mirror world.

Off Season

• Orokamonogatari (Fool Tale)
  • "Chapter Zero: Sodachi Fiasco"
  • "Chapter Zero: Suruga Bonehead"
  • "Chapter Zero: Tsukihi Undo"
• Wazamonogatari (Karma Tale)
  • "Cruel Fairy Tale: Princess Fair"
  • "Chapter Zero: Acerola Bon Appétit"
  • "Chapter Zero: Karen Ogre"
  • "Chapter Zero: Tsubasa Sleeping"
• Nademonogatari (Stroke Tale^note 撫 nade from 撫子 Nadeko)
  • "Chapter Zero: Nadeko Draw"
• Musubimonogatari (Connection Tale)
  • "Chapter One: Zenka Mermaid"
  • "Chapter Two: Nozomi Golem"
  • "Chapter Three: Mitome Wolf"
  • "Chapter Four: Tsuzura Human"

Monster Season

• Shinobumonogatari (Endurance Tale^note 忍 shinobu from 忍 Shinobu)
  • "Chapter One: Shinobu Mastered"
• Yoimonogatari (Evening Tale^note 宵 yoi from 真宵 Mayoi)
  • "Chapter Two: Mayoi Snail"^note Bakemonogatari's "Mayoi Snail" uses the Japanese word maimai, while this "Mayoi Snail" uses the English word. For the time being, everything below refers to Bakemonogatari "Mayoi Snail".
  • "Chapter Three: Mayoi Snake"
• Amarimonogatari (Remainder Tale^note 余 amari from 余接 Yotsugi)
  • "Chapter Four: Yotsugi Body"
  • "Chapter Five: Yotsugi Shadow"
• Ōgimonogatari (Fan Tale^note 扇 ōgi from 扇 Ōgi)
  • "Chapter Six: Ogi Light"
  • "Chapter Seven: Ogi Fright"
• Shinomonogatari (Death Tale)
  • "Chapter Eight: Shinobu Suicide"
  • "Chapter Final: Nadeko Around"

Studio SHAFT adapted Bakemonogatari into an anime in 2009 under the direction of Akiyuki Shinbo, the man behind the surrealism of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei. The adaptation has been a huge success, and the studio has stated they will adapt the entire series (even as Isin keeps writing more and more). As noted in the list above, the first three novel seasons have been adapted to anime in some form, including broadcast series, original net animations, TV specials and theatrical films.

As for English releases, Aniplex USA released the first season of the anime in North America in November 2012 and Nisemonogatari in February 2013. They released Monogatari Series Second Season, Nekomonogatari (Black), Hanamonogatari, Tsukimonogatari and Owarimonogatari. Meanwhile, Vertical began releasing the novels in English with Kizumonogatari in December 2015 and translated the first three novel seasons.

A manga adaptation of the series, illustrated by Oh! Great (of Air Gear and Tenjou Tenge fame), was serialized in Weekly Shonen Magazine from 2018 to 2023. It's also part of a 2017 crossover gag series with Pretty Boy Detective Club and Zaregoto.

And, no. Ore Monogatari!! is in no way related to this series. Nor is Umi Monogatari. Same thing with Katanagatari, even though it is written by the same author.

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Provides examples of the following tropes:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Pretty common, but the prevalence of Medium Blending and overall visual weirdness helps make it feel less out of place. Special mention goes to the Mini Cooper in episodes 3-4 of Owarimonogatari S2. Which is completely CGI inside and out.
• Actor Allusion: At the end of "Nadeko Medusa"'s stinger, Nadeko makes a lame pun and claims, "No pun intended!", much like Kagami Yagami (also voiced by Kana Hanazawa).
• 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.
  • Hitagi's hair is a bit odd case, as in anime they are usually shown purple, but on several occasions when she dropped her mean act, they were shown brown.
  • Sodachi Oikura, a brunette, makes her anime debut with her hair bleached white.
• Adapted Out:
  • Hanekawa's lengthy soliloquy at the end of Nekomonogatari White is about her coming to terms with her own shortcomings and acknowledging that she must spur herself into growing as a person, while at the same time finally realizing that her guardians are abusive and that this isn't her own fault. The anime leaves out this last bit.
  • In Onimonogatari, Yotsugi evaluates a shirtless Koyomi like a hunk of meat because, well, she is literally thinking about him as a hunk of meat. The punchline is left out in the anime, which alters the joke into Yotsugi being surprisingly sexually aggressive. However, a similar joke appears in Tsukimonogatari, where even in the anime Yotsugi makes clear in what way she hungers for Koyomi.
  • In an adapted-out segment in Otorimonogatari, Araragi rushes in due to Nadeko's scream when Tsukihi cuts her hair, has Karen take Nadeko to another room, and is implied to molest Tsukihi as punishment.
  • Throughout the entire series, a hole can be seen in the roof of the abandoned cram school. In the Kizumonogatari novel, we learn that this hole was created by a fully-restored Kissshot after Araragi gets all her limbs and her heart back, because there was no way up to the roof otherwise. Not only was this scene entirely removed in the movie adaptation, but in direct contrast to the novel, Araragi is seen clearly using a staircase when he leaves.
• Airplane of Love: Done in the last episode, with it flying right over the characters it symbolizes.
• All Myths Are True: There is the exception of the 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 is questionable, as Kaiki is a notorious liar, especially so in this scene where he is called out for it. Oshino states in Nekomonogatari that aberrations are defined by people's expectations of them. Thus, by Kaiki telling Araragi that, the damage could already be healed.
• All Women Are Lustful: Played hilariously to disturbingly straight. Kanbaru is a self described pervert, Senjougahara admits to influencing Kanbaru and proves it by whispering unmentionable things to Koyomi whilst rubbing his thigh and licking his ear, the last arc of Bakemonogatari Season 1 is caused by Hanekawa repressing her desires, both of Koyomi's little sisters are implied to lust for him (not to mention the toothbrush scene), Nadeko tried to seduce him by wearing skimpy clothes and playing Twister with him, and those are just the most prominent examples.
• Anachronic Order: The order of the installments is a bit confusing, especially since they should be consumed in their publishing order for the proper impact of Character Development and to avoid the occasional Late-Arrival Spoiler. Further muddling the hypothetical perfect chronological order is the fact that some installments are Whole Episode Flashbacks (i.e. the actual bulk of the story is set during one period while the narrator is telling someone about those events several months later). The order of the first three Seasons is as follows:^note In the event of a Whole Episode Flashback, the time period of the flashback is used Kizumonogatari, Nekomonogatari (Kuro), Bakemonogatari, Nisemonogatari, Kabukimonogatari, Onimonogatari/Owarimonogatari ("Shinobu Mail")/Nekomonogatari (Shiro) (these three all cover the same four days), Owarimonogatari ("Ogi Formula"/"Sodachi Riddle"/"Sodachi Lost"), Otorimonogatari, Koimonogatari, Tsukimonogatari, Owarimonogatari ("Mayoi Hell"/"Hitagi Rendezvous"/"Ogi Dark"), Zoku Owarimonogatari, and Hanamonogatari. Koyomimonogatari is a set of 12 short stories set a month apart chronologically that are spaced out across the entire series, starting just after Kizumonogatari, and Koyomi tends to state exactly when each story takes places in relation to other events, conveniently enough.
• And the Adventure Continues: "Karen Bee" ends with Karen and Tsukihi setting out to heal the damage done by Kaiki.
• 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 Bumped material from previous episodes.
• Art Shift:
  • As is typical for Shaft productions, during significant monologues and other intense moments, the show's visual style will often completely change into something like the nightmarish Russian animation-inspired paper cutouts of Gekidan Inu Curry or the kinetic, minimalistic style of URA.
  • Koyomi occasionally flashes into the art styles of different classic manga, such as Doraemon. The next episode previews are also animated in a chibi style and there have even been multiple shifts into the art style of The Powerpuff Girls.
• Ascended Extra: Both Shinobu and the Fire Sisters were practically thertiary characters in Bakemonogatari, where they only appeared in a couple of scenes at best. Then Nisemonogatari came and the three of them became the main characters of the series along with Koyomi. While Karen and Tsukihi returned to be supporting characters after the end of Nisemonogatari, Shinobu still remains as a very important character for the series until these days.
• Asshole Victim: While never actually portrayed on screen 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 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.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The "staple stable" opening features a giant Hitagi.
• Author Appeal: The entire franchise, according to Word of God.
• Awesome McCoolname: Araragi considers one of Hachikuji's mistakes, Shuraragi, to be one. For reference, "shura" means "Asura" or "carnage".
• Banana Peel: The reason Hitagi fell in the first place.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: The Suruga Monkey arc.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • Hanekawa at first seems like a very sweet and shy bookworm. However, later on it's revealed that she has a much darker side, and is entirely capable of being a Manipulative Bastard—she's just too dedicated to being a good person to do it. Even Senjogahara actively fears her.
  • Both Araragi and Karen are terrified whenever Tsukihi gets angry.
• Big Bad: One for each "season"!
  • The villain of the first season 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".
  • The villain of the second season is harmless little Nadeko, driven mad by jealousy and obsession for Araragi. She ends up bonding with a snake god, becoming a Physical God in the process.
  • The villain of later stories in the series is Ogi Oshino, the supposed niece (and later, nephew?) of Meme.
• Big Ball of Violence: Koyomi and Mayoi engage in this a couple times in episodes 3-5. Again in episode 1 of Nisemonogatari.
• Big Brother Instinct: Araragi was apparently something of a bully to his sisters when he was younger, but in episode 8 of Nisemonogatari (part 1 of Tsukihi Phoenix) while mistakenly believing that Karen is being bullied he demands the names and addresses of everyone involved.
  • Araragi also goes in something of a murderous rampage the moment he sees that his younger little sister gets torn in half in episode 10.
• Bittersweet Ending: In contrast to the happy endings of the other arcs, the end of Nadeko Snake in the anime has 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.
  • Nadeko Medusa is just as bittersweet and just avoids being a Downer Ending thanks to Hitagi making a deal with Nadeko to delay her killing Koyomi and the rest.
• Black Comedy Rape: Even if it isn't exactly rape, it's certainly taking Refuge in Audacity:

  Koyomi: (voiceover) There stood a high school boy who, forgetting himself, forcefully sexually harassed an elementary school girl with all his might. But I at least want to believe that wasn't me.

  • In episode 2 of Nisemonogatari, 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).
• Bloodier and Gorier: Kizumonogatari and its adaptation are extremely violent, even by the series standard. This is especially notable with the movies, which have so much blood it often borders on Gorn. Special note goes to the final fight between Araragi and Kissshot which sees them tear each other's heads off within the first minute, and it only gets crazier from there.
• Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Lots of the comical dialog between characters is performed this way, with Araragi usually acting as the Straight Man.
• Body Horror: May count for some of the afflictions.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Invoked indirectly in episode 9, 20:20.
  Senjogahara: I can imitate your voice. So don't worry, leave it to me. After all, my voice actress is excellent.
  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:
  Oshino: Well, if I lit a cigarette now wouldn't the anime adaptation become difficult?
  • And in Tsubasa Tiger: Tsubasa is conscious of the skipped chapters.
  • Of course, there's also this gem:
  Hachikuji: Like a story that got a lot of mileage from jokes about how it'll never be animated but actually ended up getting an anime due to some mistake.
• Brick Joke: In "Mayoi Snail, part one", Hitagi talks about the possibility of using the word "Wonder" as an alternative for the word "Moe", e.g., "Maid Wonder" or "Cat Ear Wonder". Two episodes later, after confessing her love to Koyomi, she asks that he put his feelings for her into words.
  Koyomi: I hope it catches on... Senjogahara Wonder.
• 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. But it was funny when he did it.
  • It should be noted that even when Koyomi beat up Mayoi, Tsubasa reprimanded him-it's abuse if you hit a child without giving a reason.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Since the tooth-brushing scene in Nisemonogatari episode 8 is effectively G-Rated Sex (well, more like PG) nearly escalating to R-rated sex before Tsukihi intervened and Koyomi and Karen decide to continue it, their relationship is pretty close to this.
• Bust-Contrast Duo: The leading ladies are the slender, willowy and borderline-homicidal Senjougahara, and Hanekawa, whom the protagonist notes as having the largest breasts in his class, and with whom he's on more generally friendly terms.
• Butch Lesbian: Suruga, in that distinctly Japanese way: sure, she talks dirty and smacks Koyomi around (and more), but she still looks very feminine and caters directly to those with a bicycle short fetish.
• Call-Back:
  • The Nisemonogatari opening alludes to the events of "Hitagi Crab" (Hitagi's staple attacks, falling through the school staircase, the red text that swims around the shell of the otherwise invisible weight crab) and also makes visual and musical references to its opening song, "staple stable".
  • Episode 6 of Nisemonogatari ("Karen Bee") has a short montage where Hitagi is shown in all the outfits she wore in Bakemonogatari.
  • Later on in the same episode, Hitagi strikes the same exaggerated backward lean she did in "Hitagi Crab".
• Call-Forward: In "Koyomi Water" (which takes place between Bakemonogatari and Nisemonogatari) Araragi remarks to Kanbaru that he's worried she wants to imprison him, to which she replies (paraphrased) "Never! Maybe Senjogahara would though." Guess what the opening scene of Nisemonogatari is?
• Cat Girl: Dark Hanekawa of course! And soooo cute too. Despite possessing a female body, however, the cat itself is male.
• Catchphrase: Koyomi gets a few catch-dialogues with other characters.
  • With Tsubasa:
    Koyomi: You really know everything, don't you?
    Tsubasa: I don't know everything; just the things I know.
  • With Mayoi:
    Mayoi: Hello, [corruption of "Araragi"]-san!
    Koyomi: [correction]
    Mayoi: Sorry, I stuttered.
    Koyomi: That was on purpose.
    Mayoi: I stuttuted!
    Koyomi: It wasn't on purpose?!
  • Black Hanekawa (at least in the anime): NYAHAHAHAHAHA~ (awkwardly translated as Meow-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha). At this point it's even a meme now.
• Central Theme: In Nisemonogatari, fake versus real: is an incredible imitation innately worth less than the real thing? Can a fake become "real" depending on how it's perceived?
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Karen, enough to completely wreck a highway.
• Chekhov's Gun: 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.
• Child Hater: Senjougahara severely dislikes children due to an incident where bumping into a child and apologizing to them made her feel powerless. After explaining this, as well as her other views on kids, to Araragi, Hachikuji, who also heard her rant, became even more terrified of her. It isn't clear if Senjougahara was being honest or if she was making an excuse for why she didn't want to wait alone with a girl she can't even see.
• 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 I say suffer...)
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Aberrations come into being because people believe that they exist, and are directly shaped by their continued perception. As revealed in Onimonogatari, Shinobu/Kissshot spent much of her backstory testing the extreme cases of this phenomenon.
  • Shinobu's current childlike behavior is partly due to the fact that Koyomi, being the only person she regularly interacts with, expects her to act that way. This is an interesting case, since there are still plenty of people and aberrations out there that regard her as The Dreaded.
  • Kissshot begins to fade away after settling in Antarctica because there aren't any people around to observe her.
  • After that, she encounters the opposite problem upon moving to Japan, a place with humans who don't know about vampires. The locals regard her not as an exceptional vampire, but an actual deity, which grants her incredible power but summons a reactionary natural phenomenon, the "Darkness", which "punishes liars" by erasing aberrations who act outside of their normal role in folklore.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Watching a high-schooler glomp, molest and get into fights with a grade-schooler somehow manages to be hilarious.
• Cool Big Sis: According to Hanekawa, Senjogahara was this back in middle school, gaining popularity among guys and girls, but especially younger girls.
• Cool Sword: True to her name, Shinobu (or Heart-Under-Blade) has Heart Span, an incredibly long nodachi capable of killing aberrations in one hit. It's rather understated outside of its length, though. It doesn't even have a handle—it's just an unadorned tang.
• Cruel Twist Ending: Did you think Hitagi End had a nice conclusion? Too bad, Kaiki apparently gets murdered by the junior high kid that cursed Nadeko wayyyy back in Nadeko Snake.
  • Subverted at the beginning of Suruga Devil when Kanbaru meets Kaiki in a train station. This chronologically takes place after Hitagi End, which means that Kaiki's apparent death was actually just Kaiki being an Unreliable Narrator.
• Curtains Match the Window: Ononoki Yotsugi.
• Dance Battler: Karen is basically this, what with her spins, kicks and apparent ability to ignore gravity (as noted by Koyomi).
• Dancing Theme:
  • Discussed by Hachikuji and Araragi in episode one of Nisemonogatari, although the trope is not actually implemented—the episode doesn't have an ending theme, and when the ending actually does appear in episode two, there's no dancing to be found.
  • Straight example with the opening to the "Tsukihi Phoenix" arc, which features Tsukihi performing Japanese dance.
• Darker and Edgier: Sodachi Riddle and Sodachi Lost are arguably the darkest stories of the series (with Kizumonogatari close behind) since there are no aberrations involved merely one very messed up abused and traumatized girl, and the family situation that is behind her circumstances. The implications there, especially the twist in Sodachi Lost are horrifying.
• Deadpan Snarker: A good number of characters. Hitagi, especially, is seemingly incapable of speaking in a manner other than this.
• Debut Queue: Most of the main cast is introduced in Bakemonogatari, and with the exceptions of Tsubasa and Shinobu, who are present from the start and are elaborated upon later, each girl is neatly introduced one at a time with a whole story arc dedicated to her before moving on to the next one. This applies less so to later books in the series, but due to the fiercely enforced Minimalist Cast trope, more than two characters are never introduced at a time anyway.
• Deliberately Monochrome: One scene in Nisemonogatari episode 6. Also several scenes in episode 7, to parody the style of old Samurai films.
• Demoted to Extra: Zigzagged. After the arc of one of the heroines ends, she usually takes a supporting role unless the series decides to give her a new arc, in which case she ends taking a lead role again. Not even Senjougahara is free of this.
  • Araragi suffers of this during some of the arcs of Second Season (namely Nekomonogatari: Shiro, Otorimonogatari, Koimonogatari and Hanamonogatari), where he appears as a supporting character and isn't the POV character of the arc.
• 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.
• 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.
• Diabolus ex Machina: At the very end of Koimonogatari, just as Kaiki leaves the city, implied to have learned a valuable lesson himself after helping everybody else solve their own issues of the story, he is beaten with a baseball bat by the guy from "Nadeko Snake" who had the curse reflected back on him. Fortunately, he survives. The whole sequence lasts less than a minute and is incredibly brutal, shocking, and effective. Though, it was mentioned that he was being followed it still seems to come out of nowhere.
• Did They or Didn't They?: At end of episode 7 of Nisemonogatari, with Hitagi and Koyomi. It would definitely be "did", except it is ever brought up again, even by the "involved" parties, and in Nekomonogatari (White), Hitagi appears to have her Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality back and intact.
  • A much more disturbing example at the end of the infamous episode 8 of Nisemonogatari involving Koyomi and Karen. Disproved as of episode 9, with Koyomi still referring to his sister as a virgin.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Did Meme just judo throw a crab god? Hitagi gets rid of it by asking it to leave her alone and restore her burdens a little later, but Meme implies he could have finished it off if he had to.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • The "staple stable" opening features staplers in what appear to be 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.
    • It's augmented by her whispering obscene words to him and sensually biting his ear while he's fidgeting and whimpering "St-stop it." It's all wrapped up by seeing his hair that once stood pointed and firm, turn all flaccid. At this point, it's not even subtext.
  • Not at all sexual and probably highly disturbing, when Koyomi has Shinobu drink his blood so he can regain some amount of a vampire's abilities, the scene is highly reminiscent of a mother nursing an infant. He even pats her back to get her to let go.
  • The scene where Koyomi touches Suruga's monkey arm. He even lampshades it by yelling at her for making weird noises.
  • The scene in "Tsukihi Phoenix" where Koyomi brushes Karen's teeth and everything leading up to it is effectively PG rated sex.
• 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 Shinobu's only other subordinate and Araragi, until Hanekawa talks him out of it.
• Dysfunction Junction
• Easily Forgiven: Koyomi is remarkably cool with Kanbaru's attempted murder of him. Strictly speaking, she's not even the only person he forgives for attempted murder.
• Eldritch Abomination: The aberration-eating "law of nature" in Onimonogatari is some kind of strange force that consumes aberrations who don't conform to their nature. It's mainly described by exclusion; Koyomi and Mayoi initially notice it by a powerful sense of dread emanating from a particular direction. Upon seeing it, Koyomi seems to assume that something worse is hidden in the darkness, and struggles to quantify it with phrases like "the dark space where the aberration should be".
• Energy Absorption: Both meddlesome cats and vampires have the ability to drain energy through touch, but they work in slightly different ways—the cat's energy drain can't be turned off and is painful to the target, while the vampiric version can be controlled and is painless.
• Enhanced on DVD: Nearly every scene is reworked in some way. The most notable examples are the climax of the "Nadeko Snake" arc, where the climactic scene was finally fully animated (in the broadcast version, only a handful of frames interspersed with blank cards were shown due to missed deadlines), and an early episode of "Karen Bee", where Karen's introduction was completely redrawn to fix a flagrant continuity error where Karen would appear on opposite ends of the street depending on the camera angle.
• Every Episode Ending: Every chapter of Koyomimonogatari ends with "And now for the epilogue, or rather, the punchline."
• Everybody Knew Already: Nadeko's crush on Araragi, which pretty much everyone except him figures out right away.
• Evolving Credits
  • The Bakemonogatari end credits start off as a static drawing of Hitagi by Vofan. Eventually it's replaced by a fully animated sequence featuring all the major characters, but it's still Hitagi-centric. During "Nadeko Snake" and "Tsubasa Cat" the intro to the first half changes and the whole second half focuses on Nadeko and Tsubasa, respectively.
  • 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 starts off as an extended version of what turns out to be a minor asset in the finished ending, which debuts in episode 4. The ending also changes to keep up with the characters' changing hairstyles and new characters being introduced.
• Exposition Intuition: Somehow, Meme Oshino can always tell what supernatural phenomena affected each girl, usually based on Koyomi's secondhand recounting of their story of their problem.
• Exposition of Immortality: Koyomi reveals to Hitagi that he has a vampiric Healing Factor by showing her the injury she left inside his mouth with a stapler already healed.
• Face Fault: Although played oddly realistically—in one example, Hitagi says something and Koyomi's legs are in the air in his next shot; in another, Koyomi simply slowly falls backward in reaction to a remark by Suruga.
• Faceless Masses: Very occasionally. More often than not only the people that matter will be onscreen at all anyway.
• The Fair Folk: The "heavy crab" possessing Hitagi is described this way by Meme.
• Fake First Kiss: Tsukihi is upset and Koyomi tries to calm her down with a kiss. Tsukihi (who doesn't know she's not his sister) is naturally Squicked out about her Sacred First Kiss being stolen by her brother. He tells her don't think of it as a "real" first kiss because he's just a pervert.
• Fake-Out Opening: The first episode starts with a rapid montage of fast paced action and violence.These images belong to Kizumonogatari, a prequel to the Bakemonogatari series that tells the story of Koyomi's vampirism, and it got its own adapttion into a trilogy of animated movies, shown in a flyer that came attached to Nekomonogatari (link NSFW).
• Fanservice: The first twenty seconds of the show is a Panty Shot in slow motion.
  • Episode 2. See the lingerie scene trope below.
  • Episode 9. 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 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.
  • Episode 2 of Nisemonogatari could just as well be titled "Vaguely Creepy Fanservice"; it starts with Koyomi narrating about his sisters, while depicting them in provocative poses, proceeds to him meeting with Sengoku who tries to clumsily seduce him, and ends with his meeting with Kanbaru who keeps posing to him naked for no apparent reason. Taking into account the characters' biological relationship, age, and sexual orientation, it seems to be aimed specifically to make viewer aroused and uncomfortable at the same time.
  • Two episodes later, the Furo Scene of Koyomi and Shinobu (which lasts more than half of that episode) provides plentiful of eye candy for both genders of the audience.
  • In the 5th episode of Nisemonogatari, Koyomi spends the first part of the episode in just a towel. Which eventually falls when he stands up. Yay.
  • Episode 1 of 2013 season, Senjougahara strips down to her underwear… again.
  • The following episode, we get the Shower Scene with Senjougahara and Hanekawa… together. "WOW!"
  • Episode 13 of Monogatari Series has Nadeko striking random poses in her bedroom.
• First-Name Basis: In "Hitagi Rendezvous", Hitagi and Koyomi begin using their given names with each other, which is portrayed as romantic and a huge step forward in their relationship. In "Ogi Dark" it's also revealed that Hitagi and Tsubasa also use their given names with each other.
• Flower Motifs/Visual Pun: In the "Ambivalent World" opening, Suruga jumps around a bunch of giant floating lilies. "Yuri" is actually the word for "lily," which started picking up lesbian connotations.
• Foregone Conclusion: One of the first things Kizumonogatari tells you is that the story doesn't end happily for anyone. Araragi isn't human anymore, Kissshot doesn't get to die and loses her name and Hanekawa's problems begin. Guillotinecutter is dead.
• Foreshadowing: 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.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Besides the Unreadably Fast Text detailed below, there will often be flashes of red/black cards with the word "red"/"black" written on them, for whatever reason.
  • 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.
  • Plus, the anime is obviously an adaptation of a novel and the black/red/white/blue panel indicates that some pages were skipped.
  • Episode 1 of Nisemonogatari, during the Big Ball of Violence scene, you can see that Araragi has almost successfully removed Mayoi's panties.
• From a Single Cell: The antagonist of "Shinobu Mail" is an ancient vampire who had been reduced to aerosolized ash—apparently, Monogatari vampires can literally recover from a handful of damaged cells. However, the healing process is grievously slow until the vampire has coalesced to the point of being able to feed, and whatever tiny measure of progress can easily be wiped out by daylight or a number of other circumstances. It would appear that the only surefire way to kill a vampire is for another vampire to eat it.
• Gender-Blender Name: Quoth Mayoi: "Isn't Koyomi a girl's name?"
• Generation Xerox: Specialists from Oshino Meme's circle have personalities and ethics of younger characters taken to the extreme. Kagenui Yodzuru is a grown-up version of Fire Sisters, Gaen Izuko is a grown-up version of Hanekawa and Kaiki Deishuu in later arcs is revealed to be a grown-up version of Araragi. In one of the short stories Tsukihi even reprimands Araragi for acting like a con artist.
• Giant Enemy Crab: A crab god, who takes away weight. Must've been some crab.
• The Glomp: Pretty much everytime Koyomi sees Mayoi.
• Gratuitous English: Sorekara...Araragi-kun...I LOVE YOU.
  • Congratulations...
  • Hitagi's "Parent Teacher Association".
  • There is a scene where the Gettysburg Address was shown with correct spelling and grammar.
• 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.
• HA HA HA—No: In what at first appears to be a Nisemonogatari culmination showdown brief pause, Shinobu refuses Kagenui's offer to pick up the debatably-free role of Kagenui's opponent, but not before having a resonating spirited laugh.
• Harem Genre: While simultaneously fitting in the harem genre and also not, Bakemonogatari also examines many of the genre's tropes at length, and a lot of the characters apply directly to a common stereotype found in Harem media, like Hitagi being the Tsundere, or Nadeko being the overly Moe girl. However, the series goes to great length to examine how damaging a lot of these stereotypes are, and puts forward the message that categorizing characters into these stereotypes is both shallow and hurtful. Also, despite being a harem, Araragi never decides to romance anyone other than Hitagi- in essence, the series really isn't a harem.
• 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 not 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.
• Hey, You!: Araragi introduces Senjogahara to Oshino in this fashion.
• Honorable Marriage Proposal: Koyomi Araragi visits his lesbian underclassman, Kanbaru Suruga, while she's lounging naked in her room. At first, she doesn't make an effort to change or cover herself, and Araragi (jokingly) offers to take responsibility for viewing her in this state by marrying her. She says that while his offer is very attractive, she doesn't want his Clingy Jealous Girlfriend to murder her.
• How We Got Here: Nisemonogatari opens with Koyomi waking up after being knocked out and kidnapped by Senjogahara. We don't get to hear why until episode 3.
• 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.
  • Brick Joke example: In Bakemonogatari, Koyomi states that he thinks Incest Subtext is something that only people with no siblings would find appealing. However, when his sisters make their real debuts in Nisemonogatari, Incest Subtext is a key feature of his dynamics with both of them.
  • In "Mayoi Jiangshi," Koyomi gets pissed when Shinobu squees over how cute his 7-year-old self is. A few minutes later, he does the exact same thing upon seeing 7-year-old Tsubasa.
• Idiot Hair:
  • Koyomi's distinctive feature, doubled with Expressive Hair.
  • Apparently the Idiot Hair runs in the family, as both of of Koyomi's sisters and his mother have it.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming:
  • Each book is named "Blank-monogatari". Occasionally they form puns.
  • Every story is named "[focus character'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 (for example, in the cases of "Mayoi Snail" and "Tsukihi Phoenix", Mayoi and Tsukihi are the eponymous monsters, and "Suruga Monkey" isn't actually about a monkey at all) and there are exceptions for the second word even being a monster, such as "Tsubasa Family" (although it does make one wonder) and "Hitagi End".
• If I Can't Have You…: The boy who cursed Nadeko in "Nadeko Snake." Nadeko herself in "Nadeko Medusa" towards Koyomi.
• Image Song: The anime adaptation opens each chapter with an in-character song performed by the featured heroine's voice actor. The only exceptions to this are the chapters named after Koyomi and Shinobu, which feature thematic instrumentals.
• Important Haircut:
  • Hilariously subverted in episode 9 of Nisemonogatari where Karen just unceremoniously snaps off her iconic ponytail and throws it in the trashcan since it's being troublesome at the moment.
  • Played straight with Hitagi and Hanekawa.
• Improvised Weapon: Hitagi Senjogahara keeps several pencil, rulers, scissors staplers and a box cutters in her skirt and uses all them at once.
• Incest Subtext: Prepare to feel uncomfortable.
  • 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.
  • Koyomi and Tsukihi also have this. When observing how one of her scars disappeared, he decides to do it by stripping off her clothes and holding her down. And then gropes her.
  • Later on, when he finds out his sister isn't human, he decides to kiss her to see if he would feel anything. He doesn't, but she was certainly quite upset about the fact that her first kiss was with her brother.
  • And literally says later 'Isn't it hot to have a sister that isn't your blood sibling'. Yay.
  • Played for Laughs in Nekomonogatari Black between Tsukihi and Koyomi, twice.
  • Flies right past subtext in Tsukimonogatari. When Araragi realizes he has no reflection, he holds Tsukihi's head to prevent her from looking in the mirror. Tsukihi takes this as a sign that he wants to kiss her, and is all for it. They only stop because Karen comes in and catches them in the act.
• In Medias Res: Nisemonogatari starts with Koyomi held captive in chains with Hitagi coming for an exchange that doesn't explain much about what happened. Following the scene, Koyomi is shown spending his day, ultimately arriving at the scene from the beginning (by 3rd episode in anime adaptation).
• In Spite of a Nail: In Mayoi Jiangshi, Oshino's letter reveals that Senjogahara and Araragi still end up dating in the story's alternate timeline. To be fair, the nail in question probably wouldn't have any effect on their getting together, considering how things played out in Bakemonogatari.
• Intangible Theft: Oshino claims to have stolen Kissshot's heart from her, while she was at full power no less, without her noticing. Koyomi only doubts this for a moment before realizing it's the truth. He couldn't pull that trick again, but even she's baffled as to how he managed it even once.
• I Regret Nothing: Araragi in Episode 14 when Black Hanekawa accidentally energy drains him while pressing her breasts into his back on his bicycle.
  "I, Araragi, do not regret this!"
• Ironic Echo: In Nisemonogatari episode 2, Kanbaru tells Koyomi "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.
  • He even acknowledges it by saying he won't molest Mayoi again (at least not when he's starting a conversation).
• Irrational Hatred: Discussed by Kaiki. According to him, it's quite difficult to maintain an irrational hatred and even if you manage it that doesn't mean the other person will hate you back. In context, Kanbaru is finding it hard to hate Kaiki because he's only being nice to her with no ulterior motives. The only reason she tries to hostile towards him is because she feels she should, but he doesn't even act like a villain to make it easy for her.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
  • In "Nadeko Snake"... More like, "I want my beloved to be happy, but since you don't want him I'll curse you to death for his sake."
  • Hanekawa attempts to do this when faced with Koyomi's relationship with Senjougahara. Her Superpowered Evil Side objects.
• Jaw Drop: And how◊!
• Karma Houdini: The school teacher whom made Sodachi her Scapegoat was never exposed for her actions. And when we last see her, she seen leading a happy life meaning all her crimes payed off.
• Kissing Discretion Shot: Episode 12
• Koyomi Calls For Aid: A good portion of episode 14.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: From Kizumonogatari:
  Hanekawa: "Am I imagining things, or does it feel like the careful description of my skirt was spanning about four pages?"
  Araragi: "It is, it is, it's all just your imagination. Up until now I have been describing a quite emotional, beautiful scenery."
• Leitmotif: Various instrumental versions of the girls' Image Songs serve this trope. There are other leitmotifs as well, such as the chipper harmonica of "Ruins" for Oshino and the sinister cello of "Ominous" for Kaiki.
• Lingerie Scene: 9 minutes out of 23 minute episode!
  • And it is actually (sorta) justified by the plot! Hooray!!!
  • In the first episode of the 2013 season. We get another one.
• Light Is Not Good: Black Hanekawa.
  • Lampshaded by Koyomi after Oshino suggested calling her Black Hanekawa:
  Meme: Let's call her "Black Hanekawa".
  Koyomi: But she's white.
• Limited Wardrobe: All the automobiles in the animated adaptation are white Datsun Fairlady roadsters (except the Senjougaharas' SUV).
• Literal Genie: Subverted in that the Rainy Devil really was being true to the spirit of Kanbaru's wish; Kanbaru just wasn't being honest with herself about what she really wanted.
• Lost in Translation: In the official translations, most of the wordplay is simply translated as-is with minimal to no effort to adapt or even explain the puns, leading to what appear to be nonsensical leaps in logic in the dialogue. Some examples:
  • The monster in "Mayoi Snail" is actually called a "lost cow". The trick here is that one word for "snail" (蝸牛) contains the kanji for "cow" (牛), and in Japanese cows have the same "extremely slow" idiomatic meaning that snails have in English, but you'd be hard-pressed to come up with a way to adapt that play on words without simply changing the lost cow's name.
  • In Nekomonogatari White, when Senjogahara and Hanekawa discuss Kako (the fire tiger aberration), Senjogahara says her first thought upon hearing the word is that it refers to the past. Hanekawa replies that she's actually talking about a fire tiger and goes on to have a "Eureka!" Moment regarding the tiger's relation to her own envy of others. None of this is given context at all—in case you were wondering, "Kako" translates to "fire tiger" (火虎) but when written differently also means "past" (過去), while "envy" (焼き餅 yakimochi) contains "burn" (焼き yaki). On top of all that, the aberration's name uses none of those spellings of "Kako"—he's called a "tormenting tiger" (苛虎).
• Lyrical Cold Open: In "Ren'ai Circulation," the Bakemonogatari opening featuring Nadeko Sengoku.
• 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.
• Male Gaze: From the aforementioned opening sequence to the series being a 20 second panty shot to the entire messed-up ''thing'' with Nadeko and the snake, this series is almost based on it. The most hilarious use of it is during episode 14 where Dark Hanekawa shows up and Koyomi is so Distracted by the Sexy that his jaw makes a crater on the pavement.
• 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.
• Meaningful Name: As might be expected from someone who loves wordplay as much as Nisio Isin. They're on the character page.
• Medium Blending
• 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 in the show. Kinda creepy.
  • Lampshaded when Karen asks how many friends Koyomi has.
• Mirror Universe: Zoku Owarimonogatari is set in one. However, it later turns out that's not the case. By interacting with his bathroom mirror at the beginning, Araragi unintentionally pulled in everyone's regrets, giving the real world properties of a Mirror Universe.
• Mood Whiplash: The entire series is made of this trope.
  • Ren'ai Circulation, Nadeko's Image Song, serves as the opening theme for the "Nadeko Snake" arc. Yeah, the one that comes right after the end of "Suruga Monkey", when Koyomi gets swung around by his intestines. "Nadeko Snake" is also a fairly dark arc in and of itself.
  • In episode 1 of Nekomonogatari (Black), Hanakawa says she would do anything if Araragi kept her abuse at her father's hand a secret. This rather heartfelt and upsetting moment is immediately followed by Araragi celebrating and trying to come up with something for her to do.
  Hanekawa: "Hey, Araragi. Do you remember that serious and heavy topic we were discussing just a minute ago?"
  • While this happens in a few episodes, episode 4 of Nisemonogatari has mood whiplash in spades. It starts off rather serious, gets silly, and alternates between serious, silly, and sad throughout the episode, with nary a warning of the mood changes.
• Mouthscreen
• The Movie: Kizumonogatari will be adapted to three films.
• Ms. Fanservice: Senjogahara and Black Hanekawa.
  • Kanbaru in Nisemonogatari.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Kanbaru takes this approach to the relationship between Senjougahara (who she is in love with) and Araragi. After beating Araragi to death several times over via disembowelment, she got over it and became good friends with the two.
• Mushroom Samba: Inflicted by Kaiki upon Karen in Nisemonogatari.
• Multiple Reference Pun: Tons, per Nisio Isin's Signature Style; multiple reference puns can even form the basis for the supernatural creatures that appear. One magnificent example is given during "Suruga Monkey": a collective nickname for Suruga and Hitagi back in middle school was the "Valhalla Combo". These are all the references:
  • Valhalla, obviously. Suruga and Hitagi were the "goddesses" of their respective sports teams (basketball and track).
  • Baruhara (the Japanese transliteration of "Valhalla") combines the two girls' names (Suruga Kanbaru and Hitagi Senjogahara).
  • Valhalla was Odin's domain, for warriors who died in battle; "Kanbaru" contains "god" and "Senjogahara" contains "battlefield."
    • Koyomi is impressed with the nickname until he finds out that Suruga made it up herself.
• Mundane Made Awesome:
  • The first episode opens with a Bullet Time Panty Shot. The odd thing is, this is the closest visual equivalent to the scene in the book, where Koyomi spends over a page describing the effect of Hanekawa's skirt being blown up by the wind in front of him, and then dwells on it for the rest of the chapter.
  • The entire tooth brushing scene in Episode 8 of Nisemonogatari, which is treated as an extremely sexual process.
  • Rock–Paper–Scissors, as far as Karen's concerned. Koyomi doesn't agree.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Played for laughs, when Koyomi describes himself molesting Mayoi in third person, and realizes that it sounds quite horrible. Not that it stops him from doing it again in the future.
• Mystery of the Week
• Negatives as a Positive: Sa conversation between Araragi and Hachikuji about how you can make anything sound noble by sticking "the courage to" in front of it, ranging from "the courage to tell a lie" to "the courage to be a lazy bum".
• Never Trust a Trailer: The first trailer for the Bakemonogatari anime implied that the series would also cover material from Nisemonogatari and Kizumonogatari.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: A trippy version in Episode 8 (courtesy of SHAFT, obviously). Somehow the constantly-changing colors and completely white background make it even worse. There's just something about coughing up pastel blue, yellow, and pink paint.
  • Intentionally done to avoid censorship because the images are REALLY brutal.
  • Having his entrails ripped from his belly and used to swing him around the room until they tear off sets a new standard in brutality.
  • The uncensored Blu-Ray version of it is even worse.
  • And another in Nisemonogatari episode 11, Yodzuru beats the living hell out of him.
• Noodle Incident: In "Shinobu Time", Izuko Gaen helps Araragi on the condition that he and Suruga do something for her. Next thing we know, Araragi shows up at the end of "Tsubasa Tiger" with his clothes in shreds. Whatever Gaen's request actually was has yet to be divulged.
  • Said incident has now been explained as the plot of Shinobi Mail.
• Non-Indicative Title:
  • Monogatari Series Second Season. While it covers content from the novels' "second season", it's actually the third season of the anime discounting the specials.
  • "Mayoi Jiangshi" is particularly deceptive. Koyomi and Shinobu travel back in time to avert Mayoi's death, but this is just a pretense to explore what would have become of Kissshot if she hadn't been saved by Koyomi's friendship. There are also no proper jiangshi to be found, although conceptually similar "vampire zombies" do appear, and at one point the attempt to undo Mayoi's death is compared to reviving a corpse.
  • "Shinobu Time" has Mayoi returning the favor to Shinobu. Though Shinobu's past experience is important for Info Dump purposes, it ultimately is Mayoi's fault the Eldritch Abomination is around.
  • "Hitagi End" is not actually the end of the series, although Hitagi's end (i.e. her death) is an immediate concern.
  • Final Season: It's not the final season, since Isin went on to append an "off season" and a "monster season" afterward. Final Season wasn't even chronologically "final" when it was coming out—that was Second Season's Hanamonogatari.
• Not Brainwashed: Hanekawa in Nekomonogatari Black. The Meddlesome Cat might have helped but all of the actions taken were from Hanekawa.
• Not Quite the Right Thing: It's a major point of Koyomi's character and actions that he frequently does the wrong thing and screws people up even more, such as trying to sacrifice himself for Hanekawa, completely ignoring the fact that she'd be horrified to realize he was dead because of her. He also urges her to keep bottling up her emotions, which is the cause of all her aberration incidents. The story makes it pretty clear that the problem is that Araragi's motives are fundamentally flawed: The worst part of his actions are that he A. doesn't consider the effect his death would have on others and B. wants to sacrifice himself for others rather than actually help them. The three incidents where he was most successful, Senjogahara, Karin and Tsukihi's, are the arcs where he did the least.
• Odd Name Out: "Mayoi Snail" is the only story with the "monster"'s name as a native Japanese word as opposed to some kind of loanword (the Japanese title being Mayoi Maimai).
• Of Course I'm Not a Virgin: Koyomi pretends like he's not a virgin when the topic comes up in the second episode, but eventually admits that he is when he's tired of keeping up the facade. In the third episode, Senjogohara does the same- but immediately admits she was lying when Koyomi notes it seems implausible that someone with her psychological issues would engage in orgies.
• Official Couple: Koyomi and Hitagi start dating at the end of Mayoi Snail.
• One Cast Member per Cover: Most of the manga's volumes have a different character, usually a girl, on the cover.
• 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 at that distance (he used his vampiric super-vision to read it) when she meant that she didn't see any grade school kid at all.
• Only in It for the Money: Kaiki's M.O. to a T. He would in fact have given up his whole charm business for the right amount of money, and claimed he'd discuss a Heel–Face Turn for the right price. Then he charged Karen for infecting her with the bee's poison! Part of his dedication to this trope is that for each example he quotes an exact figure.
  • The same could be said of all of the 5 con men.
• Orifice Invasion: The DVD release of Nadeko Snake features a snake that forces itself into Sengoku's mouth, reminiscent of...well...just look.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Vampires are described as the "kings of aberrations," and for good reason. They have enhanced strength, speed, and senses; they can suck blood, but also have an energy-draining touch and can devour other monsters to increase their own power; they can hide in shadows; they have a Healing Factor so powerful it puts most examples of From a Single Cell to shame; and they can even Time Travel. They are, of course, immortal unless killed, but their physical age depends on how powerful they happen to be at the moment. They have the classic weaknesses to sunlight (although with some vampires, the damage can be overcome through the Healing Factor) and holy water. It's implied (but not clearly demonstrated) that they Must Be Invited, and they can't swim. Koyomi is described as "one-tenth vampire", something that is only maintained due to him periodically feeding Shinobu his blood. He can improve his powers by letting her suck more blood than usual, although there seems to be a sweet spot between him enhancing his powers and just making himself anemic.
• Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: Lots of it in Episode 8 and a geyser in 15. It's a good thing Koyomi's sort of undead at the beginning of the series because the way it's going, he'd be dead-dead without it.
• Pose of Supplication: In Nekomonogatari (Black), Araragi assumes this position for nearly five straight days, with no breaks, food, or even sleep, as his way of asking Shinobu (who has yet to be given a name at this point) to assist him in dealing with Black Hanekawa.
• Pun-Based Title: Kizumonogatari would generally be read as something like 'wound story' but when you near the end you learn it also means something like 'deflowering story'. Creating a subordinate instead of just consuming a person entirely is explicitly a rather sexual act and something that Kissshot had only done once, with a man implied to be her former lover, though it turns out he wasn't.
• Recap Episode:
  • Bakemonogatari has one between episodes 5 and 6 to recap the first two arcs.
  • Monogatari Series Second Season has three: episodes six (a recap of Nekomonogatari Black), eleven (Bakemonogatari, minus "Tsubasa Cat"), and sixteen ("Tsubasa Cat" and Nisemonogatari).
• Reconstruction: Harem genre. A harem is built, as usual, a single couple is established, as not so usual. Then the story proceeds to dismantlie the harem, resolving tensions and developing the other girls. Now that's rare.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Kana Hanazawa mentioned off hand that she would have liked to voice a villianous character. Upon hearing this from her, Nisio Isin found some inspiration for making Nadeko.
• Rescue Romance: Hitagi and Koyomi begin dating shortly after he restores her weight. This receives some Deconstruction, however: Hitagi is troubled by the thought that she would have fallen for whoever ended up saving her, while Koyomi feels he may be taking advantage of her weakness. To Hitagi's credit, she also believes that even if Koyomi didn't help her, she would've fallen for him anyway if she simply observed him rescuing others.
• Residual Evil Entity: The series has a recurring theme that simply defeating evil or malevolence will not get rid of it unless the very root of the problem is cured. And in many cases, a problem rooted that deep in the first place is far beyond the understanding of your typical human (supernaturally gifted or not) to deal with. As such, several arcs in the later parts of the series deal with problems that are recurring because the root issue wasn't solved, or causing an entirely new problem in the absence of the old.
• Retraux:
  • Almost all of the Japanese text is written with older orthography, using unsimplified kyuujitai kanji (including complex daiji numerals, nowadays usually used only in finance) and katakana. Much of the incidental text also goes from right to left even when horizontal (nowadays horizontal text is generally read left to write as in Western languages), and the cut cards look significantly aged.
  • The "Kogarashi Sentiment" OP for Koimonogatari/"Hitagi End" jumps between the show's modern art style and one evocative of the '80s or '90s, including Japanese karaoke subtitles (generally limited to children's shows nowadays) and a noticeably lower resolution.
• Rule of Symbolism: The story doesn't make a great deal of sense or will at best be badly misunderstood if viewed literally. For example, Tsukihi really being an immortal type of phoenix/cuckoo is fantastic and crazy, but is basically symbolic for her being adopted even if she technically isn't. Koyomi even muses to himself that even knowing the truth doesn't change the fact that she's still his sister and will never be anything else. Almost every supernatural incident is similarly related to some kind of psychological problem the characters face, which is reinforced by Koyomi often approaching them the wrong way: The characters need counseling, not a knight in shining armor who beats up the monster plaguing them.
• Running Gag: Mayoi's mispronouncing of Koyomi's name. "Sorry, I stuttuted."
  • In the novels, Koyomi's insistence that he is definitely not a pedophile.
• Save This Person, Save the World: Played straight with Koyomi, but inverted with Mayoi.
• Scenery Porn: YEP! You got it! It is made by Shaft after all. It is of note that combined with screwy camera angles, the series uses scenery shots to great theatrical effect along with a ton of unusually schizophrenic shifts between locations, bizarre color hues, and a lot of settings in disarray to invoke a feeling of Surreal Horror.
• Seinfeldian Conversation
• Series Fauxnale: Nisemonogatari's Tsukihi Phoenix arc was the originally envisioned conclusion to the story, and indeed serves as the finale to the First Season. The series' breakout popularity prompted Nisio Isin to continue the story, before releasing another fauxnale in the form of the "Final Season"...which eventually got followed up with two more seasons afterwords.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The main plot of Kabukimonogatari.
• Ship Tease: Excluding Hitagi, Koyomi has it with Tsubasa, Shinobu and Karen.
• Shipper on Deck: Quite a few people think Araragi should get with Hanekawa instead of Senjougahara, with Kanbaru even thinking he'll end up marrying her.
• Shout-Out
  • "Copper, 40g; zinc, 25g; nickel, 15g; hiding embarrassment, 5g; and spite, 97kg."
  • In episode 3:
    Hitagi: I'll fulfill whatever your wish is. Whether it's world conquest, or eternal life, or to defeat the Saiyans that are coming to earth.
    Koyomi: Are you saying you're more powerful than Shenron?!
  • "Suruga Monkey" makes repeated references to the short story "The Monkey's Paw" — a misleading comparison, as the cast finds out halfway through the arc, as the "evil" wishes were really Suruga's own subconscious desires being granted in a Deal with the Devil.
  • Episode 7 has a "bondage fetish" image, giving the kanji for Suruga's name. Meme references it to the infamous "bure bure bure bure" OP from Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei.
  • Episode 9 has a shot of Suruga and Koyomi recreating the Gaijin 4koma reaction.
  • In Episode 11, when Nadeko gives Koyomi the swimsuit Suruga lent her, he does the standard Despair Four-shot.
    • She also makes a few manga/anime references so obscure that Koyomi goes on an all out rant a few times.
  • Koyomi gains a face reminiscent of Takashi Kamiyama (during the tongue twister scene) in episode 14.
  • In episode 3 of Nisemonogatari, Koyomi's bike riding skills◊ are a direct homage◊ to AKIRA.
  • Hachikuji parodies Case Closed in episode 6 of Nisemonogatari.
  • Nisemonogatari 9 has a shot of marching God Warriors from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind's Seven Days of Fire and a sign with Kyuubey on.
  • Nisemonogatari also contains a Shout-Out to Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, starting from Deka Master's Badass Boast^note "Cutting down hundreds of evildoers! The Guard Dog of Hell! Deka Master! to Deka Blue's Gratuitous English Catchphrase^note Super Cool. Perfect.
  • Nisemonogatari 9 has a scene where Hachikuji tell that Koyomi is "No Longer Human" (Ningen Shikkaku) because of his pervert thoughts about a little girl (herself). Koyomi becomes Dazai Osamu for an instant and between the "Danger" signs, a "Ningen Shikkaku" sign appears.
  • It may not be intentional but calling Tsubasa's dissociative alternate personality Black Hanakawa calls to mind Chris Costner Sizemore and the film loosely based on her life, The Three Faces of Eve. Eve Black is the wild personality that the main personality claims to not have known was around..
  • Araragi's phone in the Second Season of the anime is a Zune HD. This is particularly strange as the Zune HD isn't a phone, it's an MP3 player, and it wasn't available in Japan.
  • In Hitagi End part 4 of the anime, the background during a scene is a homage to Blade Runner during the panoramic shots of LA showing the buildings spewing fire on top and the Geisha woman advertising some kind of food.
  • In Yotsugi Doll Part 4, while Yotsugi is explaining her origin story, she's shown with many copies of herself among roses and singing with red microphones, very similar to the video for AKB48's Heavy Rotation.
  • Also in Yotsugi Doll part 4, Yosugi references Araragi's "Chit Chat" skill, which allows you to waste enemies' turns in Shin Megami Tensei.
  • Episode 3 of Owarimonogatari contains a James Bond gun barrel sequence at the start with Araragi shooting through the gun barrel.
  • Episode 8 of Owarimonogatari has a shot of Kanbaru in Nurse Witch Komugi's costume.
  • Episode 10 of Owarimonogatari features a blink-and-you-miss-it shot of Araragi posing like The Shawshank Redemption.
• Slumber Party Ploy: A girl said she was sleeping over at a friend's when really she was off getting supernatural invisible snakes removed.
• Space Whale Aesop: It's very easy to read Monogatari metaphorically as a story about mental illness, but the literal presentation gives you morals like "Don't suppress your emotions or they will become cat demons and kill everyone."
• Special Edition Title: Each arc plays the afflicted character's image song as an opening. Each OP was only played in one episode per arc on TV due to time constraints, but the Blu-ray releases have every episode featuring the proper OP.
• Spell My Name With An S: The term "kaii" is translated variously. The novels use "aberration", the anime juggles "aberration" and "apparition", and a highly popular fan translation is "oddity".
• Spoiler Opening: Hanamonogatari's "opening" is so spoilery that it actually plays over the closing credits. Sounds confusing, but basically a sequence in the style of a Monogatari ending (i.e. a credits sequence with a song composed by Ryo and art by Hajime Ueda) plays at the beginning, and a sequence in the style of an opening (normal art style with an Image Song) plays at the end.
• Stargazing Scene: For their first date, Hitagi takes Koyomi to the forest at night where they lay down to watch the starry sky together.
• Stating the Simple Solution: After Kaiki finds a letter on the floor of his locked hotel room, he worries about some conspiracy targeting him regarding the Nadeko case. One powerful enough to have moles in the hotel staff. Senjougahara bluntly points out that all someone would have to do is slide the envelope under the door and Kaiki has no response.
• Stealth Pun: The aberrations of Nisemonogatari are a phoenix and a flame-wreathe bee. As in, the birds and the bees.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Both Hitagi and Suruga say something to Koyomi about being able to identify a woman just by her hips.
  • Three of the girls are fascinated by lame jokes from the same radio show, leading Koyomi to suspect they were the people who called in the jokes to begin with.
• Surreal Theme Tune: Six of them in the first series! Let's see:
  • Staplers floating around a black and white city with a giant girl stomping around? Check.
  • 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.
    • Well, the Japanese word for "lily" is "yuri."
  • A character being as moe as possible in a world that seems like it's halfway towards being a Sugar Bowl? Check.
  • An entirely live action opening featuring a girl cosplaying as a character in the show with small pyramids that look like cat ears floating on her head while silhouttes of cats walk around? Check.
  • An alternate, very disturbing version of the fifth opening that features disembodied hands grabbing at the (non-live action) nude figure of the same character as she struggles to run away? Um... check.
  • They came back in Nisemonogatari. A completely silhouetted girl (later updated to be fully drawn but with an alternate, pastel color scheme) doing nothing but changing poses while the background and camera angle shift around her? Check.
  • A girl running around being both appearing out of and vanishing into flames with images of bees flying around? Check.
  • A girl with constantly changing hair dancing (at one point inside a guy's mouth and occasionally without having an upper body at all) before transforming into a flock of birds? Check.
  • Nisemonogatari's ending has 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.
  • SHAFT proves itself worthy again in Monogatari Series Second Season. Nekomonogatari White's opening involves a girl being unboxed from a box that's floating around in a magical pink void full of white and dark chocolate. Cats then hoist her on their shoulders and carry her around. She proceeds to eat chocolate, gain cat ears, sit on a crescent moon, and finishes by growing wings and flying off with a horde of similarly flying cats.
  • In Kabukimonogatari, a young girl walks around a void of square blocks with pretty colors and symbols on them. A massive snail shell starts smashing through them. They later form into a certain ahoge.
  • In Otorimonogatari, Bakemonogatari's 4th opening makes a comeback, in a very similar and trippy style. This time though, the audio is a reversed remix, the girl acts considerably more depressed, and the lyrics take a much darker turn.
• 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."
• Take a Third Option: The options for getting rid of Suruga's rainy devil are (1) cut off the arm or (2) let her kill Koyomi. Koyomi decides (3) to beat her in a fight to convince the devil that he can't be killed. However, the third option is really Koyomi trying the second because of his own longstanding problems. Of course, Oshino takes a fourth option by summoning Hitagi to Talk The Hero To Death With The Monster In Earshot.
• 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 playground about random stuff.
  • Episode 12 is COMPLETELY talking heads, thought it still manages to be entertaining... And adorable.
  • Done again in episode 4 of ''Nisemonogatari" in which the majority of the episode is one long conversation between Koyomi and Shinobu.
• That Came Out Wrong: Episode 2 of Koimonogatari. Although taking the end of Karen Bee into account, this might qualify for Did I Just Say That Out Loud?.
  Kaiki: And how are you so sure I won't happen to run into Araragi?
  Senjougahara: Because tonight he's going to be with me...(trails off)
• Their First Time: Implied for Hitagi and Koyomi at the end of "Karen Bee".
• Title Drop: The titles of the various novels are portmanteaux that would never come up in a normal conversation, but occasionally there will be a title drop by splitting a portmanteau into its components. For example, in Nisemonogatari: "Tsukihi Phoenix":
  "Tada no nisemono no monogatari da."^note This is the story of just another fake.
  • Likewise, Kabukimonogatari (twisted tale) has Shinobu respond to Araragi's claim that he can change the story by saying that it is a "kabukimonogati".
• Title-Only Opening: The Onimonogatari/"Shinobu Time" arc in the anime uses these, since Maaya Sakamoto doesn't perform Image Songs.
• Tsundere: Invoked by many of the other characters to describe Senjogahara. Senjogahara even uses it in relation to herself. The term's used either jokingly or incorrectly at every turn, though, since Senjogahara never makes any attempt to deny or conceal her feelings. The only problem is that she's lived without emotions for so long, she can't exactly express them properly.
  • At least until episode 12, where she goes full blown "dere" in the best way possible.
  • Episode 14 has Senjougahara while on the phone with Araragi:
    Senjougahara: Tsundere service! Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm worried about you, but if you don't come back I'll never forgive you.
    • This being Senjougahara, she switches to being deadly serious halfway through.
• 12-Episode Anime:
  • Bakemonogatari is actually 15 episodes long, but only 12 were broadcast on television, with the last three being premiered online.
  • Nisemonogatari is 11 episodes long.
  • Owarimonogatari and Koyomimonogatari are both 12 episodes long.
• 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.
• Unmoving Plaid: Oshino's patterned shirts, Hanekawa's pajamas, Senjougahara's panties in episode 2 and dress in episode 12, and Tsukihi's kimono.
• 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 Expositor: Characters tend to lie about the conditions under which they obtained their particular supernatural afflictions until it becomes absolutely necessary to tell the truth.
• Unreliable Narrator:
  • Subtle, but present. The way characters are presented changes significantly depending on the current viewpoint; whenever the viewpoint shifts away from Araragi, the female characters become significantly less sexualized, for example.
  • The anime takes a distinctly visual approach to adapting the spirit of the novels' first-person narration. For instance, Male Gaze is extremely prevalent while Araragi narrates but less present with other narrators; to Araragi, Senjogahara is often scary but is simply a bit odd when Hanekawa is the narrator. To all the school-age narrators, the world is entirely devoid of people except for the few characters necessary to the plot, reflecting a teenager's exaggerated concern with their immediate social circle while ignoring the world at large. These artistic choices are thrown into sharp relief by Kaiki, the only adult narrator, whose world is still focused on certain people but will at least allow the depiction of random passers-by on the street.
  • There are several occasions in Nekomonogatari (Shiro) where the chapters skip numbers, representing Black Hanekawa taking over.
• Unusual Chapter Numbers: As mentioned above, Nekomonogatari (Shiro) skips chapter numbers to symbolize Tsubasa losing time when Black Hanekawa's personality takes over.
• Unwanted Harem: Oshino teases Araragi about the fact that every time he comes to see him he has a different girl with him.
• Virgin-Shaming: Hitagi makes fun of Koyomi for being a virgin. Soon after, it is revealed that Hitagi is a virgin as well.
• Weirdness Magnet: Even if you're now an ex-vampire, you can't count on having a normal life again.
  • In episode 13, Hanekawa theorizes that the reason Koyomi keeps attracting pretty girls is a trace remnant of the vampire's ability to charm humans with a glance. This idea is shot down by black Hanekawa when Koyomi tries to use it as a reason for ignoring Hanekawa's attraction to him. He's nowhere near powerful enough to have vampiric charisma.
  • Not only that but even if he was, the vampiric charisma works more along the lines of turning the people around them into mind-slaves anyway.
  • The real reason, as explained by Oshino, is that Koyomi's still a Weirdness Magnet because of his unconscious refusal to let go of Shinobu. Once he separates from her completely, his vampirism will completely disappear, the aberrations will abandon his life and he'll finally return to normality. So in the end, it's his decision.
  • It's trickier than it appears. It's explained in the novels that Shinobu will die if Koyomi stops giving her his blood, and Koyomi will pretty much help anyone in need, so he's stuck. It's not an unconscious desire to hold on to her, it's an unwillingness to sacrifice a life for his own sake.
• Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: Araragi and Senjogahara, constantly.
• Wham Shot: A very nicely done one. In Mayoi Snail, Mayoi talks constantly of the aberration, a 'lost snail'. She also has a large backpack, and her hair sticks out. For The Reveal, they show her shadow...which makes her look exactly like a snail!
• World of Symbolism: During the opening for Suruga Monkey arc Kanbaru can be seen running after Senjougahara across a field of huge floating lilies.
• World of Snark: Anyone Koyomi talks to. Even Koyomi himself shows snarky behavior from time to time.
• Written Sound Effect: Black Hanekawa's Evil Laugh in "Tsubasa Family".
• Yaoi Fangirl: Suruga.

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