傷物語

KIZUMONOGATARI

NOVEL

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
1
RELEASE
May 7, 2008
CHAPTERS
18

DESCRIPTION

Around midnight, under a lonely street lamp in a provincial town in Japan, lies a white woman, a blonde, alone, robbed of all four limbs, yet undead. Indeed, a rumour’s been circulating among the local girls that a vampire has come to their backwater, of all places. Koyomi Araragi, who prefers to avoid having friends because they’d lower his “intensity as a human,” is naturally sceptical. Yet it is to him that the bloodsucking demon, a concept “dated twice over,” beckons on the first day of spring break as he makes his way home with a fresh loot of morally compromising periodicals.

(Source: Kodansha USA)

CAST

Shinobu Oshino
Koyomi Araragi
Tsubasa Hanekawa
Meme Oshino
Episode
Dramaturgy
Guillotine Cutter

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO KIZUMONOGATARI

Cover Art for Kizumonogatari I: Tekketsu-hen

MOVIE ActionKizumonogatari I: Tekketsu-hen

MANGA ActionBakemonogatari

NOVEL ActionBakemonogatari

Cover Art for Kizumonogatari III: Reiketsu-hen

MOVIE ActionKizumonogatari III: Reiketsu-hen

Cover Art for Kizumonogatari II: Nekketsu-hen

MOVIE ActionKizumonogatari II: Nekketsu-hen

NOVEL ActionNisemonogatari

Cover Art for Kizumonogatari: Koyomi Vamp

MOVIE ActionKizumonogatari: Koyomi Vamp

REVIEWS

Dacni
85/100
Licking each other's Wounds
Kizumonogatari just reassures my love for the monogatari series, since I have watched the anime adaptation previously. With the context of the next arcs I can say that the core themes of the series are all beautifully teased and encapsulated in this arc.

Araragi’s character arc

The beginning of Araragi’s character arc felt underwhelming to me in the anime, but in the novel the insight that is we get to his thoughts made it much more detailed (as I expected because the story is narrated by him). In my opinion his arc is beautiful, mostly because of his dynamic with hanekawa and kissshot, that made him appreciate more the value of relationships. In the beginning he stated that having friends lowered his intensity as a human and having hanekawa as his friend made him literally be less human by the end. And through his vow with Heartunderblade he learned the importance and value of relationships by “licking each others wounds”

Araragi’s dynamic

After reading acerola-bon-appétit aka kissshot’s backstory in wazamonogatari, I was able to appreciate kissshot and ragi's dynamic much more (and I also think it is mandatory to understand shinobu as a character). This dynamic displays one of the main themes in all of Monogatari - What do we owe to each other and what do we owe to ourselves.
Araragi saw himself in kissshot when she wanted to die, because when he sacrificed himself he only understood death from his selfish perspective, but as he developed his relationship with hanekawa he saw the consequences of death for other people. Also through hanekawa he learned not to escape from reality through death but to live awkwardly/ find a reason to live, a conclusion that he passed on to shinobu. After all he gave kissshot what she needed, not what she wanted and that is a part of relationships, what might be better for us might not be what we want.

Having wounded each other, the two of us licked each other’s wounds.
Damaged goods both, we sought out each other.
“If you want to die tomorrow, I’m ready for my life to end tomorrow─if you care to live for today, then so will I,” I vowed out loud

After all I think Araragi was partly right in the beggining by saying that having friends would only birng weakness to his life, but he only had one perspective. As the story develops he gets another perspective that he adopted from hanekawa and that he applies with kissshot. Friends can give wounds to each other but can also "lick" them.

__

__

Spoiler for wazamonogatari
“That’s your name, Kiss-Shot. Eat the humans who die for your sake like you’re kissing them. If you obtain immortality and live for a while, who knows, you might come across a wonderful prince someday.”
Kill and eat. Kill and love.
Like eating and loving were one and the same.

Some scattered thoughts

Really liked Oshino's role and how it plays a big role in araragi's conclusion of "you are the only one that can save yourself" by only giving him an oportunity for him resolve his conflict by himself

There are also some other aspects about Dramaturgy, Episode and Guillotine Cutter that are interesting but there is already a video on youtube about them

Another thing that is cool is the characterization trough sexuality but I don't know much about it to put it in the review but there are some videos on youtube about it too

Conclusion

Koyomi vamp just solidified my feelings from the monogatari series, and might make me read all of the novels from the start. The rating might seem low for how much I praised this arc, but an 85 for me means amazing and its great (there are some things that are better), and remember that this is only the begging of the story. Feel free to DM me if you want to discuss about it.
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MikeSlav
80/100
A much more serious, and bloodier, beginning to the Monogatari series

Kizumonogatari is the 2nd entry in the Monogatari series and if you've gotten past the 1000 or so pages of Bakemonogatari, then it's time to get into the real meat of things.

The title itself has multiple meanings with "kizu" meaning scar or wound, and "kizumono" meaning damaged goods or deflowered girl. "Kizu" obviously refers to the many wounds, literal or not, inflicted throughout the story, while "kizumono" refers to Kissshot, the central girl of this Monogatari entry.

Kizumonogatari is chronologically the first entry in the Monogatari series, describing the events that happened during spring break, which were frequently mentioned in Bakemonogatari. To avoid spoilers as much as possible, the story is about Araragi Koyomi coming across a vampire and, after saving her life and becoming a vampire himself, trying to become a human again.

The novel is overall much simpler than Bakemonogatari with a much smaller cast of characters, which basically consists of only 7 characters, 3 of which are side characters. The plot progression is very simple to understand and it has a much clearer overall plot, as opposed to Bakemonogatari which is a set of 5 stories with a somewhat overarching plot.

Kizumonogatari is also a lot more serious than Bakemonogatari, with less frequent comedic moments, a lot more fighting, blood, and that kind of stuff. Most of the comic relief scenes come from Araragi's interactions with Hanekawa like the Hanekawa and Araragi scene near the end of the novel (if you know, you know).

To compare the novel with the 3 movies for a bit, I have to say that it is better. Yes, the movies have amazing animation but the way they adapt some of the stuff from the novel, e.g. the fights, cutting out some dialogue etc., is a bit questionable. The novel isn't even that long to need 3 whole movies that are 1 hour long, and it could have been adapted into 5 episodes or a 2 hour long movie at most. So the fact that they went with more than that and still didn't include everything from the novel makes zero sense to me, but hey, that's only really a problem if you decide to watch the movies after reading this novel.

So, to move on from that little rant, in my Bakemonogatari review, I said that it serves as a perfect introduction to the series. And while that is true, I could understand how not everyone can just decide to read 2 or 3 entire volumes amounting to around 1000 pages. Therefore, Kizumonogatari serves as another entry point into the series, with it being chronologically the first in the timeline, and much shorter than Bakemonogatari with only around 400 pages to read.

So to end the review, if you want a quicker read to see what the Monogatari series is about, and simultaneously read one of its more iconic and important stories, then Kizumonogatari is for you. Next up, Nisemonogatari!
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