憑物語

TSUKIMONOGATARI

NOVEL

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
1
RELEASE
September 26, 2012
CHAPTERS
19

DESCRIPTION

Launching the third or “Final Season” of the international cult-hit series, Possession Tale returns the narrator’s headset back to high school senior and amateur savior Koyomi Araragi, who used to eschew friendship once upon a time because it’d lower his “intensity as a human”—a loner’s misgiving that was perhaps on the mark in a different way than he intended.

At issue now is not the precarious fate of one of his cherished confrères, or rather consœurs, whom he’d aid, sight unseen, with a monster’s resilience, but his own aberrant state and its prolonged abuse. If everything comes with a bill, and if no man is an island, then is the price of self-sacrificing amity—and the bloodshed it ironically occasions—becoming inhuman for good?

That being said! Our hero, whose first name means “calendar” but who has none in his room, sees no need to rush, so, on our way to the profound mysteries of the superhuman aspect, expect a super-shallow deconstruction of the alarm clock. On hand this volume to (hardly ever) humor his humor: his little sisters, a living doll of a corpse, and its violent mistress.

(Source: Kodansha USA)

CAST

Shinobu Oshino
Koyomi Araragi
Yotsugi Ononoki
Hitagi Senjougahara
Ougi Oshino
Karen Araragi
Tsukihi Araragi
Yozuru Kagenui
Tadatsuru Teori

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO TSUKIMONOGATARI

ANIME ComedyTsukimonogatari

Cover Art for Okitegami Kyouko no Bibouroku x Monogatari

ONA SupernaturalOkitegami Kyouko no Bibouroku x Monogatari

NOVEL ActionKoimonogatari

NOVEL ComedyKoyomimonogatari

REVIEWS

inspirashamul
50/100
Yay, peace peace! He said with a posed look.
I'll flat out say it because I can express my emotions a little better than Ononoki, but the entire first 3rd of Tsukimonogatari was awful for obvious reasons. Maybe the Nuance Proposition works here as well as it is obvious that awful things are noticeable. Maybe Araragi should not employ that trait of his that annoys me. I did like the connection of having someone's life in your hands with hair to what Shinobu does napping on his head and makes the fluff at the beginning flow but even if I understand it doesn't mean I like it. Hell I even wiped the entire moment of the anime portion from my brain and was shocked that this is how it started. But really even this start isn't as bad as the other low points of Monogatari because if I made it through other entries, I should tolerate Araragi at this point right? Maybe I should just take a look at myself in the reflection and just admit that I've grown accustomed to his ways? It would've be as fun to read if Araragi was boring right? I am being too cold thinking this way or is that just from him holding up a skirt for too long? He said with a posed look.

I haven't read any Short Stories in a while honestly I am itching for more. But the Yotsugi related one is after a mentioned moments later in this Season so I cannot go for it. Also the other Heroine story that I have left is the prologue to one of the post anime arcs and since it was published in advance I could indulge but I am stubborn and will refuse to until I get to Wazamonogatari whenever that is. The placement of course is also very interesting as Araragi learns here at Kanbaru runs in the morning to set up for him finding her in Hanamonogatari the 4th arc of Second Season. Then we have the connection to the 5th arc of Second Season more directly with Yotsugi involved here like with Onimonogatari and the theme of this was centered around onioniichan's vampirism anyways so it works. And finally the fact that Araragi had to take notes of money and turn them into coins to get the prize that he wanted is similar to Kaiki where he dispensed the 10k notes inside the place where Araragi's sisters and Gean's daughter end up but it's the coin that really gets him the prize in the 6th arc of Second Season Koimonogatari.

Whether this tale gets the cosign from me or all these reviews are just tangential to begin with or it is a sin for the score that I give it, I have self-awareness of my lack of awakeness while reading. For those of you who need a quick math lesson:

SOH CAH TOA
Sine = Opposite/Hypotenuse
Cosine = Adjacent/Hypotenuse
Tangent = Opposite/Adjacent
sin(x) = cos(90 -x)
sin^2(x) + cos^2x = 1
tangent = y/x

Just as Tadatsuru is the villain of this tale and Yozuru is the closest to an ally now, they could've been opposite and were in the past with Nisemonogatari. Sine and Cosine are really opposites of each other even if they are adjacent as one cannot exist without the other to form a 90 degree angle since as Yozuru is up in the clouds while Tadatsuru is down in the ground. Even if Yotsugi picked the side that is adjacent to her it wasn't without overstepping on her opposite. Because both an expert on dead immortals and an expert on alive immortals plus their doubles gives you one whole sum. But surprisingly tangent or Ononoki is made from y over x and not x over y. She may be dead, alive, a doll, not human, not a person, not a living being, not a part of the natural world, but maybe not a murderer as well.
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Zazinuz
90/100
Cease This Illusion (Spoilers for Second Season)
"What am I doing here. I've become a pawn, a marionette that lives for the whims of its master."
Indeed, it's not Koyomi Araragi who has control of this Tale, this Possession Tale, this Tale of the Possessed, this Possession Tale that doesn't allow for anyone not to be possessed. Not Ononoko, not Kagenui, not Shinobu, nor anyone else - they're no longer the protagonists of their own story.
At least, so it seems.
After all, what other explanation could there be behind this farce of a tale? Where nothing is as it seems, and yet, everything is exactly as you'd expect. Where they conclusion is all so obvious, but our oblivious narrator fails to grasp what he should have realized ten books ago.
The candle isn't at its last straws, it's already burnt out, this story has already come crashing down, and the fire of the long-gone candle has catched on the house, burning it all down.
It's all falling apart.
The narrative itself mocks our protagonist. "What are you even DOING, the Monster Tale is nothing more than an Ordinary Tale now; it's all come clear by now, so why, just why, why, why, why are you still refusing to accept it?"
"Just why?"
"Just why are you so fucked in the head?"
Koyomi Araragi is the one who hates himself. He who sacrifices himself for others. He, the total hypocrite, who started this Monster Tale by choosing to end his life for the sake of some vampire, in modern Japan of all places - just how ridiculous is that?
It's as if we...as if us humans haven't grown past stage yet.
And yet.
No matter how ordinary all these monsters, whether vampire, ghost, crab, snail, monkey, doll, you name it, no matter how ordinary it has all become, we are still at the starting point.
Even though it should have been solved centuries and centuries ago, even though Araragi should have know for ages and ages that he should cherish himself, that he should live for himself, not others, he can't help it. He can't help getting caught up, and wasting away, in his trauma. No matter what, no matter how much he's learned, no matter how much society has supposedly grown past Monster Tales - no matter how ridiculous an encounter with a Vampire may seem - he just CAN'T learn. Can't move on.
Possession Tale has a dominant theme, which Koyomi verbalizes only once, in a seemingly random one-off note, almost like a footnote, like a random quip that has nothing to do with the story at hand. And yet, it is paramount to understanding the full picture: The dichotomy of knowing that you don't know something, or not knowing that you don't even know something.
Not knowing that you don't know something - I mean, that's completely fine. In fact, it is the entire origin of humanity's strive for knowledge: They know that they don't know about something, and so they search the universe for an answer. They strive. They aren't perfect, but they nevertheless fight to become better, and that's exactly what makes humans so beautiful. They are Fake. Nisemonogatari. That's the entire point of Nisemonogatari.
However, this Possession Tale, is a tale of the latter: Those who don't know that they don't know. Even though they should. Those who've grown stale, never chasing for the answer for something, remaining oblivious of their own obliviousness. Those who refuse to change. Exactly the kind that Araragi Koyomi is. Even though he should know for a long time now - that the one thing still to clean up, that what these Monster Tales have been preaching from the very first Tale, the very first pages, is to get rid of his self-hatred. His self-sacrificing, altruistic nature. However, he refuses to acknowledge it, like the fool that he is. He'd rather bumble around aimlessly, not knowing what's even going on - "Oh hey, Ogi, oh man what a quirky underclassman, don't you stay up too late, you hear me?" - than change this simple yet fundamental flaw of his character.

And so, we arrive at this Possession Tale. Where everything is seemingly possessed, already orchestrated fully, before it could even begin. Because, really, there's not another outcome to this Tale. What else could there be to talk about, after all Koyomi has talked about Monsters for so long they've become the Ordinary - even though they never should have become ordinary in the first place. Trapping himself in this maze of monsters, he stopped recognizing just how monstrous, just how inhuman - just how No Longer Human - he has become. And that the solution was right in front of his eyes the entire time, a a forest hiding in all the trees.
Because the solution is not to give up on Monsters, nor is it to become one. The solution is neither to be perfect, and therefore inhuman, nor is it to become a monster, and therefore inhuman - the solution is to mediate between the two sides of the same coin, and therefore FIGHT. Fight to be a human. Fight his flaws, even if he may never be perfect. To be fake, instead of being either of the real deals. To realize his flaws, instead of pretenting they aren't there, instead of ignoring them in favour of yet another foolish, self-serving tale of self-sacrifice. So that the possessed may cease, and open the room for the next Tale, one that's neither possessed by monsters nor by perfect things - but one about finally finding true happiness.

After all, Koyomi - you silly little thing.
Don't forget -
To cherish yourself above all else.
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