Koyomi Araragi
Monogatari character
Promotional illustration of Koyomi Araragi
First appearanceBakemonogatari (2006)
Created byNisio Isin
Designed byVOFAN
Voiced by

Koyomi Araragi (Japanese: 阿良々木 暦, Hepburn: Araragi Koyomi) is the protagonist of Nisio Isin's light novel series Monogatari. Araragi is a third-year high school student who is secretly a vampire after sharing his blood with Shinobu Oshino. During the narrative, Araragi finds himself helping girls involved with a variety of apparitions, ghosts, beasts, spirits, and other supernatural phenomena, which often serve as proxies for their emotional and mental issues. While most of the narrative focuses on his multiple relationships and encounters, the series often focuses on his own personal life as it focuses on his origins as vampire, most notably the Kizumonogatari prequel story.

Araragi was written by Nisio Isin as the main narrator of the series who often dealt other female characters in large discussions. However, Isin revised early manuscripts and rewrote Araragi as a better person and developed a relationship with Hitagi Senjougahara. In the anime adaptation of the series and movies, Araragi was voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya who found the character hard to emulate as a result of his multiple narrations, monologues and interactions.

Araragi was popular in polls for several years, having been praised for his role in the story as well as his romantic relationship with Senjougahara which remained appealing in the novels despite the large amount of romantic interests the character has. However, he was often criticized for his childish demeanor with younger characters, most notably in Nisemonogatari, which would scare general audiences.

Creation

Sketch of Araragi by VOFAN

Across several changes in regards to the Monogatari light novels, Nisio Isin said that Araragi was meant to be a "stud" and abandon his desires and lose his propensity for love.tions with Araragi.[1] However, the novel was re-written in the form of romantic comedy elements with a major focus on Araragi's relationship with his love interest Hitagi Senjougahara. The vampire Shinobu Oshino was kept in secret until Nisemonogatari where she is revealed to Araragi's sidekick after several scenes where she remains silent. With the Monogatari series, Nisio Isin has been delving into one character per arc by writing their one-on-one conversations with Araragi.[1] While Koyomi is not depicted in the light novels' covers, he was still designed by novel illustrator VOFAN. Despite rumors, VOFAN corrected this on Twitter by showing his illustration that predated the anime series.[2]

For the animated adaptations of the light novel, Araragi was voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya. His work was divided into three categories: narration, monologue, and dialogue. He divided the text and devoted himself to processing it in a form close to the narration. Frequent switching between monologues and narration mixes objective explanations with the feelings of the Araragi which brought him difficulties. The number of sentences was overwhelmingly large, so if there is a number of words that one person could speak in a day, it seemed that one recording clearly exceeded that.[3] The English audiobook version of Kizumonogatari was released on May 25, 2016 by Bang Zoom! Entertainment with narration done by Erik Scott Kimerer as Araragi.[4] Kamiya kept reading the novels to understand Araragi's character until the final school novel Owarimonogatari.[3] Director Akiyuki Shinbo found Kamiya useful in the making of the anime adaptation noting he had already read the novels before the premiere.[5]

Portrayal in Kizumonogatari

In regards to his prequel persona, Araragi was portrayed to encounter apparitions and specialists for the first time where he also comes across as a more immature. His relationships with his mentor Meme Oshino, his first love interest Tsubasa Hanekawa and Shinobu's original vampire persona, Kiss Shot, were written to have a major impact on his life and develop him into his original Bakemonogatari persona in the process. Shinbo wanted to learn why did Araragi choose between Senjougahara over Hanekawa. When he read the subsequent stories, Nekomonogatari Black and Nekomonogatari White, he reached the desired conclusion, believing he understood Nisio Isin's feelings.[6] Araragi's relationship with Hanekawa was written to be predecessor of the story arc "Tsubasa Cat, Part 6". Originally, the idea of the film was portraying this duo as friends but as the film was developed, Oishi found their relationship love provoking.[7] Director Tatsuya Oishi enjoyed the focus on Araragi and wanted his scenes with Kiss-Shot be fulfilling. The puberty jokes about Araragi wanting to touch Hanekawa's cleavage to prepare for his battle with Kiss-Shot were specifically made to make the audience feel uncomfortable and make sure it retains the comedy that the franchise is known for. Araragi's more degenerated persona was symbolized by how his hair covers the other half of his face in contrast to the TV series.[7]

For the final fight between Araragi and Kiss-Shot, Shaft wanted to stay away from Isin's commentary about it conveying torture in every move and instead animate so many gruesome scenes that it would come across as black comedy. Oishi also wanted to emphasized Araragi's burst of rage when Hanekawa is severely wounded in the second film from the trilogy. In developing the protagonist, the director came into thinking of it as a story about how Araragi has his set of values and ethics that he has spent 17 years building up completely overturned. As a result, he comes to realize the hypocrisy of his actions in saving someone out of pity and becomes another victim.[7]

Kamiya was looking forward to voice Araragi in Kizumonogatari for several years. He was disappointed due to the more quiet atmosphere. He had already read the novel and wanted to repeat the same monologues. In contrast to the TV series, Kizumonogatari has no monologues, so it was essential for Kamiya to clearly understand Araragi's inner thoughts as well as the subtle emotions behind his eye movements and breathing patterns. He was heavily supported by Shinbo based on his experience. During the scene in Tekketsu when Araragi first encounters Kissshot and tells her to "take all my blood," his state of mind is fluctuating rapidly.[8] Although his internal turmoil was spelled out in the novel, the film had to continue without pause. Being eleven years older during the recording when compared to his debut, he said the character of Araragi would be missing a sense of freshness because his acting chops have improved over time.[8] There are many scenes where the underlying emotions do not match the superficial actions; there are parts where he would not understand how his character is feeling from the art alone. Kamiya had trouble deciding whether to convey what the animation showed or what Koyomi truly felt in those moments. It was hard to determine which emotions to reflect in my voice. I knew Koyomi would be misunderstood even if the audience picked up on all the nuances in the art. Kamiya had to think about how to create these clues while deciding whether to create them at all, which was a lot of work. However, recordings with Owarimonogatari helped Kamiya understand several parts from Araragi's mental state.[8]

Appearances

Araragi is the protagonist of the Monogatari series. He is a third-year high school student who fails every subject except math. Despite being threatened to keep away by his classmate Hitagi Senjougahara, Koyomi offers his help. Once Koyomi helps solve Hitagi's problem, she decides to become his girlfriend. It is later revealed that after being attacked by a vampire during spring break and becoming a vampire himself, specialist Meme Oshino helps him become human again, though Koyomi retains several lingering side effects and vampiric powers such as enhanced regenerative abilities.[9] Araragi occasionally visits Oshino in order to get rid of Apparitions following innocent people, which often result in Araragi sacrificing himself for their sake as he is unwilling to hurt others.[10]

In the prequel Kizumonogatari, Araragi is a lonely student who only befriends Tsubasa Hanekawa despite his reluctance to form bonds. Araragi then encounters Shinobu for the first time as "Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade". Kiss-Shot asks Araragi to give her his blood in order to save her life, and when he does, Koyomi finds himself reborn as her vampire subordinate. He then asks Kiss-Shot how he can revert himself and she answers that he has to find all of her limbs that were cut by her killers. Araragi and Meme succeed at fully restoring Kiss-Shot; Despite lacking skills as a martial artist, Araragi's new body strengthened by Kiss Shot allows him to easily defeat the other vampires hunting his master. Kiss-Shot admits that she was going to throw the fight, and explains that she has to die to restore a subordinate's humanity, but could not do so for her previous subordinate because she was too scared of death. Meme proposes a solution that will "make everyone miserable": Araragi will suck out Kiss-Shot's blood only to the point that she is too weak to hunt humans, leaving them both quasi-versions of vampire and human.[11]

Although Araragi initially has dates with Senjougahara, Araragi requests her girlfriend's aid into improving his academics as he had poor interests into school before meeting her.[12] In the novel Owarimonogatari, Araragi reflects on his school life and how he started being hated by a classmate, Sodachi Oikura, who used to teach him Mathematics. With Hanekawa's aid, Araragi confronts Oikura and, after learning of her poor upbringing, he tells her to hate him if it helps her reach happiness.[13] After solving this issue, Araragi realizes he also an alter-ego who judges him in the form of young student, Ōgi Oshino. Eventually, Araragi starts making peace with his hero complex and graduates from high school alongside Hanekawa and Senjougahara.[14] Following his graduation, Araragi enters into a university but keeps helping others. He ends up marrying his girlfriend in his adult life.[15] After graduating from university, Koyomi follows his parents' footsteps and becomes a police officer.[16]

Reception

Koyomi Araragi has been a popular character. In Takarajimasha polls, he ranked sixth in the Best Male Character in 2009,[17] second in 2010,[18] seventh in 2011,[19] third in 2012,[20] and sixth in 2013.[21] In the "Newtype Anime Awards" from 2014 and 2016, Araragi took 9th and 4th place in male character category, respectively.[22][23] In Charapedia polls, his relationship with Senjougahara stood out as one of the best couples in anime.[24][25] Newtype magazine named him the 18th best anime male character of the 2000s.[26]

Critical response to Araragi's character in the first story arcs were mixed. THEM Anime Reviews praised Araragi's relationship with all the characters he helps to solve a problem, comparing the protagonist with Kyon from the Haruhi Suzumiya series. He further praised how Araragi also has own personal issues to deal with when there are no girls in need to. However, he found Araragi's romantic relationship with Senjougahara to feel more of antagonistic instead and that some scenes where the former is excited by a younger girl might be creepy.[27] Comic Book Resources noted to stand out thanks to their chemistry despite the story coming across as a harem.[28][29] While finding the couple appealing, Rice Digital lamented there Senjougahara is not present in most episodes leaving their relationship minor in the first tv series.[30] While enjoying the conflicts between Araragi and Mayoi in the first series, Anime News Network found their interactions in the light novel tiring as their interactions are longer.[31] While adding the interactions between Koyomi and the rest to be the main selling point of the series, Comic Book Resources was against Suruga Kanbaru being a lesbian, and claimed that women needing to be saved by him did not age well.[32]

In a further analysis of the series, Anime News Network commented about Nisemonogatari, most specifically in Araragi's relationship with his sisters, Karen and Tsukihi, which come across as "creepy and wrong".[33] The writer further highlights, an infamous scene from the same arc when Arargi uses a toothbrush on Karen's teeth, which is portrayed in "excruciating detail, framed romantically, overtly sexually, with groaning noises".[33] This incest-like moment was noted as a potential turn-off for casual viewers. Despite Araragi's lust for women, the writer noted that the protagonist remains loyal to Senjougahara. Among other story arcs, Anime News Network commented that Araragi's heroic complex is developed deeply.[33] The explanation of Araragi's and Shinobu's relationship in the second season led to further praise by THEM Anime Reviews but the writer had mixed feelings in regards to his screentime with Hanekawa.[34]

Barbara Greene from Tokyo International University said Araragi is an otaku-self insert, who find a multi-layered combination of the narrative of the real to be fulfilling, Araragi elects to retain this connection to the supernatural despite the hardships it can cause. This decision draws him towards an array of moe-kyarawho give him greater access to the database world that is the supernatural in the universe of Bakemonogatari. Even among Araragi's harem of possessed schoolgirls, there are only two who possess "real world" counterparts—Senjougahara and Hanekawa.[35] In general, Comic Book Resources said that out of several events in the franchise, Araragi deciding to stay as a vampire does not make sense as he will remain young forever and outlive Senjougahara.[36]

The character's origins in Kizumonogatari were praised by Anime News Network for exploring his first meeting with Hanekawa and transformation into a vampire with the film using less words than the tv series to convey emotions.[37][38] His fights were praised for how violent they are while adding sacrifice for everything he does in the story despite criticizing the obsession with fanservice.[39] Otaku USA praised the fastpaced fight sequences for how appealing they make Araragi in the films when compared to the tv series while further exploring his first meetings with Hanekawa.[40] Universidad del Valle de México commented that Araragi's design is noteworthy for often changing between costumes which are considered fashionable in Japan in contrast to Hanekawa and Kiss Shot who always wear the same outfit. While Araragi is generally calm when interacting with Kiss Shot, the film's creators take advantage of his crush with Hanekawa in order to provide comic relief that contrasts the serious narrative; While Araragi is consistently portrayed as calm person, Hanekawa is instead portrayed as the one constantly getting into the protagonist's personal space, which leads to the two becoming friendly in the process.[41] Diponegoro University said the interactions between Araragi and Hanekawa were easier to understand to Japanese users due to hidden messages in some of the former's words which include dajare which contradicts the protagonist's attempts of being antisocial.[42]

GameRant described Araragi as a "a flawed but complex protagonist around whom a lot of equally complex characters appeared". Owarimonogatari managed to properly end his arc through his high school graduation as he kept saving other people from their own traumas. This led to several fourth wall breaking jokes in later novels where the protagonist continues insisting his story ended despite already given written an adult as he encounters new people in need to be saved.[43]

References

  1. 1 2 "アニメ『美少年探偵団』西尾維新×坂本真綾対談　青春と無茶ぶりとミステリーと". Kai You. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  2. ↑ Vofan [@VOFAN_TW] (August 20, 2020). ""Because there are no male characters on the cover of MONOGATARI-series novel, VOFAN did not design any male characters" It's not the truth and these words really make me sad...This is part of the original design" (Tweet). Retrieved November 2, 2023 – via Twitter.
  3. 1 2 "Kamiya Hiroshi & Saito Chiwa about peculiarity being a voice actor in the "New Voice Media" "The "Monogatari" Series x Audible" Interview". Anime Anime Global. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  4. ↑ Antonio Pineda, Rafael (April 19, 2016). "Kizumonogatari, Attack on Titan Audiobooks' Dates & Casts Revealed". Anime News Network. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  5. ↑ "原作の持ち味でもあるセリフはアニメでも大事にしている" (in Japanese). Natalie. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
  6. ↑ Kizumonogatari Tekketsu-hen booklet (in Japanese). 2016.
  7. 1 2 3 Kizumonogatari Reiketsu-hen booklet (in Japanese). 2017.
  8. 1 2 3 Kizumonogatari Visual Book. Kodansha. 2016. ISBN 978-4-06-220174-2.
  9. ↑ 化物語（上） [Bakemonogatari (Vol. 1)] (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  10. ↑ 化物語（下） [Bakemonogatari (Vol. 2)] (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  11. ↑ 傷物語 [Kizumonogatari] (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  12. ↑ 戦物語 [Ikusamonogatari] (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
  13. ↑ 終物語（下） [Owarimonogatari (Vol. 3)] (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  14. ↑ 終物語（下） [Owarimonogatari (Vol. 3)] (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  15. ↑ 宵物語 [Yoimonogatari] (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  16. ↑ 結物語 [Musubimonogatari] (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  17. ↑ このミステリーがすごい! 2009 [This Light Novel is Amazing! 2009] (in Japanese). Takarajimasha. November 22, 2008. ISBN 978-4-7966-6695-4. OCLC 959707530.
  18. ↑ このミステリーがすごい! 2010 [This Light Novel is Amazing! 2010] (in Japanese). Takarajimasha. November 21, 2009. ISBN 978-4-7966-7490-4. OCLC 959707530.
  19. ↑ このミステリーがすごい! 2011 [This Light Novel is Amazing! 2011] (in Japanese). Takarajimasha. November 19, 2010. ISBN 978-4-7966-7963-3. OCLC 959707530.
  20. ↑ このミステリーがすごい! 2012 [This Light Novel is Amazing! 2012] (in Japanese). Takarajimasha. November 19, 2011. ISBN 978-4-7966-8716-4. OCLC 959707530.
  21. ↑ このミステリーがすごい! 2013 [This Light Novel is Amazing! 2013] (in Japanese). Takarajimasha. November 19, 2012. ISBN 978-4-8002-0357-1. OCLC 959707530.
  22. ↑ "Kill la Kill, Idolm@ster Movie Win Top Prizes in Newtype Awards". Anime News Network. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
  23. ↑ "Se dan a conocer los resultados preliminares de los Newtype Anime Awards". IGN. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  24. ↑ "Get Your Heart Pounding with The Top 20 Anime & Manga Love Confessions". Anime News Network. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
  25. ↑ "Kirito and Asuna Top Fan Poll of Best Anime Couples". Anime News Network. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
  26. ↑ "Newtype's Top 30 Male and Female Characters of Each Decade". Newtype (in Japanese). Kadokawa Shoten. March 2010.
  27. ↑ "Bakemonogatari". THEM Anime Reviews. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  28. ↑ "10 Anime Couples With The Best Chemistry".
  29. ↑ "10 Best Anime Couples, According To Reddit".
  30. ↑ "Bakemonogatari Review (Anime)". Rice Digital. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  31. ↑ "BAKEMONOGATARI: Monster Tale Novel 1". Anime News Network. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  32. ↑ Adler, Liz (May 30, 2020). "Monogatari: 5 Things From The Anime Franchise That Aged Well (& 5 That Aged Terribly)". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on July 1, 2020. Retrieved February 18, 2021.
  33. 1 2 3 "The Skeptic Guide to Monogatari". Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  34. ↑ "Monogatari Series Second Season". THEM Anime Reviews. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  35. ↑ Greene, Barbara. "Haunted Psychologies: The Specter of Postmodern Trauma in Bakemonogatari". Journal of Anime and Manga Studies. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  36. ↑ "Monogatari: 10 Things That Make No Sense About The Anime's World". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
  37. ↑ Creamer, Nick (February 26, 2016). "Kizumonogatari I: Tekketsu-hen". Anime News Network. Retrieved February 27, 2016.
  38. ↑ "Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu Anime Movie Review". Fandom Post. February 28, 2016. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  39. ↑ Creamer, Nick (October 27, 2016). "Kizumonogatari Part 2: Nekketsu - Review - Anime News Network". Anime News Network. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
  40. ↑ "Review Kizumonogatari Part II: Nekketsu". Otaku USA. Retrieved October 31, 2023.
  41. ↑ Bonilla Sánchez, S. (2018). "León: realización de un mediometraje a partir de la apropiación selectiva del sistema estilístico presente en la trilogía de películas animadas KIZUMONOGATARI". Universidad del Vallle.
  42. ↑ Elizabeth Ika Hesti Aprilia Nindia Rini; Aldhimas Kurnia Widianto. "The Formation of Dajare and Its Effects on Speech Partners in Anime Monogatari Series". Universitas Diponegoro. Retrieved November 1, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  43. ↑ "Is The Monogatari Series Ever Really Over?". GameRant. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
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