Koyomi Araragi

Lore & Background

Araragi was written by Nisio Isin as the main narrator of the series who often dealt with 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 as a romantic couple. The author originally meant the protagonist to be a 'stud' and abandon his desires and lose his propensity for love, but 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 is introduced and active in Bakemonogatari (e.g., Mayoi Snail arc), not kept secret until Nisemonogatari. With the Monogatari novels, Nisio Isin has been delving into one character per story arc by writing their one-on-one conversations with Araragi by each arc. Araragi is depicted on some light novel covers (e.g., Bakemonogatari volume 1, Kizumonogatari volume 1), and was designed by novel illustrator Vofan.

In Their Own Story

The series starts with Bakemonogatari where he meets his antagonistic classmate Hitagi Senjougahara after saving her from falling to the stairs. Despite Senjougahara's threats, Araragi notices she has several problems. He offers his help, revealing his own secret of being part vampire in the process. Once Araragi helps solve Senjougahara's problem, she becomes friendlier with him, talking to him several times until she confesses she is in love with him. As Araragi responds to her feelings, the two start dating and he often asks her for help with studying. Although Araragi initially has dates with Senjougahara, Araragi requests his girlfriend's aid into improving his academics as he had poor interests into school before meeting her. The prequel novel Kizumonogatari later reveals that after being attacked by a vampire during spring break and becoming a vampire himself, specialist Meme Oshino helps him become human again, though Araragi retains several lingering side effects and vampiric powers such as enhanced regenerative abilities. 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.

Reader's Guide

Araragi is a third-year high school student who fails every subject except mathematics. In the anime television series and film adaptations, Araragi was voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya who found the character hard to emulate as a result of his multiple narrations, monologues and interactions. Kamiya's 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 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, which led to several problems during recordings of the anime. Kamiya kept reading the novels to understand Araragi's character until the final school novel Owarimonogatari. Director Akiyuki Shinbo found Kamiya useful in the making of the anime adaptation noting he had already read the novels before the premiere. Erik Scott Kimerer narrated and voiced Araragi in the English-language audiobook version of Kizumonogatari, which was released by Bang Zoom! Entertainment on May 25, 2016.

Did You Know?

• Araragi fails every subject except mathematics.
• He was voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya in the anime, who divided his work into three categories: narration, monologue, and dialogue.
• The English-language audiobook version of Kizumonogatari was narrated by Erik Scott Kimerer and released by Bang Zoom! Entertainment on May 25, 2015.
• Araragi is depicted on some light novel covers (e.g., Bakemonogatari volume 1, Kizumonogatari volume 1), and was designed by illustrator Vofan.
• The vampire Shinobu Oshino is introduced and active in Bakemonogatari (e.g., Mayoi Snail arc), not kept secret until Nisemonogatari.