KOYOMIMONOGATARI part 2

Monogatari

by NisiOisiN, VOFAN (Illustrator)

In this latter half of Calendar Tale, a set of journeys into the past that have been revisiting the “case files” feel of the series’ origins starts to catch up to the present moment until we are violently spliced back into the overarching plot, just in time for the final quartet that is the End Tale (in three volumes) and End Tale (Cont.).

Continuing with the motif of ways, paths, roads, and streets, and wrapping up sundry other topics and quasi-philosophical concerns, the vignettes for the months of October to March deal with six ladies who are either not quite human or older than titular narrator Koyomi Araragi, bless his bantering soul.

In this installment, see how he handles—or is handled by—aberration of a little sister Tsukihi, enigma of a freshman or -woman Ogi, shadow of a legendary vampire Shinobu, corpse of a tween girl Ononoki, psychopath of a monster expert Kagenui, and know-it-all of a Machiavellian fixer Izuko Gaen.

Genres: Light Novel, Supernatural, Fiction, Mystery, Fantasy, Manga, Novels

240 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 8, 2019

About the author

Nisio Isin (西尾維新 Nishio Ishin), frequently written as NisiOisiN to emphasize that his pen name is a palindrome, is a Japanese novelist and manga writer. He attended and left Ritsumeikan University without graduating. In 2002, he debuted with the novel Kubikiri Cycle, which earned him the 23rd Mephisto Award at twenty years of age.

He currently works with Kodansha on Pandora, the Kodansha Box magazine, and Faust, a literary magazine containing the works of other young authors who similarly take influence from light novels and otaku culture. He was also publishing a twelve volume series over twelve months for the Kodansha Box line; Ryusui Seiryoin was matching this output, and the Kodansha Box website stated that this is the first time in the world two authors have done twelve volume monthly novel series simultaneously from the same publisher.

In February, 2008, his novel Death Note Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases was released in English by Viz Media. Del Rey Manga has already released the first volume in his Zaregoto series. His Bakemonogatari, Nisemonogatari and Katanagatari novels have been adapted into anime series. Nekomonogatari (Kuro) has been adapted into an anime TV movie, and Kizumonogatari will be release in theaters this year. Monogatari Series: Second Season, adapted from 6 books in Monogatari Series will air in July 2013. Another of his works, Medaka Box (manga), has been adapted into a two-season anime series.

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmm, I forgot these books say "fuck" sometimes. Or, if I recall correctly, it was a "newer" thing; I'm quite sure there were no "fuck"s in First Season. It's just jarring to see "fuck" in a light novel. Well, I think there was a "fuck" in the first or second Magical Index. But I'm conditioned by fan translations, such that "fuck" only ever really occurs a) with meme translations or b) for juvenile delinquent or other criminal-type characters. I say "fuck" with some frequency in casual day-to-day life, but that doesn't mean I feel it's necessary for light novels or manga or anime to do the same, so likewise casually. Jarring, as I said.

Anyway, I read the first volume of Koyomimonogatari four years ago. Clearly, I fell off hard with these books. Not for any real reason, either. Well, maybe; I keep burning myself out before ever watching SHAFT's adaptation of the Second Season novels, so I guess I dilly-dallied with the Final Season books, knowing it would take years to watch their anime adaptations. By this point, the Second Season anime is ten or twelve years old, something like that. There have been eleven novels after the end of the Final Season sequence. We're four months short of a full decade since the Japanese release of the last Final Season novel. Anime adaptations of Monster and Off Seasons are finally coming out. The (Zoku) Owari anime came out like five-ish years ago, before I read Koyomi Part 1. I bought both volumes of Koyomi together, I'm pretty sure (if not, they were close together), and the first two parts of Owari around the same time (if not the same purchase as Koyomi). If anything "good" can be said of my laziness, it's that I at least refrained from buying the last two (English) novels, possibly intuiting I wouldn't get to them any time soon (and still haven't). The worst thing, by the way, is that I wasted so much time that I guess most of the Aniplex of America Blu-ray sets are out-of-print; they were overpriced already, but now I definitely have no reason to bother with them.

So, Koyomimonogatari Part 2. I don't really have much to say, I guess. I mean, I could try to say things, as I have four years ago about the previous volume, but... it feels wasteful. It's just been so fucking long since I've read Second Season that almost every allusion flew over my head. Like, it took me a while to remember the whole thing with "Nadeko Medusa." Which... is a pretty fucking important plot-point. Each story has Araragi like "Of course, that thing happened recently...!," and I'm like "Dude, seriously, what thing? Vampire in spring break, Cat in Golden Week, then Crab-Snail-Snake-Monkey-Cat shortly after (I think I have the order right...), then Bee and Phoenix...," then I tap out. I've seen the anime adaptations of First Season, then read the books, then watched them again, so I remember them well enough. But the next wave of stories? I just don't know. I recall the Darkness is a thing, but don't remember in what capacity. I think when they time-traveled? But did time-traveling with Shinobu happen in the same story as Older Hachikuji? Wait, wasn't it something like Second Season tells a pretty cohesive plot, but the volumes are not quite in chronological order? Or there's like the Darkness thing for half the books and the Snake God for the other half and they alternate? Tsukimonogatari starts Final Season, but did it introduce Gaen, or was she in Hana, or was she earlier? It actually took me a while to remember Kagenui was in "Tsukihi Phoenix" even though I remembered Ononoki from same. And I have a pleasant and heretofore-assumed-"distinct" memory of skipping class one day (well, several days overall, but one day in particular) in freshman year of college to watch "Tsukihi Phoenix" because of how fun "Platinum Disco" was as an OP (the idea, iirc, was to watch one episode then head to class, but I ended up watching all four or whatever).

Eh. So, like Part 1, this volume is largely a series of non-mysteries, with no new aberrations introduced. Unlike (what I remember of) Part 1, we get pretty heavy into plot stuff, with the last two stories seemingly setting up whatever Owari will be about.

The idea is to read the rest in quick succession, but I'd have to first order Owari 3 and (Zoku), then wait for them to arrive. That is, I've bought all or most of the rest through RightStuf (which is now just Crunchyroll), so I'd feel compelled to use them again, as I do for manga and things, rather than e.g. Amazon (whom I've been using again lately because their Berserk Deluxe Editions and JoJo hardcovers are actually cheaper...), and shipping will take a while. And I'm a sucker for the illusion propagated by the "free shipping for orders $50+," which lately seems to be "$75+" during big sales, so I'd have to grab other shit, which I'm already planning on more of Oh!Great's manga adaptation, which would require fetching Vols. 2 and 3 from my attic to finally read, before justifying buying further volumes, before justifying a bulk purchase of manga and the last two light novels. By this time, Kodansha will probably start translating Off and Monster Seasons to tie-in with the anime....

[Lyle Aryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This pair of books nicely threads everything together ahead of the final arc. It provides some new insights, and new stories, while not spending too much time in any one "month." In essence, its a recap of the series thus far, but without being a recap.

More so than the previous arc, this sets the stage for Owarimonogatari, nearly making it required reading if you wish to have any sense of what's going on. The little hints that we've been seeded for AGES takes a bit more shape, taking on an even more sinister tone so we feel properly afraid.

And that ending! I'm glad I waited until I got Owarimonogatari before I finished this. I'm only going to be able to stand about a day or two of reflection before diving into the next. If I would have had to wait for months... I might have lost my mind.

The cover art is also some of my very favorite. VOFAN really knocked it out of the park. I'd put it up there, as a single piece spanning both volumes, with some of the most iconic cover art of all time. In fact, I wouldn't mind seeking out a print for my wall.

Having the read the entire series, I have to say that I really look foreword to the afterword. (pun intended) As a writer, I enjoy the insight into my colleagues mind. I always find some nugget of wisdom, or maybe even several. And that's not even counting what's been sprinkled throughout the story.

I would have never guessed that something like this would feature so prominently in my collection. I got it shelved next to such classics as A Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan. I hope someday Nisioisin visits the Pacific Northwest. I'd love a picture with them, and would really enjoy a conversation. They've inspired me to follow my instincts with story-telling.

Now. My read time seems a little long. Honestly, I lost the book. I ended up purchasing it again for my Kindle. Then, of course, I found my hard copy again. I read about 50% of it yesterday, early morning. Couldn't sleep. Fantastic book, truly. Definitely a good collection for those looking for something quick to read between tasks. You can get through one of the "Chapters" pretty quickly, and the sub-chapters have clean enough breaks to be a handy place to hang your bookmark for a few.

What amazes me, is even though each story is separated through a span of time, and so they seem disconnected, there's a very interesting pattern, or picture that emerges as your read through. Even more amazing is seeing that those threads have pretty much always been there. Even the sudden appearance of Ogi doesn't seem as odd. This was something I kinda struggled with when I viewed the anime, and the books didn't seem to elaborate one. This book was certainly enlightening on a few things I had overlooked. I'm blown away by the masterful story-telling.

Definitely an author I would love to be favorably compared against.

~~LA

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe more so than with other Monogatari novels, I am very conflicted about how to rate this novel. As I already mentioned in my review for the previous part of "Koyomimonogatari, the stories themselves that are presented in the novel are sometimes not really stories with a clear agenda but just interactions and conversations between characters - but then again, what else would you expect from a book in the Monogatari series? Of the stories presented in this volume, only the last two really propel the overarching plot forwards and give you background information on things to going on in the Monogatari universe - or rather, they tease a lot and don't really show what exactly is going on, so almost like in every other Monogatari novel.

In the afterword to this volume, Isin writes that with it he wanted to create a quick look back on what happened over the course of the last year that we have been following Araragi through his life and shenanigans. And when you see "Koyomimonogatari" as not really a recap but rather a reminiscence of the series, then it really words as such, and very well. It is just a lot of pages to have to get through in order to find out new interesting facts about the story and characters - I for one didn't really need that reminiscence episode to appreciate the previous novels, my time with them or the future novels I am about to read.

On the other hand, a certain character simply becomes more and more ominous and creepy. But which one it was... I think I forgot about it. Huh, in fact, I can't remember at all. All I know is that I am still hyped for Owarimonogatari, even though this installment was one of my least favourite ones of the series to get through, only being underbid by "Hanamonogatari".

[Zakdj · Rating 4 out of 5]

"This story was written on a 100% out of whim"

Remedies most the issues I had with the first half, with far more consistently good stories with a far better translation. While it's still a weaker entery in the series, what the last 2 stories set up are extremely interesting. It feels far more neccesarry than the first half did, where they just had little stories for Nisioisin to explore ideas he wanted to that wouldn't of worked in longer narratives, this feels like building upon Tsukimonogatari and what it established, alongside setting up Owari really nicely.

I'm happy to be finished with both parts, and if I had to give rankings of the short stories in these two novels, they'd go:

Koyomi Nothing
Koyomi Dead
Koyomi Sand
Koyomi Flower
Koyomi Mountain
Koyomi Torus
Koyomi Tea
Koyomi Seed
Koyomi Water
Koyomi Wind
Koyomi Stone
Koyomi Tree

[Will Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just as with the previous half of this set of short stories, you get constant callbacks to former stories as well as earlier moments in the book. The end of this one finally brings us back to the time of the entrance exams, so that you’ve truly come on a journey of sorts from the beginning in Bakemonogatari to around where Tsukimonogatari ended. This book had all of the great writing and humor as seen in previous books, but it also took me for a loop by suddenly tying everything together plot wise on the last story, and setting the stage for the next part of the overall story arc. It was a nice way to finish off this calendar tale, and I look forward to jumping into the next one.

[Nehemiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

The short stories here feel heavier compared to the first 6, especially the last two, which happened after Tsukimonogatari.

I like the fact that the author overdid himself to insert these short stories just to connect the dots on what is happening and what will happen in the next volumes as he told from the Afterword.

Though the short stories have their message of the connection concerning the main storyline. I like Koyomi Torus as the Koyomi and Shinobu fought over donuts and it ended with Koyomi eating all donuts. I expect Shinobu will eat it all, but Hanekawa's analysis was on point. The subtle emotion between the characters is just there but it was conveyed after all.

[Andersen Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I feel like the first few stories in this part weren't quite as strong as most of the stories in Part 1, the ending more than makes up for it, setting up a quite intriguing tale in Owari - I'm quite excited to see where the story will progress from here!
Also, considering Part 1 & Part 2 were originally one book, I would say it's definitely worth the read - if nothing else, to get more insight and moments with these wonderful characters before the finale.

[Roxanne Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still not the best entry of the series, but at least it finishes on something that relates to the main story!

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

And this is why he's my favorite author.

[Ricardo Matos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Same as previous volume, although the ending of this one got me hyped for the final volumes of the series

[Kayleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy mackerel batman!!! What an end, what a start to the end!

[Tobias · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has more of a connection to the main story than the first part, a good read. Had it's moments and the last chapter was really good

[Andrew Freeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

strong 3, all of the best of the short stories

[Knurek]

3:56

[Araravamp · Rating 3 out of 5]

The forshadowing tho …

[Jordan DeMoura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basically like Koyomimonogatari Part 1 only the stories aren't as compelling and focus on characters I like less.

[Mega · Rating 2 out of 5]

5/10

[Arlo Linnard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good as always, really enjoyed the last 2 short stories, always cool to read more about the adults of the series