What do you think?
Rate this book
Monogatari
Koyomimonogatari, Part 1: Calendar Tale
Presented in two parts with covers that will form a diptych, Calendar Tale, narrated by our titular hero, sends us to various earlier points in the story where certain events had yet to occur—when, for instance, the shady “expert” Oshino was still in town, and the ex-legendary vampire Shinobu hadn’t tired of sulking in a corner.
Weaving in a motif of ways, paths, roads, and streets—walks of life—the nostalgic vignettes hark back to the “case files” feel of the series-launching Monster Tale, but with a twist. Not all oddities are supernatural: stones and flowers; sand and water; the wind and the tree can just be plain weird without being aberrations.
In this installment, say hello from the future to class president among class presidents Hanekawa, acid-tongued girlfriend Senjogahara, cheeky lost child Hachikuji, smutty athlete Kanbaru, pathologically shy Sengoku, and justice-loving martial artist Karen, young ladies who love to make our young man sweat.
264 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 8, 2019
24 people are currently reading
500 people want to read
About the author
NisiOisiN
299 books959 followersNisio 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
November 6, 2019
While I enjoyed each of the short stories, I wasn't too crazy with the translation for this one:
- For one, it was way too liberal with the use of f-bombs and just general profanity in a series that we're now 15 books into without the use of many (if any) up until now. On top of the translator had characters that would never even use them do so with stunning regularity (the most glaring example being Hanekawa, having her curse left and right so candidly felt particularly off-putting)
- The other thing that bothered me was the mishmash of honorifics, either stick to Japanese loanwords (-senpai, -kohai, etc) or translations (Big Brother, Mister, etc), but don't use both. Waffling from one to the other was equally as distracting
Overall these issues made the book feel like something I would've read maybe a decade ago on a fan-translated website rather than something I picked up and paid actual money for. Not really what I was expecting given the quality we'd gotten with the rest of the books and seeing as Part 2 has the same translator, I'm anticipating these same issues to persist (hopefully that won't be the case when we get to the upcoming Owari trilogy)
- For one, it was way too liberal with the use of f-bombs and just general profanity in a series that we're now 15 books into without the use of many (if any) up until now. On top of the translator had characters that would never even use them do so with stunning regularity (the most glaring example being Hanekawa, having her curse left and right so candidly felt particularly off-putting)
- The other thing that bothered me was the mishmash of honorifics, either stick to Japanese loanwords (-senpai, -kohai, etc) or translations (Big Brother, Mister, etc), but don't use both. Waffling from one to the other was equally as distracting
Overall these issues made the book feel like something I would've read maybe a decade ago on a fan-translated website rather than something I picked up and paid actual money for. Not really what I was expecting given the quality we'd gotten with the rest of the books and seeing as Part 2 has the same translator, I'm anticipating these same issues to persist (hopefully that won't be the case when we get to the upcoming Owari trilogy)
December 19, 2022
Great to read and chuckle along as usual. This is a collection of short stories. The first couple was boring but the quality improved with the third one. There's a part two continuing this. I am excited to continue reading Monogatari.
February 29, 2020
"'Okay. Now that you've had your fill of touching your little sister's boobies, big brother, will you listen to what I have to say? Since I laid my boobies by your ear, won't you lend it to me in return?'" (214)
****
Ehh, too much time has passed (a couple days) between finishing this book and writing about it - I had a plan to copy a bunch of quotes from the sixth story of Karen seducing Koyomi but I didn't mark them or anything and I'm far too lazy to go back and re-read the story for everything....
Not terribly important, but I had low-ish expectations for this book because I assumed the anime adaptation (which came out afterward, but which was available for EOPs sooner than Vertical's translation of this text) wasn't too well-regarded, and I assumed further its nature as a web-based original (rather than airing on TV or as a film) would equate to lower visual quality (Studio SHAFT are known for cutting corners before Blu-ray releases anyway) and so I figured maybe Koyomimonogatari was less deserving of respect and significance among -Monogatari "canon" and was probably a bit of a buffer to appease readers while NISIOISIN finished Owarimonogatari.
But I actually really enjoyed this, possibly far more than some of the previous novels. The thing that's weird about NISIOISIN is that he is (or was) kind of more a mystery writer (I'm thinking in particular of Zaregoto and his xxHOLIC and Death Note spinoff books) but Monogatari is something else. Maybe nominally "mystery" genre, the series tends to use weird shit with aberrations to explore its characters psychologies and things, which is all well and good, except that the novels are usually like 80% silly banter and the supernatural bits are rushed through in the final chapters of each book. It's fun, don't get me wrong. I love the series. But there's a clash between initial expectations versus what to expect as a solidified fan: when SHAFT's original Bakemonogatari adaptation was new-ish, I was intrigued by its quasi-avant-garde presentation, which benefited the dialogue-heavy scenes (though the fight with the Rainy Devil and Araragi's yellow/cyan/magenta bloodshed is the clear highlight of the series), and so I proceeded into Nisemonogatari later on with hopes for more such wankery. This doesn't work perfectly for NISIOISIN's original texts, as the man doesn't seek to impress too deeply with his prose. He's essentially a "genre" author, which is fine, and he's good at it, and anyway his strength is in the banter he writes, and so it's fair that that's his greatest focus (he says as much in some of the afterwords for some of the books, that the banter is the true purpose to his writing). From the "Second Season" of the books and onward, I've expected Monogatari novels to dork around with banter for the majority of page-count before finally settling into the aberration stuff.
With such a narrow mind, Koyomimonogatari comes across as maybe a bit strange. This volume is less than 250 pages total, yet it includes six tales. This makes things tricky; surely, NISIOISIN cannot have his banter go on for too long without severely cutting the supernatural elements, can he? Well, yeah. Each of these six stories focuses on one of the main cast of girls introducing a semi-supernatural mystery to Araragi, all of which are usually resolved with mundane conclusions. Each story is filled with the series's trademark banter, and so the solutions to the mysteries (and, honestly, much of the "mystery" of each mystery) is shoved into the trademark epilogue/punchline chapters. This is how it goes for the longer tales, so it's no real surprise. This could be bothersome for readers who might want more of the supernatural. As a fan of the fake Bee in Karen's original story in Nisemonogatari, I've always wanted more pseudo-aberrations, and so I value this volume (and presumably Part 2 as well). In particular, I most appreciate how Araragi was the culprit for the first tale, and simply forgot about having created the "shrine" over his years as a bad student, as do I appreciate the joke at the end of the sixth story, that the tree in Karen's dojo may end up becoming an aberration for being worshiped as a god of karate.
Another interesting element, though not really as important as the title would suggest, is that these stories are divided in Time, set throughout the first year of Araragi's dealings with aberrations. I say it's not important because, frankly, I feel it's just meant to postpone the "climax" of the Final Season, getting deeper into Ougi-related things as teased throughout the Second Season. These stories could all have been clumped into a single month, or simply spread more conservatively among the summer or something. The first two stories are set while Oshino is still in town, and so have the "excuse" of repaying Oshino by giving him more urban legends to study. After we catch up to Nise-, though, the "frame story" (if you can call it so) loses much meaning, and the timeline becomes less significant. Second Season did this thing where the Nadeko stuff and the Darkness stuff were split up so as to delay gratification for each arc, teasing elements of one in books concerning the other. We had foreshadowing to tie the whole "season" together. These stories in this book reference events from prior books, but they do not follow events that were themselves mentioned in our "past" (the "past" of real-world publication, versus the "past" of in-universe chronology). My tone may seem negative, but I assure you it is not; I don't mind the stories being spread throughout the year, I just don't think it's necessary. I've been wanting short stories in the series for ages. My problem with the Bake- books, for example, is that the stories are all of a weird middle-length, too short compared to future stories in the series, but too long to be truly "episodic" (the anime breaks everything up weird). Koyomi- stories have a nice length.
Made some notes to myself to comment on Araragi's views on debt, the thing about the soulmate reflected in the bathwater, and sexualizing Nadeko. For the first: [spoiler tags for being so immensely off-topic]. So, for the second thing: I always flip-flop over whether or not I myself believe that humans [should?] seek partners who resemble them. I think the point in Kanbaru's story was that her parents bore superficial physical resemblance through which her father was able to refract his infatuation for her mother backward into prophetic destiny. But the idea that I got from it, chose to read into it, was a question of establishing pretext for relationships by prematurely defining "ideals" based on one's own tastes, seeking a partner to align with what one has decided they will want, seemingly rejecting chance/fate/whatever in favor of an attempt at constructing their own future through their own hands. Like shoving dough into the frame of a cookie-cutter, rather than using the cookie-cutter the appropriate way, to make a weird analogy. This is a concern I've always had: I've never been certain whether we're meant to make friends and lovers who are quite like us, or whether we're meant to meet people randomly and work together to carve new commonalities. For much of high school, I believed the former. After constantly getting really, really high, and never bothering to actively seek contentment, I decided maybe the latter is best. Flip, flop, flip-flop, I don't even know what I think now, anymore. Do I have much to say to people who have little in common with me? Is there actually even anything to say to someone with a lot in common? May as well just go Hermit Mode again, if I think too hard about it! (And so, I'll just not think about it at all, thank you very much, Mr. Ishin!) Anyway, for the third point, I still find Nadeko ridiculously cute, for her shyness and things, despite the fact that she's meant to be part parody of the "Yamato nadeshiko" archetype. I guess it's probably a thing that the other girls in the series are so much more confident in themselves that I could see myself, if in Araragi's shoes, getting bored at having to keep up with banter and shit, whereas someone as milquetoast as Nadeko practically guarantees there will be awkward silence, and so we might as well run with it. Or something. I didn't really have much to say here, so I'm contriving a subject, and it's boring and annoying me.
****
Ehh, too much time has passed (a couple days) between finishing this book and writing about it - I had a plan to copy a bunch of quotes from the sixth story of Karen seducing Koyomi but I didn't mark them or anything and I'm far too lazy to go back and re-read the story for everything....
Not terribly important, but I had low-ish expectations for this book because I assumed the anime adaptation (which came out afterward, but which was available for EOPs sooner than Vertical's translation of this text) wasn't too well-regarded, and I assumed further its nature as a web-based original (rather than airing on TV or as a film) would equate to lower visual quality (Studio SHAFT are known for cutting corners before Blu-ray releases anyway) and so I figured maybe Koyomimonogatari was less deserving of respect and significance among -Monogatari "canon" and was probably a bit of a buffer to appease readers while NISIOISIN finished Owarimonogatari.
But I actually really enjoyed this, possibly far more than some of the previous novels. The thing that's weird about NISIOISIN is that he is (or was) kind of more a mystery writer (I'm thinking in particular of Zaregoto and his xxHOLIC and Death Note spinoff books) but Monogatari is something else. Maybe nominally "mystery" genre, the series tends to use weird shit with aberrations to explore its characters psychologies and things, which is all well and good, except that the novels are usually like 80% silly banter and the supernatural bits are rushed through in the final chapters of each book. It's fun, don't get me wrong. I love the series. But there's a clash between initial expectations versus what to expect as a solidified fan: when SHAFT's original Bakemonogatari adaptation was new-ish, I was intrigued by its quasi-avant-garde presentation, which benefited the dialogue-heavy scenes (though the fight with the Rainy Devil and Araragi's yellow/cyan/magenta bloodshed is the clear highlight of the series), and so I proceeded into Nisemonogatari later on with hopes for more such wankery. This doesn't work perfectly for NISIOISIN's original texts, as the man doesn't seek to impress too deeply with his prose. He's essentially a "genre" author, which is fine, and he's good at it, and anyway his strength is in the banter he writes, and so it's fair that that's his greatest focus (he says as much in some of the afterwords for some of the books, that the banter is the true purpose to his writing). From the "Second Season" of the books and onward, I've expected Monogatari novels to dork around with banter for the majority of page-count before finally settling into the aberration stuff.
With such a narrow mind, Koyomimonogatari comes across as maybe a bit strange. This volume is less than 250 pages total, yet it includes six tales. This makes things tricky; surely, NISIOISIN cannot have his banter go on for too long without severely cutting the supernatural elements, can he? Well, yeah. Each of these six stories focuses on one of the main cast of girls introducing a semi-supernatural mystery to Araragi, all of which are usually resolved with mundane conclusions. Each story is filled with the series's trademark banter, and so the solutions to the mysteries (and, honestly, much of the "mystery" of each mystery) is shoved into the trademark epilogue/punchline chapters. This is how it goes for the longer tales, so it's no real surprise. This could be bothersome for readers who might want more of the supernatural. As a fan of the fake Bee in Karen's original story in Nisemonogatari, I've always wanted more pseudo-aberrations, and so I value this volume (and presumably Part 2 as well). In particular, I most appreciate how Araragi was the culprit for the first tale, and simply forgot about having created the "shrine" over his years as a bad student, as do I appreciate the joke at the end of the sixth story, that the tree in Karen's dojo may end up becoming an aberration for being worshiped as a god of karate.
Another interesting element, though not really as important as the title would suggest, is that these stories are divided in Time, set throughout the first year of Araragi's dealings with aberrations. I say it's not important because, frankly, I feel it's just meant to postpone the "climax" of the Final Season, getting deeper into Ougi-related things as teased throughout the Second Season. These stories could all have been clumped into a single month, or simply spread more conservatively among the summer or something. The first two stories are set while Oshino is still in town, and so have the "excuse" of repaying Oshino by giving him more urban legends to study. After we catch up to Nise-, though, the "frame story" (if you can call it so) loses much meaning, and the timeline becomes less significant. Second Season did this thing where the Nadeko stuff and the Darkness stuff were split up so as to delay gratification for each arc, teasing elements of one in books concerning the other. We had foreshadowing to tie the whole "season" together. These stories in this book reference events from prior books, but they do not follow events that were themselves mentioned in our "past" (the "past" of real-world publication, versus the "past" of in-universe chronology). My tone may seem negative, but I assure you it is not; I don't mind the stories being spread throughout the year, I just don't think it's necessary. I've been wanting short stories in the series for ages. My problem with the Bake- books, for example, is that the stories are all of a weird middle-length, too short compared to future stories in the series, but too long to be truly "episodic" (the anime breaks everything up weird). Koyomi- stories have a nice length.
Made some notes to myself to comment on Araragi's views on debt, the thing about the soulmate reflected in the bathwater, and sexualizing Nadeko. For the first: [spoiler tags for being so immensely off-topic]. So, for the second thing: I always flip-flop over whether or not I myself believe that humans [should?] seek partners who resemble them. I think the point in Kanbaru's story was that her parents bore superficial physical resemblance through which her father was able to refract his infatuation for her mother backward into prophetic destiny. But the idea that I got from it, chose to read into it, was a question of establishing pretext for relationships by prematurely defining "ideals" based on one's own tastes, seeking a partner to align with what one has decided they will want, seemingly rejecting chance/fate/whatever in favor of an attempt at constructing their own future through their own hands. Like shoving dough into the frame of a cookie-cutter, rather than using the cookie-cutter the appropriate way, to make a weird analogy. This is a concern I've always had: I've never been certain whether we're meant to make friends and lovers who are quite like us, or whether we're meant to meet people randomly and work together to carve new commonalities. For much of high school, I believed the former. After constantly getting really, really high, and never bothering to actively seek contentment, I decided maybe the latter is best. Flip, flop, flip-flop, I don't even know what I think now, anymore. Do I have much to say to people who have little in common with me? Is there actually even anything to say to someone with a lot in common? May as well just go Hermit Mode again, if I think too hard about it! (And so, I'll just not think about it at all, thank you very much, Mr. Ishin!) Anyway, for the third point, I still find Nadeko ridiculously cute, for her shyness and things, despite the fact that she's meant to be part parody of the "Yamato nadeshiko" archetype. I guess it's probably a thing that the other girls in the series are so much more confident in themselves that I could see myself, if in Araragi's shoes, getting bored at having to keep up with banter and shit, whereas someone as milquetoast as Nadeko practically guarantees there will be awkward silence, and so we might as well run with it. Or something. I didn't really have much to say here, so I'm contriving a subject, and it's boring and annoying me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 2, 2022
I feel like I'm alone in this, but I actually really liked it???
I feel like this book had some great interactions between characters, and getting to revisit some of the characters, mainly Senjougahara, the way they were at the start of the series, was a fun trip down memory-lane. The first three stories, Stone, Flower and Water, I actually found really interesting and had topics that are interesting to discuss. The main theme I can say goes into these three are "Nothing is quite as it seems", playing into the theme of perspective, we have seen so much of so far in the series.
The last two, Wind and Tree, aren't nearly as interesting as the first two in my opinion, but getting more insight into Kaiki in Wind was pretty great.
Overall, a fun time!
I feel like this book had some great interactions between characters, and getting to revisit some of the characters, mainly Senjougahara, the way they were at the start of the series, was a fun trip down memory-lane. The first three stories, Stone, Flower and Water, I actually found really interesting and had topics that are interesting to discuss. The main theme I can say goes into these three are "Nothing is quite as it seems", playing into the theme of perspective, we have seen so much of so far in the series.
The last two, Wind and Tree, aren't nearly as interesting as the first two in my opinion, but getting more insight into Kaiki in Wind was pretty great.
Overall, a fun time!
March 2, 2023
To start off, this book had a completely different setup than the former books in the series, in that it was a series of short stories compiled together. While I initially was upset with this new format, it actually all came together well. The format did not lessen the amazing writing ability, and there were a lot of amusing and memorable moments in these stories. What really impressed me was the way that the stories could actually still relate to each other through shared themes and conversations, even though the stories take place in different moments chronologically. Overall really satisfied with this read, and looking forward to starting the second one.
May 22, 2023
This would of been a 4 out of 5 if not for it's really weird translation, you can tell they changed translators for this novel as the regular, Ko Ransom, worked on Owari. While it's not a bad translation, you can tell some things feel vaguely off about how its written comparative to previous enteries, the most obvious being the uptake in swearing. Having characters like Hanekawa swear felt out of character and other small details of writing keep it from being it's best.
The book itself seperate from this major issue is fine, the weakest entery in the series but given its a Short Story Compilation essentally thats almost a given it wasn't trying to outdo anything that came before. This is only part 1 of 2 of the short stories, so I hope the second half is more favourable.
My ranking of this novels short stories go:
Flower
Sand
Wind
Stone
Tree
Water
The book itself seperate from this major issue is fine, the weakest entery in the series but given its a Short Story Compilation essentally thats almost a given it wasn't trying to outdo anything that came before. This is only part 1 of 2 of the short stories, so I hope the second half is more favourable.
My ranking of this novels short stories go:
Flower
Sand
Wind
Stone
Tree
Water
August 12, 2019
Interesting, as usual, but the character work didn't feel as developed as usual, particularly towards the end. The first couple stories were my favorites. I miss having an epilogue ='(
There are still images that really stick with you though--the rock in a shrine, a sandbox infinitely deep.
Also, it felt like there was a lot more cursing than usual?? Kinda odd.
There are still images that really stick with you though--the rock in a shrine, a sandbox infinitely deep.
Also, it felt like there was a lot more cursing than usual?? Kinda odd.
August 2, 2019
Not the best book of the series. Araragi's narration felt flat compared to usual. The short stories format don't fit Nisioisin's style very well it seems. Not a bad book, but it's clearly lacking something.
March 8, 2025
Not much to say on this one. A group of little vignettes more than a cohesive story. It reads like a short story collection. None of the individual stories are amazing but they're all interesting enough.
April 13, 2020
Side story volume. It's fun, but nothing really important happens. Light read
July 24, 2022
I love short story intermission books, especially near the end of a fabulous series
July 29, 2022
Good book as per usual, the shorter form of story helped keep my interest as I’m into some characters more than others, always nice when Kaiki shows up
October 20, 2022
Funny Monkey Girl is Funny Hehe
May 31, 2023
I actually found it a bit boring so I didn't read it all in one sitting.
Read
November 27, 20244:21
May 1, 2025
5/10
Read
February 21, 20212/10
nothing terribly special
nothing terribly special
February 16, 2021
By now I should be used to the fact that not all of Isin's stories are total bangers. And I think that concerning past book in the "Monogatari" series, I was not put off by there not being that much plot as long as there were witty conversations and great character interaction. In this volume, now there is no real plot (even to the short stories themselves), and even though there were conversations and character interactions, these were neither witty nor interesting. All stories feel really bland and did neither add something to the overarching story nor to the characters that appear in them. Maybe the second half of "Koyomimonogatari" will be more interesting - I certainly hope so, as the time after the summer holidays has so far been less thoroughly explored in the stories than the time before them and has a lot of holes that need to be filled with plot and information - but for now, my motivation to start into that second half is actually quite low.
March 15, 2023
2.5-3.0 (minor spoilers)
Feels like filler, and the short stories don't seem to be related to each other, which was somewhat of a letdown. In other words, no overarching plot, and the narration was a bit ... off. Of course, it would have been fine if the series was structured this way from the beginning, but this volume felt more like a spin-off than a bona fide Monogatari volume.
Even so, the characters and the interactions between them were still somewhat enjoyable.
Feels like filler, and the short stories don't seem to be related to each other, which was somewhat of a letdown. In other words, no overarching plot, and the narration was a bit ... off. Of course, it would have been fine if the series was structured this way from the beginning, but this volume felt more like a spin-off than a bona fide Monogatari volume.
Even so, the characters and the interactions between them were still somewhat enjoyable.
December 31, 2023
Ok book, compilation of short stories filling inbetween the bake and Owarimonogatari. Enjoyable enough
December 2, 2023
Fun collection of seasonal short stories, not a fan of the translation though, Daniel Joseph eat dirt.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews