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Monogatari #2
KIZUMONOGATARI: Wound Tale
Around midnight, under a lonely street lamp in a provincial town in Japan, lies a white woman, a blonde, alone, robbed of all four limbs, yet undead. Indeed, a rumor's been circulating among the local girls that a vampire has come to their backwater, of all places.
Koyomi Araragi, who prefers to avoid having friends because they'd lower his “intensity as a human," is naturally skeptical. Yet it is to him that the bloodsucking demon, a concept “dated twice over," beckons on the first day of spring break as he makes his way home with a fresh loot of morally compromising periodicals.
Always disarmingly candid, often hilariously playful, and sometimes devastatingly moving, KIZUMONOGATARI: Wound Tale is the perfect gateway into the world of author NISIOISIN, the bestselling young novelist in Japan today. The prequel to BAKEMONOGATARI (“Monster Tale"), this is where the legendary MONOGATARI series, whose anime adaptations have enjoyed international popularity and critical acclaim, begins. A theatrical feature based on KIZUMONOGATARI is due to be released in Japan in January 2016.
Koyomi Araragi, who prefers to avoid having friends because they'd lower his “intensity as a human," is naturally skeptical. Yet it is to him that the bloodsucking demon, a concept “dated twice over," beckons on the first day of spring break as he makes his way home with a fresh loot of morally compromising periodicals.
Always disarmingly candid, often hilariously playful, and sometimes devastatingly moving, KIZUMONOGATARI: Wound Tale is the perfect gateway into the world of author NISIOISIN, the bestselling young novelist in Japan today. The prequel to BAKEMONOGATARI (“Monster Tale"), this is where the legendary MONOGATARI series, whose anime adaptations have enjoyed international popularity and critical acclaim, begins. A theatrical feature based on KIZUMONOGATARI is due to be released in Japan in January 2016.
354 pages, Paperback
First published May 8, 2008
280 people are currently reading
1986 people want to read
About the author
NisiOisiN
288 books966 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.
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February 19, 2016
If you're not very familiar with Japanese reading this can be a torture, but clearly this is my cup of tea, and loved it.
April 9, 2013
This is the story of a tragedy, the story of two damaged people. Araragi Koyomi, an apathetic student who would willingly give up on his life, and Shinobu, previously having the pompous name Kisshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade, a 500 years old vampire who was condemned to become a shadow, a being without its former glory. Two people bounded together for eternity who will, eventually, walk the path of solitude.
After Nisio introduced Shinobu in Bakemonogatari as a supporting character, a mysterious presence hidden in the ruins of an old cram school, Kizumonogatari brings us back to the Spring Break where Araragi and she met, to that very year where the protagonist of the Monogatari Series met and consolidated his friendship with Hanekawa Tsubasa and Oshino Meme.
Unlike the previous light novels, which could be read as a compilation of short stories regarding the apparition of diverse fantastic beings and their influence on the life of students, Kizumonogatari takes the long road of telling a single story throughout more than 300 pages. While in Bakemonogatari we had beautiful chapters, such as Mayoi Snail (which, from the literary point of view, is my all time favorite as of now), here we are in front of a story with more battles, which, as in every Nisio Isin's text, are just a pretext to explore a plethora of themes: morals, friendship, solitude and even life motivations.
When we see the Monogatari series as a whole, we can understand that, despite the genre, tragedy is the source of literature. Kizumonogatari is a beautiful example of this.
After Nisio introduced Shinobu in Bakemonogatari as a supporting character, a mysterious presence hidden in the ruins of an old cram school, Kizumonogatari brings us back to the Spring Break where Araragi and she met, to that very year where the protagonist of the Monogatari Series met and consolidated his friendship with Hanekawa Tsubasa and Oshino Meme.
Unlike the previous light novels, which could be read as a compilation of short stories regarding the apparition of diverse fantastic beings and their influence on the life of students, Kizumonogatari takes the long road of telling a single story throughout more than 300 pages. While in Bakemonogatari we had beautiful chapters, such as Mayoi Snail (which, from the literary point of view, is my all time favorite as of now), here we are in front of a story with more battles, which, as in every Nisio Isin's text, are just a pretext to explore a plethora of themes: morals, friendship, solitude and even life motivations.
When we see the Monogatari series as a whole, we can understand that, despite the genre, tragedy is the source of literature. Kizumonogatari is a beautiful example of this.
February 3, 2016
One might point out that light novel as a medium, as well as the whole japanese animated industry, are going through a long period in which competent authors and writers are snobbed, producing rather more of the same so that the public is satisfied without risking money on anything new or unfamiliar. Of course, this can't be totally blamed on the buyers since even competent authors apparently become so engrossed in their own fame they think fans will forgive any missteps, once it's clear your work will sell no matter how you wrote yourself into a corner and ran out of ideas years ago: Tanigawa's Haruhi Suzumiya series is a much woeful but clear example of this, and Nisio Isin apparently did not much better with its Monogatari series, suffering in this Kizumonogatari the exact same problems of condescension we have witnessed for years.
The story is nothing more nothing less than your average rewrite of Campbell's monomyth, where one plain (read 'boring' or 'made just for self-insert') character is thrown into the world of fantasy and mysteries by a series of not-so-coincidences, he has to fight the villains to retrieve the magical item, there is the old sage aiding him at every turn so he doesn't get himself killed, the damsel in distress, the final boss, the moral and a few predictable twists.
I often heard Nisio being revered as an unusual author, who plays a lot with puns, wording and crush stereotypes, and admittedly he does this in the Zaregoto series sometimes, whereas Kizumonogatari shows the understanding of its own genre just as much Snyder's Superman shows an understanding of what made Nolan's Batman so fresh and innovative for superhero movies.
Being mostly a character-driven novel it's hard to talk about the plot without considering the cast, but in this case it only furtherly proves how little thought was put into the story to begin with.
Our protagonist is presented as apathetic, isolated, cynical but, in truth, deeply scared of human interactions, which would have been for a much interesting albeit hardly orginal characterization, if explored well. Instead Nisio is only able to copy your everyday Ikari Shinji #13k from Neon Genesis Evangelion, which isn't really a hard feat in itself considering how many authors already stole the character before him, yet while mimicking what young readers could relate better to, he failed to reproduce the insightful background that made Shinji a complex human character to begin with.
So what we are left with is Ararargi Koyomi, whose main feature is behaving in a completely random fashion and contradicting himself, being at the same time a cowardly self-deluding prick and a masterful warrior of the streets whose strategies only come second to Sun Tzu, despite never knowing anything about his enemies and acting on pure recklessness. This lack of character is often times presented as deliberate but it doesn't make it any less ridiculous.
From the beginning of the book we have our protagonist's encounter with the unknown, the dark not-so-secret world of vampires and oddities, in the form of a 500 years old lady-vampire mutilated and on the verge of death, who requires the hero's blood to survive. And he, while contemplating how she's a monster, a killer, a beast from the beyond, decides, in spite of his aloof and 'average' personality, to sacrifice himself to save her. Are you beginning to feel the Jesus Christ vibe here?
Of course, whoever was lucky enough to read or study about the Christian religion knows that Jesus was that much of a selfless character because his father led him to redeem humanity, to cancel the original sin and grant us our return to the garden of Eden (someday) whilst Araragi is just a guy. Do we ever get to know why does he act that way, what are his motivations or who is he deep down? Nope, not once not ever, and considering this book is narrated in first-person from his viewpoint, it's amazing how little we get to know about him.
It is at some point explained that he love breasts, big breasts, while it's also implied he as an underwear fetish, and all of these are major plot points, believe me.
Our side character, Hanekawa Tsubasa, doesn't give much more credit to the credibility of the story: she's presented as a remarkable woman, a genius, the top student, a witty character and her main feature through the whole novel is having big breasts. She's also the damsel in distress, which means her purpose might be summed up as being kidnapped, taken as a hostage and undressing for the protagonist (I wish I was joking).
Surprise of the surprises, she's also devoid of character but who would have guessed that a female protagonist labeled by her breasts size and the pattern on her undies is actually nothing more than misogynistic pandering. What a shock!
Although, I have to admit at a certain point the author tried to give her some depth by having the character herself remarks how she's not that good of a person and has a hidden side which is, in fact, pretty awful. And do we ever get to see why she affirms this or witness some events which prove such statements? Yet again, no, we don't. I guess this would be an excellent timing for the old Linkin Park's Crawling joke. Supposedly you get to know her better in another installment of the Monogatari series and if so why are you bothering telling us now, wasting precious time, instead of waiting the right moment (and book) to introduce new conflicts?
And then there's every other character, which compose such a superficial and poorly explored cast I don't even have anything to say about them. Mostly their purpose is to fit into the story so that the main characters have something to do, but they are not interesting characters. With little to none explanations about the villains how are we supposed to care about the fights or feel any tension? Some insight is given once the battle is over, but by then there are not much moral issues to debate since we are already left only with the winner. He's right by default.
An important feature of the novel is its humour, heavily relying on hyperboles and breaking the fourth wall, which works in theory for a story that wants to make fun of standard tropes such vampires, fan service, selfless heroes and of light novels in general. Unfortunately, as previously stated, the understanding of what the story is supposed to mock is remarkably lacking of an eye intelligent enough to separate the deliberate from the flawed, at worst recycling its own jokes far too much: the first time you say it would be difficult to animate what's being narrated might be clever, the second time forgiven if in context but from the third onward it's clear that someone is lacking ideas. Metafiction is not an easy way out to enthrall your readers into the action for cheap laughs when everything else failed; Arthur Dent never once stopped to ponder how it would be difficult to make a tv series or a movie about a two-headed character, the author always had better jokes to serve.
There are also several instances of attempted sex comedy, such as a breasts massage to boost the fighter concentration before the last battle, which again might even be a funny idea (to some) for how it is introduced, if it wasn't dragged for so long. And that's it I guess, five years after having discussed the concept of genius and the idiosyncrasies of humans' purposes, the same author relies on cheap vulgar gags a middle school boy would find funny to entertain its readers.
Which brings us to the next point, the writing itself.
Now the prose is just painful. Whatever was of the author of The Kubishime Romanticist, which showed cleverness, irony, gruesome and managed to follow the stream of consciousness of a completely deranged and unreliable narrator, is sadly forgotten in this book. Instead, we get a four pages long description of a high school girl's underwear flashing thanks to a lucky gust of wind, with a rebuke on the fifth page about how four pages where wasted. Granted that breaking the fourth wall is the main source of humour in the book, how should the audience react to this? It serves for parody, maybe, but one can't help but notice that four pages were wasted on a single joke, while giving nothing more to the plot or the characterization.
It's fast paced, sure, but how much does that mean when the writing is redundant, unnecessarily lengthy and falls into the same problems it tries to mock? It loses itself in descriptions we couldn't possibly care about, gives meticulous details while forgetting to even give character to its own protagonists and worst of all an unforgivable amount of pandering to the base.
Where the seasoned author should write 'development' Nisio only manages to answer with conveniences. After all, why bother giving a character any kind of hardship he or she is required to overcome with its wit and abilities when the magic of being oneself is plenty enough to solve any problem? The act of self-inserting would fail if the audience wasn't able to think of the protagonist as a blank canvas on which depicts themselves. Then, since your average reader still has dreams of grandeur and escapism, let's throw some magic jargon in it. Kawahara Reki and Christopher Paolini are masters at this game. So, when the protagonist gains his power, not only he's given super sharp senses, super strenght, super speed, instant regeneration and immortality, but the body itself adjusts for “better perfomances”, which translates into a six-pack magically appearing, with no effort at all. Gosh, now I wish I was the main character, don't you?
You can also tell how Nisio thinks of himself as a smart guy with an eccentric writing, when the better he can perform are lame puns and repeating again and again the same concepts in different ways to empathize how much dumb you think your readers are. There's stream of consciousness and there's redundant, it's been decades since this much was worldwide acknowledged. Yet he builds its own philosophy and views on everyday topics, ultimately failing to deliver any punchline, either because what he's writing is not as clever or original as he think he is or because someone else already explored it better.
So, what are we left with? Obviously this novel wasn't supposed to take itself seriously but it failed at the basics of self-irony and meta-jokes, it tried to make fun of the industry and the clichés while being at fault of pandering to the same exact fanbase. It wasn't much original as a fantasy, it lacked the mystery and tension of a thriller, the action was ruled by plot armor and conveniences, it lacked character development and the few funny remarks were dumbed-down by an overall feeling of attempting to give wits when there's not even awareness.
I'm sorry for the author, and I'm even sorrier for myself, but most of all I'm disappointed by the fact this novel has no redeeming feature whatsoever. Still, it was one of the most anticipated books of its year, it couldn't deliver half of its promises and its success will however mean that more of these dreadful excuses of literature are going to be licensed in English. Meanwhile, there's still no translation in sight for Murasakiiro no Qualia or the Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita series, now that really does encourage one to support the industry.
The story is nothing more nothing less than your average rewrite of Campbell's monomyth, where one plain (read 'boring' or 'made just for self-insert') character is thrown into the world of fantasy and mysteries by a series of not-so-coincidences, he has to fight the villains to retrieve the magical item, there is the old sage aiding him at every turn so he doesn't get himself killed, the damsel in distress, the final boss, the moral and a few predictable twists.
I often heard Nisio being revered as an unusual author, who plays a lot with puns, wording and crush stereotypes, and admittedly he does this in the Zaregoto series sometimes, whereas Kizumonogatari shows the understanding of its own genre just as much Snyder's Superman shows an understanding of what made Nolan's Batman so fresh and innovative for superhero movies.
Being mostly a character-driven novel it's hard to talk about the plot without considering the cast, but in this case it only furtherly proves how little thought was put into the story to begin with.
Our protagonist is presented as apathetic, isolated, cynical but, in truth, deeply scared of human interactions, which would have been for a much interesting albeit hardly orginal characterization, if explored well. Instead Nisio is only able to copy your everyday Ikari Shinji #13k from Neon Genesis Evangelion, which isn't really a hard feat in itself considering how many authors already stole the character before him, yet while mimicking what young readers could relate better to, he failed to reproduce the insightful background that made Shinji a complex human character to begin with.
So what we are left with is Ararargi Koyomi, whose main feature is behaving in a completely random fashion and contradicting himself, being at the same time a cowardly self-deluding prick and a masterful warrior of the streets whose strategies only come second to Sun Tzu, despite never knowing anything about his enemies and acting on pure recklessness. This lack of character is often times presented as deliberate but it doesn't make it any less ridiculous.
From the beginning of the book we have our protagonist's encounter with the unknown, the dark not-so-secret world of vampires and oddities, in the form of a 500 years old lady-vampire mutilated and on the verge of death, who requires the hero's blood to survive. And he, while contemplating how she's a monster, a killer, a beast from the beyond, decides, in spite of his aloof and 'average' personality, to sacrifice himself to save her. Are you beginning to feel the Jesus Christ vibe here?
Of course, whoever was lucky enough to read or study about the Christian religion knows that Jesus was that much of a selfless character because his father led him to redeem humanity, to cancel the original sin and grant us our return to the garden of Eden (someday) whilst Araragi is just a guy. Do we ever get to know why does he act that way, what are his motivations or who is he deep down? Nope, not once not ever, and considering this book is narrated in first-person from his viewpoint, it's amazing how little we get to know about him.
It is at some point explained that he love breasts, big breasts, while it's also implied he as an underwear fetish, and all of these are major plot points, believe me.
Our side character, Hanekawa Tsubasa, doesn't give much more credit to the credibility of the story: she's presented as a remarkable woman, a genius, the top student, a witty character and her main feature through the whole novel is having big breasts. She's also the damsel in distress, which means her purpose might be summed up as being kidnapped, taken as a hostage and undressing for the protagonist (I wish I was joking).
Surprise of the surprises, she's also devoid of character but who would have guessed that a female protagonist labeled by her breasts size and the pattern on her undies is actually nothing more than misogynistic pandering. What a shock!
Although, I have to admit at a certain point the author tried to give her some depth by having the character herself remarks how she's not that good of a person and has a hidden side which is, in fact, pretty awful. And do we ever get to see why she affirms this or witness some events which prove such statements? Yet again, no, we don't. I guess this would be an excellent timing for the old Linkin Park's Crawling joke. Supposedly you get to know her better in another installment of the Monogatari series and if so why are you bothering telling us now, wasting precious time, instead of waiting the right moment (and book) to introduce new conflicts?
And then there's every other character, which compose such a superficial and poorly explored cast I don't even have anything to say about them. Mostly their purpose is to fit into the story so that the main characters have something to do, but they are not interesting characters. With little to none explanations about the villains how are we supposed to care about the fights or feel any tension? Some insight is given once the battle is over, but by then there are not much moral issues to debate since we are already left only with the winner. He's right by default.
An important feature of the novel is its humour, heavily relying on hyperboles and breaking the fourth wall, which works in theory for a story that wants to make fun of standard tropes such vampires, fan service, selfless heroes and of light novels in general. Unfortunately, as previously stated, the understanding of what the story is supposed to mock is remarkably lacking of an eye intelligent enough to separate the deliberate from the flawed, at worst recycling its own jokes far too much: the first time you say it would be difficult to animate what's being narrated might be clever, the second time forgiven if in context but from the third onward it's clear that someone is lacking ideas. Metafiction is not an easy way out to enthrall your readers into the action for cheap laughs when everything else failed; Arthur Dent never once stopped to ponder how it would be difficult to make a tv series or a movie about a two-headed character, the author always had better jokes to serve.
There are also several instances of attempted sex comedy, such as a breasts massage to boost the fighter concentration before the last battle, which again might even be a funny idea (to some) for how it is introduced, if it wasn't dragged for so long. And that's it I guess, five years after having discussed the concept of genius and the idiosyncrasies of humans' purposes, the same author relies on cheap vulgar gags a middle school boy would find funny to entertain its readers.
Which brings us to the next point, the writing itself.
Now the prose is just painful. Whatever was of the author of The Kubishime Romanticist, which showed cleverness, irony, gruesome and managed to follow the stream of consciousness of a completely deranged and unreliable narrator, is sadly forgotten in this book. Instead, we get a four pages long description of a high school girl's underwear flashing thanks to a lucky gust of wind, with a rebuke on the fifth page about how four pages where wasted. Granted that breaking the fourth wall is the main source of humour in the book, how should the audience react to this? It serves for parody, maybe, but one can't help but notice that four pages were wasted on a single joke, while giving nothing more to the plot or the characterization.
It's fast paced, sure, but how much does that mean when the writing is redundant, unnecessarily lengthy and falls into the same problems it tries to mock? It loses itself in descriptions we couldn't possibly care about, gives meticulous details while forgetting to even give character to its own protagonists and worst of all an unforgivable amount of pandering to the base.
Where the seasoned author should write 'development' Nisio only manages to answer with conveniences. After all, why bother giving a character any kind of hardship he or she is required to overcome with its wit and abilities when the magic of being oneself is plenty enough to solve any problem? The act of self-inserting would fail if the audience wasn't able to think of the protagonist as a blank canvas on which depicts themselves. Then, since your average reader still has dreams of grandeur and escapism, let's throw some magic jargon in it. Kawahara Reki and Christopher Paolini are masters at this game. So, when the protagonist gains his power, not only he's given super sharp senses, super strenght, super speed, instant regeneration and immortality, but the body itself adjusts for “better perfomances”, which translates into a six-pack magically appearing, with no effort at all. Gosh, now I wish I was the main character, don't you?
You can also tell how Nisio thinks of himself as a smart guy with an eccentric writing, when the better he can perform are lame puns and repeating again and again the same concepts in different ways to empathize how much dumb you think your readers are. There's stream of consciousness and there's redundant, it's been decades since this much was worldwide acknowledged. Yet he builds its own philosophy and views on everyday topics, ultimately failing to deliver any punchline, either because what he's writing is not as clever or original as he think he is or because someone else already explored it better.
So, what are we left with? Obviously this novel wasn't supposed to take itself seriously but it failed at the basics of self-irony and meta-jokes, it tried to make fun of the industry and the clichés while being at fault of pandering to the same exact fanbase. It wasn't much original as a fantasy, it lacked the mystery and tension of a thriller, the action was ruled by plot armor and conveniences, it lacked character development and the few funny remarks were dumbed-down by an overall feeling of attempting to give wits when there's not even awareness.
I'm sorry for the author, and I'm even sorrier for myself, but most of all I'm disappointed by the fact this novel has no redeeming feature whatsoever. Still, it was one of the most anticipated books of its year, it couldn't deliver half of its promises and its success will however mean that more of these dreadful excuses of literature are going to be licensed in English. Meanwhile, there's still no translation in sight for Murasakiiro no Qualia or the Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita series, now that really does encourage one to support the industry.
December 29, 2021
The writing in this book is...embarrassingly bad. Like, "how-did-this-get-published-off-of-Wattpad" bad, and that might be an insult to Wattpad. I powered through the whole thing pretty quickly, and the story was pretty average/unremarkable, but I am just absolutely bewildered that this presumably passed by a writer, translator, copyeditor(s), and hopefully several other people before making it to the shelves of Barnes and Noble.
This is categorized as a "light novel," which is a subgenre I'm not too familiar with; judging by some of the other reviews of the text, a lot of the things I dislike are a conventional part of the subgenre. Well, I guess I know that light novels aren't for me (though if you know any that are better-quality, send them my way! I'd love to try again!).
Either way, if you want a quick story you can finish in two hours without thinking at all, give this a try. If you're worried about wanting your two hours back (I mean it when I say that this text caused me immense pain to read) consider something else.
This is categorized as a "light novel," which is a subgenre I'm not too familiar with; judging by some of the other reviews of the text, a lot of the things I dislike are a conventional part of the subgenre. Well, I guess I know that light novels aren't for me (though if you know any that are better-quality, send them my way! I'd love to try again!).
Either way, if you want a quick story you can finish in two hours without thinking at all, give this a try. If you're worried about wanting your two hours back (I mean it when I say that this text caused me immense pain to read) consider something else.
May 9, 2018
Another of those high school boy and girl meet 500 year old vampire stories that never fail to attract my interest. I always end up trying them, and usually, as in this case, end up being a little disappointed. I chose the audible version, and to be honest, that was the right choice. The pacing was good, the voices were excellent, and the incidental music was perfect. It also had a quirky sense of humor that kept me listening right to the end. Despite those positives, there was little character development, little or no depth to the story, and no gems to take away. I enjoyed the experience on a fairly superficial level, but not enough to move on to the next one in the series.
January 8, 2018
[An old review that I'm just now getting around to adding to Goodreads.]
Kizumonogatari stars Koyomi Araragi, a 17-year-old loser. He avoids having friends because he believes they would “lower his intensity as a human” (although one wonders if this isn't just his way of making himself feel better because no one wants to be friends with him). His life seems to be going nowhere, until one day he comes across Tsubasa Hanekawa, class president and all-around model student, and accidentally gets an excellent view of her panties when the wind blows her skirt straight up. Instead of getting upset or fleeing in embarrassment, Hanekawa decides to be Araragi's first friend.
Later, Araragi tries to wipe away the memory of Hanekawa's panties by buying some porn. On his way home, he comes across Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade (name found online, because otherwise I'd never have figured out how to spell it all), “the iron-blooded, hot-blooded, yet cold-blooded vampire.” Someone has removed all four of her limbs, and she is dying. She asks Araragi to save her by letting her drink him dry, and he, in a fit of pity and realization that he's a loser whose life, he decides, is probably worth less than hers, agrees. He expects to die but instead wakes up as Kiss-Shot's new servant, the one who now has to get her limbs back from the vampire hunters who took them.
This book was garbage on multiple levels. I was a little surprised at how much I hated it. Both the author and the series are very popular, so I figured that, even if there was as much fanservice as I'd heard, the book would still have other redeeming qualities. Unfortunately, it did not.
However, I do have some good things to say, so I'll start there. The narration was fabulous. Cristina Vee, Keith Silverstein, and Eric Kimerer are to be commended. They did as well as they possibly could, considering the material they had to work with, and they managed to make the clunky dialogue somewhat listenable. I especially enjoyed Cristina Vee's work – if I hadn't known better, I'd have thought there were two female narrators, one for Hanekawa and Kiss-Shot's cutesy voices and one for the older version of Kiss-Shot. The desperation she put into dying Kiss-Shot's voice was great.
The voice acting combined with the background music, which went so far as to feature specific character themes, made listening to Kizumonogatari a little like listening to an anime. I really enjoyed that and hope that Vertical continues their foray into audiobooks. Hopefully with better books than this one.
All right, now for the bad. I suppose I'll start with the gross fanservice. NisiOisiN stopped short of having Hanekawa or Kiss-Shot suggestively suck on or eat something, but what did happen was still pretty awful. I swear, at least an hour or two of this 9.5-hour book was Araragi obsessing over breasts and panties. None of it was what you'd call sexy or erotic, just clunky and awkward. The description of Hanekawa's panties felt like it took ages (the text mentioned that Araragi had gone on for almost two pages), Hanekawa's reactions were closer to how women in porn movies might behave than to anything resembling reality, and unfortunately there was worse to come.
In one scene, Kiss-Shot spoke to Araragi and then laid down to sleep in the same room while he was still there. Araragi was amazed at how casually she did this and found himself thinking that it would be rude for him not to...do something (the “something” wasn't stated, but I figure “grope her” was high on the list – so yeah, Araragi thought it was impolite not to sexually assault a girl who was trusting enough to fall asleep in the same room as him). There were multiple jokes about Kiss-Shot's flat-chestedness when she was in her 10-year-old form, and then even more jokes about the hugeness of her chest when she was back to her 27-year-old form.
In one especially cringe-worthy scene, Araragi asked Hanekawa to allow him to touch her breasts, ostensibly to help him better ignore Kiss-Shot's enormous breasts during his upcoming battle with her. Hanekawa agreed and went so far as to remove her bra and tell him he had to fondle her breasts for a full minute. Araragi, shocked at his good fortune but nervous about the possibility that she might later claim that he'd forced himself on her, asked her to clearly voice her consent. Soon Araragi was using that as an opportunity to embarrass Hanekawa by making her talk dirty to him. The exact things he asked her to say: “Araragi, I beg you, please fondle my bra-less boobies! It's a great honor to have my breasts fondled by you! I've worked hard to grow these lewd breasts, all so that you could squish them one day, Araragi!” Oh, Cristina Vee. I hope they paid you well.
The story wasn't anywhere near good enough to balance out the grossness. Araragi won most of his battles through blind luck. The big revelations near the end weren't terribly shocking, either because I'd begun to guess what was going on or because Araragi's narration was just that bad. Seriously, the guy could suck the fun and excitement out of anything. In Araragi's first battle, his enemy turned his own arms into swords and hacked Araragi's hands off. It should have been a fast-paced, action-packed scene, and yet Araragi persisted in narrating everything to death.
The ending was worse than I expected. Hanekawa had to figure out pretty much everything on her own and then tell Araragi. Araragi, meanwhile, was horrified by one particular bit of info (which he had to practically be beaten over the head with) but then forgot about that horror when the story needed him to pity Kiss-Shot again. The weird relationship that Araragi and Kiss-Shot ended up with didn't sit well with me, but I suppose it was necessary to make room for all the series' other related stories.
I've been intrigued by the series' various anime adaptations for years - the clips I've seen have looked absolutely gorgeous. However, I think this book has finally killed my desire to see them. I'm thankful for that, considering how much Aniplex of America charges.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
Kizumonogatari stars Koyomi Araragi, a 17-year-old loser. He avoids having friends because he believes they would “lower his intensity as a human” (although one wonders if this isn't just his way of making himself feel better because no one wants to be friends with him). His life seems to be going nowhere, until one day he comes across Tsubasa Hanekawa, class president and all-around model student, and accidentally gets an excellent view of her panties when the wind blows her skirt straight up. Instead of getting upset or fleeing in embarrassment, Hanekawa decides to be Araragi's first friend.
Later, Araragi tries to wipe away the memory of Hanekawa's panties by buying some porn. On his way home, he comes across Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade (name found online, because otherwise I'd never have figured out how to spell it all), “the iron-blooded, hot-blooded, yet cold-blooded vampire.” Someone has removed all four of her limbs, and she is dying. She asks Araragi to save her by letting her drink him dry, and he, in a fit of pity and realization that he's a loser whose life, he decides, is probably worth less than hers, agrees. He expects to die but instead wakes up as Kiss-Shot's new servant, the one who now has to get her limbs back from the vampire hunters who took them.
This book was garbage on multiple levels. I was a little surprised at how much I hated it. Both the author and the series are very popular, so I figured that, even if there was as much fanservice as I'd heard, the book would still have other redeeming qualities. Unfortunately, it did not.
However, I do have some good things to say, so I'll start there. The narration was fabulous. Cristina Vee, Keith Silverstein, and Eric Kimerer are to be commended. They did as well as they possibly could, considering the material they had to work with, and they managed to make the clunky dialogue somewhat listenable. I especially enjoyed Cristina Vee's work – if I hadn't known better, I'd have thought there were two female narrators, one for Hanekawa and Kiss-Shot's cutesy voices and one for the older version of Kiss-Shot. The desperation she put into dying Kiss-Shot's voice was great.
The voice acting combined with the background music, which went so far as to feature specific character themes, made listening to Kizumonogatari a little like listening to an anime. I really enjoyed that and hope that Vertical continues their foray into audiobooks. Hopefully with better books than this one.
All right, now for the bad. I suppose I'll start with the gross fanservice. NisiOisiN stopped short of having Hanekawa or Kiss-Shot suggestively suck on or eat something, but what did happen was still pretty awful. I swear, at least an hour or two of this 9.5-hour book was Araragi obsessing over breasts and panties. None of it was what you'd call sexy or erotic, just clunky and awkward. The description of Hanekawa's panties felt like it took ages (the text mentioned that Araragi had gone on for almost two pages), Hanekawa's reactions were closer to how women in porn movies might behave than to anything resembling reality, and unfortunately there was worse to come.
In one scene, Kiss-Shot spoke to Araragi and then laid down to sleep in the same room while he was still there. Araragi was amazed at how casually she did this and found himself thinking that it would be rude for him not to...do something (the “something” wasn't stated, but I figure “grope her” was high on the list – so yeah, Araragi thought it was impolite not to sexually assault a girl who was trusting enough to fall asleep in the same room as him). There were multiple jokes about Kiss-Shot's flat-chestedness when she was in her 10-year-old form, and then even more jokes about the hugeness of her chest when she was back to her 27-year-old form.
In one especially cringe-worthy scene, Araragi asked Hanekawa to allow him to touch her breasts, ostensibly to help him better ignore Kiss-Shot's enormous breasts during his upcoming battle with her. Hanekawa agreed and went so far as to remove her bra and tell him he had to fondle her breasts for a full minute. Araragi, shocked at his good fortune but nervous about the possibility that she might later claim that he'd forced himself on her, asked her to clearly voice her consent. Soon Araragi was using that as an opportunity to embarrass Hanekawa by making her talk dirty to him. The exact things he asked her to say: “Araragi, I beg you, please fondle my bra-less boobies! It's a great honor to have my breasts fondled by you! I've worked hard to grow these lewd breasts, all so that you could squish them one day, Araragi!” Oh, Cristina Vee. I hope they paid you well.
The story wasn't anywhere near good enough to balance out the grossness. Araragi won most of his battles through blind luck. The big revelations near the end weren't terribly shocking, either because I'd begun to guess what was going on or because Araragi's narration was just that bad. Seriously, the guy could suck the fun and excitement out of anything. In Araragi's first battle, his enemy turned his own arms into swords and hacked Araragi's hands off. It should have been a fast-paced, action-packed scene, and yet Araragi persisted in narrating everything to death.
The ending was worse than I expected. Hanekawa had to figure out pretty much everything on her own and then tell Araragi. Araragi, meanwhile, was horrified by one particular bit of info (which he had to practically be beaten over the head with) but then forgot about that horror when the story needed him to pity Kiss-Shot again. The weird relationship that Araragi and Kiss-Shot ended up with didn't sit well with me, but I suppose it was necessary to make room for all the series' other related stories.
I've been intrigued by the series' various anime adaptations for years - the clips I've seen have looked absolutely gorgeous. However, I think this book has finally killed my desire to see them. I'm thankful for that, considering how much Aniplex of America charges.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
August 10, 2016
Review also published here
Chronologically, Kizumonogatari is the first light novel in the long-running Monogatari series by NisiOisiN (over 20 volumes published to date!), even though it was published as number 3. The english publisher Vertical has decided to bring this one over first, with Bakemonogatari volumes one and two following in the coming year or two.
There shouldn't be any problems with reading this one first - if anything, you can even read it as a standalone book, outside of the series context, and still enjoy it for what it is.
The book's title, Kizumonogatari, is putting together the japanese words "kizumono" and "monogatari". The latter simply means story, or tale, whereas kizumono has multiple meanings, all of which fit the story told - "damaged goods" and "deflowered girl" both fit in many ways. As a result, the english subtitle of "Wound Tale" is a bit simple, but still fitting in my eyes.
Where a good chunk of the series entries tell multiple stories, titled "episodes", Kizumonogatari only has one: Koyomi Vamp.
It introduces the series protagonist Koyomi Araragi, 17 year old student, who encounters supporting character Tsubasa Hanekawa and vampire lady Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-Blade, as well as "abberation" specialist Meme Oshino. Finding the vampire limbless and dying on the street one night, Araragi decides to throw his (so far) meaningless, lonely life away to save the pleading Heart-under-Blade's immortal life.
Instead of feeding on him properly, the vampire turns him into her thrall while sustaining herself on a basic level. Araragi is then tasked with reclaiming Kiss-shot's four limbs, taken by professional vampire hunters, by defeating them one by one in combat, in exchange for the vampire to turn him back into a human.
He is supported by "class president among class presidents" Hanekawa and the sleazy yet competent hawaiian-shirt-fanatic Oshino, as he battles through summer break, and feels his world views shift.
Honestly, I thought this was an enjoyable, if relatively simplistic and quick read. I will say, however, that it will not be something for most readers, and it is good to bring some understanding of japanese anime and manga culture with you - otherwise you might find a fair few things offensive or nonsensical.
There is, for example, a good element of fanservice here - it took the book not even two whole chapters to get to the first panty shot. Indeed, it brazenly has Araragi, in his first person narrative, describe the view, metaphors and all, for about two whole pages! Just before following it up with snarky remarks by Hanekawa, the undergarment's owner, including a self-aware comment about it feeling to her like "he just described the view for two pages".
It is a common comedic style in anime and manga, and while it made me shake my head more than once here, it still managed to amuse me. It, and the developing friendship between Hanekawa and loner Araragi, provided some lighter contrast to the otherwise fairly dark story.
Yes, there is plenty of dark stuff here too. Blood, gore, eating of limbs, nevermind the slightly philosophical discussions of immortality and vampirism, or the value of life, or the motivations of the vampire hunters. And yet despite all the tension it definitely brings to the table, the author still managed to maintain a whimsical, lighthearted tone to balance it all out, just before plunging back into the abyss. The penultimate chapter especially had a lot of impact and emotion behind it.
Araragi himself undergoes some big changes (besides, or maybe because of, his newly attained vampirism) over the course of the story. He grows emotionally, and as a person. I enjoyed observing that growth, and with it his relationships with the other characters. And there better be enjoyable interaction in such a character-driven series!
One thing that can either be a positive or negative point for you will be the wordiness of it all. It is something common with visual novels, and gets pretty obvious with translations into english. They tend to circle a topic with more sentences than necessary to drive the point home, or repeat phrases and key points excessively often. Kizumonogatari is no exception here - if anything, the Monogatari series is a serial offender in this regard.
Even the anime adaptations of Bakemonogatari and co adopted the wordiness pretty straight up, which resulted in the animation studio behind them doing a lot of very experimental, whacky things with it - there is only so many things you can do to animate long conversations between characters. Expect to read a lot of dialogue and internal monologues, rather than detailed descriptions of environments or objects.
You'll find that almost every character has a catchphrase (Hanekawa: "I just know what I know", Oshino: "Something good happen to you today/recently", etc), liberally used all over the place. Whether you find them catchy or not is up to you.
Despite its longwindedness about things, it is still an easy read that manages to bring across the protagonist's emotional state and views pretty well, along with those of the other cast members. There's a good amount of hooks for the rest of the series too.
The way it all wrapped up felt satisfying to me, even though (or maybe because) it felt a little ambiguous about the effects of Araragi's decisions. I had a good time, even if it isn't exactly higher literature. It is a character-driven drama, with the charmes and pitfalls of japanese anime culture.
And can I just say that I adore the english edition's cover? It feels great to me. No outlines on the illustration of Kiss-shot, all flat color surfaces... It is a very distinct and clean style that suits the book in its relative simplicity.
Now, I might actually give the anime adaptation of the first two volumes another shot, and look forward to the 3-part short movie of this book, when it finds its way onto streaming platforms at last.
Chronologically, Kizumonogatari is the first light novel in the long-running Monogatari series by NisiOisiN (over 20 volumes published to date!), even though it was published as number 3. The english publisher Vertical has decided to bring this one over first, with Bakemonogatari volumes one and two following in the coming year or two.
There shouldn't be any problems with reading this one first - if anything, you can even read it as a standalone book, outside of the series context, and still enjoy it for what it is.
The book's title, Kizumonogatari, is putting together the japanese words "kizumono" and "monogatari". The latter simply means story, or tale, whereas kizumono has multiple meanings, all of which fit the story told - "damaged goods" and "deflowered girl" both fit in many ways. As a result, the english subtitle of "Wound Tale" is a bit simple, but still fitting in my eyes.
Where a good chunk of the series entries tell multiple stories, titled "episodes", Kizumonogatari only has one: Koyomi Vamp.
It introduces the series protagonist Koyomi Araragi, 17 year old student, who encounters supporting character Tsubasa Hanekawa and vampire lady Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-Blade, as well as "abberation" specialist Meme Oshino. Finding the vampire limbless and dying on the street one night, Araragi decides to throw his (so far) meaningless, lonely life away to save the pleading Heart-under-Blade's immortal life.
Instead of feeding on him properly, the vampire turns him into her thrall while sustaining herself on a basic level. Araragi is then tasked with reclaiming Kiss-shot's four limbs, taken by professional vampire hunters, by defeating them one by one in combat, in exchange for the vampire to turn him back into a human.
He is supported by "class president among class presidents" Hanekawa and the sleazy yet competent hawaiian-shirt-fanatic Oshino, as he battles through summer break, and feels his world views shift.
Honestly, I thought this was an enjoyable, if relatively simplistic and quick read. I will say, however, that it will not be something for most readers, and it is good to bring some understanding of japanese anime and manga culture with you - otherwise you might find a fair few things offensive or nonsensical.
There is, for example, a good element of fanservice here - it took the book not even two whole chapters to get to the first panty shot. Indeed, it brazenly has Araragi, in his first person narrative, describe the view, metaphors and all, for about two whole pages! Just before following it up with snarky remarks by Hanekawa, the undergarment's owner, including a self-aware comment about it feeling to her like "he just described the view for two pages".
It is a common comedic style in anime and manga, and while it made me shake my head more than once here, it still managed to amuse me. It, and the developing friendship between Hanekawa and loner Araragi, provided some lighter contrast to the otherwise fairly dark story.
Yes, there is plenty of dark stuff here too. Blood, gore, eating of limbs, nevermind the slightly philosophical discussions of immortality and vampirism, or the value of life, or the motivations of the vampire hunters. And yet despite all the tension it definitely brings to the table, the author still managed to maintain a whimsical, lighthearted tone to balance it all out, just before plunging back into the abyss. The penultimate chapter especially had a lot of impact and emotion behind it.
Araragi himself undergoes some big changes (besides, or maybe because of, his newly attained vampirism) over the course of the story. He grows emotionally, and as a person. I enjoyed observing that growth, and with it his relationships with the other characters. And there better be enjoyable interaction in such a character-driven series!
One thing that can either be a positive or negative point for you will be the wordiness of it all. It is something common with visual novels, and gets pretty obvious with translations into english. They tend to circle a topic with more sentences than necessary to drive the point home, or repeat phrases and key points excessively often. Kizumonogatari is no exception here - if anything, the Monogatari series is a serial offender in this regard.
Even the anime adaptations of Bakemonogatari and co adopted the wordiness pretty straight up, which resulted in the animation studio behind them doing a lot of very experimental, whacky things with it - there is only so many things you can do to animate long conversations between characters. Expect to read a lot of dialogue and internal monologues, rather than detailed descriptions of environments or objects.
You'll find that almost every character has a catchphrase (Hanekawa: "I just know what I know", Oshino: "Something good happen to you today/recently", etc), liberally used all over the place. Whether you find them catchy or not is up to you.
Despite its longwindedness about things, it is still an easy read that manages to bring across the protagonist's emotional state and views pretty well, along with those of the other cast members. There's a good amount of hooks for the rest of the series too.
The way it all wrapped up felt satisfying to me, even though (or maybe because) it felt a little ambiguous about the effects of Araragi's decisions. I had a good time, even if it isn't exactly higher literature. It is a character-driven drama, with the charmes and pitfalls of japanese anime culture.
And can I just say that I adore the english edition's cover? It feels great to me. No outlines on the illustration of Kiss-shot, all flat color surfaces... It is a very distinct and clean style that suits the book in its relative simplicity.
Now, I might actually give the anime adaptation of the first two volumes another shot, and look forward to the 3-part short movie of this book, when it finds its way onto streaming platforms at last.
February 5, 2017
Vampires done right.
I had a predisposition to love this book, because the anime version of the Monogatari series is one of my favorite series' of all-time. The writing is clever, the characters are interesting, and the dialogue is engaging. And that definitely carries over to this book.
In this book, we learn the origin of the main character of the series, Koyomi Araragi. After meeting Tsubasa Hanekawa through a rather awkward circumstance, he encounters a dying vampire, desperate for blood. Being the kind and heroic soul that he is (or, rather, wants to be), he helps out the vampire by giving her his blood, knowing full well that he will die from doing so. However, instead of killing him, the vampire (who's name is so long and complicated I'm just gonna call her K) let's him live and turns HIM into a vampire. K then tasks Araragi with retrieving her limbs, which he does with his newfound vampiric powers and help from Hanekawa, his supposed love interest.
The book is good at a multitude of things; it does action well, in a way it does romance well, and it handles the topic of vampires in an interesting way. However, the strongest part of the book by far was the writing itself. The dialogue, especially says a lot about these characters.
Araragi is our lead, and we learn a lot about how he is from both his actions and the things he says. Araragi is blindly heroic, willing to sacrifice himself for anyone and anything. He sacrifices himself for K, and he's willing to sacrifice himself for Hanekawa multiple times. He's also perverted, shown especially in his treatment towards Hanekawa, and it becomes clear through her actions and his reactions that there's an underlying tone of attraction between the two that Araragi just isn't picking up on. Heck, the two aren't even dating by the end of the book. And this becomes an issue later on (more on this in part two). So, what do we learn about Araragi? He's heroic, he's perverted, he's dense, he cares deeply about others but not about himself, and most importantly, he's this way purely because he wants to be. He's a deep and interesting character.
However, as well written and deep as Araragi is, he's a kiddy pool compared to Hanekawa's olympic size pool. Tsubasa Hanekawa is one of the deepest female characters that I have seen, and just so you know, the rest of the girls in Monogatari are just as deep as her. In this book, we see multiple sides of Hanekawa. We see that she's kind and tender, shown by how Araragi thinks of her before actually interacting with her. We see that she's wicked smart, but also modest, shown in her catchphrase "I don't know everything. I just know what I know." We see that she's deeply attracted to Araragi, which I'll analyze in a couple of paragraphs. Essentially, Hanekawa is a character designed to be perfect. Later on in the series, we'll see that she isn't, but that isn't the focus of this novel.
Now, I'm going to talk about a particular scene from the novel, that I think is one of the best written chapters in fiction. It takes place inside a garden shed, where Araragi is sitting and moping. He calls Hanekawa, asks her to come meet him, and she does. She gives him a pep talk about a plot twist that just occurred, and she tells him that she's there for him if he'd just open up. Then, Araragi talks about how great she is, and how he has to do something to make it up to her for all she's done for him. Then, Hanekawa says he doesn't have to, and then the brilliant characterization begins.
Araragi asks Hanekawa jokingly if he can touch her breasts. This demonstrates both Araragi's density and his casual perversion. However, Hanekawa says yes and removes her shirt. This shocks Araragi, again demonstrating how dense he is. He gets nervous, tells her it's ok, and instead gives her a shoulder massage, with both feeling terrible the whole time. This says leagues about Hanekawa, showing us that she's deeply attracted to Araragi, she's willing to do whatever for anyone, even if she doesn't want to, and also that she's not afraid of herself or of Araragi. This is master level writing, and the scene is handled beautifully.
Overall, Kizumonogatari is a great first installment to the series. Come for the vampires, stay for the amazing characterization and writing. I have all three Bakemonogatari books on preorder, and I'm excited to see more of this writing. It's weird, but it's brilliant.
It's Monogatari.
I had a predisposition to love this book, because the anime version of the Monogatari series is one of my favorite series' of all-time. The writing is clever, the characters are interesting, and the dialogue is engaging. And that definitely carries over to this book.
In this book, we learn the origin of the main character of the series, Koyomi Araragi. After meeting Tsubasa Hanekawa through a rather awkward circumstance, he encounters a dying vampire, desperate for blood. Being the kind and heroic soul that he is (or, rather, wants to be), he helps out the vampire by giving her his blood, knowing full well that he will die from doing so. However, instead of killing him, the vampire (who's name is so long and complicated I'm just gonna call her K) let's him live and turns HIM into a vampire. K then tasks Araragi with retrieving her limbs, which he does with his newfound vampiric powers and help from Hanekawa, his supposed love interest.
The book is good at a multitude of things; it does action well, in a way it does romance well, and it handles the topic of vampires in an interesting way. However, the strongest part of the book by far was the writing itself. The dialogue, especially says a lot about these characters.
Araragi is our lead, and we learn a lot about how he is from both his actions and the things he says. Araragi is blindly heroic, willing to sacrifice himself for anyone and anything. He sacrifices himself for K, and he's willing to sacrifice himself for Hanekawa multiple times. He's also perverted, shown especially in his treatment towards Hanekawa, and it becomes clear through her actions and his reactions that there's an underlying tone of attraction between the two that Araragi just isn't picking up on. Heck, the two aren't even dating by the end of the book. And this becomes an issue later on (more on this in part two). So, what do we learn about Araragi? He's heroic, he's perverted, he's dense, he cares deeply about others but not about himself, and most importantly, he's this way purely because he wants to be. He's a deep and interesting character.
However, as well written and deep as Araragi is, he's a kiddy pool compared to Hanekawa's olympic size pool. Tsubasa Hanekawa is one of the deepest female characters that I have seen, and just so you know, the rest of the girls in Monogatari are just as deep as her. In this book, we see multiple sides of Hanekawa. We see that she's kind and tender, shown by how Araragi thinks of her before actually interacting with her. We see that she's wicked smart, but also modest, shown in her catchphrase "I don't know everything. I just know what I know." We see that she's deeply attracted to Araragi, which I'll analyze in a couple of paragraphs. Essentially, Hanekawa is a character designed to be perfect. Later on in the series, we'll see that she isn't, but that isn't the focus of this novel.
Now, I'm going to talk about a particular scene from the novel, that I think is one of the best written chapters in fiction. It takes place inside a garden shed, where Araragi is sitting and moping. He calls Hanekawa, asks her to come meet him, and she does. She gives him a pep talk about a plot twist that just occurred, and she tells him that she's there for him if he'd just open up. Then, Araragi talks about how great she is, and how he has to do something to make it up to her for all she's done for him. Then, Hanekawa says he doesn't have to, and then the brilliant characterization begins.
Araragi asks Hanekawa jokingly if he can touch her breasts. This demonstrates both Araragi's density and his casual perversion. However, Hanekawa says yes and removes her shirt. This shocks Araragi, again demonstrating how dense he is. He gets nervous, tells her it's ok, and instead gives her a shoulder massage, with both feeling terrible the whole time. This says leagues about Hanekawa, showing us that she's deeply attracted to Araragi, she's willing to do whatever for anyone, even if she doesn't want to, and also that she's not afraid of herself or of Araragi. This is master level writing, and the scene is handled beautifully.
Overall, Kizumonogatari is a great first installment to the series. Come for the vampires, stay for the amazing characterization and writing. I have all three Bakemonogatari books on preorder, and I'm excited to see more of this writing. It's weird, but it's brilliant.
It's Monogatari.
December 17, 2015
As a huge fan of the anime, it came as a surprise that Nisioisin's ultra-popular light novel series was coming stateside. The demand for light novel's seems to have grown with recent releases like Durarara, Sword Art Online, and soon Baccano! being something I wouldn't have thought possible years ago. The light novel is never anything with mainstream appeal, the writing style is wonky regardless of whether you are into them or not, and especially with novels like Monogatari, there's the culture shock.
Kizumonogatari comes from a publisher I've never heard of before and left me quite worried. The varying degree of quality for light novels is always grounds for suspicion in a new release, and I can safely say that Kizu has been given a fantastic treatment. The translation is tight (though does throw aside the Japanese honorifics, which might be annoying to the nit-pickiest of readers), there are no asterisks anywhere explaining cultural differences. What you get is a pure, unadulterated translation of the novel and you either get it or you don't. I love this approach and, as far as LN's go, this may be the finest release I've gotten my hands on.
It's a quality publication from the cover to the content. The few pieces of art present aren't scattered through the novel, instead relegated to the front, giving the book an air of maturity that novels like Spice and Wolf lack. It feels like you're reading an actual novel. But aside from that, it's just a beautiful book, one that makes judging by the cover hard because, even if I weren't knowledgeable of the series, I'd still want to read it.
As far as the novel goes, it's the chronologically first novel in the series, detailing protagonist Araragi's meeting with vampire Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade and the spring break that fans of the anime have heard allusions to for years. Araragi battles a group of vampire hunters in order to give Kissshot back the limbs they stole from her and ultimately give her her power again.
As with most light novels, as stated, the writing is very different from the usual. Paragraphs are oddly constructed, single sentences count for a whole paragraph, punctuation is strange. It's a book full of empty space, in other words. And not empty as in the pages are empty, I just mean that it's not a very thick style. It makes Kizu a nice, quick read inbetween more trying titles. Despite a length of near 350 pages (which is quite large for an LN with no pictures), it will take maybe a few sittings to get through this.
What could you consider this book? Coming-of-age, comedy, horror, action...it's a hodgepodge of quite a few genres and comes across as fun and emotional most of the time. The awkward protagonist lends an air of adolescent male charm that's very realistic. He's a pervert, he says stupid things, and that makes him genuine. Kissshot is interesting and comes across in a number of interesting ways that are a little emotional. The secondary characters are all entertaining in their own rights with defined character traits and memorable lines.
If you're reading this book or considering reading it you probably already know you'll enjoy it. It's a very good book and one of the best LN releases I've come across (there are still some errors here and there but I could forgive them). If you haven't ever watched the anime but you want to give the series a shot, this novel is a perfect starting point.
Kizumonogatari comes from a publisher I've never heard of before and left me quite worried. The varying degree of quality for light novels is always grounds for suspicion in a new release, and I can safely say that Kizu has been given a fantastic treatment. The translation is tight (though does throw aside the Japanese honorifics, which might be annoying to the nit-pickiest of readers), there are no asterisks anywhere explaining cultural differences. What you get is a pure, unadulterated translation of the novel and you either get it or you don't. I love this approach and, as far as LN's go, this may be the finest release I've gotten my hands on.
It's a quality publication from the cover to the content. The few pieces of art present aren't scattered through the novel, instead relegated to the front, giving the book an air of maturity that novels like Spice and Wolf lack. It feels like you're reading an actual novel. But aside from that, it's just a beautiful book, one that makes judging by the cover hard because, even if I weren't knowledgeable of the series, I'd still want to read it.
As far as the novel goes, it's the chronologically first novel in the series, detailing protagonist Araragi's meeting with vampire Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade and the spring break that fans of the anime have heard allusions to for years. Araragi battles a group of vampire hunters in order to give Kissshot back the limbs they stole from her and ultimately give her her power again.
As with most light novels, as stated, the writing is very different from the usual. Paragraphs are oddly constructed, single sentences count for a whole paragraph, punctuation is strange. It's a book full of empty space, in other words. And not empty as in the pages are empty, I just mean that it's not a very thick style. It makes Kizu a nice, quick read inbetween more trying titles. Despite a length of near 350 pages (which is quite large for an LN with no pictures), it will take maybe a few sittings to get through this.
What could you consider this book? Coming-of-age, comedy, horror, action...it's a hodgepodge of quite a few genres and comes across as fun and emotional most of the time. The awkward protagonist lends an air of adolescent male charm that's very realistic. He's a pervert, he says stupid things, and that makes him genuine. Kissshot is interesting and comes across in a number of interesting ways that are a little emotional. The secondary characters are all entertaining in their own rights with defined character traits and memorable lines.
If you're reading this book or considering reading it you probably already know you'll enjoy it. It's a very good book and one of the best LN releases I've come across (there are still some errors here and there but I could forgive them). If you haven't ever watched the anime but you want to give the series a shot, this novel is a perfect starting point.
June 16, 2016
A great story of two wounded people who thinks their life is not important and wanting to end it. Looking past the panties and bra jokes, one might say this is a story of two suicidal people (eventhough Araragi doesn't really fit the suicidal profile, but he deem his life too unimportant to sacrifice it for others only to realise the opposite) finding each other and sharing each other's pain. Only for one of them reluctantly accepts it.
A story about suicidal people - is not really one would expect of this novel right?
A story about suicidal people - is not really one would expect of this novel right?
January 5, 2016
Freshly translated into English, Nisioisin's novel of vampires and hapless human thralls is catnip for fans of his 'Monogatari' series, but everyone else faces an uphill climb.
Full review: http://www.ganriki.org/article/kizumo...
Full review: http://www.ganriki.org/article/kizumo...
May 30, 2017
4.5 as reading Nisiosin when you're really tired is such hard work. Definitely one of the best light novels around. To call Kizumonogatari a light novel seems to do it a disservice as the quality of writing is so much more than your typical light novel. Now on to Bakemonogatari.
January 11, 2016
Vertical did a fantastic job with this translation. I hope we get the rest of the monogatari series translated by them soon!
December 29, 2025
As someone who did not like the anime, the light novel was a pleasant surprise. Although most of the novel is dialogues, they are one of the most entertaining I have ever read. A good mix of camp, jokes, tension and heartfelt conversations.
I wrote down some of the dialogues that I liked:
"An old proverb : Where there's a will, there's a yaaay!" - You are so right, Araragi
"I could entrust my back to him"
"Huh... Well, I couldn't be entrusted with that". Entrust me? Maybe with her keys or something. Nah, not even her keys. - At least he's self-aware lmao
"Why don't you ever light your cigarettes?"
"If I did, it'd be harder to adapt into an anime, right?"
Why did he care so much about an anime adaptation? - The anime adaptation has been mentioned so many times and I never got tired of it
"What are you?" Guillotine Cutter groaned. "That, too, is your vampire power?"
"Nope. That was the power of friendship." - Big fan of how this novel makes fun of vampires
"I was just a devil-may-care kind of guy" - There are so many references, love it.
"Gore round? Is that some kind of vampire ability?"
"Go around." - There are some conversations where they mishear something and.... I really like that??
"From my perspective, you are being naivë."
"Excuse me?"
"Oops. I meant naïve" - Or when they mispronounce stuff.
I started the book hating Araragi and I am fond of him now. Wild.
I wrote down some of the dialogues that I liked:
"An old proverb : Where there's a will, there's a yaaay!" - You are so right, Araragi
"I could entrust my back to him"
"Huh... Well, I couldn't be entrusted with that". Entrust me? Maybe with her keys or something. Nah, not even her keys. - At least he's self-aware lmao
"Why don't you ever light your cigarettes?"
"If I did, it'd be harder to adapt into an anime, right?"
Why did he care so much about an anime adaptation? - The anime adaptation has been mentioned so many times and I never got tired of it
"What are you?" Guillotine Cutter groaned. "That, too, is your vampire power?"
"Nope. That was the power of friendship." - Big fan of how this novel makes fun of vampires
"I was just a devil-may-care kind of guy" - There are so many references, love it.
"Gore round? Is that some kind of vampire ability?"
"Go around." - There are some conversations where they mishear something and.... I really like that??
"From my perspective, you are being naivë."
"Excuse me?"
"Oops. I meant naïve" - Or when they mispronounce stuff.
I started the book hating Araragi and I am fond of him now. Wild.
June 4, 2024
La novela se siente mas completa que la adaptación al anime. Una vez que termina, te deja muy claro muchísimos datos que no se mencionan en las películas y muchos otros que fueron distorsionados en el manga.
Tanto las películas como la novela son una genialidad por derecho propio. El manga brilla por su arte y cambia cosas para ser interesante por cuenta propia. De las tres posibilidades para ver esta historia, las tres le aportan valor usando el lenguaje que su medio les permite utilizar.
Tanto las películas como la novela son una genialidad por derecho propio. El manga brilla por su arte y cambia cosas para ser interesante por cuenta propia. De las tres posibilidades para ver esta historia, las tres le aportan valor usando el lenguaje que su medio les permite utilizar.
August 26, 2021
A bit odd and weird but also alot of fun ^^
Kizumonogatari: Wound tale by NisiOisiN get a 7.8/10 stars.
Kizumonogatari: Wound tale by NisiOisiN get a 7.8/10 stars.
January 6, 2016
Reading this as a novel, I can definitely tell that it has an anime adaptation. So it is a little strange to read it not as a manga and at times has confusing erratic punctuation. The plot-line was very japanese (people who are familiar with japanese dramas/animes/mangas/novels would understand). As a result, it is not for everyone, and it certainly doesn't have the neat ending that is somewhat common in Western writing.
November 10, 2020
Nope.
Stay away from this sexist piece of trashpile.
I have never cringed so hard, 36 pages in and this main character we know nothing much about (except that he is a huge egoist with a god complex) is still talking about a girls panties he saw for 2 seconds.
Ofcourse this was written by a grown ass man, disgusting.
This entire book is so weird I have no words.
It was a Waste of money after all.
DNF'ed: 40 pages
Stay away from this sexist piece of trashpile.
I have never cringed so hard, 36 pages in and this main character we know nothing much about (except that he is a huge egoist with a god complex) is still talking about a girls panties he saw for 2 seconds.
Ofcourse this was written by a grown ass man, disgusting.
This entire book is so weird I have no words.
It was a Waste of money after all.
DNF'ed: 40 pages
July 20, 2021
This is meh personally because I dislike early Araragi as a human being. I can usually tolerate it in the show, but I hate hearing what he's actually thinking.
However I still wanna say that this is a decent book. It established a lot of ground work for Hanekawa, Kiss-shot and most importantly Araragi.
Also this book definitely cemented my thoughts on the fact that Araragi might be suffering from Depression
(I'm not an expert on this topic, however I do have bipolar. So that's the perspective I'm bringing to this, however pls. Don't take my word for it because I am not a reliable source of knowledge for Depression, nor do I actually suffer from one).
Kiss-shot is Araragi's Abberation, that's why this arc is named Koyomi Vamp instead of being a Shinobu Arc. Kiss-shot represents Araragi's boredom and apathy towards life. Just like her, he is a lonely individual. Before being friends Hanekawa, he always pushes away others to the point that even his family members can't get to him.
Araragi Koyomi hates himself, and that's where his hero complex truly stems from. He said so himself, he unconsciously ignored the fact that she's a danger to humanity because she looks weak. He used Kiss-shot as a way to die while appearing to be a hero.
However with him realizing this fact after seeing Kiss-shot for what she truly was and by accepting his friendship with Hanekawa. He comes to the realization that he must kill Kiss-shot or at least try. This establishes that he is claiming responsibility. Responsibility for saving a monster, responsibility to protect his love ones and others, but most importantly of all. Responsibility for his own life.
The aftermath of the battle and the revelation of Kiss-shot's motivations are probably one of my favorite scenes in the entire franchise, it's cathartic because Araragi didn't give Kiss-shot what she wanted, he gave her what she needed: a connection and a second chance.
When Araragi said that Hanekawa is his saviour, I was quite puzzled by this at first. But with this in mind, I feel like it makes a lot more sense why he said that to her. He was literally dying of boredom and loneliness of his own making, yet no matter how much he pushed others away, Hanekawa was the only person at the time to truly be stubborn enough to break his shell. Without Hanekawa or someone similar around at this point in the story, Koyomi might never have grown. and at worse he may have killed himself that day.
I'll probably do this with the other Monogatari books as well, cuz honestly I'm adoring the analysis and ramblings I can make with these books hahaha.
However I still wanna say that this is a decent book. It established a lot of ground work for Hanekawa, Kiss-shot and most importantly Araragi.
Also this book definitely cemented my thoughts on the fact that Araragi might be suffering from Depression
(I'm not an expert on this topic, however I do have bipolar. So that's the perspective I'm bringing to this, however pls. Don't take my word for it because I am not a reliable source of knowledge for Depression, nor do I actually suffer from one).
Kiss-shot is Araragi's Abberation, that's why this arc is named Koyomi Vamp instead of being a Shinobu Arc. Kiss-shot represents Araragi's boredom and apathy towards life. Just like her, he is a lonely individual. Before being friends Hanekawa, he always pushes away others to the point that even his family members can't get to him.
Araragi Koyomi hates himself, and that's where his hero complex truly stems from. He said so himself, he unconsciously ignored the fact that she's a danger to humanity because she looks weak. He used Kiss-shot as a way to die while appearing to be a hero.
However with him realizing this fact after seeing Kiss-shot for what she truly was and by accepting his friendship with Hanekawa. He comes to the realization that he must kill Kiss-shot or at least try. This establishes that he is claiming responsibility. Responsibility for saving a monster, responsibility to protect his love ones and others, but most importantly of all. Responsibility for his own life.
The aftermath of the battle and the revelation of Kiss-shot's motivations are probably one of my favorite scenes in the entire franchise, it's cathartic because Araragi didn't give Kiss-shot what she wanted, he gave her what she needed: a connection and a second chance.
When Araragi said that Hanekawa is his saviour, I was quite puzzled by this at first. But with this in mind, I feel like it makes a lot more sense why he said that to her. He was literally dying of boredom and loneliness of his own making, yet no matter how much he pushed others away, Hanekawa was the only person at the time to truly be stubborn enough to break his shell. Without Hanekawa or someone similar around at this point in the story, Koyomi might never have grown. and at worse he may have killed himself that day.
I'll probably do this with the other Monogatari books as well, cuz honestly I'm adoring the analysis and ramblings I can make with these books hahaha.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 23, 2022
I wanted to get into Light Novels, and decided to pick this up after browsing google for a while. Felt this was a good Nopetober read. At the time of writing I’m unsure if this is my first Light Novel or not (a Final Fantasy 15 novel I’ve read miiiiiight be?) but I was looking forward to reading it.
Now I’ve read this, and I feel confused. Not about Kizu, but about how I feel about it. The story is straight forward, with some fights, weird characters, a sprinkle of perv, and ends like a bowl of spaghetti with all the twists.
It’s enjoyable with its dialog and action and spaghetti moments, but what confuses me is the reason that made it take 12 days to read:
The prose.
It might be because I’m not used to the way Light Novels are, it might be because of a literal translation, but I felt I had to take more breaks between reading it. I often felt like reading something with better flow after a chapter or two, but the last few chapters, that were also the longest, I got used to it I guess?
So far it’s a strong 3 with the writing pulling it down, but I think if it’s something I have to get used to I’d pull it up to a 4 at a later point.
Now I’ve read this, and I feel confused. Not about Kizu, but about how I feel about it. The story is straight forward, with some fights, weird characters, a sprinkle of perv, and ends like a bowl of spaghetti with all the twists.
It’s enjoyable with its dialog and action and spaghetti moments, but what confuses me is the reason that made it take 12 days to read:
The prose.
It might be because I’m not used to the way Light Novels are, it might be because of a literal translation, but I felt I had to take more breaks between reading it. I often felt like reading something with better flow after a chapter or two, but the last few chapters, that were also the longest, I got used to it I guess?
So far it’s a strong 3 with the writing pulling it down, but I think if it’s something I have to get used to I’d pull it up to a 4 at a later point.
October 11, 2020
Such an amazing prequel to the Monogatari series. I love the movies and I'm so glad I decided to read the book they were based on. This story is about meeting a vampire and the attempt to retrieve one's humanity; told from a high schooler's point of view, so of course, there are some hormone-driven scenes. As with the rest of the series, this book was very dialogue-heavy, and the writing style is much less descriptive than I find most books to be. But honestly, it made it read smoother since less time was spent describing surroundings. Great battles, interesting characters, and wounds that never heal. Would recommend for those interested in a cool vampire story with eccentric characters, and who aren't put off by pervy teenage hormones.
May 25, 2017
I was in the mood for something different, and a novel adaptation of a popular Japanese anime by the prolific Nisio Isin seemed like it might fit the bill. So I took a chance on this book and I really enjoyed it, especially since I listened to the audiobook which had great narrators and background music. Some of it was overly juvenile, but the main story and action scenes were really good. I could feel when some of the cultural references and jokes just didn't translate well into English, but all in all, it was a fun read (listen).
January 6, 2022
Good Stuff.
Very Interesting to read the backstory behind some of the characters. Not as good as the Bakemonogatari books but still good.
This book has a lot of ecchi stuff to it too compared to the previous books. So beware.
Very Interesting to read the backstory behind some of the characters. Not as good as the Bakemonogatari books but still good.
This book has a lot of ecchi stuff to it too compared to the previous books. So beware.
February 20, 2024
senjougahara is still my forever girl. I’d die for her.
July 29, 2020
Podría ser un libro mucho mejor si el autor no estuviera tan salido, la verdad.
September 22, 2023
this book presented a few interesting, unique themes and certainly some competent writing, but alas it had to go and muck up its postive quailties by delivering some of the most sexist and creepy descriptions of women I've ever read. it's just so clear that women aren't afforded any respect
style: 3.5 stars
language: 3.5 stars
atmosphere: 3.5 stars
characters: 3 stars
plot: 3 stars
themes: 4 stars
enjoyment: 2.5 stars
overall: 2.5 stars
style: 3.5 stars
language: 3.5 stars
atmosphere: 3.5 stars
characters: 3 stars
plot: 3 stars
themes: 4 stars
enjoyment: 2.5 stars
overall: 2.5 stars
November 15, 2024
i would like to state that this book would have been amazing if senjougahara was mentioned in it. 0/5
September 25, 2020
**Edit 2:
Finished this, revised rating to 7/10.
It serves its purpose as a light and fun read that should not be taken too seriousely. Writing is plain, but its also not boring. Decent plot, and ok characters, but nothing that i will remember for long time and won't recommend it for most.
*Edit: decided to continue reading it, I really want to give it a chance*
*Score: 4/10* dropped at 100 pages
Unsocial kid who saves a vampire and becomes one, then wants to return to be human.
Based on the 100 pages I have read this is not for me at all. Very lame writing style, author spends 2 full pages describing panties, just no please. Don't think I will watch the anime as well even though it seems to have wonderful art.
Finished this, revised rating to 7/10.
It serves its purpose as a light and fun read that should not be taken too seriousely. Writing is plain, but its also not boring. Decent plot, and ok characters, but nothing that i will remember for long time and won't recommend it for most.
*Edit: decided to continue reading it, I really want to give it a chance*
*Score: 4/10* dropped at 100 pages
Unsocial kid who saves a vampire and becomes one, then wants to return to be human.
Based on the 100 pages I have read this is not for me at all. Very lame writing style, author spends 2 full pages describing panties, just no please. Don't think I will watch the anime as well even though it seems to have wonderful art.
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