Everything wrong with the Monogatari airing order
Warning: spoilers for everything animated up to Zoku-Owari.
Any proponent of the novel watch order (like myself) will use “this is how the story is written and meant to be experienced” as a be-all-end-all argument without going into details. Time to fix this. This is a comprehensive list of examples of how moving arcs around affects the story. Disclaimer: since this is a topic that is inherently impossible to talk about without going into heavy spoilers, and anyone reading it likely had already seen the series and settled on the preferred watch order anyway (as they're entitled to), this isn’t as much of a watch order argument, as an excuse to talk about Monogatari brilliant narrative structure.
Sidenotes: I will use book volume names (Nisemonogatari), shortened volume names (Nise), story arc names (Tsukihi Phoenix) and seasons (First, Second and Final), so if you have trouble keeping up with those, open the Monogatari wikipedia page or something. If you see “Koyomi” - that’s Koyomimonogatari, not Araragi Koyomi. Names are in Japanese order - surname, first name.
This is a concept that needs to be established beforehand, because it’s relevant for every case of the order change. Monogatari is a linear story. While it’s not linear chronologically, it’s entirely linear thematically. Everything is a part of a single cohesive storyline, every story arc builds upon the previous ones. Character arcs, character development and overarching narrative threads all progress in a linear sequential manner, even if the events technically jump all over the calendar. The only exception is Kizu being a prequel to Bake, and it bothered Nisio Isin enough that he stated in Kizu’s afterword it works as a valid entry point into the franchise (i. e. before Bake, like Vertical published it). All airing changes disrupt this, essentially showing you chapter 3 before chapter 2 and so on (specific examples below, in relevant places). Incidentally, this linearity is a reason why the “chronological” watch order is just a specific case of “put all episodes in the playlist and turn shuffle on” order, but that’s besides the point.
Kizu was aired all the way after Owari S1. The reason it was delayed was 5 years worth of development hell (details below). Technically, the Kizu book was published after Bake and before Nise. Plot-wise, it needs to be seen before every arc post Bake. Despite Nisio Isin regularly trolling in the afterwоrds saying “that’s it, this is the last book” (pretty much in every volume), Kizu is clearly written as a prologue to a big multi-part story. It contains multiple sequel hooks - plot points that aren’t really relevant to the story itself, but set up future events. For example, Shinobu’s first servant, his sword Kokoro Watari, him committing suicide, and that the whole thing was traumatic for Shinobu are mentioned in Kizu, but explored in detail eight volumes later. Callbacks to Kizu start as soon as the next story, Nise, and don’t really stop. Three major things wrong with the Kizu airing order:
In summary, watching the Monogatari Series anime without knowing Kizu plot is like watching it without pausing to read on-screen text - you won’t get confused, but only because you wouldn’t even know that you are missing something.
When I watched Neko Kuro for the first time, I felt like the quality of writing had dropped substantially. Already mentioned the Deus ex Machina with the sword. Hanekawa and Meme acting inconsistent with their characterization so far. An ending that doesn’t really link with the events of Tsubasa Cat. That’s all because at the time I wasn’t aware I’m watching a direct sequel to a yet unreleased film. Neko Kuro immediately follows Kizu on the timeline. They have the same principal cast of characters - Araragi, Shinobu, Meme and Hanekawa. Their plots mimic each other: in Kizu Araragi turns into an oddity, Meme, Shinobu and Hanekawa save him; in Neko Kuro Hanekawa turns into an oddity, Meme, Shinobu and Araragi save her. All those interactions between these four characters that seemed weird to me in Neko Kuro are actually directly built upon their interactions in Kizu.
Yet another thing said by Nisio Isin himself in the afterword to Kizu is “This is the story of Araragi Koyomi meeting Hanekawa Tsubasa for the first time”. What he means is: Kizu, Neko Kuro and Neko Shiro together form a trilogy about the Araragi/Hanekawa relationship. Part 1 (Kizu) - they meet, Araragi becomes indebted to Hanekawa with his life, she falls in love with him. Part 2 (Neko Kuro) - Araragi realizes he doesn’t love Hanekawa. Part 3 (Neko Shiro) - Hanekawa accepts that he doesn’t love her and moves on. The entire foundation of their relationship is laid down in Kizu. Why does Araragi think so highly of Hanekawa if he doesn’t even love her? Why does Hanekawa keep sticking to Araragi? These are questions with no answers if you’re watching in the airing order, because they are answered elsewhere, in a movie trilogy that is kicked back into the middle of an entirely different overarching plotline (Final Season aka the story of Oshino Ougi).
There is a popular idea that since the Kizu movies got released this late, Studio SHAFT adjusted the trilogy so it would reference already aired anime seasons and work as a proper sequel, and there is value in watching Kizu after Owari 1. This is a baseless speculation that is entirely false. Here is (admittedly circumstantial) evidence:
Bakemonogatari was directed by Oishi Tatsuya in 2009, once its run was finished, he immediately started working on Kizumonogatari. It was envisioned as a movie trilogy from the very start. The first footage was shown to the public in 2011, and the release was scheduled for 2012. While the footage itself didn’t make it to the final release, the style and the storyboards are still recognisable (it’s the fight vs Episode). If you know how anime production works, storyboards are something that comes after the script is finalized. So, Exhibit A: the script of the Kizu movies was ready long before later franchise entries even existed.
Then why it was delayed for four more years? The simple answer is: because Oishi Tatsuya is an insane visionary artist. He decided the movies would not have internal monologues and would tell the story through visuals instead. Since Monogatari is like 90% internal monologues, that was no easy task. So Oishi kept his team locked in the basement redrawing storyboards until he was satisfied. That’s not an exaggeration - the Kizu team (which was also the Bake team) consisted of SHAFT’s top talent, yet from 2012 to 2016 they have basically zero credit to their names in other works, meaning they’ve spent all this time working exclusively on Kizu. Exhibit B: The team that worked on Kizu did not work on the other seasons of the adaptation.
Sidenote: Oishi Tatsuya directed Bake and Kizu, while the rest of the series’ anime adaptation was handled by Itamura Tomoyuki, whose style is quite different (like using chapter markers and sticking closer to the source material). So, “Kizu is very different from the other anime seasons” is actually an argument in favor of watching Kizu before Nise.
Finally, the Kizu movies have noticeable continuity errors. This is a hole in the roof of the abandoned cram school. It’s an iconic image, in the sense that every time the location changes to the cram school, there’s going to be a shot of it. Meaning, the creative team of the TV seasons (Itamura team) considers it significant enough. It looked quite different in Bake, more like a broken roof window. That’s because these directors have different approaches - Itamura fanatically sticks to the source material, while Oishi changes whatever he wants for the sake of artistic expression. This hole was actually made by Heart-Under-Blade during the events of Kizu, immediately after regaining her full form, when she wanted to have a chat with Araragi. So, she took him to the roof by blowing a hole in it, because there was simply no other way to get up there. Not only do the movies show the hole already there, but also Araragi gets to the roof just by walking some stairs. Exhibit C: The team that worked on Kizu did not at all bother staying consistent with the rest of the series.
I believe these three points get it across that in no way were Kizu movies meant by SHAFT to be watched this late. Btw, if you are bothered by things like sources, it’s mostly this interview with Oishi Tatsuya, and this Sakuga Blog article about the Kizu production.
While significantly less talked about than Kizu, the order change for Hana affects the story much more severely, and I mean in a severely worse way. Hana was aired as the sequel to Second Season after Koi. The reason it was delayed was a combination of the mental Japanese TV scheduling rules and production issues. Second Season has 28 episodes, but the TV network would only accept a season of exactly 26 episodes. So the plan was to broadcast 23 episodes plus 3 recaps, then shorten the next season’s Nisekoi to be only 20 episodes and broadcast the five Hana episodes after that. And even then they couldn’t get Hana ready so it was delayed for three more months (They've had to fill those reserved time slots with a rebroadcast of community-voted favorite episodes). In the blu-ray boxset for Second Season Hana is placed in the LN order. The book was released between Kabuki and Otori. Plot-wise, it needs to be seen before Otori and absolutely before Koimonogatari. Three points again:
So, here is what happens with Kaiki if you follow the anime airing order. He’s introduced in Nise, being its primary antagonist. He’s a villain very fitting for a series like Monogatari. This is a story about characters talking to each other, so Kaiki talks characters down, mocking their opinions and calling their values dumb. He is defeated by talking as well, and goes away at the end of Karen Bee. Even gone, he orchestrates the events of Tsukihi Phoenix, but is not physically present there for the most part. After that, Kaiki disappears for the next five arcs, with only one brief mention in Otori - charms sold by Kaiki are what ruined Nadeko’s class. But then, suddenly he’s a main character/narrator of Koi, and turns out he’s a pretty cool guy. He agrees to help Senjougahara, but only because she’s friends with Kanbaru, which is kinda weird, but whatever. He saves Nadeko, redeeming himself in the eyes of the audience (us)... and then he dies, in a plot twist worthy of M. Night Shyamalan. So the author took a random villain of the week, turned him into a protagonist for one arc, only to kill him in the end? Ok then. Enter Hana. Two episodes after “being killed”, Kaiki is back, seemingly reverting to both his Nise appearance - black coat and discount Bela Lugosi haircut - and personality - using “the lesson for you to learn here” catch-phrase. Kanbaru, ignorant about the events of Koi, reacts with hostility, so Kaiki takes his time to explain that, no, really, he is not a bad guy - which we, the audience, know already and don’t care to have repeated. After the speech Kaiki disappears again, with no explanation given for how or why he survived. Congratulations, this is what it feels like to watch parts 1, 3 and 2 of a story.
Here is how Kaiki’s story actually works. He’s the villain of Nise. Next, he suddenly shows up in Hana, and at the time, the audience is on board with Kanbaru’s reaction - we know the same things that she knows. Kanbaru is the audience surrogate in this scene. When Kaiki talks to her about not being a villain, he talks to us. He then goes away (Hana is still primarily Kanbaru’s coming-of-age story), leaving us with knowledge of how and why Kanbaru is important to him. In the next arc (Otori) Kaiki is relevant once again. So, out of four Second Season arcs so far, he physically appeared in one and directly instigated the events of the next one, making Kaiki a significant presence in this season. It also parallels his role in Nise, where he physically appeared in Karen Bee and directly instigated Tsukihi Phoenix. In the last chapter of his arc (Koi) Kaiki puts his money where his mouth is, not just talking, but acting as a good guy. He saves Nadeko, redeeming himself, but good deeds don’t just cancel out bad deeds, Kaiki’s past sins catch up to him in the form of a middle-schooler with a bat. Kaiki concludes his journey from villain to hero and exits the story. His character arc ends here.
Hana, Otori and Koi together form a trilogy centered around the theme “there are no such things as heroes or villains, in real life people are more complex than that”, and Kaiki plus Nadeko are two main characters of this trilogy. It begins in Hana with Kaiki’s speech directed at Kanbaru (the audience). “You think someone is a villain and you should hate this person. But what if this person doesn’t hate you back? What if they’re nice to you? There’s no human who’s all bad. No one has the same personality when viewed from all angles, and no one has the same personality at all times”. Part Two is Otori, and the very first conversation that happens in this story is Kuchinawa directing the same exact speech at Nadeko. Only Kuchinawa has a diametrically opposed perspective: “All humans are scum. There is no human who isn’t scum, there are only times when they don’t act like scum. Good guys can become villains, and villains too will do good. Everyone you ever met will have been the same”. Kuchinawa straight-up breaks the fourth wall here. Hana is a story of villain Kaiki becoming a good guy. Otori is a story of good guy Nadeko becoming a villain. They’re supposed to be seen one after the other. Since Kaiki is directly responsible for what happens with Nadeko, and since these two are the main characters here, it makes perfect sense that they finally confront each other in Part Three (Koi). Btw, this is why I keep saying “saves Nadeko”, not “saves Araragi/everyone”. Kaiki saves Nadeko, the story of heroes and villains who are the same thing ends here. Second Season ends here.
Yes, you’ve read that right. The plot twist at the end of Koi isn’t at all that Kaiki dies. It’s that Kaiki lies that he dies. Kaiki is the narrator here, and one of the big themes of Monogatari is the “Unreliable Narrator”. It affects everyone. Araragi ogles every girl, but people outside his social circle do not exist. Kanbaru sees Araragi as a suave elder senpai and Oshino Ougi as a male. Nadeko is straight-up delusional and sees whatever is convenient for her, not what is real. Hanekawa seems to be an exception, in Neko Shiro she sees the world mostly the same as Araragi. But that’s because she literally tries to be Araragi, going as far as sleeping in his bed wearing his pajamas. Which culminates in her confrontation with Mamaragi, who bluntly says that no, you can’t live someone else’s life, sort out your own.
Kaiki being Kaiki, he opens Koi by bringing the audience’s attention to this very concept. “People have a desire to believe that what they know is the truth. Be mindful what is a truth and what is a lie. Doubt my words as you read along. And by that point, you might have already fallen into my trap. Here is a tale where lies and truth intertwine. I hope from the bottom of my heart that there‘s an ending where every reader will say ‘serves them right!’ That is, if I even have a heart. If I even exist”. Sidenote: notice a pattern in how when the character speaks in a story for the first time, it’s something significant to the meta (Kuchinawa in Otori, Kaiki in Hana and Koi). As the story develops, this speech seems to be ironic, because Kaiki has the most grounded perception of the world out of everyone. People walk the streets. Buildings aren’t M. C. Escher’s paintings. Even Kaiki himself is a normal middle-aged guy. Everything seems fine. That is, until he tells the bald-faced lie that he died (it’s 100% a lie cause we saw him in Hana). Turns out we couldn’t believe his words after all. What else in this story is a lie? Everything? We’ve being tricked. Conned. By a conman, who’d warned us beforehand he can’t be trusted. And then he rubs it in our faces. Now, that’s what I call a plot twist. That is the screwing up with the audience the Monogatari series is known for. Not a cheap shock value of “Oh noes, this guy dead”.
Koyomi was aired after Owari S1 (actually, it was aired after Kizu 1, so if you really want to stick to the airing order, watch it between Kizu 1 and Kizu 2). The reason for this delay was them struggling to adapt an unusual structure of this novel, which ultimately was deemed unfit for the 25 min TV episode format and possibly testing of a new distribution model - Koyomi was originally released via a mobile app. In the blu-ray boxset for Owarimonogatari there is no split for the first and second season - the episodes are numbered from 1 to 20. The novel was published after Tsuki, before Owari Vol. 1. Plotwise, it needs to be seen exactly after Tsuki and before Ougi Formula. While the change appears to be minimal, once again, it breaks the linear storyline of Final Season, mainly reducing the relevance of Koyomimonogatari itself, and contributing to its reputation of being a filler (which is false).
Tsuki is a prologue to Final Season, establishing that Araragi is irreversibly turning into a vampire. The next part is Koyomi, and it’s quite different from all the other volumes in structure. It contains twelve mini-arcs, which follow the naming pattern of Character’s First Name + Noun and are split into numerical chapters (same as the normal arcs). These mini-arcs are the epilogues to the First and Second Season’s story arcs, and at the same time they each focus on a certain character, defined in the mini-arc’s first chapter. For example, Koyomi Wind is an epilogue to Nadeko Snake and it focuses on Nadeko. In Koyomi’s afterword Nisio Isin literally says that originally the second volume of Final Season was supposed to be Owari, but he felt the need to better connect the events of the previous seasons beforehand and wrote Koyomi instead. This actually gives us a glimpse into how Nisio Isin sees his own story:
The order of the mini-arcs exactly matches the release order of the corresponding story arcs. The only exception is Koyomi Stone (the Kizu epilogue) before Koyomi Flower (the Hitagi Crab epilogue) - already explained. Not all arcs get an epilogue, only the ones where a new girl becomes a relevant character/ally (becomes a part of Araragi Harem, as Nisio would put it), and this also follows the book release order. Shinobu’s mini-arc (Koyomi Torus, an epilogue to Nadeko Medusa) is placed after Karen’s and Tsukihi’s, because she only becomes relevant (as a donut-loving loli, not as the King of Oddities) in Nise. Kagenui’s chapter corresponds to her appearance in Tsuki, not Nise, where she was an antagonist. There are no Meme’s or Kaiki’s chapters because they aren’t girls (Kaiki not the best girl confirmed). There is no Sodachi’s chapter because she doesn’t exist yet. What’s especially interesting, by this logic Ougi’s chapter is an epilogue to Shinobu Time (and other arcs about the week of August 20-27), foreshadowing a later revelation that this was the exact moment Ougi was born (became a relevant character). By the way, Nisio Isin trolls as usual in the afterword, saying “there is no foreshadowing in this book”, which in Nisiospeak means the exact opposite. Other examples of foreshadowing include Araragi erasing his previous high-school years out of his memory, and that Kitashirahebi shrine had changed locations in the past.
My point is, moving Koyomi past Owari S1 loses its connection to the previous seasons and puts it in the middle of a different overarching story (the one about Oshino Ougi).
Koyomi Dead is the 12th mini-arc of this volume, and, in a plot twist, it breaks the pattern of “epilogues”. It deals with the consequences of the Tsuki ending (Araragi’s vampirification), and it poses two mysteries plus one cliffhanger:
Mystery 1 is solved in Ougi Formula, Sodachi Riddle and Sodachi Lost. Yes, Ougi is the suspect No. 1 from the very start, but we still know nothing about her and have no proof. The fact that Gaen explains to Araragi the presence of the “final boss”, and then we get three Ougi arcs in a row is not a random coincidence. Mystery 2 is solved in Shinobu Mail. By putting Koyomi behind Owari S1, the solutions to both mysteries are given out before the mysteries, making them entirely pointless.
Finally, the cliffhanger. In the original order, it is followed up by multiple flashbacks, building up the tension and actually giving it significance. In the airing order it’s resolved literally in the next episode, because the protagonist being killed and waking up in Hell is apparently business as usual.
And that’s every problem that I can think of, but probably not everything that can be found. This series is too freaking deep.
Written by u/RedScarf314 on r/Araragi subreddit.
