Among many anime with multiple installments which evoke the question of what their chronological order is, NISIOISIN’s Monogatari Series is one of the most questioned ones. It’s quite normal to stumble across one person asking whether to watch it in the airing or the chronological order, or what the chronology is every week. And of course, there is a specific arrangement of the incidents in the order of their occurrences for this franchise. But the release of this series, especially the light novels, already follows the chronology of the story. It is, however, different from the conventional chronology.

Monogatari Series is a story that is told by the characters from their own perspectives. And the characters narrate these stories in different times, in a non-chronological order. They have quite specific reasons to narrate the stories in those specific time that they do. This reasons are tied to their experiences and characterization, thus giving us insights into these character’s writing and interactions. Aside from Kizumonogatari, which was supposed to be aired right after Bakemonogatari, the anime follows the order properly.

The first Kizumonogatari film, Kizumonogatari I: Tekketsu-hen came out in 2016 and the others followed. The last film was released in 2017. This is different from the order of the LN’s release, which was right after the release of Bakemonogatari. For some reason, studio SHAFT took their time to make and release Kizumonogatari. But aside from that, the anime is aired in a consistent order.

As the characters move on, they’re sometimes reminded of their experiences or asked to tell the tales. Which results in them telling the specific stories in the specific times. As I’m about to delve into the spoiler zone, it is up to you to decide whether to read on or not. I believe I already provided the basic answer for those who haven’t seen the anime. Now I should analyze the evidences and back up my claim with arguments.

Bakemonogatari is the first installment to the franchise in the release order, the first to be recited by Araragi Koyomi. He had prior experiences with aberrations before moving on to Bakemonogatari’s events, which are narrated in the Kizumonogatari films and Nekomonogatari: Kuro. But we see that Araragi decided to never tell the story of his experiences during that time, The Spring Break, at the end of Kizumonogatari because he deemed this period to be hellish of an experience. He avoided narrating the incidents of Neko Kuro too, which happened during Golden Week right after Spring Break, because it was a horrifying experience for him. He was scared of telling that tale and of Hanekawa Tsubasa herself.



Bakemonogatari’s story is something he narrated at the time when it happened and this is where he started narrating the tales of aberrations. It’s related to this anime’s concept of aberrations, they exist because they’re witnessed and talked about, which is probably why Araragi started narrating the stories. Anyway, the narration was in present tense in both the voiced and written narration whenever he was narrating what was happening in the present, while the past incidents are described in past tense. And his narration were often interrupted by the things happening in present time, like Hanekawa’s conversation, which proves the fact that he was narrating it as it went on. His narration presumably started during that conversation about cultural festival as that was the moment when he started narrating in present tense, and even his encounter with Senjougahara which took place a few hours ago and was probably the trigger of his narration, was narrated in past tense.



As I previously said, he was reluctant to go into details about his hellish experience of the Spring Break. His reluctance to talk about it is displayed when he deliberately avoided answering Senjougahara’s questions about Shinobu, the former Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade. Hitagi afterwards took the initiative to talk about her two years of hellish experiences, which Araragi judged to be far worse than his own. Seeing Hitagi tell the story of her own unfortunate and painful experiences made Araragi realize that it’s just a story when told and encouraged him to talk about his own. That’s why he narrated the story of Spring Break in Kizumonogatari right after Bakemonogatari.

Araragi narrated Nisemonogatari at the time it happened just like Bakemonogatari, and similarly, it’s narration was in present tense and his reactions were real time. Before this part, at the end of Bakemonogatari, Araragi faced Hanekawa’s black personality again but she was also considerate. So he realized that Hanekawa was not too out of reach. And in Nisemonogatari, she was more of a normal person than before who is more self aware and striving for improvements. That’s why Araragi wasn’t so afraid of her anymore and narrated her tale too.

Then we move on to the first arc of Second Season, and multiple stories were going on at that time simultaneously. Hanekawa Tsubasa was the narrator of one of them, Tsubasa Tiger and she narrated it at the time it happened. That’s why this was the first arc of the Second Season. The other arc that started around the same time was Mayoi Jiangshi, which was narrated by Araragi after Ougi reminded him of it, so it’s safe to assume that it’s narrated far later on, after Ougi appeared. Araragi took his time telling the story because the experiences he had were more depressing than any of his previous ones and thus, he again avoided narrating those parts for quite a while.

In the meantime, Ougi had appeared, six months after Araragi’s first encounter with aberrations, and she was already involved with Araragi’s experiences with Sodachi. As her next task, she led Nadeko to do what she did during Nadeko Madusa and that was narrated by Sengoku Nadeko herself. Nadeko started narrating the story from the middle of the arc as we see that she already turned into medusa at the beginning scenes and then she went back to the actual beginning of the arc to explain how this happened. Her narration even began with an interesting self-introduction. This is actually different from the novel’s chronology, which had Hanamonogatari before it and I wrote about my stance regarding it at the end of this article.



In the next arc, Araragi was made to narrate the story he left out after Mayoi Jiangshi by Oshino Ougi. The narration of this arc happened quite long after Nadeko’s case was resolved and even after the events of Tsukimonogatari, because Araragi was cautious of Ougi at the time he narrated it and he wasn’t so suspicious of her during Tsukimonogatari. After this arc came Koimonogatari aka Hitagi End, which showed the way Nadeko’s case was resolved through the narration of Kaiki Deishu, the master con artist. It isn’t clear when it was narrated but it’s safe to assume that it was before Hanamonogatari’s story took place.

Hanamonogatari then starred Kanbaru Suruga as she narrated her story in real time through her colorful character lens. Her narration didn’t start from any moment that is particularly important, but rather she started it because she felt lonely. That’s why even though the beginning implied that something had already happened for her to narrate, it wasn’t necessarily the case and it was unclear what she’s going to talk about. After that arc, Tsukimonogatari was narrated by Araragi as the story entered the third season, End Season. This season is about his experiences with Ougi and so he narrated the first part, Tsukimonogatari, where he started having some suspicion towards Ougi.

After Hanamonogatari, all of these were narrated after the parts of the story that have aired so far, including Hana. This is Araragi narrating the last bits of his high school life, and Oshino Ougi played a big role. Thus, after narrating the part where he started suspecting her, Araragi felt that he needed to describe some more things about Ougi. And so he narrated the first story where she appeared in front of him in the first arc of Owari, Ougi Formula. The second and third arcs of Owarimonogatari took place right after that and it was a flow of events, so he narrated them the way they occurred.

The next arc of Owarimonogatari had a more multilayered narration. Firstly, similar to Shinubu Time, the arc after Mayoi Jiangshi, Ougi had him narrate the story during Shinobu Mail, which happened right after the former. But Araragi narrating the story to Ougi was part of a bigger narration as we see Araragi foreshadowing the events of the last episode of Koyomimonogatari and the entirety of Owarimonogatari 2; and narrating the last bit in past tense. At this point, Araragi had covered all the stories of the past required for the next story. All that was left were some small detours containing some details necessary to for what was to come, which were told in Koyomimonogatari.

These details were mostly left out in earlier parts because he still hadn’t experienced the events of Owarimonogatari 2 and didn’t know these would be the key points. These didn’t only contain plot points and McGuffins, these also contained exposition of key points of some characterization, expression of emotion, etc. that the latter events were built upon. And they didn’t only contain the key points and buildup for Owarimonogatari 2 and past events, they contained such aspects for latter arcs too, which haven’t yet aired in the anime. For example, there are some key buildup points for Zokuowarimonogatari, which happens after Owari 2 and before Hanamonogatari. These are still contents from the LN and haven’t been adapted to the anime yet, but Araragi has already experienced them by the time he narrated Koyomimonogatari, which is why these details were revealed in this segment.

Now that Araragi is completely caught up with the necessary plot points required to tell the story of his experience thus far, he moves on in a linear narrative structure. At this point, there is no detour left to take, so the last three arcs in anime so far, basically the entirety of Owari 2 was narrated in a straightforward chronological order. Some parts in between were shuffled slightly but that was just to reveal the key points with impact. I haven’t read the novels so I can’t quite explain the later parts, which I didn’t even intend to cover. So this concludes my analysis of Monogatari Series’s narrative structure and the explanation of my claim that it’s already released chronologically.

This chronology is so unique/inventive (I wanted to use both words even though they mean the same thing so why not xd), ingeniously executed, thoughtful and significant as it reveals an entire different layer of characterization. It’s coherent with the anime’s nature and elements; and is filled with nuances all throughout, reminding me how really densely packed this anime is. In a sense, Senjougahara falling down the stairs after she accidentally slipped on a banana peel is what made Araragi start narrating the whole story (best girl saves anime). The narration might’ve been initiated some other time if that didn’t happen but it’s undeniable that it did happen and it was the trigger that lead to the tale being told. So let us conclude our article with the expression of our gratitude to the girl, Senjougahara Hitagi and the one who left the banana peel on the stairs, if such a person ever existed that is.



P.S. Don’t forget to leave your feedback, questions and any other responses in comments below. If you liked it, give it a like and share around, let everyone know how ingenious it is. Check my blog for more contents like this and follow for the future articles.

P.S.S. I just got to know that Hanamonogatari LN came after Kabukimonogatari, aka, Mayoi Jiangshi. Perhaps the novel’s chronology in this case was different from that of the anime, but I stand by what I said about the anime adaptation.

