As I found myself unsatisfied with my previous series of analysis on this character for several reasons, I’ve decided to analyze the MC of Monogatari Series all over again and this article continues after Part 1. As an analysis, its bound to contain spoilers since I’ll need to mention specific and crucial plot points and information provided throughout the series. I haven’t read the novels, so this analysis will only contain spoilers from the anime aired thus far, and of course, the points to be made here apply only to the anime adaptation of the franchise. I’ll be analyzing him in the chronology of his life which is different from the airing order so expect spoilers from all over the anime. For no reason whatsoever, here’s how he looks:

In Monogatari Series, the oddities are to be feared, revered, gossiped about, prayed to, hated, and so on. Their stories are to be told, and so it was inevitable that Araragi Koyomi who had oddity related experiences just a while ago, would start narrating the stories. Bakemonogatari is the result of him starting to tell the tales of his supernatural encounters, which makes the first event portrayed in this installment the first to be told. As we see his thoughts depicted visually, he started with a brief report of Spring Break’s premise in order to catch up to the current case. And the event which triggered the narration is this:

Falling from the sky, Senjougahara Hitagi, who hadn’t actually fallen from the sky but rather slipped on the stairs and fell backwards, was caught in the arms of Araragi Koyomi as he decided to break her fall. The encounter simply seemed that magical to him and since he started narrating after the school ended while this happened before school started, he had enough time to ornament it like that. The girl he caught having almost no weight at all cannot be anything but a supernatural phenomenon. Realizing that, he started narrating what was happening after contemplating for a while. While the narrative and visual style portrayed his aforementioned playfulness leaving mark on his narration, this isn’t nearly the best it had to offer, and most definitely not the subtlest.

The girl who only knows what she knows, Hanekawa Tsubasa had her breasts shrunk to the degree that they didn’t look so tempting. Even though Araragi previously proclaimed gallantly that he was simply sexually aroused at her, that surely didn’t reflect here. That’s because Araragi was afraid of her due to what he witnessed during Golden Week. And he didn’t think of her as a potential love interest at this specific point due to the conclusion he drew back then. Thus, Hanekawa, who was highly sexualized in the earlier parts was shown to be even less attractive than she is.

Hanekawa Tsubasa, the class-rep among class-reps, becoming friends with the loner that is our main character, decided to change Araragi Koyomi for better and so forced him to be the assistant class representative. With the annual cultural festival approaching, the two representatives were discussing what their class would do on the occasion. That was when Hanekawa suggested that they made a list of what they could do and had the class vote on it. Previously, Araragi had an experience with such democratic method to decide matters, so distasteful that he started hating democracy. And so he responded in a mean sarcastic tone, which was pointed out by her.



While they were discussing, he brought up Senjougahara’s topic and after conversing with Hanekawa, he became certain that she had indeed a supernatural problem. He was already on the lookout for people in need of help and so after giving Hanekawa an excuse, he stepped out of the class to reach out for Senjougahara in order to help her. But the moment he left the classroom, he encountered Hitagi who came to threaten him to keep quiet about the matter and embedded a stapler pin inside his cheek. After she left, he decided that it was okay (since she stapled him inside his mouth which he viewed as her being considerate) and immediately chased up to her, disregarding his own safety. He offered her help the same day he learned of her problem even though she just injured him, showcasing the nature of his altruism.

He used the stapler wound that was healed due to his vampiric healing ability to prove his involvement with the supernatural, which displayed how quick-witted he is. After persuading her to let him help, he brought her to the abandoned cram school. When he asked her to hand over her ‘weapons’, Senjougahara expressed her suspicion that he set her up for something bad. And hearing that, he started mixing his playful imagination to the presentation of the narrative to make it appear as shady as he can in a way Hitagi suspected, which I covered with more depth in this article. Just look at his eyes before and after he decided to tweak the presentation.

After bringing her to the room Oshino was in, Senjougahara, pointed towards Shinobu and asked what she exactly was out of caution, and repeated that question when the two guys ignored it. Both the time, Araragi dodged the question because he was reluctant to talk about what happened during Spring Break, which is why he described it very briefly at the beginning. But then he witnessed Hitagi telling her own story to Oshino without relying on him for it, sharing her two years of hellish experiences and its harsh prelude in the second episode, which Araragi judged to be a lot worse than the few weeks of hellish experiences of his own. He realized that it’s just a story when told and he admired Senjougahara for facing her past. It left a strong impression on him and its results appear later on.



After the whole problem was resolved, Senjougahara claimed that she found another friend, referring to Koyomi and we move on to the second arc of Bakemonogatari. As I’ve covered in the earlier part, Araragi Koyomi’s relationship with his parents became shaky after he started middle school while his sisters get along very well with them. So on the Mother’s Day, he found himself in an awkward situation at home and so he tried to sneak out of the house. On his way out, he was caught by his sister and they argued about this behavior of his. Nevertheless, he slipped past her and went to the park not intending to return soon.

That’s when he saw Hachikuji, although he didn’t have any contact with her, as she soon moved on. He then came across Senjougahara instead and at one point of their conversation, Senjougahara asked if he’d want a girlfriend in return for helping her back then, guaranteeing that he’d get it. But Araragi rejected that suggestion as he felt that he’d only be taking advantage of her debt. After the attempt of having Araragi confess to her failed, Senjougahara confessed her own feelings to Araragi, revealing her intention. While Araragi agreed to be lovers, saying that he just didn’t accept it at that moment but will surely do in time, he still had the feeling that he was taking advantage of her debt to him.



The confession and the discussion, of course, took place after they dealt with Hachikuji Mayoi’s issue. Araragi noticed during his conversation with Hitagi that the grade schoolgirl he saw a while ago was back at that spot and seemed to be lost and so he went to help her as usual, without knowing that she was an aberration that made people lose their way and he met her as he didn’t want to return home. As she reluctantly let him help after considerably long conversations and actions, they both relied on Senjougahara to find the address Mayoi was looking for since she knew that area well. Araragi often used to say, “you know everything, don’t you?” to anyone who answered any of his questions, as he feigned ignorance all the time. So when Senjougahara enlightened him of something he was curious about, he reused the phrase and she responded condescendingly.



And she kept on mocking him for this incident all the time later on. She’d tease him for it so much that he stopped rephrasing that to anyone other than Hanekawa. This scene when she was describing how she knew no one as fitting for the word ‘sinister’ as Kaiki, for example.



As Araragi later learned the shocking truth about Mayoi and heard about how she died as she was trying to reach her mother on Mother’s Day, his resolve to get her to her destination strengthened. Araragi also realized how precious a possession family is and so he returned home after helping her to ‘ascend’. He found out that Senjougahara couldn’t see her but pretended that she could because she thought she was the abnormal one for being unable to see what he could. So he had her promise that they wouldn’t hide their problems regarding oddities and they’d talk it over if their viewpoints were inconsistent. As she agreed and they made the mutual promise, Araragi finally started off in a romantic relationship.

An interesting thing to note here is that Hachikuji Mayoi is an embodiment of Araragi’s childishness, just like how his vampirism or link to Shinobu is that of his daredevil traits. She’s eternally a kid and kids get lost easily. Araragi would act childish whenever he was around her. There are more points supporting the interpretation later on, which I’ll cover in due time as they’d require some more context that are to be mentioned later. The anime provides a direct connection supporting the interpretation in this arc.



[Edit: there’s been a slight modification to this interpretation as I realized that it makes more sense that way, which I covered around the end of the next part of this analysis]

In the next arc, Kanbaru Suruga approached him to see what great of a person he is that her highly respected senior, Senjougahara would let him help her though she rejected Kanbaru’s help earlier, and would fall in love with him. Around the beginning of their interactions, she’d glorify everything Araragi said as something ingenious no matter how trivial they were, almost as if she was trying to convince herself that he’s a worthy man. But he couldn’t live up to her expectations and treated his involvement with Senjougahara as an insignificant matter, which was something dreamlike to Suruga. Something she hoped to have, was rejected of and gave up on. So she was infuriated and prayed to the Devil’s Paw and the horrifying tale followed.

Such a thing happened because of his failure to live up to her expectations and his lack of appreciation for his relationship with Senjougahara. That’s why, he started appreciating Hitagi a bit more from then on, displayed when he was impressed with how she understood his intention. And after the case was resolved, Araragi Koyomi decided to be an ideal senior to her and live up to her expectations. And we see him trying his best to do so in several cases later on. He outright says that he decided on his own to live up to her expectations in Hanamonogatari, when he was lecturing her about how she should live as she herself wants.



While his appreciation for Senjougahara increased because of the traumatic attack he faced from the Devil-possessed Suruga, he still had plenty of it even before that. So when Suruga offered her own self saying she could be his girlfriend instead, Araragi rejected her saying that he wasn’t dating Senjougahara for her body. He told her that no one can replace anyone else and she couldn’t replace Hitagi for him either. At the end of last arc, he had said that he didn’t quite accept the relationship yet and hoped that his fascination would come soon. In this arc, his feelings for her he was put through a test and Hitagi’s actions here boosted his feelings further towards fascination, which we witnessed when he contemplated all the things she had done through Bakemonogatari, including this arc, when his fascination finally hit in episode 12.

During this arc, Araragi offered help to Kanbaru even though she assaulted him earlier out of jealousy and had he not been a quasi-vampire, that would’ve been the end of his life, showing the recklessness in his altruism. He tried to solve the problem through fighting against the Rainy Devil to show that it can’t kill him thus making it give up, but Kanbaru started using her left hand and legs too, revealing that she hadn’t given up on Senjougahara and still wanted Araragi dead. Realizing that, as Araragi was about to be defeated, he gave up trying and decided to end it with his death, which would result in Senjougahara killing Kanbaru. Seeing that Kanbaru still wanted him dead, he wanted to settle that score. So when Senjougahara figured out his intention, he couldn’t help but be impressed.



After that arc, upon Senjougahara’s order, Kanbaru started getting along with him as well as getting intimate with him. Hitagi also ordered Araragi to be always nice to Kanbaru, so he tolerated that. Upon hearing about it, Hanekawa remarked that it’s a dilemma for Hitagi too, as she wants both of them to get along but she wants to draw a line between the importance of her and Kanbaru. She told Araragi that walking hand in hand with Suruga is going a bit too far and he’d have to resist his temptations too. He took her suggestions to heart, which we see when he brought it up in episode 12.

In this arc, he came across Sengoku Nadeko while she was suffering from a curse. Oshino said that the curse wasn’t supposed to work and she followed the right procedures for lifting it, but the curse was activated because she was an amateur who couldn’t follow through the process properly. When Araragi asked her whether it hurt or not, she said that it did hurt but she’d been holding it in. Araragi said that it was weird that she had to hold it in and told her say that it hurt when it did. At this point, Araragi noticed that she was very insincere, and the result of that observation materializes later on.

When the process of lifting the curse called Jagirinawa failed halfway because there were two curses put on her, Araragi pulled the other supernatural snake away from her by force. One of the reasons why he feigned ignorance is to cover his recklessness, and this arc portrayed that thoughtless act. The snake was on its way to return to the boy who put the curse on her. Araragi’s altruist instinct made him try to stop it in an attempt to save the person that cursed Nadeko. It displayed how he was so miserably altruistic that he tried to save the person who made Nadeko suffer, and he regretted it.

Araragi Koyomi doesn’t have a very good memory. He couldn’t remember Nadeko when he first saw her after a long time even though he played with her and Tsukihi a lot back then. He couldn’t remember Sodachi when he saw her in class back in high-school first year either. And he couldn’t even remember her one year after she was brought into his house. During this arc, he himself addressed this aspect when Sengoku Nadeko asked how much he remembered about their childhood.



After Nadeko’s arc, there was a transitional episode. Araragi tried doing his usual playful things with Nadeko when she brought Kanbaru’s clothes to the school to return it, but the pitiful way she looked at him ruined his attempt. Feeling that she judged him as a man when he did it, he stopped doing such with her. In this episode, he also received some relationship advice from Hanekawa while learning about what people said regarding his influence on Senjougahara’s behaviors. So he learned that he needed to be more mindful of his actions.

While they were having the conversation, Hanekawa suddenly started to have strong headache which she’d had at times in earlier episodes as well. The headaches reminded Araragi of the Golden Week, which was a terrifying experience for him and as I mentioned earlier in this article, he was afraid of Hanekawa’s life. He previously briefly went through the events of Spring Break, and he was obligated to narrate the events of Golden Week as well. So he briefly described the events of Golden Week in the latter half of the episode. But as he was scared of what he learned back then, he had changed several parts of the events, which is why the same story has so much difference in Bakemonogatari episode 11 version and the actual story shown in Nekomonogatari Kuro and I’ll cover more of this point later on.

Then came that very special day, GahAraragi’s first date; I’ll leave out the sheer beauty of it and focus on his characterization here instead. On their way to their first date, Senjougahara asked him how he did on the exam and Araragi answered what you saw in the first blog regarding the foreshadowing of his connection with math. When he thanked her using her last name, she teased Araragi by telling her father that Araragi thanked him, forcing Araragi to use her first name to thank her. Then Senjougahara remarked that she would have prefer if he did it right after the exam, directly showing how Koyomi is always late to express gratitude. It shows why he couldn’t thank Sodachi in time back in mid-school and this point will reappear later on.



An episode ago, Koyomi was suggested by Hanekawa that he was getting too intimate with Suruga and so when their conversation in this episode rolled towards Kanbaru’s topic, Araragi asked why she was so kinky. Senjougahara couldn’t accept such impression about her cute junior and so swayed his basis of kinkiness by telling Araragi the kinkiest stuffs he had ever heard. From then on, Araragi no longer saw Kanbaru as someone too kinky and joked about such topic with her. After reaching the spot, as Senjougahara went ahead to prepare for their date leaving Koyomi and her father in the car to talk, her father jokingly said “Take good care of my daughter” and Koyomi reacted with shock and confusion. But then he repeated that seriously after talking about how Koyomi brought impressive changes in her, how he’s the right choice since her daughter who he trusts chose him and most importantly how he did enough just by being by her side when needed; this time the response Koyomi delivered was different and that of accepting his duty.

These nuances, the small changes in reactions to the same stimuli between before and after the changes in contexts and tones are one of the most beautiful things in this series and we see that again in this episode. Around the very beginning, when Araragi asked Hitagi what she liked about him after she had asked him the same about her, a part of her response was that he’s like a prince who’d rescue her whenever she faces trouble, and Araragi said, “Well, sorry for that!”, as she had been teasing him. But then she offered him everything she could at the final moment, promising to offer the rest of what she had in due time, and he realized that he loves everything about her as the Senjougahara Tore (Fascination) finally hit the nail. So when they repeated the question from a few minutes ago, Araragi’s answer and his reaction to Senjougahara’s answer were both different from before. And then she offered the last thing she could offer at that moment and they kissed, although we didn’t get to see that because he isn’t obligated to narrate his private love life (and he explicitly said that before in episode 6).



The next episode, he came across Hachikuji on his way to school (in a great mood thanks to the date last night) while she was waiting for him to report that she might’ve seen Shinobu at a Mister Donut shop. Soon after reaching school, he received a mail from Hanekawa to meet her while he was parking his bike. He immediately figured that it was something important and most likely an oddity-related problem considering she was having headaches, and so he instantly prepared to leave. After meeting her and hearing that her headaches were quite severe, he was angry that she didn’t tell him, which shows how much he cares and worries about his friends. Hanekawa herself addressed that side of him while they were on their way to Oshino’s place.

Araragi mentioned that paying back his debt to her was far more important to him than the friendship they had. Then Hanekawa asked if it wasn’t just him saving himself. But he believed and was certain that she saved him, since he was about to commit suicide when she stopped and encouraged him, and helped him a lot in many ways back then. In Golden Week, he couldn’t do anything to help her but rather forced her to accept the situation. So now, he wanted to do something for her and even if he got scolded or hated for that, he’d deal with it, to which Hanekawa remarked that coming from him, saying that was fairly cocky.

After that, Black Hanekawa appeared when they were in the destination and Oshino seemed to have an idea why it appeared this time. Hanekawa was actually in love with Araragi, but then he suddenly started going out with Senjougahara and that caused her stress so great that the Meddlecat, a result of 17 years of family problems, appeared. She even gave him relationship advice on top of that. Hanekawa is a rather abnormal girl who was highly knowledgeable and it wouldn’t be unbelievable if she stalked Araragi or somehow learned of their date last night. So it’s likely that her cat ears popped up that night due to the stress it created in her, since her family didn’t seem to notice it.

But Araragi didn’t notice anything at all and so when Oshino loudly wondered why her stress might’ve been back, he thought it was her family just like before. As he thought of having Shinobu use her Energy Drain like before, he noticed that she was missing. So he asked all of his new friends that he made during this period of Bakemonogatari to help him look for her after checking out the donut shop Hachikuji talked about earlier. While he was talking to Senjougahara, she addressed that it was obvious that he would have to put either Shinobu or Hanekawa before the other in this situation but not doing so was very much like him. It’s indeed, another aspect of Araragi Koyomi to not be able to make a choice when it comes to people he cares about.



Araragi feels responsible for Shinobu, former Kiss-Shot due to what happened during Spring Break. Previously in Golden Week, he learned that as her kin, his perception of her has the most influence on her and she became childlike because he saw her that way. In his conversation with Black Hanekawa who offered her help to him, he started feeling that him thinking such of Shinobu ruined her as an oddity. So when Black Hanekawa asked how much power she had left, he hesitated as he was about to call her powerless like a child. Being responsible for the reduced King of Aberrations, he needed to find Shinobu as soon as he could.

Then he learned of the true reason of Hanekawa’s stress, which he tried to dismiss saying that a few months of lovesickness wouldn’t be enough to bring this situation forth. Black Hanekawa furiously asked him what made him think that it couldn’t be worse than over a decade of family problems and if he had never really fallen in love. She told him that if he was just dating Hitagi just to shut her up, he might as well dump her and get with Hanekawa. But just the night before, Araragi developed a profound fascination for Senjougahara, realizing that he loves everything about her. So he accepted his mistake and declared his love for her while denying Hanekawa’s confession, as she didn’t do it herself.



He remarked that Hanekawa was just forcing Black Hanekawa to do the hard part of confessing her feelings. He said that a lot of people live through the same difficulties without relying on oddities and her relying on Black Hanekawa is an insult to each and every one of them. But then he tried excusing that by addressing that his vampiric charm must’ve gotten Hanekawa to feel such way. But Black Hanekawa told him that not only was he incapable of using the charm but the charm itself was not like a love potion either, rather it’s a power to turn people into marionettes. Araragi then accepted that Hanekawa was indeed in love with him and decided that he should be proud of it.

Araragi thought that he got friends who would go to any length to help him but he was forced to question that notion of his now. When Black Hanekawa attacked him, he found no one to save him, the person who had helped many others. Just a few minutes ago, he realized that none of the girls he was friends with were really obedient, so he gave up hope of getting any help. On the verge of death, he thought that it was fine as the harsh words Black Hanekawa said were Hanekawa’s own words. He thought that it’d be okay to die, if it is for Hanekawa’s sake.

But then he realized that he couldn’t do that because Senjougahara would kill Hanekawa if she killed him. He couldn’t and shouldn’t try to solve everything in the easy way by just giving in to death because there were much more things at stake, which he learned from the case of Kanbaru and from the experience in Golden Week. Being someone who loves math, Araragi Koyomi tended to use his new or prior learning to solve different situations, just like using equations to solve math problems. He was shown doing that before as well, like when he tried dying for Hanekawa in Nekomonogatari Kuro after seeing Kiss-Shot trying to do that in Spring Break, or when he thought that a ritual would be required for Hachikuji’s problem right after he saw Senjougahara’s problem being solved through one. Aside from his math-enthusiasm, there was another aspect that took part in constructing this trait which I’ll cover in the next part.



When Araragi said that no one was going to help him and that people only accept help selfishly, (Black) Hanekawa told him that that has nothing to do with the helper’s reasons. She reminded him how many people was trying to help him at that moment and asked if he was rejecting all of them. Then at the brink of death, he asked for help with the last of his strength, calling out to Shinobu. Who wasn’t a child but rather a ruin of a reckless vampire, who wasn’t his friend but rather someone who holds grudge against him, someone he forced to live on and was forced by to live. And she indeed appeared out of his shadow where she had been hiding since when Araragi went to the donut shop looking for her, seeing and hearing everything that happened but not coming out until Araragi asked her to save him in order to get back at him for what he did during their first meeting.

Araragi realized that Hanekawa told him to get under the light of the lamppost so he could have enough shadow. And then attacked him so he could ask Shinobu for help. He realized that Hanekawa, his friend did help him. Hanekawa then told him not to say lonely things like his debt to her mattered more to him than their friendship, and to be kind. Araragi then responded “okay”, taking the suggestion of his friend to heart.

This last arc of Bakemonogatari served to cement Araragi’s relationship with Senjougahara. As it beckoned his fascination for her around the beginning and had him acknowledge that fascination around the end. The next day, Senjougahara told Araragi that he’d get to plan their next date. Before he went to school, he went to the cram school to see Oshino but he wasn’t there. He realized that when he came here with Hanekawa earlier, he was preparing to leave and that when he said that he wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye, that line itself was a farewell from the awkward man who hated farewells more than anything else.



He released Black Hanekawa before he left the town, leaving her and Shinobu for Araragi to take care of. Araragi took this as a sign of Oshino believing in him, trusting that he could handle them by himself. Not having Oshino around, Araragi realized that he couldn’t ask him for help whenever he wanted anymore. He’d have to try and solve his problems by himself. Whenever he needed help, he could ask his new friends, knowing that they’ll do what they can for him.



Thus concludes the second part of this reanalysis. Since I’ve caught up with my previous version of this segment, it’ll be a simple analysis from now on instead of a reanalysis. Here’s Part 3 of this analysis. If you found this article interesting, share it with your friends, drop a like if you liked it and comment if you have anything to say regarding this topic or the article. Check and follow the blog for more such contents.