Warning: Contains spoilers for the entire Monogatari series.

注意：包含《物语》系列的剧透。

—Hi Max! Thanks for your time. Now let’s begin. When and how did you first get in touch with the Monogatari series?

—感谢Max愿意接受本次采访。首先想请教一下是怎样接触到《物语》系列的呢？

Maxdefolsch: Hi, thank you for having me!

It must have been in 2013 I believe, when my best friend, who had recently introduced me to anime in general, basically forced me to watch Bakemonogatari even though it didn’t look like something I would enjoy at all. And it wasn’t at first, especially since I disliked Senjougahara from the start, so he had to keep forcing me to watch whenever we would see each other. I don’t remember when exactly I started actually liking it, it must have been either later in Bakemonogatari or at the beginning of Nisemonogatari.

也谢谢你为我准备了这次采访！我想那是在2013年，当我最好的朋友介绍我看动画的时候，他要求我看看《化物语》，即使那看起来不像是我会喜欢的。而且不只是一开始，尤其是因为我起初不喜欢战场原，所以每当我们相遇他都继续要求我看。我也不记得自己是具体什么时候开始真正喜欢上物语的，应该是在《化物语》后期或《伪物语》的初期。

—Let’s start with the novels. What’s your favorite volume?

—首先是小说方面的问题。请问最喜欢的一卷是？

Maxdefolsch: Oh boy, first hard question. If we’re talking only novels and not anime, I haven’t been able to read everything because there weren’t English fan-translations for all the novels, and I haven’t started reading the official translation yet. But if we’re just talking about the stories in general… Onimonogatari crushed my heart at the end for obvious reasons. Kabukimonogatari and Koimonogatari were also extremely good.

But I think the best one overall has to be the third volume of Owarimonogatari, because it’s the one that makes Mayoi return for good and resolves the mystery of Ougi. It was being translated a bit before the anime version came out, and I was hooked at every chapter. I was even kind of disappointed by the anime afterwards, just because I had read the novel and had such high expectations for it (but it was still great to see it animated).

哦，第一个难题出现了。如果只论小说而不管动画，其实我还没有能阅读所有的小说。因为不是所有小说都被粉丝用英文翻译了，而且我也还没开始阅读官方翻译。但如果只是大致谈论故事情节，我想显然是《鬼物语》打动了我的心。《倾物语》和《恋物语》也非常不错。

但我认为最棒的一定是《终物语（下）》，因为那是带回真宵并解决扇之谜的一卷。在动画播出前有一部分被翻译过，那时候我就深深迷上了这一卷。因为阅读小说后带来的超高期待感，我甚至对于动画有点失望。（但还是很高兴能够看到动画改编）

—Which untranslated part are you most eager to read?

—还没被翻译的内容中，哪一部分是最迫不及待想看到译文的？

Maxdefolsch: Now that I’m caught up with the anime, and also because the “main story” is finished (so we’re not agonizing anymore over the mysteries and plot), I’m not that eager to read the novels in general, and I’ve been kind of spoiling myself with information from non-animated arcs because I can’t help but look at it.

So if I look at the currently non-animated novels that didn’t get fan-translated, the ones that I’d like to be able to read would be Musubimonogatari and Yoimonogatari, the first one because I’m interested in knowing what all the characters became (even though I already mostly know from spoilers, especially Hanekawa, which makes me want to read more details) and Yoimonogatari because it probably involves Hachikuji a lot, and she’s my favorite.

If we’re talking about the books that have already been animated and are just waiting for official English translations, then probably Onimonogatari and Koimonogatari, which are two great arcs as I already mentioned.

因为我已经赶上了动画进度，而且“主线”已经结束（所以我们不再为那些谜团和情节而苦恼），大体上我已经不急于阅读小说了。我也一直在用尚未动画化的信息来剧透自己，因为我忍不住要去看。

因此就目前没有被动画化的无翻译的小说来说，我想要阅读《结物语》和《宵物语》。前一个是因为我很感兴趣知道所有角色后来怎么样了（虽然我已经在剧透中得知了大部分，特别是关于羽川的那部分，但这也让我想要阅读更多细节）。《宵物语》则是因为可能涉及到很多八九寺的内容，她是我的最爱。

如果讨论那些已经动画化过的，只是在等待官方英文翻译的卷数，我可能会选择《鬼物语》和《恋物语》，上面我也提过了。

—Which do you prefer, the official translation or unofficial ones?

—更喜欢官方翻译还是民翻？

Maxdefolsch: (Disclaimer: Since I haven’t actually started reading the official translation yet, what I’m going to say here refers to things I’ve heard mention, I hope I don’t say anything incorrect.) I prefer fan-translations, because they don’t have to localize the translation and can explain things through translator’s notes.

I get why it’s necessary for the official translation to localize, because it needs to be accessible to people who aren’t familiar with anime or the Japanese language. That’s fine in itself. But I think these localizations are kind of bad sometimes, because they lose nuance and accuracy. For example, they strip all the Japanese honorifics, which are a good indicator of the relationship between people. I’ve even read Karen call her brother “Koyomi” in the translation, which seems very strange, because if she’s calling him “onii-chan” all the time I would have expected it to be translated as “big bro” or something close.

Another example that made a lot of people upset is how popular catchphrases weren’t translated the same way as fans known them as. In particular, Tsukihi’s catchphrase “platinum mad” was translated as “dagnabbit mad”, which people find stupid. For this one, I’ve heard a good justification though: the original phrase is Tsukihi making “puchi mukatsuku” (a bit mad) sound cuter by transforming it into “purachina mukatsuku” (platinum mad). So the translation tried to keep the pun and do the same thing, by transforming “a bit mad” into “dagnabbit mad.” That makes sense. I personally don’t mind the catchphrases changing, because I’ve already seen the anime and so I know what they’re supposed to sound like. That’s not necessarily the case for novel readers though.

However, there’s another popular catchphrase that was translated pretty weirdly: Yotsugi’s catchphrase “boku wa kime-gao de sou itta” which is known as “I said with a posed look” by English fans. It was translated as “he said with a dashing look.” The “dashing” part is fine, even though some people don’t like the change, it was hard to translate anyway. But it seems they translated “boku” (which means “I”) into “he” because “boku” is often used by boys. It looks very weird since Yotsugi, obviously, isn’t a boy. If the intent of the localization is to help people not familiar with Japanese to not get confused, then why do something like that?

Other than that, even though I can’t judge for myself yet, I’ve heard the official translation is actually pretty decent.

（免责声明：由于我还没有真正开始阅读官方翻译，下面我说的是指我听过的内容，我希望我没有犯错）我更喜欢粉丝翻译，因为他们不需要对翻译进行本地化，也可以通过注释来说明。

我很理解为什么官方翻译需要本地化，因为他想让不熟悉动画或日语的人轻松接受。出发点很好。但我认为这些本地化有时会很糟糕，因为它们会丢失细微差别和准确性。例如，他们剥夺了所有被日本人惯用的表明关系的敬语。我甚至在翻译中读到过火怜称她的哥哥为“历”，这看起来很奇怪，因为如果她一直称他为“哥哥（お兄ちゃん）”，我觉得翻成“big bro”或许更接近。

让很多人感到不满的另一个例子是流行语不像粉丝已经了解的那样去翻译。特别是，月火的口头禅“白金火大”被翻译为“dagnabbit mad”，我们觉得这听起来很蠢。关于这点，我也听说了个很好的调整办法：原本是月火将“プチムカツク”（有点疯狂）说得可爱些变成“プラチナムカツク”（白金疯狂）。所以翻译试图通过将“有点疯狂”翻成“dagnabbit mad”来同样保持双关。这就说得通了。我个人不介意改变口头禅，因为我已经看过动画，所以知道原本的语音读法。不过对于小说读者而言并非如此。

还有另一个被翻译得非常奇怪的口头禅：余接的口头禅“僕は君顔でそう言った。”被英国粉丝称为“我以摆出POSE的样子说”。结果这句被翻译为“他用潇洒的表情说”。“潇洒”的部分还好，即使有些人不习惯这种变化，但这本来就是很难被翻译妥当的。但似乎他们将“僕”（意为“我”）翻译成“他”，因为“僕”在日语里正常是男孩使用的。这看起来非常古怪，因为余接显然不是个男孩。如果本地化的目的是帮助不熟悉日语的人不要搞混，那么为什么要这样翻呢？

除此之外，即使我还不能自行判断，但我听说官方翻译还是不错的。

—Do you think Vertical’s books are a reasonable price? I’m not familiar with foreign markets.

—你认为Vertical小说的定价合理吗？我不太熟悉国外的消费水平。

Maxdefolsch: To be honest, I’m not familiar with that either, but looking at the prices on Amazon, they seem to be sold at a bit more than $10, which actually seems cheap for books this thick. I would have expected at least double that. I wouldn’t mind buying them at that price, but actually I was considering waiting for the “First Season” Box Set limited edition (and eventually a Second Season and Final Season box set, hopefully they will be available as well), which is more expensive than buying the books individually, but you know, it’s a collector’s item, so it’s tempting.

说实话，这方面我也不是很熟悉，但是看看亚马逊的价格，似乎是以稍稍超过10美元的价格出售，对于这么厚的书来说实际上是很便宜的。我原以为至少要在这个基础上翻个倍。我不介意以翻倍后的价格购买它们，但实际上我正在考虑等待“第一季”盒装限量版（希望最终也会有第二季和最终季的套装），虽然比单独购买书籍更昂贵，但这是为了收藏家，所以这样的套装很诱人。

—What do you think of VOFAN’s new illustrations for the US version?

—VOFAN为美版特别绘制了新图，觉得怎么样？

Maxdefolsch: VOFAN’s art is very nice, as usual. More drawings from him is always a good thing. I never compared the new illustrations with the old ones, so let’s see… Looking at the Bakemonogatari covers, they look a lot nicer in the Vertical version, I think. I suppose VOFAN’s art improved a lot since it was published more than ten years ago. Hmm, in general the characters look nicer and of higher quality, but most of the new covers don’t have real backgrounds, so it feels a bit lacking. If I had to pick favorites, I’d say Nisemonogatari volume 2 thanks to the beautiful setting, followed by Nekomonogatari White and Kabukimonogatari for a nice representation of my favorite characters.

VOFAN的作品和以往一样棒。能看到他更多的绘画作品是件好事。我之前没对比过原版和新版插画，让我看看。首先看到《化物语》封面，我觉得Vertical版看起来棒多了。我想这是因为距离初次出版超过十年，VOFAN的画技也提高了不少。嗯……总体上看角色更美了，但很遗憾大部分新封面并没有一个实际的背景。如果让我来挑一张最喜欢的，我会选择具有漂亮设定的《伪物语（下）》，其次是展示了我最喜欢的角色的《猫物语（白）》和《倾物语》。

—Are you annoyed when a translator overuses memes or provides a poor-quality translation?

—译者用梗过度或翻译质量不佳，是否会因此冒火？

Maxdefolsch: That kind of goes without saying, I think. If you’re gonna actually make the effort to translate something entirely (as opposed to just giving a summary or something like that), then you should make it as good as you can. Reading a poor translation can be really frustrating on the reader and detract from the story.

这种情况不言而喻。如果真的有想要好好翻译一些东西（而不仅仅是给出一个大概或类似的什么），那么就应该尽其所能地去做好。阅读糟糕的翻译对读者来说真的很令人沮丧，还会损伤故事本身。

—How is your Short Stories translation project going? Is it tiring?

—《物语》短篇翻译计划现在怎么样了？会很累吗？

Maxdefolsch: Haha, didn’t think I would get questions about my posts. (Short stories masterpost, for reference)

It’s kind of tiring, but it feels better now that we’re caught up with the old stories. Among the main short stories, only Tsubasa Lion and Mayoi Welcome are still missing. Tsubasa Lion is actually currently being translated and should be out soon, but as for Mayoi Welcome, I’m completely unable to find any raws on the Internet. If you or anyone else can find anything, I’d be very grateful. Besides those two, there’s also the entirety of the Mazemonogatari stories that’s still untranslated even though I have all the raws (partially thanks to you, by the way, so thanks again for that), because unfortunately they’re pretty long and translators aren’t interested enough in the other series to put in that much work.

I’m also working on a very cool related project that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, and that will feel extremely rewarding once it’s finished. I can’t wait to show you that…

我原本还以为不会有关于我帖子的问题哈哈。（短篇小说汇总帖）

还是有些累人的，但是现在我们已经赶上了进度，所以感觉好多了。在主要的短篇小说中，只有《翼·狮子》和《真宵·欢迎》仍然缺失着。《翼·狮子》实际上正在被翻译，很快就会出来。但《真宵·欢迎》，完全无法在互联网上找到原文内容。如果您或其他任何人能找到任何关于这篇的原文内容的材料，我将非常感激。除了这两个，还有整个《混物语》的故事仍然没有翻译，即使现在已经收集齐了所有的原文内容（这里也顺便再次感谢你的帮忙），但不幸的是《混物语》每篇都很长，翻译人员对其他系列的兴趣不足也让他们提不起翻译这么多的兴趣。

我也在做一个一直以来很想做的大项目，我觉得完成后也会是非常精彩的。迫不及待地想要给你看看呢……

—When did you start working on Monogatari-related projects?

—请问是从什么时候开始做《物语》相关的整理工作的？

Maxdefolsch: Looking back at my post history, it was in November 2015, when I discovered the existence of the short stories and started looking for them. When I joined the /r/araragi subreddit, knowing how obsessive fandoms can be and how popular Monogatari is, I thought they would have translated everything already. But it turned out they hadn’t, and the existence of the short stories wasn’t something widely known. So, since I can’t understand Japanese myself, I directly asked on Reddit if people with more skill than me would be interested in translating those as long as I could find the original text for them. Fortunately they were, and so we started providing the community with new extra content, some of which tying directly into the main plot, and others being just fun little conversations (obligatory Karen Brushing mention).

回顾我的发帖历史，那大概是2015年11月时，当我了解到短篇故事的存在并想要收集的时候。我加入了/r/araragi，认识到粉丝团体会是多么为物语着迷，以及物语是多么受欢迎，我本以为他们已经翻译了所有内容，但事实证明他们没有，并且短篇小说的存在甚至不是众所周知的。因此，由于我自己无法理解日语，所以我直接在Reddit发帖问，当我能找到原始文本，比我更有技巧的人是否有兴趣翻译它们。幸运的是有人感兴趣，所以我们开始为社区提供新的内容，其中一些短篇情节直接与主要情节相关，而很多其他内容只是有趣的小对话。（不得不提一下《火怜·刷牙》）

—Which post are you most proud of?

—最满意的一篇帖子是？

Maxdefolsch: Let’s see. Some of them are informative (well, all of them probably) but they’re not always “pretty”. For example, my full timeline post is just a Reddit text post and I can’t think of a way to make it into a beautiful picture while still including all of the information. My August 20-25 timeline is better in that regard at least.

Then there are some that are pretty but not ground-breaking, just informative, like the post where I gather fan-translations or the simplified anime chronological order post. The current anime watch order guide has gotten a lot of complaints too for being too cluttered and because of the whole “when to watch Kizumonogatari” debate so I’m not satisfied with it either (but I have a new version in preparation that will be published once Zoku Owarimonogatari is available and that should look a lot better as a guide to newcomers).

Two of my favorite posts are my analysis about the arcs’ length in the novels and anime (which helps me speculate about the length of future adaptations) and my compilation of all the information about the characters’ ages and birthdays. These two posts are filled with data, and I like playing around with data like that. They’re very researched and polished, and I think they’re interesting, so I’m pretty proud of them.

But of course, the one I’m the most proud of has to be the short stories masterpost. This project is the most useful Monogatari-related thing I’ve done, even though I’m not the one who did all the translation work, I’m really glad to have been able to bring all of this to the community. And the related project I’ve mentioned earlier, when it’s done, that will be the thing I’m the most proud of, without a doubt.

让我看看。这中间有些是信息帖（好吧，有可能全都是），不是所有的帖子都做得很“美观”。例如这篇全篇时间线只是Reddit文字帖，我想不到怎样在保留所有信息的基础上做成美观的图片。至少在这方面，我做的8月20-25日的时间线要好很多。

也有些帖子看起来很美观但很不够基础，只是提供信息。比如我用来保存翻译进度的帖子还有 简明的动画时间线这篇。已播动画的观看顺序指南经常被抱怨说太凌乱了，因为“《伤物语》放在什么位置看”的不断讨论我也是有些不满意（但我已经准备了一个新的版本，《续·终物语》上映后我就会发布。我相信新版本对于引导新人会更有帮助）。

我最喜欢的两个帖子是分析对比小说和动画中每章的时长 （这篇帖子帮助我预测未来动画改编的时长）和 角色年龄、生日信息汇总。这两帖充满数据，而我很喜欢做数据收集分析。这两帖也非常具有研究性与完成度，我认为它们很有趣。

当然了，我最满意的还是短篇小说汇总主帖。我认为这是我做的物语相关整理中最有用的一个项目。即使翻译工作大部分不是我来完成的，我还是很高兴能把短篇小说汇总展示给社区。还有，毫无疑问地，当上面提到的项目完成也会成为我最满意的帖子。

—Is it inconvenient that all your source materials are in Japanese?

—材料基本都是日语，会觉得很不方便吗？

Maxdefolsch: It sure is, as I can’t understand Japanese myself (only a bit from what I’ve picked up from anime). Since they’re often not translated or not entirely translated, it makes it very difficult to check for information if I’m searching for something in particular. I do have text versions of almost all the novels, so I can at least do text searches in that, but I still have to know what Japanese words to search for, and I can’t just skim through the text as I could do with something in English. I have to painfully use Google Translate to try to understand anything I’m reading. That’s why I’m very grateful to the translators who have helped me with the short stories and other translation work.

当然会。因为我不懂日语（只通过看动画学到了一点）。由于很多材料并没有被翻译或没有被翻译完整，我查起特定的资料就非常困难了。我收集了几乎所有小说的txt文档版，所以我至少可以做做文本搜索。不过首先我还是需要知道我应该搜索什么日语词，我也不能像阅读英文文本一样通畅浏览这些txt。我只能痛苦地试图使用谷歌翻译来理解材料。这也是我为什么会对于愿意帮忙翻译短篇和其他材料的译者很感激的原因。

—From drafting to posting, how long does it take to finish one of your posts?

—一般一篇帖子从立题到发布需要多久？

Maxdefolsch: It depends, but a lot of it is not about writing the post itself, but gathering all the data needed, so most of the time is spent on that. For example, the fan-translations post was pretty easy to do because it was just finding links, but something like the character birthdays post was a lot longer because I had to check everything I could, including searching for information in untranslated novels with Google Translate as I explained earlier. So yeah, it can easily take multiple hours for a single post.

具体不一，但我可以说很大程度上这并不取决于写帖本身，而是取决于数据收集需要的时间。大部分时间都花在（收集数据）那方面了。举个例子，粉丝翻译汇总帖就很容易完成，因为只是找找链接。但像是角色生日帖这种就要更费些时间因为我必须尽我所能检查资料，包括像我之前提到的那样在还没有被翻译的部分使用谷歌翻译进行检索。因为，这样的一个帖子可能会动辄耗费数小时。

—Anime and light novels are distinct art forms. Which would you recommend to newcomers?

—作为不同的艺术形式，你更倾向于给新人推荐小说还是动画？

Maxdefolsch: Since the anime adaptation is extremely faithful, I would definitely recommend it first, and then recommend the novels if they like the series enough and are not scared of the amount of content. The anime is a big upgrade from the novels, with the incredible animation by Shaft, and the fantastic job of the voice actors in general. So if you start with the anime, and then you read the novels, you can still hear the characters in their own voice and that makes it more enjoyable. And since the main difference with the novels is a lot of dialogue / internal monologue being cut, if you go from the anime to the novels you feel like you get extra content, while if you do the novels first and then the anime, you’ll be disappointed that not everything was animated as you imagined it.

因为动画改编非常忠于原作，我绝对会首先推荐动画。当他们被这个系列吸引并且不惧文本量时，我会接着推荐小说。经过SHAFT的惊人的动画化以及配音演员的杰出表现，物语的动画完成了相对小说而言的一次大的蜕变。如果先从动画开始看，然后再接触小说，你甚至可以听到角色用自己的声音讲述故事，让阅读体验更愉快。还有，因为动画与小说间的主要区别是省略了很多对话与内心独白，所以如果是从动画到小说会觉得获得了额外的内容，而从小说到动画的朋友可能会对于“并不是所有内容都如我所想般被动画化出来了” 这点感到失落。

—Is it important to figure out the watch/read order before starting the series?

—在开始看《物语》前，你认为掌握阅读/观看顺序重要吗？

Maxdefolsch: Oh god yes. That’s why I put so much effort into a watch order guide.

The biggest problem with the anime is the Kizumonogatari production delays. People will usually not worry about orders and just watch everything in airing order. But here, watching Kizumonogatari in airing order is VERY detrimental to your understanding of a lot of the series, and it should absolutely be watched between Bakemonogatari and Nisemonogatari as originally intended.

There are two other differences in order made by the anime, which are the placements of Hanamonogatari (moved to the end of Second Season, instead of between Kabukimonogatari and Otorimonogatari) and Koyomimonogatari (moved between the second and third volume of Owarimonogatari, instead of directly after Tsukimonogatari). I’m less opposed to these changes, because they still mostly work, but I won’t argue against anyone who’d prefer watching them in the original novel order, because I’ve heard good arguments about what were the literary intentions behind the order they were in and I can’t disagree with them.

The next version of my watch order guide will recommend both “airing order with Kizumonogatari after Bakemonogatari” and “original novel order” equally, leaving the choice between keeping it the simplest order possible (for newcomers who don’t want to bother) while still fixing the Kizumonogatari problem, and getting the full experience that was intended by the author. It will also explain the controversy around the Kizumonogatari delay and other information about different options regarding the order, so that someone who’s interested enough can read everything and make an informed choice about which order would fit them best.

哦当然了。这也是我把很多精力投入到观看顺序指南之中的原因。

最大的问题在于《伤物语》的延期。人们通常会对观看顺序感到疑惑，并选择按照放送顺序。但在这种情况下，把《伤物语》放到放送顺序上再看将会非常不利于你对于整个系列的把握。所以我一直坚持《伤物语》应该和原作出版顺序一样，放在《化物语》与《伪物语》之间观看。

动画改编过程中还出现了另外两处与原作顺序不同之处。一处是《花物语》（从《倾物语》《囮物语》之间移动到了第二季的最后），另一处是《历物语》（从紧接《凭物语》后移动到《终物语》二三卷之间的位置上）。对于这些改动我没什么意见，因为影响不大。不过我也不会反对更喜欢按照原作出版顺序调整观看顺序的朋友，因为也有人提出了他们支持的顺序背后文学意图的充分论据，我无法反对。

我的观看顺序指南的下一版将会同等地推荐“《伤物语》紧接《化物语》的放送顺序”与“原作小说顺序”这两种，从而做到在“保留可能的最简单顺序（为怕麻烦的新人准备的）同时修正《伤物语》问题”与“最大程度上获得原作者希望的体验”间选择的平衡调整。同时也会围绕《伤物语》延期的争论和其他有关顺序问题的不同观点做出说明，这样也能保证对于顺序问题很认真感兴趣的朋友能看到更多信息做出最适合自己的选择。

—Do you believe there will be anime adaptations after Zoku Owarimonogatari?

—你认为《续·终物语》播出后，动画改编还会继续吗？

Maxdefolsch: I am pretty confident there will be more anime adaptations after Zoku Owarimonogatari, because I really can’t see Shaft stopping there while the series is still so popular, even if it would have been a good stopping point. I think they will at least adapt the Off Season until the end, which is another good stopping point with Musubimonogatari. Then I’m a little less confident they’ll continue, like if the sales were to noticeably drop with Off Season, they might decide to stop at Musubimonogatari, with a big special or movie showing the cast 5 years later. But if that doesn’t happen I can see them just keep going with the anime adaptation as long as Nisio writes more Monogatari.

对于《续·终物语》之后会有更多的改编动画这点我还是非常有自信的。如果SHAFT在这个系列依然人气高涨的时候放弃制作，我会很不理解。即使这可能是一个很好的停止点。我认为他们至少还会制作完Off Season，达到下一个停止点，即《结物语》。再往后对于他们是不是还会继续制作我就没什么信心了。也许他们会根据Off Season销量的骤降决定止步《结物语》吧，用特番或电影形式展现5年后的配音演员。但如果事实并非如此发展，我想他们可能会随着西尾的一直写而一直制作下去吧。

—Are you still confident in your estimations for the length of future anime adaptations?

—对自己推测的待改编动画的长度有信心吗？

Maxdefolsch: Yes, as they are entirely based on data regarding the pacing of the previous anime installments, the ranges I’ve given can’t be completely off. Now, how they’ll organize the next adaptations (with weekly episodes like Owarimonogatari or Second Season, or with special episodes that adapt only one novel like Hanamonogatari) is the harder question.

My personal guess is that the three first novels of Off Season will be adapted into a 1-cour (13 episodes), because these arcs don’t seem like they could be hyped enough to justify a standalone adaptation (especially since we only get about one Monogatari installment per year nowadays). So grouping them into one anime season makes sense. And then they can do Musubimonogatari separately, which also makes sense given how different it is from all the previous arcs. They’ll need a special or a movie to have the room to adapt it properly.

About Zoku Owarimonogatari, based on its length (the same as Hanamonogatari), I’ve calculated it could be between 4 and 6 episodes long, with 5 being the likeliest possibility, so that’s what I’ve been guessing for the time being. Now, with all the recent “pre-screening in theaters” talk, I’m not sure what to think, and there was a comment from someone who worked on it that said it was 3 episodes long, which doesn’t make sense with a normal episode length. If it’s a reliable source, then maybe he meant it’s in 3 parts, each of which being 2 episodes long, which would amount to 6 episodes total? I don’t know, I guess we will see in a few weeks.

有信心，因为这是完全依据之前动画制作分布数据推测出的。我给出的范围不可能完全脱离事实。现在，最难揣测的应该是他们以什么方式进行下面的改编（是像《终物语》或第二季那样每周放送，还是像《花物语》那样仅根据一本小说改编特番）。

我个人猜想Off Season的前三卷会被改编为13集的季播番，因为我想这些章节不具备单独成番的热度（特别是如今我们每年大概只会出一次新的物语）。所以把这几卷改编成一季动画是有意义的。之后可以单独制作《结物语》，因为和其他相比它太独特跨度太大了。这也会需要一次特番或电影的容量用以改编。

至于《续·终物语》，根据（和《花物语》相同的）长度我暂时计算为4-6集，最可能是5集。最近的影院上映情报让我有些不确定，还有一个说会是3集的STAFF（译注：这里是指名仓靖博）, 而我想3集不是一个正常的长度。如果这个信息可信，我觉得他可能是指3部分，每部分都有2集长度，最终代表是6集的长度？我太不清楚，也许过几周就能知道了。

—Is there any anime staff member you especially admire?

—在动画STAFF中有特别欣赏的吗？

Maxdefolsch: I don’t know anything about the staff if you’re talking about the production and animation, I can only give my opinions about the voice actors. I think they pretty much all did a fantastic job throughout the series honestly. I’m biased towards Hachikuji and her cute voice (TN: Emiri Katou), but Araragi, Hanekawa, Oshino, Kaiki, Yotsugi, Ougi just to name a few all have great voices.

如果是指动画制作方面，我不太了解那些STAFF，我只能在配音演员方面给出自己的观点。老实说我觉得贯穿于整个系列的配音演员都太出色了。我更偏好八九寺和她可爱的声音（译注：CV加藤英美里）。阿良良木、羽川、忍野、贝木、余接、扇等等配音也都是非常厉害的。

—SHAFT changes quite a lot between the TV and BD releases. Any thoughts on that?

—SHAFT在BD中修正了很多TV内容，关于这点有什么想法吗？

Maxdefolsch: It’s good that they fix what needs to be fixed, but I guess it would have been better if they had gotten it right in the first place. One recent fix I liked was at the end of the Ougi Dark adaptation, when Araragi crossed paths with a random unnamed girl who looks afflicted by something. In the novel, it was clear that it was just a nobody, someone who’s just there to show Araragi will still help anyone in need. But in the anime, since she just looked normal, a lot of people got confused by it and asked who she was. So in the Blu-ray, they made it clearer that her identity wasn’t meant to be important, by obscuring her face and covering her in “oddity” kanjis.

很高兴他们会修正那些需要修正的地方，但我猜想如果一开始他们就做对会更好。最近的一处我很喜欢的修正出现在《扇·黑暗》的最后，当阿良良木君与被什么缠住的某个不知名的女孩插肩而过的时候。通过小说，我们很清楚这不是一个主要角色，出现在这里只是为了证明阿良良木会继续帮助任何需要帮助的人。但在动画中，她看起来太正常了，很多人看完动画后感到疑惑，在问“她是谁？”。所以在Blu-ray中，他们用“怪異”汉字覆盖了她的脸，以此表明她的身份并不重要。

—They often change the release method, too (TV, website, mobile app, theater).

—他们也经常改变放送方式呢。

Maxdefolsch: I’m not against experimenting with the media in general. My favorite fictional work of all time (even above Monogatari!) is a multimedia webcomic called Homestuck, that made an incredibly creative use of the website medium and continually found new ways to exploit it.

Regarding Monogatari though, it makes some things inconvenient: when releasing movies in theater, it makes us western fans have to wait for the Blu-ray release to be able to see them at all (which is very painful when we’re starving for Monogatari content), and regarding the mobile app, for Koyomimonogatari, I’m pretty sure it not airing on TV initially (and so, not being available on legal streaming platforms like Crunchyroll) is a big part of why a lot of people think Koyomimonogatari is filler and can be skipped (which, of course, is completely false).

大体上我是不反对多媒体实验的。我永远喜欢的虚构作品（比起物语都更喜欢！）是一个叫《Homestuck》的多媒体网络漫画。其对网站媒体进行了极为创造性的使用，并不断创新使用方法。

不过说回物语，这带来了一些不方便：电影版在影院上映后，西方的粉丝不得不等到Blu-ray发售后才能一览全貌（对物语内容饥渴时这是很痛苦难熬的） ，而手机app放送的《历物语》，我确定起初不是通过TV放送的（所以也没办法在像Crunchyroll一样的直播平台播放），导致很多人认为《历物语》就是水水，可以跳过（这种观点显然是完全错误的）。

译注：《Homestuck》是一部文字、图片、动画、游戏皆由美国漫画家Andrew Hussie制作的网络漫画。是MS Paint Adventures(小画家冒险故事)网站上的第四个也是最长的连载漫画。MSPA官方对其之介绍是“一个男孩跟他的朋友们一起玩游戏的故事。”此漫画是以HTML5的格式，用静态图片、GIF动画、即时通讯纪录、Flash动画和游戏来组成的。因其可观的长度—共8124页、超过81万个单字—和复杂的情节而受瞩目。 （摘自中文维基百科） 译注：Crunchyroll，简称CR，是美国的一家提供东亚相关流媒体影视服务和国际交流社区的网站。（摘自中文维基百科）

—Does any OST or theme song hold a special place in your heart?

—对原声或歌曲有特别喜爱的吗？

Maxdefolsch: Two of my favorites are from Bakemonogatari: “Hyouri“ and “Ika, Kaisou“. I think they represent pretty well the mystery and tense aspect of the series in general. Too bad they got less frequent later in the series, but hearing them again in Koyomimonogatari (in Koyomi Mountain and Koyomi Dead especially) was awesome, it really reminded me of the feeling I had watching the series for the first time years ago.

I also like “Kizuna“, Shinobu’s theme from Nisemonogatari. In Second Season, one that I can’t help but have engraved in my heart is “Hanamuke“, the one that plays when Hachikuji is about to disappear in Shinobu Time. It’s just so sad… There’s also “Saiaku no Shinsou“ from Owarimonogatari, the incredibly intense soundtrack that plays when Hanekawa and Ougi give hints to Araragi regarding the case of Sodachi’s mother, until he finally understands the truth. It gets my heart pumping every time. Oh and also, still in Owarimonogatari, “Bouyomi“, that sounds a bit like a more tense version of “Hyouri”. It was great in Shinobu Mail when Araragi learned that Hanekawa was in danger and Gaen asked him who he would choose.

我最喜欢的两个来自《化物语》：《表裏》以及《以下、回想》。我认为这两首很好地展现了这个系列的神秘感和紧张感。很遗憾在系列后期出现频率变低了，但能在《历物语》（尤其是《历·山》和《历·死》中）再次听到实在是太棒了。这让我回忆起了刚开始看这个系列的那年。

我也喜欢《伪物语》中忍的主题《絆》。在第二季中，我无法不铭刻在心的则是《はなむけ》，这是《忍·时间》中八九寺快要消失时出现的音乐。听起来太感伤了…… 还有《终物语》中《最悪の真相》，是羽川和扇提示阿良良木关于育的母亲事件的真相，直到他最终明白真相期间响起的非常紧张的配乐。每次听这首都让我的心紧张地怦怦跳。啊还有《棒読み》，依然是《终物语》中的，听起来有点像紧张般的《表裏》。在《忍·盔甲》中，历得知羽川正在危险中，卧烟问他会选择谁，这时这首音乐很棒。

—Would you label Monogatari as a “harem” series?

—会把《物语》系列看作后宫作品吗？

Maxdefolsch: Definitely not. There are some elements that are similar to harem series, but the harem trope itself was subverted from the start, with Araragi settling with one of the girls almost immediately. He’s still pretty lucky and gets to fool around a lot, but it’s not an actual harem, and fortunately this series is a lot deeper than that when it comes to romance and relationships. Calling Monogatari a harem series would be very simplistic and superficial, if not straight-up false.

当然不会。也许有些相近元素，但后宫从一开始就被颠覆了，因为阿良良木几乎立刻就在女孩们中选择了一个正宫。他也相当幸运，四处鬼混。但这并不是真正意义上的后宫。幸运的是这个系列在浪漫和人物关系方面走得很深入。简单而肤浅，如果说不是完全直接错，

可以说把物语称作后宫是简单而肤浅的。

—There were many French elements in Kizumonogatari. How did you feel about that?

—在《伤物语》中出现了很多法式元素，感想如何？

Maxdefolsch: It was a bit surprising to see French text or hear a French song in an anime movie, let alone a Monogatari movie. I had heard about how Monogatari got inspiration from the French New Wave style though, so I figured that was the reason behind it.

能够在一部动画电影中看到法文文本听到法语歌曲稍微有点令人吃惊呢，更不用说这是一部物语的电影。我听说物语有受到法国新浪潮风格的启发，也许这就是背后的原因吧。

—Could Shinobu be French?

—觉得忍是法国人吗？

Maxdefolsch: I actually had an extended discussion about that question last year. I’m basing my answer only on canon writing from Nisio, so French stuff in Kizumonogatari (which is more likely to be because of French New Wave) or Shinobu’s OP being in German do not count.

From the short story Utsukushihime, we know she’s from an unknown country in a large kingdom 600 years ago, and an Emperor and an Imperial Capital are mentioned, so combined with her western appearance I think it could only be the Holy Roman Empire. The most likely country she could be from would be Germany, but it could also be France, Italy, the Netherlands, or a few other countries.

Her true name, Laura, is another clue. This name can be found in both Germany and France, as well as some others of the possible countries. However, her name was given as “roora” in Japanese, with a long O sound (as opposed to the short one in “Acerola”, which is why I’m confident her name is Laura and not Lola). The thing is, in German, this name is pronounced more like “Laora”, with an emphasis on the A, which I think would have been reflected in the Japanese pronunciation if that was the right one. Of course, there’s still the possibility of Nisio just not being aware of that fact and Shinobu could still be German.

There’s also Shinobu being fond of French Cruller donuts, and the Wazamonogatari arc called Acerola Bon Appétit, using a French expression for the arc that explored Shinobu’s past. It could be clues too, but in the end there’s just not enough information to be sure of anything.

In conclusion, I believe the most likely answer is for Shinobu to be German, but she could also be French, Italian, or from some other country in the Holy Roman Empire around 1400.

其实在去年我针对这个问题做过拓展讨论。我仅以西尾正规写下的文本为依据，所以（可能更因是受法国新浪潮影响的）《伤物语》中出现的法国内容或者忍的OP是在德国这些不算数。

从短篇《美丽的公主》中，我们可以得知她来自600年前一个大王国中不知名的国家，还提到了一个皇帝和一个帝国首都。再结合她西方的外表，我推测应该只可能是神圣罗马帝国。最有可能的国家会是德国，但也可能是法国、意大利、荷兰或其他的一些小国。

她真实的名字，劳拉，是另一个线索。这个名字能够在德国和法国中被发现，也可能是其他一些可能的小国家。不过，她名字的日文写法“ロオラ”，有一个长音“オ”（和Acerola中的短音相对，让我确定名字是Laura而非Lola）。这里需要指出，在德国这个名字的发音更像是“Laora”，重音落在A上，我认为是与日本发音照应所以是正确的一个。当然，也有可能西尾只是没有意识到忍还可能会是一个德国人。

还有一点，忍喜欢法式甜甜圈，而且《业物语》有一章则叫做《雅赛萝拉请多吃点》，这是用法语为标题来表达探索忍过去的痕迹的一章。这也可能是线索，但最终还是没有足够的信息来确定完全。

总而言之，我认为最有可能的答案：忍是德国人，但她也可能是法国人，意大利人或来自大约1400年神圣罗马帝国的其他国家。

—Many characters do not have their age or birthday specified in the books.

—很多角色的具体年龄在原作中都没有被提到呢。

Maxdefolsch: Tell me about it… As you probably know, I love making precise timelines, and love it when a fictional work gives enough details to do that. The chronology in Monogatari is very well constructed, with most of the events in almost 20 novels (from Bakemonogatari to Zoku Owarimonogatari) happening in the span of one year. And of course, 4 of these novels are dedicated to a period of time of only 5 days, from August 21 to August 25, and I have found no contradiction or inconsistency anywhere. Nisio clearly cares about making it well and did a good job at it.

However, regarding the birthdays, he almost never reveals them, but since he’s proven his attention to detail and that I also have found no contradiction in general (minus what’s probably a retcon of Hachikuji’s age, she was clearly said to be 11 years old at first and is now consistently said to be 10 years old), I believe that he must have chosen birthdays for every character already, even if he doesn’t reveal them. Which sucks, because I’d really like to know them for sure, instead of having to say stuff like “Sodachi is born between April 2 and November 27, 18 years ago”.

On this subject, I also noticed that the more recent novels (after Zoku Owarimonogatari) seem to be more vague in terms of timelines, they rarely give exact days anymore, which makes me very upset. Why, Nisio, whyyyyyy…

是啊……你应该知道我是很喜欢精准的时间线的，所以我很喜欢虚拟作品提供尽可能详实的细节设定。物语时间年表结构很精巧，在一年的时间里安排了（从《化物语》到《续·终物语》的）近20本小说中的大部分事件。当然，这其中有4本集中讲述了5天内发生的故事（从8月21日到8月25日） ，并且我发现任何地方都没有矛盾或不一致。西尾在这些细节处理安排很强。

但是关于生日，他却很少提及。但是因为他对细节的关注，关注到我都没有能发现任何矛盾（除去可能是八九寺年龄的小问题，她一开始被认为是11岁，现在却被认为是10岁）我相信他应该已经为每个角色选好了生日，即使他没有透露出来。最糟糕的是，我真的很想知道具体的生日，而不是什么“育出生于18年前的4月2日到11月27日之间”。

在这个主题上，我也注意到最近的小说（特别是《续·终物语》之后）似乎在时间轴上更加模糊，很少给出确切的日子。这让我非常沮丧。为什么，西尾啊，为什么么么……

—Do you enjoy the Monogatari audiobooks?

—也出版了有声读物，喜欢吗？

Maxdefolsch: I’ve never listened to them. I don’t think I would enjoy them, because to me the true voices of the characters are the voices from the anime now, so the audiobook voices would just sound weird. Also, hearing them speak in English directly and not in Japanese would probably sound weird as well.

我没听过，也不认为自己会喜欢。这是因为对于我来说，角色真正的配音来自动画，所以有声读物的配音我可能会听着有些古怪。还有，听到他们直接说英语而不是说日语总感觉听起来可能有点怪怪的。

—Besides American voices in the audiobook, French and German dubs are available as well.

—除了有声读物的美式英语，我们还能听到法语和德语的配音。

Maxdefolsch: I’ve seen extracts from the French dub. It’s pretty much as bad as I could have expected. Araragi sounds like a character from one of those bad French sitcoms that old people watch in the afternoon. The translation was very awkward as well. The only character who didn’t sound like she had a completely wrong voice was Hachikuji, who had a mostly fitting young voice. But Araragi and Senjougahara’s voices… Urgh.

I don’t know about the German dub but I’ve heard Tsukihi’s voice actress can’t even pronounce “Tsukihi” correctly.

我看过法配的片段。和我之前想的一样糟。阿良良木听起来就像是从老年人下午观看的糟糕法式情景喜剧里跑出来的一样。翻译也非常尴尬。唯一一个让我听着还算不错的角色是八九寺，有着相称的年轻嗓音。但阿良良木和战场原的配音实在是……呃。

我不知道德配怎么样，但我记得听到过月火的配音演员完全没办法正确读出“月火”。

—What are your thoughts on the differences between the new manga and the original novels?

—漫画版中出现了不少区别于原作的内容，如何看？

Maxdefolsch: I’ll be honest, I have big issues with the manga. The only actually good point I can give is that the art is great, even if it makes Araragi and other characters look a bit creepy. There are a lot of very detailed surreal panels that I quite like.

What I don’t like, however, is not only adding scenes (making changes to the source material), but adding scenes that are both out of character and pure, bad fanservice. For example, when confronting the Crab God in Hitagi Crab, the artist changed the scene to make Araragi jump between the Senjougahara and the wall, just so that at the end he could have his hand land under Senjougahara’s crotch in a very distasteful and unnecessary shot. That’s what I mean by bad fanservice.

Another one I hated was when Araragi and Senjougahara got to the ruins of the cram school to see Oshino. Even though Senjougahara was very suspicious of Araragi at that point, in the manga she suddenly went ahead on their own, went up one floor, and then rested her body onto a fragile barrier (which broke under the weight, even though Senjougahara only weighed 5 kg, so that made no sense!), just so that Araragi could catch her by her butt, and then Senjougahara BLUSHED, even though the whole point of the arc was her lack of emotions?! See, that scene made zero sense from a logic perspective, AND from a character perspective. It’s just pure fanservice, and even though I dislike Senjougahara, I think treating her like that is practically an insult to her character and Nisio’s writing.

老实说，我对于这次的漫画有很大的意见。我能给出的唯一真正的优点是画得很棒，即使阿良良木和其他角色看起来有点怪异。有很多非常细节性的超现实面板我很喜欢。

但我不喜欢的不仅仅是添加场景（对原材料进行更改），而是添加既不符合角色与纯度的场景，实在是糟糕的粉丝服务。例如，当在《黑仪·重蟹》中遇到螃蟹神时，漫画家改变了场景，画出阿良良木在战场原和墙壁之间跳跃的场景，这样最终他可以把手放到战场原的胯下，达成一个很倒胃口并且不必要的分镜。这就是我所说的糟糕的粉丝服务。

另一个令我痛恨的点出现在阿良良木和战场原到补习学校的废墟去见忍野的时候。尽管在那时战场原还对阿良良木非常怀疑，但在漫画中，她突然独自上前爬了一层，然后将身体搁在一块易碎的栏杆上休息（栏杆竟然被压坏了，即使这时候战场原仅重5公斤，所以完全不对！）

只是为了让阿良良木抓住她的屁股，然后战场原脸红，即使在整一章中她其实是缺乏情感的？看，从逻辑的角度和从人物的角度来看，这一幕毫无意义。这只是纯粹的粉丝服务。即使我不喜欢战场原，我认为这样对待她实际上是对她的角色性和西尾创作的侮辱。

—What do you think about crossovers such as Fullmetal Alchemist in Neko White, Mazemonogatari, or 240 Gakuen?

—作品出现交叉，例如《猫物语（白）》中出现的《钢之炼金术师》，《混物语》和《240学园》，觉得怎么样呢？

Maxdefolsch: I think you’re kinda mixing two different things in that question. On one side, the numerous references to other anime or manga made by the series, and on the other side, the actual crossovers.

About the references, I usually like them, I just often don’t know about the referenced thing, because Monogatari references a LOT of franchises and stories from Japanese culture. But when it’s from something I know (for example, Hachikuji making a Detective Conan reference), it’s hilarious.

About the crossovers, I can’t say much because of a lack of translations, but I wish I could read them. I don’t have a problem with them as long as it’s clear whether they are canon or not. 240 Gakuen is obviously not canon and just for fun, but for Mazemonogatari I actually don’t know and there’s some debate about that, which can be settled only when we get an actual translation of the whole thing (and even then, it might be left ambiguous).

我认为这个问题有点儿把两种不同的情况搞混了。一方面是系列中大量其他动画漫画的引用，另一方面是真正的“交叉”。

关于引用，我通常会喜欢。只是常常不了解原引用物，因为物语中引用了太多的日本文化版权物和故事。但当我知道来源时（比如八九寺扮演了柯南），就会觉得很有趣。

关于交叉，因为缺少翻译我也不会说太多。但我很希望自己能够读到。只要能知道他们是不是真的是官方真作，我不会有什么别的问题。《240学园》显然不是那么正式而只是为了有趣。但我不太清楚《混物语》的情况，有些人讨论过，但只有真正做完读完翻译我们才能得到结果（即使这样，也可能是含糊不清的）。

—Have you read other novels written by NISIOISIN?

—看过西尾维新写的其他小说吗？

Maxdefolsch: I haven’t read other novels, no. I’ve heard a lot about Zaregoto and did watch the recent anime version by Shaft, which I believe adapted the first volume, but I’m not sure I’m interested enough in the series to read the novels. I’m also interested in the Boukyaku Tantei series because Okitegami seems like an interesting character. But then again, we’re missing on a lot of translations for any of those series. If there was more Zaregoto anime in the future or an Okitegami Kyouko anime, I’d watch it without a doubt.

I have read Medaka Box however, which wasn’t a novel but a manga which Nisio wrote the story for. I liked it a lot, it was a nice take on the school battle genre and you could feel Nisio’s style in how he played with the rules and the powers.

我没读过他其他的小说。我听过很多关于戏言的内容，也看过SHAFT最近改编的动画版。那应该是第一卷的内容，但（看完动画后）我觉得自己大概没有足够的兴趣开始阅读小说。我对于忘却侦探系列也挺感兴趣的，因为我觉得掟上是个有趣的角色。不得不再次提及，我们缺少大部分的这些其他系列的翻译。如果未来有更多的戏言动画或者掟上今日子的动画，我绝对会看的。

我读过《最强会长黑神》，那不是小说而是西尾原作的漫画。我很喜欢这部漫画，它展现了学院战斗题材的可能性，你能从中感受到西尾处理规则与力量的风格。

—Are you satisfied with the popularity of Monogatari in foreign countries? How will you continue to promote the series?

—对于物语系列现在在国外的热度满意吗？以后还会做什么来促进热度上涨吗？

Maxdefolsch: I can’t say I actually worry about its popularity. I’m just gonna keep doing what I already do, which is take care of the short stories, make informative posts and charts if I find anything interesting to show, and enjoy the series as long as it’s ongoing.

说不上担心物语的热度吧。我会继续完成我一直在做的事情，即管理短篇小说，发现感兴趣的内容后发布信息帖和图表，以及系列出多久我就看多久。

[PROFILE] Maxdefolsch – Obsessive Monogatari fan who can’t help but make ridiculously researched posts and informative charts instead of doing anything productive with his life.

Editor(编辑)：木海

Assistant(协力)：Edo

2018/09