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. 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 spite of being called, claiming and acting to be ‘dense’, Araragi Koyomi was a highly perceptive individual who noticed a lot more than he claims. The reason why he feigned ignorance like this was revealed in Owarimonogatari which provided the earliest parts of his characterization; trauma. As the mysterious transfer student, Oshino Ougi had commented, his police parents being strict about his misdemeanor was a quite traumatic factor for him as a child. He fought any apparent injustice that couldn’t be overlooked due to the sense of justice he inherited from them, but feigned ignorance in controversial situations that could be troublesome. He pretended to be dense towards what he could avoid without being blamed for not noticing when he was confused as to how he should approach the problems.



Just as he did when Oikura Sodachi lured him into her house using math practice as bait during the summer break five years ago. He had done terrible in his math exam which was an imperfection he couldn’t accept and his image as a good boy backfired, leading to the awkward relationship with his parents. Sodachi used this opportunity to bring him to her home and have him notice the domestic abuse she was facing, apparent from her environment (see the images below), so he could report it to his policemen parents. She gave him three conditions that she wished Araragi would break, conditions that kept her situation a secret. They were that this would be the place where they’d meet, that he’d keep the study session a secret and that he wouldn’t ask her name or probe into her life.

All of these were quite peculiar demands making it obvious that they were to be broken, but Koyomi being oblivious, he didn’t break them nor did he realize that it was her home. Or so it seemed but the truth was that he did notice all these and understood what was going on in that house, as proven from Ougi’s explanation. But he was on difficult terms with his parents at that point therefore was reluctant to approach the matter and so, he feigned ignorance, making himself believe that he noticed none of it. Despite meeting her before, he didn’t realize her identity and couldn’t recognize her even after spending the entire summer break studying together, showing his forgetfulness. After she left revealing him to be a wasted effort with no pay-off, Araragi coated his sense of regret with a fear for her as he found no trace of her left.

He did understand her situation and that he turned a blind eye to it, which made him start hating himself. While he was still displeased at Sodachi for not opening up to him, he felt guilty himself knowing what a terrible person he was. These two reasons are why he decided to avoid having close acquaintances with others but he kept the promise he made to her even though he had forgotten her again. He forgot the girl but he never forgot the math she taught, nor did he lose his love for the subject which was why he’d do better in math than he would in other subjects, hinted in Bakemonogatari when he thanked Senjougahara for helping with studies. This love for math, a subject where one implements formulas to solve the problems later gave birth to another trait in Araragi’s characteristics which I’ll cover later on.



Araragi’s reluctance to engage in close acquaintances grew into a conviction after a certain event in his first year at high-school. He was reunited with Oikura Sodachi, who happened to be the class representative of his class that time. But he couldn’t recognize her at all, being completely oblivious to how his life changed for the better because of the math he learned as he’d always score the highest in it. That, added with the frustration from five years back created an overwhelming hatred in her for this person. However, he thought that her hatred was because she’d always stood second to him in math, a subject she was obsessed with.

Their class had a study session right before the math exam and those who took participated had 20% higher score in average than those who didn’t, hinting to someone deliberately mixing the exam questions into the discussion of the study session. Being the one to propose it, Sodachi couldn’t accept the situation and pressed the matter, leading to a long, rather elongated trial. As Araragi despite being absent from the session, scored 100% in the exam, he was elected to be the chairman of the trial; Sodachi put him in such difficult position out of spite and he failed to keep the situation under control. The exhausting trial went on for a long time with heavy discords but no solution, so Araragi carelessly approached Sodachi saying how it’d be pointless as everyone would leave once the bell rang. So in the last moment, infuriated Oikura stepped forward to propose a completely absurd voting system to determine the culprit, a system with no evidence or basis to label someone as the wrongdoer.

While Araragi received one vote from her, she herself received every others, as everyone was tired of it and only she pushed it, so she received all their grudges. At that moment, Araragi Koyomi saw truth and justice being determined by majority, which was a heavy shock for someone with a high sense of justice. However, what drove him to despair was that his teacher, a figurehead of justice, who was the actual culprit raised her hand voting for Sodachi, proving how Araragi had already detected the culprit back then using the few clues he had. As he was the only one who didn’t vote for anyone and he had no friend, he believed that to be the reason why he didn’t stoop so low as a human being. So he decided that Araragi Koyomi, who had no friend, needed no friend and making friends lowers one’s status as a human.



Araragi remarked that he couldn’t even see her as a teacher anymore and that she just wanted to believe that she’s a great person by filling the attendance in for Sodachi. That’s when his hatred towards himself evolved into a hatred towards humanity as a whole, realizing how he wasn’t the only horrible being. Being an advocate of justice, he rather supported Sodachi’s search for the truth but when he figured out who the culprit was, he said nothing, even after seeing the culprit doing something so atrocious; so his self-loathing only increased. At one point in the trial, someone mentioned Araragi’s score without being present in the study session to claim that it might’ve been easy, trying to put an end to it; and so he never scored perfect in math exams ever again. His apathy towards humans made him ignore people and so general crowd in human shapes were absent in the stories he narrated.

And then he isolated himself by building a strong invisible wall around him called privacy, making it nearly impossible for others to associate with him. That wall, however, was breached two years later by Hanekawa Tsubasa during Spring Break. She forced her way into the nearly impenetrable wall of ego Araragi built around him and became his friend. Having been secluded for so long had made Araragi so lonely that he was yearning for a friend, so when Hanekawa befriended him, his joy burst out of his whole being. Despite his aforementioned notion, he was happy to finally have a friend.



However, he still believed that having friends lowers one’s humanity although he gave a different reason for thinking so when he talked to her as he didn’t want to talk about what happened to make him have that notion. Getting into a friendship after a lifetime of loneliness, floating rumors about a vampire, Hanekawa searching around for vampires to chat with which she did with him, Araragi’s altruism, Monogatari Series being a story where rumors and beliefs manifest into phenomena, it was inevitable that Araragi would turn into a vampire, losing his humanity. An interesting thing to note here is that Araragi’s vampirism is a metaphor for his reckless barbaric nature. The vampire, Kiss-Shot was a typhoon that resulted in the strong wind that blew, exposing the panty of the beautiful girl Hanekawa and creating a storm in Araragi’s mind. Having a friend and seeing her panty created unrest in his mind which remained in him after that.

[Note: There has been some further addition to this interpretation which I came to notice afterwards as I kept writing. That interpretation is like a grander and more accurate version of this interpretation, which stays consistent to everything written here. I’ve covered that in the third part of this analysis]

There are more evidences and points regarding this hypothesis later on which I’ll cover when I come across them there. Back to the analysis, Araragi Koyomi is a horny teenager, as he normally should be and so he went to buy erotic magazine the night after he had that conversation with Hanekawa. And he encountered the rumored vampire while he was out, with her limbs cut off and blood splattered all around her. Being an altruist, he rushed to her despite being afraid of the situation, but when the proud vampire Kiss-Shot told him to offer his life to save her from death, Araragi refused and ran away. Being afraid of disappearing at the brink of death, Kiss-Shot finally screamed out that she didn’t want to die, begging to be saved and only then he saved her.

That’s the kind of twisted altruist Araragi Koyomi is, interested only in those vulnerable and he wanted to be regarded as a savior. He didn’t save her until she begged him to be saved and after she had done so, he even sacrificed his own life. This was pointed out by Kiss-Shot herself in the last Kizumonogatari movie, where she revealed that he no longer had any interest in her because she was no longer a vulnerable being, getting her full power back. Perhaps it’s because he has such strong self-loathing that he wants people to think highly of him as their savior. He even expressed his hatred towards his own self when he saved Kiss-Shot, sacrificing what he considered his pathetic life.



Although he was prepared to die, Kiss-Shot kept him alive turning him into a vampire instead, showing her gratitude, while taking the form of a kid herself. Patting her head on her order was perhaps what turned Araragi into a pedophile (not really, but yeah that’s when he started liking little girls). As her minion, his first mission was to obtain the limbs that three vampire hunter specialists took away from her, and he almost got killed trying to fulfill it. If it weren’t for Oshino Meme, who immediately saved him from them and arranged individual duels with each specialist for the part/s of Kiss-Shot they retained, that would’ve been the end of him. That’s when he realized that the situation was more dangerous than he expected.

That’s why when he met Hanekawa again the night afterwards and saw how lightly she took the matter, he felt angry. But more so than that, he was worried about her. In order to have her stay away from himself, he acted rudely towards her, throwing insults, telling her not to follow him anymore and denying their friendship by deleting her contact number right in front of her. His facial expressions after Hanekawa ran off clearly showed how saddening and painful it was for him. But he deemed it necessary in order to guarantee her safety.

He then faced Dramaturgie, who is actually a representation of how his mind itself is structured or how it works, as his name refers to the structure by which a drama works and he hunts vampires as a ‘job’. Even though Koyomi’s conscience dictated that his barbaric nature wasn’t a good thing, he himself was leaning a bit towards it because it’s like a pleasure or addiction. And despite being stronger than Araragi, Dramaturgie lost the battle because he was inferior as a vampire to Kiss-Shot’s kin. Hanekawa happened to witness his fight with him and understood why Araragi pushed her away by saying all those mean things, although he still denied it. And he outright refused when she offered help.



Then Hanekawa showed the extent of her resolve (and her panty), and seeing that Araragi understood his fault and apologized for what he said earlier. The earlier victory against Dramaturgie that he achieved with ease boosted his confidence and so he let Hanekawa help him out. But soon he realized his mistake when she received a mortal wound trying to help Araragi in his fight against his second opponent named Episode disregarding her own safety. Episode, a half vampire who hunts vampires out of hatred represented Araragi’s hatred towards his new nature and this incident portrayed how trying to suppress a nature through hatred hurt those around him.

Araragi realized through his dialogue with Oshino that she was the only one who was helping him selflessly. Oshino is a specialist and his help isn’t free. Even though he had been admiring her for her help, he realized that he couldn’t have her help him to such degree. So they decided that Araragi should solve his own problems and the only thing Hanekawa should do is encouraging him, believing in his capability. But then his third opponent, Guillotinecutter kidnapped Hanekawa, holding her hostage for the duel.

Guillotinecutter hunted vampires out of faith, while his name is that of a machine that cuts off extras. He represented Araragi’s attempt to suppress his barbarism with his beliefs. Notice how Araragi remarked that despite being the only fully human among the three, he was the most inhuman and to defeat him, Araragi had to perform a feat that made it apparent how much of a monster he Koyomi had become. He was also the only one who died in this entire incident, and Nisioisin was sending a message through that fact. Whether I or even Nisioisin agree with that or not is irrelevant when it comes to how well delivered that message was.



Having overcome his conscience, hatred and faith, Araragi finally retrieved all the limbs of his master and Kiss-Shot regained her full strength. But then he witnessed the consequences of his thoughtless altruism. Kiss-Shot killed Guillotinecutter when he came to visit and started feeding on him. She intended to show him what it meant to be a vampire, so that he could decide what he wanted to be. Whether he’d kill her to return to his humanity or accept his vampirism, this would give him the resolve to make that decision.

What it drove Araragi to instead, was intense agony, realizing what his deeds resulted in. He elected himself to be responsible for all the death that Kiss-Shot would cause and he felt that committing suicide is the least he could do to repent for his sin. Hanekawa, figuring out what he intended to do, rushed in to stop him and encouraged him to face the problem instead of taking the easy way out. Thus, after a satisfying catharsis (and the reveal of his beta male status), Araragi faced his master in the weirdest fight scene in the history of fight scenes, like ever. Before the fight, they confirmed their stance as a human and a vampire, and Kiss-Shot addressed his aforementioned hypocritical altruism.



Araragi came to terms with his hypocrisy and engaged with the battle to reclaim his dear humanity and stop Kiss-Shot simultaneously. But then he learns of Kiss-Shot’s true intention. She had already given up on her life when she was saved by him and to repay her debt, she wanted to sacrifice that very life so that her dear servant can be what he wanted to be. Selfish Araragi couldn’t accept such intention and so he sought Oshino’s help to select a different path. Stubborn with his decision, he choose a way to keep Kiss-Shot alive yet unable to act and bits of his vampirism remained, leaving everyone dissatisfied.

Forcing Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade to live on, reduced to the form of an 8 year old child, Araragi became a quasi-vampire himself. Which signifies that Araragi’s excited, reckless and barbaric trait remained in him in small portion. Araragi regarded Hanekawa and Oshino as his savior and the former restored his faith on humanity, while sparking a sense of altruism in him all over again. So he was on a lookout for those who may need help.

But before he could execute his newly renovated altruism, he is forced to face the dark side of the one who restored his faith in humanity, as Hanekawa resorted to escapism. As she encountered a Meddlecat, it started relieving her of her stress by attacking the ones responsible for her stress, her foster parents. But Araragi realized that it was no longer the aberration, rather Hanekawa herself was playing her Meddlecat role as Black Hanekawa, assaulting people to relieve of her incredible stress. Black Hanekawa was basically her assailant alter ego that carries around a stun-gun, considering her Energy Drain looks like electricity shocking those she attacked. Before the meddlecat appeared, Araragi and Oshino decided to look into the matter after Koyomi reported the symptoms she showed earlier.

At the beginning of Golden Week, he noticed a bruise on Hanekawa’s face and later learned that her father hit her. Hanekawa requested him to keep it a secret which Araragi said he couldn’t and then she said that she’d do anything if he did so. Koyomi’s reaction after both these instances, i.e. flipping skirt to dispel the tense atmosphere and going through the entire ordeal for healing her bruise, showed how playful yet kind and considerate of a person he is. Then they came across a dead cat on the road and she buried it with his help. That cat itself was the oddity called Meddlecat, which Hanekawa was perfect for running into.

So Oshino decided to check out the corpse of the cat they buried while instructing Araragi to go check on her. Hesitant to visit her house so late at night, he still followed the instructions as it was an important matter. But it was a bit too late as he found the house empty, implying that what Oshino feared had already begun. But what terrified him was the hopeless situation of the household, where Hanekawa didn’t have her own room and her little belongings were placed in different places while her futon and pillows were out on the corridor.

After seeing how terrible a condition she had been living in himself, Araragi blamed her foster parents for the situation. But then Oshino pointed out how they weren’t the only ones to blame to which Araragi questioned why he was trying to justify their actions. Oshino then gave him a life lesson that people can’t be categorized as black and white, that everyone is a shade of grey. There’s no victim or wrongdoer, just people with circumstances. He then asked Araragi whether he felt sympathy for her.

Prior to all these, Araragi felt a strong affection and attraction towards Hanekawa, one that he suspected to be love. And so he asked his younger sister Tsukihi about it, who then confirmed and convinced him that it was simply his sexual frustration. So Koyomi replied to Oshino that he’d never feel sympathy for her, all he felt towards a cat eared high school girl in her underwear was lust. And so he proceeded to encounter Black Hanekawa. Oshino gave him three warnings, one of which was the unspoken warning that even if he managed to turn her back to normal, the problem would still remain.

Koyomi knew that and regardless, he couldn’t accept her resorting to an oddity to run away from it, he wouldn’t let Hanekawa do such a thing. He looked up to her as his savior and he wouldn’t mind dying for her sake. So he risked his life to force Hanekawa to accept her situation but it failed and the Meddlecat started hurting her and turning her into a monster. That’s when former Kiss-Shot appeared, saying that she wouldn’t let him die after forcing her to live on and showed how to use the Demon Sword Kokoro Watari by swallowing it and using her vampiric Energy Drain, turning Hanekawa back to normal. Ever since Spring Break, Araragi felt responsible for Kiss-Shot as she was reduced to such state because of him.

As he forced Hanekawa to put up with her situation, he forced himself to accept his own. Seeing Hanekawa’s dark side may have shaken his faith in humanity, but he also learned that people are not inherently good or bad. Everyone has their own circumstances. And his own hypocrisy was revealed a while ago. So he decided to suck up to the reality and moving on forward and lend humanity his help whenever needed, continuing to seek out those in distress.

This should be enough for Part 1 of this analysis. You can find the second part of it HERE. If you found this article interesting, be sure share it with your friends and those you think would be interested in reading it. Drop a like here if you liked it. Comment if you have anything to say regarding this topic or the article. Check out and follow the blog for more such contents.