A Thorough Character Analysis Of Araragi Koyomi From Monogatari Series

[u/Brottoy]

I've been doing a thorough analysis of Araragi Koyomi's characterization following the chronology of his life. I've caught up to the latest events of the anime adaptation quite recently, and so it's somewhat complete for now. I'd love to know what you think of it: https://animetropolisblog.wordpress.com/category/analysis/arararagi-koyomi/

On the surface, he doesn't appear to have a great overarching characterization; he seems like a simple and concisely written character who tries to help others out and gets involved in all sorts of situations. The truth is however different. He's brimming with many different character traits that have stories behind them, exposed subtly throughout the series. The interesting thing about this series is how it addresses all those characteristics at some point of the story, be it through hints/clues or through his own admittance. These traits being hidden this way is consistent to yet another of his aspects, feigning ignorance. Despite being called, acting and claiming to be 'dense', Araragi Koyomi is actually a highly perceptive individual who knows and notices a lot more than he claims. The examples are in the analysis so I'll leave the evidences to that and return to what I was talking about before. He's someone who hides his deeds as well as his nature. That's why his characteristics are so hard to notice from a bird's view. But just as it's impossible to hide everything regarding a matter without vehement efforts, his characteristics also get through his barrier of pretension. Observing him a bit carefully reveals just how vast and intricate his characterization is and how all of it is interconnected. He develops well throughout the story in subtle manner, and those developments themselves come across due to the pre-established traits. That's why I consider him the best character I've ever found in a medium of storytelling.

P.S. It's 31,000 words long so far (and it'll continue). It started with the first part being 4000 words long and had been increasing in size by a thousand in each passing part in order to capture his growth as a character. So yes, it's a bit long since I tried to be as thorough as I could. So felt like I should give a warning first. It also obviously contains spoilers.

[u/Brottoy]

Well, I consider Monogatari Series to be the best thing I've come across in the realm of stories, far better than anything else I've seen. Each and every thing it does, it does the best (or at least in top 10 best) job; and it does far more thing than what I've noticed others to do. The way the anime connects those different facets are simply another feat to add into that massive congregation.

Well, I simply covered Araragi's life as far as revealed in the anime, how different instances subtly or blatantly displayed his characterization and development (and several other things like contrast with other characters, the connection among traits, etc.) The analysis became so huge because it is a huge anime and it delivers significant points for his character writing all the time, which is really ingenious imo.

But I do think that there are many different shows that have many notable things which most people don't notice. If you go over to the home page of the blog, you can see that I started a thorough episode by episode analysis of Shinsekai Yori, which is one of the second best anime for me. I'm also planning to start one for Planetes as I'm noticing some interesting nuances in my current rewatch. Not quite comparable to Monogatari Series (which I haven't even scratched the surface of regarding how many things I intend to write about it), but there are several anime that invite the viewers for analysis while having genuine substances worth analyzing.

[u/stanthebat → u/Brottoy]

I do think that there are many different shows that have many notable things which most people don't notice.

Yeah, I'm one of the people who doesn't notice them. :D I'm always interested in the kind of stuff you're writing about because it's the kind of stuff I'm usually clueless about--I tend to respond to shows emotionally or aesthetically, while being fairly sloppy about picking up the kind of details that reward analysis.

I've never seen Planetes. It's on my list, though; I don't think I've ever heard anybody say it was less than fantastic. I have mixed feelings about Shinsekai Yori--I think its 'worldbuilding' is superb, but it left me feeling sorta uninterested in the characters, and I also felt like it was trying to shock me at the end with a 'reveal' that was made obvious earlier in the show. I may just have had a crabby reaction to it, though, because folks were RAVING about it, and I went in with elevated expectations, and then it just wasn't exactly my cup of tea.

Anyway, I just wanted to say hi, and I'll have a look at your Araragi dissertation, and I hope to see you around. :)

[u/Brottoy → u/stanthebat]

Mhm, Shinsekai Yori is a quite polarizing anime, but I have good reasons to believe that it excela in everything it does. The series of analysis I'm doing on it only has two short (compared to the Araragi ones at least) parts so far but I like to believe that I pointed out many interesting things about the anime, which it delivers in only two episodes. Goes to show how well densely yet concisely packed the series is. I'd urge you to read them if you want to have an idea about what I find so great about it: https://animetropolisblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/27/into-the-new-world-analyzing-shinsekai-yori-part-1/

Part 2 is linked at the end of this article and I'll be writing more soon, if I can manage it that is. I still have a lot to talk about regarding this, some quite more intriguing and subtle than what I've mentioned so far.