Reflections on the Monogatari Series

The narrator describes Senjougahara Hitagi’s distant or perhaps weightless relationship with school. She’s like a cloistered princess (深窓の令嬢) confined to the pages of her books. She seems like the type who reads whatever is in reach (濫読派). Outside of academics, she’s a non-interactable character with a fleeting (儚げ) existence.

The narrator was somehow familiar enough with the top academic rankings to recognize patterns in them. Why would he bother looking up at the top ranks if his grades were far from it? It seems like academic performance is important to him in some way.

The narrator mentions that school is a strange place where people without friends end up forming their own circles. I’m pretty sure this is just a human thing to do and this would happen anywhere, not just school.

The narrator claims that Senjougahara’s situation is nothing to worry about. After all, very few if any meaningful connections made in school will last past school. With the passage of time, the school experience will become a blur of memories. The narrator’s points are valid but I disagree with him. Sure, living invisibly might turn out okay, but it will be no better than okay. I think most people want to strive for more than okay. To do that, they must become more than themselves which means assimilating and interacting with the outside world in meaningful ways.

The narrator mentions that he was a loner up until the end of the prior school year. The narrator references spring break and Golden Week as 地獄 (hell) and 絵空事 (fantasy) respectively.

When the narrator encounters Senjougahara, he simultaneously feels the weightlessness in her body and finds salience in her existence. Weight, under the force of gravity, tethers people to the world. A lack of it could explain Senjougahara’s detached existence. Contradicting her weightlessness, she falls into the narrator and becomes a more significant existence to him.

The narrator asks Hanekawa about Senjougahara. Rather than bringing up Senjougahara’s anomaly, he decides to ask about her first. This suggests that he is uncertain whether to confront the anomaly. After all, he barely knows Senjougahara. Why should he help someone whom he will forget in just a few years?

The narrator starts the conversation with Senjougahara’s names. I think it’s an odd place to start when talking about another person but it seems to work. On the subject of names, Nisioisin reveals the narrator’s name, Araragi.

「お前は何でも知ってるな……」 Araragi: “You know everything, don’t you?”

「何でもは知らないわよ。知ってることだけ」 Hanekawa: “Not everything. I just know what I know.”

This exchange between Araragi and Hanekawa will be used multiple times throughout the series. Rather than what is said, I am more interested in how it is said.

羽川は納得しかねている風だったが、 While Hanekawa didn’t seem fully satisfied with my explanation, しかし特に追及してくるでもなく instead of pressing me any further

I am not satisfied with this translation. Something doesn’t line up. Hanekawa is responding to a compliment, not an explanation. My interpretation is Hanekawa could not fully understand what Araragi means when he says that compliment. Araragi expects additional followup but there is none. Hanekawa seems preoccupied with Araragi’s rare interest in another person.

Araragi introduces Hanekawa Tsubasa as the class president. Not just having the role of class president but being the class president through and through. So much so that Araragi designates Hanekawa as a different species from himself. Her existence is almost fiction itself.

Once again, Araragi brings up academic performance. More specifically, Hanekawa’s nearly flawless academic performance. What about academic performance is important to him?

I can fix him.