By NISIOISIN. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by Vertical, Inc. Translated by James Balzer.

The afterword of this volume of the Monogatari series says that Nisioisin never intended for it to be published, but just wrote it for his own amusement. I hate to call an author a liar, but just reading the text of this first volume of Nisemonogatari makes me think he’s full of it. The book is filled with efforts to make this short series into a much longer one, adding onto running gags and deconstructing them, taking existing characterization and flipping it on its head or making it more ominous, setting the stage for new plot points to be carried over to future books, and the endless references to the fact that the books recently had an anime greenlit, right after the first set of books kept joking about the idea of the characters being in an anime. Nisemonogatari’s metatext is thick. Fortunately, its text is also good, showing off Araragi’s sisters, and how they’re far more like him than he’s comfortable with.

Fitting given that he has two sisters, the Nisemonogatari series is split into two books, and this is the first one, Karen Bee. Karen is his “older younger sister”, and is almost the definition of ‘dumb muscle’, a karate black belt devoted to justice and righting wrongs who seems to forget that she’s just in middle school and that actual villains can run rings around her. She’s a nice kid, but you can see why Nisioisin spent so much time re-introducing the rest of Bakemonogatari’s cast; there’s just not enough in her to justify the 300 pages or so that this book consists of. We also get a better glimpse at Tsukihi, the “younger younger sister”, who Nisio is clearly far more fond of writing, mostly as she’s able to go toe-to-toe with her older brother in the only battle that really counts in any works by this author: wordplay. Tsukihi’s mood swings and temper tantrums will be looked at in more depth in the following book.

As for the rest of the cast, again, they’re shifting from “this is a series of short stories, each about a different girl” to “this is a long-running series that will have several books after this. That doesn’t change the fact that Araragi and Senjogahara are still a couple – indeed, some of the best scenes in the book feature the two of them. But we see that Hanekawa and Senjogahara have clearly had “a chat” in between books, and that – despite Sensjogahara’s attempts to exaggerate it in order to make us dismiss it – there is clearly major tension between them. Possibly because, as Kanbaru states midway through the book, Araragi and Hanekawa are the more obvious couple. Hanekawa herself has cut her hair and gotten contacts in order to show she’s moving on from Araragi, but I’m not sure how much I buy it – she’s willing to say she loves him to his face, but it’s not a confession per se.

Oh yes, can’t forget Shinobu, who has finally decided to stop sulking and become the extremely talkative haughty vampire we met in Kizumonogatari, and she’s not going to let looking like an eight-year-old stop her. She gives Araragi a way to discuss oddities now that Oshino has left town – she gives advice on the supernatural, while Mayoi, who is a wandering ghost, ironically gives advice on more down to earth things like love. And Nadeko is here as well, and her fumbling, overly obvious attempts at seducing Araragi (obvious, that is, to everyone except him) show us that she’s not just a shy, blushing girl in love with him. More on that much later. And then there’s Kaiki, one of the most popular characters in the entire series judging by Western fandom. He’s very good at playing the evil villain, and does like to drone on endlessly (as every character in Monogatari does), but there’s a hint that there’s far more to him than that, and I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of him.

You’ll notice that this volume has a new translator (yes, I’ll mention it). Vertical apparently decided, given the aggressive release schedule, to divide the series up into chunks, so James Balzer is doing the Nise series and Ko Ransom will be back with Nekomonogatari Black and White. For the most part, the change is not all that noticeable. The series is well translated (hang on, getting to it), keeping most of the culture references – I was very pleased to see Araragi’s Read or Die comment left in – and adapting the wordplay and Japanese puns so they are mostly not noticeable. And Shinobu sounds like her old-world vampire self – which may come as a surprise to anime watchers, as most subbers decided not to bother translating her into “old school” speech. Two things, though. First, the book keeps the scene where Hanekawa mocks Araragi for using the -chan honorific to refer to his sisters, which seems odd in a series so otherwise aggressively devoted to avoiding honorifics (My Senior, etc.).

The second thing is a bit more egregious. In the original Japanese, Tsukihi says (in English) that she is “Platinum Mad”, which is a take off of puchi and purachina/platinum. She uses the phrase a few times in the series, and the anime turned it into her OP theme song, “Platinum Disco”. It would not be exaggerating to say that when you think of Tsukihi, you think of “Platinum Mad”. The translator, however, decided that since it’s weird Japanese wordplay it had to be changed to weird English wordplay – as he has done throughout the book. So “a bit” becomes “dagnabbit”. There are several issues here. First off, dagnabbit sounds to a Western ear like something Yosemite Sam would say. Secondly, almost no one noticed the wordplay itself, and just saw that “Platinum” had been changed to “Dagnabbit” for no reason (remember, Platinum is IN ENGLISH in the original). Most importantly, though, it seems to show that the people in charge of translating the series for Vertical are translating the books without paying attention to the other media – anime, singles, or the fandom. I get that – these were books first, and you want to make sure that they can also sell to casual readers. But try not to drive the hardcore fans off. Platinum Mad is a meme, fer chrissakes. Dagnabbit Mad just makes Tsukihi sound stupid. Which she very clearly isn’t – intellectually, she’s her brother’s equal.

OK, rant over. Aside from that, I felt the translation was excellent, and I didn’t really notice a major change between Ko and James. More importantly, for anime fans, there’s still a lot of new stuff here – you’d think given that it got adapted into 7 episodes that they didn’t leave much out, but there’s still many extra and lengthened scenes in here that got adapted out. Fans of Araragi and company will want to pick this up, as it’s excellent. Though be prepared to write “platinum” in your copy with ballpoint.

By NISIOISIN. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by Vertical, Inc. Translated by Ko Ransom.

The final volume in the Balemonogatari trilogy (as it now is) is Tsubasa Cat, and finally gives us a closer look at out favorites glasses-wearing class president. Of course, I say ‘finally’ but due to Nisio’s agent suggesting that North America start with Kizumonogatari we’re already quite familiar with Hanekawa as she’s the heroine of that book as well. Indeed, even if you split Bakemonogatari into three rather than two, of the first eight books in the series, four of them have Hanekawa as the heroine, more than any of the others by, well, a factor of four-to-one – the other girls get one book each to that point, but Hanekawa keeps getting more and more attention. If you read Tsubasa Cat, you’ll get a glimpse as to why, but this first book is far more concerned with Araragi than Hanekawa, so the glimpse into her horrible life is at an oblique angle.

Araragi’s introduction leads us to expect that we’re finally going to hear what happened during Golden Week, where (we’ve been told several times already) Hanekawa somehow got mixed up with a cat monster, but although we do get a flashback to that point, the answer is still no. Golden Week was about Hanekawa taking out her stress on her parents, who are no relation to her through a series of deaths, marriages, and more deaths. This book, though, is about Hanekawa’s repressed love for Araragi, and the fact that she got beaten to the punch – Senjogahara confessed almost immediately, and was also helped by Araragi not putting her on a giant pedestal. And so Hanekawa is left with this burgeoning passion that can’t go anywhere, and thus we see the return of her cat side, Black Hanekawa – a side the reader is seeing for the first time.

Speaking of Senjogahara, she’s really only in one chapter of the book, but she almost steals it right out from under Hanekawa. (Highly appropriate, really.) The chapter was adapted into Episode 12 of the anime, which may be the most beloved episode of the entire franchise, and involves Senjogahara taking Araragi on a date to her favorite stargazing spot deep in the mountains. This whole chapter serves to hammer home the differences between Senjogahara and Hanekawa – I hesitate to use the word passive-aggressive to describe Senjogahara, who’s really more aggressive-aggressive, but the joy of this chapter is seeing the way that her nervousness and uncertainty shine through in her actions – note she tries to do her hair up like Hanekawa’s for their date, thinking that’s what he’s most attracted to – and then seeing how she powers through it anyway in order to show Araragi what a difference he’s made in her life and how much she loves him for it. It’s almost a perfect chapter.

The rest of the book can’t quite measure up, but is still excellent. Shinobu’s still not speaking, but we get a bit more insight into the nature of her sulk, and Araragi trying to balance out his codependent relationship with her and the relationship with the other girls in his “harem” will continue to be a subplot. And Black Hanekawa herself shows off not only her violent side, but also her smarts – for all that Araragi keeps belittling her for being stupid, she’s anything but, and Hanekawa’s kind nature keeps bleeding through. For those who are concerned, the translation does an excellent job of keeping her “cat-speak”, showing off her true nature. Due to being split into thirds, Tsubasa Cat may be the shortest of the three Monogatari volumes, but it’s also the best of the three, with great dialogue and a lot of character moments that will continue to be important as the series goes on. And fortunately there is more of the series – next time, in Nisemonogatari, we’ll take a look at Araragi’s younger sisters, and discover just how far a prose novel can take ‘fanservice’.

By NISIOISIN. Released in Japan by Kodansha. Released in North America by Vertical, Inc. Translated by Ko Ransom.

One of the things I enjoy about the first few volumes of the Monogatari books is that each new story begins with the girl from the previous story having a long conversation with Araragi where they basically take on the role they’ll play in the books from this point forward. In the previous volume’s Mayoi Snail, Senjogahara showers Araragi with abuse and teasing affection. And here we have Suruga Money, in which Mayoi reappears and begins to function as Araragi’s sounding board and life advice coach, and Nadeko Snake, in which Kanbaru shows off that she was actually holding back in her own story, and becomes the only person in the cast who can be more perverse than he can. (This works in Japanese publication order, by the way, and continues at least through Nekomonogatari Black, which starts with a long scene with Araragi and his sister Tsukihi.) The first two books introduced Araragi and began to give him a “harem”, so to speak – this second book expands on that.

The stories in Bakemonogatari were originally written as short stories for a magazine, and it shows – each story has the introduction at some point of Araragi, Shinobu and Meme Oshino and explains his nature, for readers who had not read the previous stories. Not that Shinobu plays a part in this book – she’s still silent, apparently sulking as Oshino is stealing her Mister Donuts stash, and functions mostly as a maguffin to power up Araragi so he can battle oddities. For the most part, each story in this is devoted to showing us the new girl. This works quite well in Kanbaru’s case. Her overly solicitous politeness is perfectly translated, and you also see the frustration and rage she normally keeps well-hidden. She’s a good kid. She’s also a “pervert”, i.e. happy to talk about sexual matters with Araragi till she’s blue in the face. And she’s a lesbian, something she admits herself, though the text goes on to use the alternate term “sapphist”, which, as Araragi points out, is the same thing. (One could argue she flirts incessantly with Araragi in the following story, but I maintain that she mostly does this for appearance – much like many other characters in Monogatari, especially Araragi himself.) Her story is the strongest, flagging only when we have to read a very long battle scene from Araragi’s narrative POV – it gets tedious, and makes you realize why Nisioisin does so much dialogue – he’s better at it.

As for Nadeko… without spoiling anything about future volumes, we’re left with an okay story that works best when Nadeko isn’t in it. Araragi and Kanbaru’s banter at the start is probably the high point of the book. Nadeko herself is painted entirely as a shy, innocent victim, forever looking down or away from the two of them. Her “monster” problem is quite sexualized, which is uncomfortable given she’s only in junior high, but if that really makes you uncomfortable you’d better jump off now before we get to Nisemonogatari, as it will only get worse. In the context of future volumes, there’s lots of subtle clues and hints in here, a few of which I think are deliberate. But without that context, this story sometimes just lies there. It’s the weak link of the five.

The third volume will contain only one story, Tsubasa Cat, and you can probably guess who stars, though if you read these two volumes and think we’re finally getting a flashback to what happened during Golden Week, you’d be wrong. It also doesn’t have quite as much Kanbaru, which is a relief even though I love her. The translation is, on the whole, excellent throughout, but Vertical has decided not to have honorifics, and as such Kanbaru’s constant “Araragi-sempai” is turned into “My senior Araragi”, which is fine initially, but after the first hundred or so times you realize how OFTEN she uses his name, and it begins to wear. (Mayoi’s “Mister Araragi” works better.) I understand why they chose not to have the honorifics, but I suspect I might find it a bit more comfortable if Kanbaru’s use of -sempai was removed rather than adapted, even if that affected the politeness level. Other than that, though, this is good volume of Monogatari, if not quite as good as the other two.