Fridge / Bakemonogatari

Fridge Brilliance

• Why is Araragi constantly having to face these oddity related problems throughout the series? Because Araragi has become an Oddity himself. First he became a super-powerful vampire, defeated two Blade and a Van Helsing knockoffs, as well as his own vampire master and then became a vampire remnant? What exactly is that? Then he spawns Ougi, whatever it is, died, went to Hell, came back, regained his vampire aspects again, spared Ougi, and finally causes a shift in reality that turns the world into a warped mirror type place, and changes it back with only a black mirror. Aspects of a vampire, an oddity hunter, both like Shinobu, subconsciously spawns an Oddity of his own, and alters reality, almost like a God. Odd creature here don't you think? Like an Oddity.
• In Nisemonogatari, the bee of Karen Bee and the phoenix of Tsuhiki Phoenix are not really a bee and a phoenix, in keeping with the story's theme.
• Bakemonogatari features Hitagi Senjogahara, a classmate of the protagonist's whose weight was stolen by a crab deity. While explaining the deity's nature, resident supernatural expert Meme Oshino mentions variant myths where the deity is instead a woman or a rabbit. The crab, rabbit, and woman are all examples of lunar pareidolia from various parts of the world. A crab/woman/rabbit that steals weight? Reduced gravity on the moon, remember?—urutapu
• In Bakemonogatari Episode 1, Oshino initially accuses Senjougahara of putting up a front. This is put down in a matter of seconds, and would initially seem to be empty drama. However, when you take into account the Crab god's nature, this scene changes its meaning. Senjougahara claimed to have been afflicted by a relatively peaceful crab who normally afflicts "Stuck-up little girls". Senjougahara is the daughter of a wealthy executive, and was regarded as a princess in middle school, so she matches the profile, but apparently Oshino perceives that there's more to her case. One could assume the standard reason "Stuck-up little girls" encounter the crab is because they desire the superficial effects of it. Weighing almost nothing, being believed to be more "beautiful" than they currently are (Hanekawa's words), and being more desirable as a girlfriend (as sickly girls are noted to be). Thus, the reason for Oshino's suspicion becomes clear.
• Hanekawa's headaches are a result of Black Hanekawa, the embodiment of Hanekawa's stress over her unrequited love for Koyomi, taking over her body; they first manifest during a conversation in which Koyomi explains why he loves Senjogahara. In retrospect, it seems so obvious. — Taelor
• In the first episode, shortly after Koyomi strips Senjogahara of her various Improvised Weapons, Senjogahara says that "[her] body isn't worth committing a crime over." At first, this made no sense; on reviewing (especially with knowledge of Senjogahara's past), this remark takes on a much darker meaning. — Taelor
  • Similarly, the whole sequence in the second episode where she's naked or just in her underwear in front of Koyomi takes on new significance when you find out her backstory. She was probably trying to see if he would take advantage of her after what happened with the cult leader, but Koyomi passed.
• After it's been made official Senjogahara tells Araragi that if anyone other than her kills him, she will kill them and die after. At first glance you might think there is no way a 45Kg teenage princess is going to beat something like a Bakeneko, however keep in mind that Araragi has a MASSIVE case of Chronic Hero Syndrome (he, Spider-Man, Touma and Watanuki could form a bridge club), so much so that he will, and in fact has thrown himself to the wolves to save someone else, Senjogahara effecively gave him a will to live by virtue of not getting her hurt. — GXNext
  • This is further augmented by the last episode where Araragi is willing to die for Hanekawa's sake only to remember Senjogahara's threat. Only then does he actually try to fight back.
• Some have pointed out that the oddities roughly line up with common psychological problems—for example, Hitagi's possession by the heavy crab, which leads to reduced weight and, according to in-universe opinion, better looks, can be easily taken as a parallel to an eating disorder.
• Oshino explains during the Mayoi Snail arc that only those who don't want to go home can see and get led astray by the "snail" - Mayoi - which is why Araragi was able to spot her, reluctant as he was to deal with his family. So wait, why did Hanekawa have no problem interacting with Mayoi if- oh. Oh. Especially effective as something Araragi already would have understood about Hanekawa and not needed to comment upon, but the viewer had little to no clue about.
• Not really Fridge Brilliance, more Fridge Oh-yeah-I-forgot-about-that, but it seems strange that Mayoi and Shinobu seem to be the two of the more mature girls in the cast considering they're both little girls. But then you remember that both are the oldest females on the show, one being a ghost who, should she have survived, would be in her early 20s and the other is a centuries old vampire in Sleep-Mode Size. —g3m1n1
• Oshino lived in an abandoned cram school. According to Shinobu, he spent his time:
  "That sleazy brat spent every hour of every day filling my head with useless stories of ghosts and monsters."
  • He was forcing Shinobu to attend cram lessons on oddities, preparing for when he abandoned Araragi to fend for himself. —cancerlad
• When Hitagi retracted the 'hiding embarrassment' from her transmutation speech in episode 1, Koyomi said she took out the most important part. Why? Because a signature character trait of 'tsundere', which she claims to be, is embarrassment. Without it, spite is, well, just spite. —lowsoman
• The ending theme leads to some Fridge Heartwarming after episode twelve of Bakemonogatari. "There's Deneb, Altair, Vega." Seems like just more lyrics... until Senjogahara points them out to Koyomi on their date. Brought a smile to my face. — Ryumaru
• Senjogahara is seen with a stapler in a lot, if not all, of her stills and figurines. Ever notice that it's somewhat similar to a pincer? Hello, Hitagi Crab. — Halcyon87
  • Another thing is that some of her figurines are seen with her holding a handful of sharp school objects. Maybe she's compensating for the lack of sharp limbs that a crab got?
  • Every character has characteristics that somehow symbolize the oddities they deal with/are. Like Mayoi carrying a huge back bag reminiscent of a snail's shell. And Nadeko's coat as a "second skin." Sometimes they are more internal, like Kanbaru's hobby of basketball, that involves lots of agility and jumping, reminiscent of the way of travel of monkeys. —Extablish
    • Kanbaru's is external, too. In Japanese, her shorts are 猿股 (sarumata); the first kanji means "monkey".
• Everything we see (The art of the characters and scenery etc.) goes through Araragi, as he is our unreliable storyteller. If we see something, it may as well be something else, Araragi just saw it differently. This is probably an artistic choice the animation studio put through making most of the things said in the original book onto the screen. This can be seen in every single episode. There are no people in the background, because in the books, Araragi doesn't mention them, and thus, does not pay attention to them. Also, some scenes, like the very beginning on Bakemonogatari, where Araragi catches Senjougahara, is probably very much exaggerated by the fact that they hold deeper meaning to Araragi. — Extablish
  • The art style also holds a lot of information on how relevant a given scene was to Araragi. Surreal background is a placeholder for things Araragi can no longer properly remember, general weirdness in the art is simply Araragi's memories trying to plug the gaps, but his most fond memory, his first date with Senjogahara, has nothing of the sorts. Every single detail is treated with the utmost level of importance because Araragi remembers every little bit of that Event.
• Bit of both Fridge Horror and Fridge Brilliance all in one. In Kizumonogatari, when Hanekawa spends the New Years money that she's saved up since childhood Araragi reprimands her saying you can't replace memories. Except, given her family situation, she probably freely spends it because of the lack of feeling that's attached to the giving and receiving of the money.
• The opening for Kabukimonogatari makes a lot more sense given the ending for Onimonogatari. Mayoi is wandering around the maze of signs, fulfilling her job as the Lost Cow, but she is then broken out of the maze and flies toward an ahoge, similar how she would no longer be the Lost Cow just to stay with Arararagi...Excuse me, I stuttered.
• During Nisemonogatari when Araragi describes his encounter with Nadeko to Kanbaru she (jokingly) says 'you don't seem to realize who the final boss is'.Funny how that turned out...
• Kaiki. Just, Kaiki. A lot of the things he claims to say are lies, but that in itself is misleading.
  • As we find out through the course of the story, most of what he told Senjougahara during their meeting in Bakemonogatari is actually true. He was actually intending to help her, rather than harm her.
  • Even earlier on, there is the part where he meets Araragi in front of Kanbaru's house and actually states his real name and his real intention.
  • Then, there was the part where he trolls Araragi by giving the information of Tsukihi being the 'Phoenix' to Kagenui. If you think about it, he chose to give it to Kagenui, someone that was similar to Oshino, rather than a ruthless person like Episode or a hunter of such. It indirectly helped Araragi find out and acknowledge that his immortal sister is still his sister, and since she was immortal anyway, one or two deaths was something that she would be able to survive.
  • Of course, then there is his arc, which in itself was mostly truth. Gaen was trying to stop him and he ignored her. However, if you think about it, Gaen was probably not trying to save the town, but rather save him. It was likely that she was aware of the middle school student that would probably harm/kill him, and was trying to get him out of town. One might ask why would she do such a thing, but when you think about it, her conditions were 3 million yen and cutting ties with him if he carried on. Since Kanbaru is the daughter of Gaen's sister and she herself is his senior, it means that such ties were probably valuable to him. Gaen would not have threatened him with something useless that he could sever easily. It meant that he claiming to feel refreshed and that Gaen was always his enemy was probably the lie, since he took such a long time before deciding that he wanted to save Araragi and gang over his ties, choosing what was right over what he valued.
  • Then, the above all doesn't make sense until one remembers an offhand remark made by Kagenui herself, about how Kaiki prefers an imposter over the real thing, since the imposter would try even harder than the real thing to be real, making it more real. That meant that everything was his own kind of effort to be more real than the real thing, while looking like a villain the entire time. Add to that that Kaiki was always asking the question of which was better, the real or the imposter, and one realises that he chose this path after much pondering, intentionally being the bad guy. It does not excuse some of his actions, but suddenly Kaiki is a far more sympathetic character.
  • During Koimonogatari, we discover that Kaiki isn't as much of a villain as we were led to believe. Which do you think is a more realistic villain; one who is villainous through and through, or one who occasionally goes against his villainous nature? As he himself said, the imposter is more real than the real thing.
• In the CD Drama of Bakemonogatari, Hyakumonogatari (who consists in the main cast of the series until that point discussing trivial things of their lifes), the parts 44 (Spring Vacation) and 45 (Golden Week), are very short. In the first, Koyomi says to Hanekawa he doesn't wants to talk much about that event, whereas in the later, is Hanekawa the one saying she prefers not to talk about the holiday. Why both refuse to do this? Easy, because the events of Kizumonogatari (where Koyomi stopped being a human and had to deal with the Kiss-Shot incident) and Nekomonogatari: Kuro (where Hanekawa was possessed by the sawarineko due the stress who her foster family produced in her), happened during the Spring vacation and the Golden Week, respectively. Is understandable they didn't want to remember those experiences.
• In the three Kizumonogatari movies, we consistently see both Araragi and Kiss-Shot outside in what looks like daylight. Considering their both vampires, this should be impossible. But throughout the entire Monogatari series, we see the world the way Araragi sees it or remembers it, not necessarily how it actually is. We see the sky bright and the world well-lit because that's how Araragi's seeing the world, through the eyes of a vampire that are likely well-adapted for seeing well in the dark. This also explains why in the first and early in the second movie, he sees night scenes relatively normally even after becoming a vampire— he's just been turned, so he's still not used to walking around at night like it's his daytime. By the time the third movie rolls around, Araragi's gotten so used to seeing the night as his day that there are no "night" scenes at all in the film.

Fridge Logic

• During "Tsukimonogatari: Yotsugi Doll", Koyomi realized during his bathtime that he can no longer cast a reflection, and thus calls Shinobu for help. Little bit of a plothole: How can Shinobu be summoned from Koyomi's shadow? If he can't cast a reflection, then by logic he can't cast a shadow either...
  • You are trying to apply the laws of physics to fantastic and occult phenomena. Specifically, one Japanese author's depiction of a mostly western creature of folklore. This "logic" was doomed from the start.
    • Actually no. In the Monogatari-verse, it's established that vampires don't cast shadows either. So if Araragi was vampiric enough not to be visible in a mirror, then by the logic of the Monogatari-verse, he also shouldn't have cast a shadow. Of course, there's always the possibility that Shinobu herself is the source of Araragi's shadow, since she's connected to him and stays in his shadow most of the time.
  • There is also the factor that Araragi was not a "full vampire" just yet. His shadow might have been one of the few human aspects remaining. Remember, later during that arc, Yotsugi later analyzes his flesh and confirms he is on the edge of changing. His shadow is probably one of the last things he would lose when he fully changed.
• Koyomi Araragi may indeed be a Death Seeker, and Good Samaratin rolled into one, which would would explain his reckless actions in dealing with the oddities and such, but, there is also another reason. He doesn't want to make a scene, or let another nasty scenario come about, like what happened with Sodachi Oikura. Why does he take on Black Hanekawa on his own? How long can she rampage until she gets herself killed by a SWAT Team or a Lynch Mob? Why does he take Senjogahara to Oshino? How long can she keep that problem under wraps? How many people can she really get away with threatening, before the pressure causes someone to snap? Why battle it out with Kanbaru intead of cutting off her arm. Kanbaru is the School Basketball Ace, a high profile sports star, with a rich and influential family, and a legion of fans. What kind of scene would that cause if she came back to school missing an arm? How does she explain that, to even her own family for that matter? Who would everyone else lash out at? Why does he battle the second curse snake on Nadeko's body after pulling it off of her? It is going to go after one of the kids that cursed her and probably kill them, what kind of scene will erupt about the fake curses and charms, when it is revealed that some actually are lethal? Koyomi learned from the Math Class scandal, that when a scene like that breaks out, it doesn't always end with the right thing being done, and the actual guilty party caught or punished. This destroyed his belief in Justice, justice can be overthrown by a simple majority vote, as Koyomi himself put it. That is why he tries to solve it quietly before it escalates.
• Kaiki's view being the most normal and unbiased during his arc, actually makes sense when you think about his character, and occupation. He is a Conman, he needs to have a clear, unbiased view, and pay attention to every single detail around him, so that he knows how to manipulate it for his benefit in the future. Avoiding law enforcement, quick escapes from the city, future scam targets, etc...

Fridge Horror

• The actions of the Araragi siblings makes a horrifying sort of sense when you consider their background and family. They are the children of not one, but two, police officers. Karen and Tsukihi's idea of not allowing injustice may come from how there older brother bullied them, but all three are products of their parent's actions, or even more disturbing, their inactions. These three are running wild and reckless, because of the example that their parents have made for them. In their eyes, their parents to them are the literal embodiments of justice, and authority, everything they do is right, and for the sake of all others. None of them have any proper, or correct understanding of what actual standards, and procedures that their parents are actually under, and their parents have never corrected them. There are multiple mentions of them but, only their mother is seen and that is only ONE TIME, in the entire series, and that was due to Hanekawa's circumstances, not their kids. Hence the reckless actions, and attitudes, of each and every one of them. Actions that have resulted in, Koyomi nearly getting killed multiple times, Tsukihi actually being killed at least once, Karen getting near fatally poisoned, a freeway overpass getting destroyed, both sisters, and Kanbaru all kidnapped at one point, and a mad Snake Goddess nearly killing all of them. Translation: they believe that their parents authority directly extends to them, and they are abusing it. They think it is their job to fight the good fight, to step in, and set everything right, but they often make it worse.

• If you follow things through logically, the fates of the majority of the female cast is pretty horrific, if Araragi had not intervened. Hanekawa as Black Hanekawa would either still be rampaging around hurting people, or being hunted down, and killed by monster hunters like Yozuru Kagenui & Yotsugi Ononoki, or Guillotine Cutter and his crew. Senjougahara would have either fallen to her death, or someone would have retaliated to her threats with equal, or greater violence resulting in her death, or worse Kaiki would have enslaved her via a debt for curing her. Kanbaru would have gone berserk over Senjougahara's fate used the Rainy Devil's arm, and most likely would have been consumed by it. Kiss-Shot might have been saved by Seishirou, but probably would have either been consumed by him for power, or they would have both become even worse rampaging monsters. Nadeko would have been killed from the snake curses. Tsukihi would have been destroyed by Kagenui & Ononoki, given their intentions to do so no matter what. Possibly prompting a hostile response from her police officer parents, thus getting them killed, or at least hunted for the rest of their lives. Karen would most likely have gotten killed, or worse, trying to attack Kaiki a 2nd time. Only Hachikuji, Oikura, Gaen, and possibly the members of the Hearsay Police Department being the exceptions. Reckless as they may seem, and be, Araragi's actions all definitely result in the greater good for everybody.