Trivia / Bakemonogatari

• Acting for Two: Hiroshi Kamiya voices Koyomi Araragi and Seishirou Shishirui.
• Adaptation First: In a double-whammy example of Sequel First as well, the first facet of the franchise to receive an English translation was the animated adaptation of Nisemonogatari.
• Bad Export for You: The version of Monogatari found on streaming sites is the broadcast version, which, while not terrible, is hampered with animation anomalies thanks to Studio Shaft's infamous Schedule Slip. Of course, Shaft fixed these errors for the DVD/Blu-ray release, but you're not likely to get a copy unless you shill out a ton of money.
  • Streaming websites are also missing the last 3 episodes of Bake, which were aired on the Internet instead of on TV when the anime's material ended up running over the number of episodes that the TV series' contract was made for.
  • In yet another instance, streaming sites are missing Koyomimonogatari, a series of TV shorts that provide critical background information on the events of the Second Season.
• Development Hell: To quote the fans, "KIZU WHEN?"
  • Officially broken free from hell as of the 10th of October 2015, with the announcement that Kizumonogatari will be adapted into three films, the first coming out on the 8th of January 2016.
• Doing It for the Art: Nisio Isin originally wrote Bakemonogatari and Kizumonogatari to "entertain" himself, not to be published.
• DVD Commentary: The DVD Commentary consists of the characters, not the voice actors, MSTing their own show, with dialog written by the original author.
• Incidental Multilingual Wordplay: The portmanteau in the title works just as well in English (GhoSTory/MonSTory, pick one). The sequel book Nisemonogatari also applies ("ImpoSTory"), but the series' other three books, Nekomonogatari ("Cat Story"), Kizumonogatari ("Damaged Goods Story"), and Kabukimonogatari ("Slope Story"), don't, but they're not really puns in Japanese either...so maybe that makes it double lucky.
• No Dub for You: Zig-Zagged. While the anime adaptation has not been dubbed in English (and much of the fandom claims it's impossible to do so), some of the early light novels that did get a localization (specifically Kizumonogatari, Nekomonogatari (White) and the three installments of the original Bakemonogatari) also got an audiobook release, which feature professional English voice actors who play the various characters. Vertical, the publisher of the English light novels, has expressed interest in further audiobook releases should there be enough demand. Additionally, the anime has been dubbed in French and German.
• Pigeonholed Voice Actor: Hitagi's dad is another not-so-good father for Fumihiko Tachiki (Gendo)'s list.
• Schedule Slip: Shaft had numerous issues meeting the production schedule for Bakemonogatari, meaning several shortcuts had to be taken in animation. This came to a head in episode 10, which was forced to air in an obviously half-finished state with color cards labeled "cut due to circumstances" taking the place of unfinished sequences. Animation quality recovered for the final two TV episodes, though episode 12 was broadcast with a narrower aspect ratio ("CinemaScope size") to save on animation costs. The web episodes are a whole other story: episode 13 took a month and a half to go online; episode 14, another three and change, followed by a three-month delay in the release date of the final DVD volume.
• Sequel First: Well, it's a prequel, but the second installment of the series, Kizumonogatari, was the first of the novels to be released in English.
• Star-Making Role: Nadeko for Kana Hanazawa, who was quickly pigeonholed into playing similarly timid, fragile young girls. Ironically, Nadeko eventually takes a turn for the insanely, murderously possessive, turning Hanazawa's archetypal "soft-spoken cutie" role into Playing Against Type!
• Those Two Actors:
  • Tsubasa Hanekawa and Koyomi Araragi were Kaji Tetsushi and Ayu Tateishi, respectively
  • Senjougahara, Karen, Ougi, and Hachikuji are Homura, Sayaka, Mami, and Kyubey.
  • Koyomi and Karen Araragi are Izaya and Mairu Orihara, while Nadeko is Anri and Suruga is Celty.
  • Hiroshi Kamiya and Marina Inoue (along with Miyuki Sawashiro, Kana Asumi and Yui Horie) were previously featured in Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei before appearing in Owarimonogatari.
  • Araragi and Oshino have both voiced Rohan Kishibe, in All-Star Battle and the anime respectively and also Choromatsu and Osomatsu Matsuno.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Shinobu was originally going to be voiced by Aya Hirano; in fact, she does voice the character in the Hyakumonogatari drama CD, and was even advertised in the credits of the first season as her voice actress despite Shinobu having no lines. However, at this time Hirano was having problems with her agency and the role was given to Maaya Sakamoto by the time of the character's first major speaking part in Karen Bee.
  • Negi Haruba (of The Quintessential Quintuplets fame) was one of the nominees to draw the manga adaptation, but the position went to Oh! Great instead.
• Working Title: Monogatari Series Second Season was originally promoted as Zenmonogatari ("Every Story"). The title was changed possibly because not every story is covered; as the final title implies, it only covers the "second season" of the novel series—and with Hanamonogatari being cut at the last minute, it doesn't even cover the whole second season.

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