Koyomi Araragi

"*And now for the epilogue, or rather, the punchline of this episode.*"

— **Koyomi Araragi**

* Anime
* Manga

* High School
* College
* Middle School

* Bakemonogatari
* 240 Academy

## Appearances

Monogatari Series Second Season Episode 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26
Hanamonogatari Episode 4, 5
Tsukimonogatari Episode 1, 2, 3, 4
Owarimonogatari Episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, , 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
Koyomimonogatari Episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Owarimonogatari Season Two Episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Zoku Owarimonogatari Episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

## Manga Appearances

### Series

*Bakemonogatari*
*Legend of Eccentric Youth! 240 Academy*

### Volumes

Bakemonogatari Vol. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Legend of Eccentric Youth! 240 Academy Vol. 1, 2, 3

### Chapters

Bakemonogatari Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109
Legend of Eccentric Youth! 240 Academy Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21

## Other Appearances

### Miscellaneous

Hyakumonogatari Audio Drama
Okitegami Kyouko no Bibouroku x Monogatari Commercial

**Koyomi Araragi** (阿良々木(あららぎ) 暦(こよみ), *Araragi Koyomi*) is the protagonist of the *Monogatari Series*. He is a student of Naoetsu Private Academy and the former vampire thrall of Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade. He is known for helping others with their Aberration issues. He later becomes a police officer of the Hearsay Police Department, put in place by Izuko Gaen.

## Personality

Araragi has a very strong sense of justice and, although he always denies it himself, he often gets called a "hero of justice" by others. This desire to help others seems to be shared by all members of the Araragi Family, although Koyomi often tries to undermine this aspect of his personality, even making fun of the Fire Sisters' behaviour as a simple game, failing to realize how similar his own actions are to theirs. This sense of justice was instilled into him by his parents through their rather forceful means of education, which he admits might have been a little too extreme. As a result, he often felt the need to follow this moral code in all aspects of life and found a deep sense of shame whenever he was unable to do so.

Upon the deterioration of his grades, a sense of inferiority began growing in him, which was highly amplified by the incident in his 1st year of high school, in which he believes he lost sight of his sense of justice. This incident served as the cause for his antisocial behaviour spanning the majority of his high school life, which would only conclude after his hellish spring break in which he was saved and "reformed" by Tsubasa Hanekawa. However, that sense of inferiority still continued to manifest in his behaviour in the form of extreme recklessness and the tendency to sacrifice his own safety and well being for the sake of others. Even as he continued to gain friends and improve himself, he still harboured a feeling that he didn't deserve any of what he had. The negative feelings in his heart manifested in the form of the aberration Ougi Oshino, his alter ego, whom he would come to eventually accept, coming to terms with himself.

Araragi is a laid-back and calm individual most of the time. He has a casual manner of speaking and the tendency to make many puns and quips and is known for his proficiency at playing the straight man to his more outlandish friends. According to him, before meeting Mayoi Hachikuji, he was a lot more nihilistic and gloomy, as the girl in question always brightens his mood during their interactions, and he tends to show more of his goofy and embarrassing side around her. Mayoi is also one of the few people to whom he can talk freely about his stress, the other being Shinobu Oshino. He is often accused of being a lolicon and siscon, although he always denies these claims.

He holds Tsubasa Hanekawa in high regard because of her vital role in saving him during his time in spring break, and often views her as some kind of saint, making her out to be some sort of superhuman, although he later regrets this behaviour after realizing how unhealthy it was for the girl's mental state. He initially believed that he was in love with her, but he came to the conclusion that this was not the case, rejecting the girl's own love for him. Although their relationship seemed to manifest in unhealthy ways for both of them at certain times, they did improve each other's lives and, upon coming to terms with their respective issues, remained great friends.

Although his relationship with Hitagi Senjougahara is often viewed by others as unlikely and strange, their personalities clash powerfully, creating an interesting dynamic that makes them a good couple. During their conversations, Senjougahara usually takes a dominant position, often dispensing creatively abusive remarks, to which Araragi responds emphatically. Even so, they understand each other well and, although their relationship isn't always in the greatest state, such as how they repeatedly broke up during college, they always end up gravitating toward each other, getting back together again. At the beginning of their relationship, they swear to each other to not keep things to themselves and share their points of view with each other in order to come to an understanding, and, although they don't always manage to abide by this rule, they still have a positive effect on each other, dragging themselves toward the future.

In his relationships with his juniors, Suruga Kanbaru and Ougi Oshino, Araragi always tries to make himself into a role model that they can follow, and, in the case of Kanbaru, he believes that he's trying to become someone worthy of her respect dictated many aspects of his personality. However, in the end, Araragi thinks that one should follow their own beliefs, regardless of what anyone else may think, a perspective gained after coming to terms with his own issues.

## Appearance

Araragi is a young man with long black hair, covering his left eye (his right eye in the movie), that he later grows out even more. He also has an ahoge in his hair, similarly to his sisters, which is often used for many visual gags. He has dark grey eyes and a muscular body, which is always in shape thanks to his left-over vampirism. He is often shown wearing his black gakuran school uniform, as well as various types of casual clothes, such as a green jacket over a white shirt with a peace symbol necklace and beige pants, a white short-sleeved sweatshirt and jeans, a dark blue jacket over a black turtleneck sweater and dark green pants or a green jacket over a blue shirt and black pants. After starting to attend college, he grows his hair to shoulder length and is shown wearing a white and red hoodie with dark blue jeans. As a child, he is shown with shorter hair and wearing the Nanahyakuichi Middle School uniform, consisting of a white shirt with a red tie and brown pants.

## Background

Araragi was born to a pair of police officer parents, with a pair of little sisters being born four years later. His parents raised him into an upstanding youth with a sense of justice, although their methods were a bit too extreme. During elementary school, Nadeko Sengoku would often come to play with them, and, for a while, a young Sodachi Oikura would also live with them before returning to her abusive home. Araragi would then forget entirely about this encounter with Sodachi.

During his time in middle school, he encountered Sodachi Oikura once more, although he didn't realize it was her. While depressed over his lacklustre math grades, he would receive a letter from her instructing him to go to a dilapidated house, which he would believe is abandoned, in an attempt to get him to tell his parents about the situation, hoping they would save her from her abusive household. She dressed up her true objective with math lessons, tutoring him and teaching him about how fun math and life could be, before eventually disappearing with the total collapse of her family.

Later, during his first year in high school, he went through an incident where Sodachi Oikura, now in the same high school as him, was voted as the culprit in a case of cheating, which caused her to abandon school entirely for the next two years. Araragi, having forgotten his past meetings with Sodachi, assumed the girl's hatred of him was born out of this incident. He would then spend almost the entirety of his high school life in an antisocial state, refusing to make any friends.

During the spring break before his third year of high school, Araragi had a run-in with the dying legendary vampire, Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade, and offered his life to save her, but she instead turned him into her vampire thrall. To turn back into a human, he had to bind her to him, turning her into the weak former vampire Shinobu Oshino.

## Abilities & Equipment

* **Vampirism:** Although Araragi was returned to a state which could be called human, some side-effects of his vampirism still remain, which often save him when he recklessly throws himself into dangerous situations for the sake of others. The most notable of these traits is his vampiric immortality, which, now weakened, acts as a sort of healing factor. Its intensity grows when he feeds Shinobu blood, which he usually does before readying himself for a confrontation. In a way, Araragi is similar to a half-vampire like Episode, who keeps the strengths of vampirism, like the healing and a long life-span, but doesn't possess the weaknesses to the Sun and to crosses. However, as the series goes on, and Araragi starts relying on his vampirism more and more, his soul becomes more and more vampiric, preventing him from appearing in mirrors by the time of *Tsukimonogatari*.
	+ **Prime:** In his prime, during spring break, Koyomi's full power towered over most other existing vampires, including Dramaturgy, due to being a thrall of the legendary vampire Kissshot Acerolaorion Heartunderblade. However, he didn't have the same amount of power as his master, and also seemed to possess the common weaknesses of a vampire that his master had managed to overcome. As a full-fleged vampire, he presumably possessed every special ability native to vampires, but he only ever manifested one of them: transforming his own body into a plant-like form in order to defeat Guillotinecutter.
* **Aberration Creation:** A power indirectly inherited from Tooe Gaen through a complicated chain of events: part Tooe's creation, the Rainy Devil, was eaten by Seishirou Shishirui during his recovery period. Once Shinobu eats Seishirou, she absorbs this part of the Rainy Devil, which thereby flows into Koyomi through their link. Koyomi thus becomes capable of creating entirely new aberrations, similarly to Tsubasa or members of the Gaen Family. He only created two aberrations through this ability: Ougi Oshino and the Mirror World.

## Appellations

* Others for Koyomi
* Koyomi for Others

## Quotes

* (Araragi's catchphrase at the end of every story) *"And now for the epilogue, or rather, the punchline of this episode."*
* (Araragi's catchphrase after becoming a police officer) *"And now for the epilogue, or rather, the punchline of this case."*
* (Araragi's catchphrase before spring break) *"Making friends would lower my strength as a human."*
* (His gag with Mayoi Hachikuji) *"No, you did it deliberately. (...) It wasn't on purpose!?"*
* (Araragi's monologue after his confrontation with Ougi) *"And thus, the adolescence of me, Koyomi Araragi, came to an end. I had believed that not taking care of myself was the act of loving others. The days of kind deception, filled with thin, weak euphoria, have now come to an end."*

## Trivia

* Araragi's last name is made up of the kanji for "pandering", which is also a part of the word for "fool", the kanji for "good", repeated twice, and the kanji for "tree".
* Araragi's first name, Koyomi, means "calendar", a motif used in the Koyomimonogatari illustrations, as well as in his sisters' names, which correspond to the first two days of the week.
* Araragi is not depicted in the light novels' illustrations. Most character designs are based on the light novel illustrations by VOFAN, but his character design was created by Akio Watanabe, who supervises the character designs for the anime series. Later appearances such as in manga adaptations base his appearance off this design.
* During the midterms in his first year, his overall placement was 27th. His scores were:
	+ **Japanese:** 42
	+ **Math:** 100
	+ **Science:** 58
	+ **Society:** 72
	+ **English:** 51

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 *Bakemonogatari (Part One)*, *Episode One: Hitagi Crab*
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 *Kizumonogatari*, *Episode Zero: Koyomi Vamp*
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 *Musubimonogatari*, *Episode One: Zenka Mermaid*
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 *Nisemonogatari (Part One)*, *Episode Six: Karen Bee*
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 *Owarimonogatari (Part One)*, *Episode Two: Sodachi Riddle*
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 *Owarimonogatari (Part Three)*, *Episode Seven: Ougi Dark*
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 *Bakemonogatari (Part One)*, *Episode Two: Mayoi Snail*
8. ↑ *Bakemonogatari (Part Two)*, *Episode Five: Tsubasa Cat*
9. ↑ *Nekomonogatari (White)*, *Episode Kindness: Tsubasa Tiger*
10. ↑ *Nekomonogatari (Black)*, *Episode Taboo: Tsubasa Family*
11. ↑ *Hanamonogatari*, *Episode Strange: Suruga Devil*
12. ↑ *Bakemonogatari (Part Two)*, *Episode Four: Nadeko Snake*
13. ↑ *Owarimonogatari (Part One)*, *Episode Three: Sodachi Lost*
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 *Owarimonogatari (Part One)*, *Episode One: Ougi Formula*
15. ↑ *Bakemonogatari (Part One)*, *Episode Three: Suruga Monkey*
16. ↑ *Tsukimonogatari*, *Episode Body: Yotsugi Doll*
17. ↑ *Zoku Owarimonogatari*, *Final Episode: Koyomi Reverse*