He has published many, many books, with the extra "many" being necessary emphasis. The sheer quantity of publications is just that impressive. Three of his major series are being published in English, all by the publisher Vertical. Zaregoto Series, which contains his debut novel The Beheading Cycle (Kubikiri Saikuru); Katanagatari, which is a series of 12 novels he published over the course of 12 months; and his longest and most well-known series: Monogatari.
I do own books from all three, but the only one I've delved into so far is Monogatari. A lot of the reason why these three series have gained the recognition they have can be attributed to the fact that they have been adapted into anime, which is a much more accessible medium, especially for western audiences. I began the series after my friends frequently recommended it, and much to their chagrin I decided to start with the source material rather than the show they loved so much.
The first book of the series, Bakemonogatari, was released in two parts (three in English) in 2006. He originally intended for it to be a stand alone story. He went on to write its prequel novel, Kizumonogatari, mostly for himself, as he states: "If Bakemonogatari is the novel I wrote entirely to entertain myself, then Kizumonogatari is a novel I wrote entirely-and-a-fifth to entertain myself. In fact, these stories should have been sealed off forever, never to be espied, their author fully satisfied the moment he put down his pen, but by some mistake, they were turned into books." Since then, he's kept publishing new books in the series claiming things like "this is the end" or "this book shouldn't have happened" and yet he keeps returning to it. He even named the third "season" of it "Final Season," with the end of that season being called Owarimonogatari, which literally means "end tale" or "final tale." The series is currently on its fifth season with 25 books. He really just can't pull himself away from these characters, which in and of itself has it's own charm.
The story follows Araragi Koyomi, a high school burnout, and his many run-ins with supernatural beings from folklore. These encounters lead him to meeting many different, zany characters. "Zany" really is the best way to describe the series as a whole. Its style is certainly its biggest selling point for me. He's quite brilliant with foreshadowing, employing Chekhov's gun, and making seemingly unimportant lines of dialogue or events end up being crucial elements later.
I also particularly like the narration style. Our narrator, Araragi, is very present, very personal with the reader. He's an unreliable narrator in every sense of the term and his narration is filled with such character, which I personally adore.
Much of each book is dialogue, and action is sparse. However, the dialogue is filled with life and is almost always entertaining. It doesn't drag, even if an uninterrupted dialogue continues for 40+ pages (which isn't uncommon).
As one final comment, the English publications (along with Japanese re-releases) feature new cover illustrations by series artist VOFAN and they are gorgeous. Below are covers of original Japanese and updated English covers of Bakemonogatari Part 1 and Kizumonogatari.
The English releases of these books just have such good cover construction. It's cover art is pretty and the design of the spine and back is simple and elegant. (Our readings covered cover design so I was thinking about that while writing this.)
(Also not sure if I have to cite that quote in this post, but it's from the Afterword in Kizumonogatari.)
No comments:
Post a Comment