Kizumonogatari

Kizumonogatari

Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu anime movie promotional art featuring Shinobu Oshino
Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu Promotional Art

Overview

Kizumonogatari was originally written near the beginning of the series; right after Bakemonogatari if I’m not mistaken. However, it’s one of the more recent parts to be adapted into anime format.

The events of Kizumonogatari are the beginning of the entire series chronologically. This is the story of Koyomi’s relationship with the vampire Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade, or as we commonly know her, Shinobu.

Unlike the rest of the series, Kizumonogatari is not in seasonal format, but is instead a movie trilogy. The first part is Tekketsu, the second is Nekketsu, and the third is Reiketsu.

The first thing you’ll likely notice about the movies as soon as you begin watching them is that the art and animation are different from those found in the rest of the series. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it at first, but by the end, I liked the different style.

Tekketsu

The first movie, Tekketsu, is about Koyomi’s first encounter with the vampire Kiss-Shot. He finds her in a subway station, mortally wounded after a battle with three apparition specialists who stole her limbs.

After initially refusing to give his blood and life to Kiss-Shot and fleeing, Koyomi returns to her, ready to die so that she can be saved. However, much to his surprise, he later wakes up in an abandoned building next to the now childlike form of Kiss-Shot we call Shinobu.

Koyomi then learns he’s been turned into a vampire by walking outside and igniting in the sunlight. Shinobu comes to his rescue and tells him he must never go in the sunlight because he will burn and regenerate eternally if he does so.

Although he willingly gave his blood to a vampire, Koyomi expected he was going to die, not end up a vampire himself. But, since he’s now alive, he’s determined to become human again at any cost.

Shinobu, now in a weakened state, tells him that if he wants to become human again all he has to do is defeat the apparition specialists and reclaim her limbs. This will be the plot of the second movie.

Koyomi on fire after becoming a vampire in the anime movie Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu
Koyomi on Fire

Nekketsu

The second movie, Nekketsu, picks up where the first left off. In this movie, Koyomi will attempt to defeat the three specialists who stole Shinobu’s limbs and return them to her so that he can become human again.

The first specialist he fights is Dramaturgy, a vampire himself who works as a hitman of sorts for other apparitions. In this fight, Koyomi begins to learn just how powerful his new body is.

While Dramaturgy inflicts wounds that would have normally killed him, Koyomi is able to quickly regenerate parts of his body and continue to fight. However, Dramaturgy, although also a vampire, does not have nearly the regenerative powers that Koyomi has.

Koyomi’s immense vampiric power is due to him being the sole inheritor of the legendary vampire Kiss-Shot’s bloodline.

The second fight is against Episode, a half-vampire half-human who despises both vampires and humans alike because he isn’t accepted by either. While Dramaturgy fights with his “hands,” Episode uses a giant cross that works like a boomerang.

During this fight, Hanekawa is mortally wounded by Episode as a way to hurt Koyomi. However, this just makes Koyomi fight even harder and after winning he is able to use his blood to heal Hanekawa’s wounds (which you would think would turn her into a vampire too).

The final fight is against a human named Guillotine Cutter. Although he has no super strength or other special powers, he is considered to be the most formidable opponent.

In order to defeat Koyomi without a fight, knowing he’ll lose, he takes Hanekawa hostage. Unfortunately for Guillotine Cutter, Koyomi now has a better understanding of his own powers and is able to easily defeat him.

Now that he has all of Shinobu’s lost limbs, he should in theory be able to become human. However, Oshino Meme, who has been giving Koyomi advice, reveals that he actually stole Shinobu’s heart and so he returns it to Koyomi so he can make her whole again.

Reiketsu

The third movie in the trilogy, Reiketsu is the story of how Shinobu becomes bound to Koyomi’s shadow as we’re used to seeing her in the series.

After returning Shinobu back to full power, we call her Kiss-Shot in this form, the two have a final talk about nothing in particular. Koyomi then leaves to go get some snacks for the pair before having Kiss-Shot return him to a normal human.

Upon returning to the abandoned cram school, Koyomi finds Kiss-Shot devouring the corpse of Guillotine Cutter, who attempted to break in while Koyomi was away. It’s at this point that Koyomi really understands what a vampire is.

Although he knew it in the back of his mind, he had been ignoring the fact that for the past hundreds of years Kiss-Shot had been sustaining herself by killing and eating humans. However, now that he sees what kind of monster she really is with his own eyes, he can’t forgive himself for saving her.

It’s at this point that the relationship between Koyomi and Kiss-Shot, or Shinobu, changes. Up until this scene, they were on generally good terms and seemed to somewhat like each other similar to what we see later on in the series.

Koyomi decides that to atone for the death of Guillotine Cutter, he needs to defeat Kiss-Shot so that she will never kill another human. After a fight in which both of them are dismembered multiple times, but regenerate, Koyomi sucks the blood of Kiss-Shot, rendering her powerless.

In the end, he doesn’t want to kill her because he feels by doing so he will lose what’s left of his humanity. However, as it turns out, the only way for him to actually become a normal human again is to kill her, which was her plan all along.

Koyomi then hires Oshino to come up with a way where everyone can be happy, but Oshino tells him that it’s impossible. He then offers a solution that will make everyone unhappy instead.

Shinobu will end up a shell of her former self and will be bound to Koyomi’s shadow for the rest of their lives. Likewise, Koyomi will not fully regain his humanity and will have to support Shinobu with his blood for the rest of their lives.

Fight between Kiss-Shot and Koyomi in the anime movie Kizumonogatari Part 3: Reiketsu
Kiss-Shot vs. Koyomi

Conclusion

So that’s it; that’s Kizumonogatari. As I’m sure you can guess by this point if you’ve read any of my other posts about the Monogatari series, Kizumonogatari is a 10/10.

I feel it’s also worth mentioning when in the series you should watch this trilogy. There are technically three different places to watch these movies.

If you’re watching the series chronologically, Kizumonogatari comes first. If you’re watching in order of the light novel releases, Kizumonogatari comes after Bakemonogatari. Finally, if you’re watching in the order of anime releases, Kizumonogatari comes after Koyomimonogatari.

My suggestion is to watch it in order of anime releases because that’s how I watched it and I liked having this prequel so far into the series rather than right near the beginning.

However, since I can only watch a series for the first time once, I don’t know how I would have felt watching it in any other order. I’m sure whichever order you happen to first watch the series in is probably going to be the order you feel is the best one.

Finally, in my Top 5 Anime OSTs post I mentioned that while I like the Monogatari series OST, it didn’t quite make the cut. Particularly I like the Kizumonogatari trilogy OSTs.

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