Koyomi Araragi
is the protagonist of Nisio Isin's light novels Monogatari. Araragi is a third-year high school student who survives a vampire attack and finds himself helping girls involved with a variety of apparitions, ghosts, beasts, spirits, and other supernatural phenomena, which often serve as proxies for their emotional and mental issues. While most of the narrative focuses on his multiple relationships and encounters, the series often focuses on his own personal life as it focuses on his origins as vampire, most notably the Kizumonogatari prequel story. Araragi was written by Nisio Isin as the main narrator of the series who often dealt other female characters in large discussions. However, Isin revised early manuscripts and rewrote Araragi as a better person and developed a relationship with Hitagi Senjougahara. In the anime adaptation of the series and movies, Araragi was voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya who found the character hard to emulate as a result of his multiple narrations, monologues and interactions. The protagonist of Monogatari was popular in polls for several years. Araragi was praised for his role in the story as well as his romantic relationship with Senjougahara which remained appealing in the novels despite the large amount of romantic interests the character has. However, he was often criticized for his childish demeanor with younger characters, most notably in Nisemonogatari, which would scare general audiences. Creation

Across several changes in regards to the light novels, Nisio Isin said that Araragi was meant to be a "stud" and abandon his desires and lose his propensity for pity love. However, the novel was re-written in the form of romantic comedy elements with a major focus on Araragi's relationship with Hitagi Senjougahara. Shinobu was kept in secret until Nisemonogatari where she is revealed to Araragi's sidekick after several scenes where she remains silent. With the Monogatari series, Nisio Isin has been delving into one character per arc by writing their one-on-one conversations with Araragi. While Koyomi is not depicted in the light novels' covers, he was still designed by VOFAN. It was previously believed that Akio Watanabe, who supervises the character designs for the anime series, was responsible for his design, but VOFAN later corrected this on Twitter by showing his illustration that predated the anime series. For the animated adaptations of the light novel, Araragi was voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya. In the animation script of the Monogatari series, Kamiya's work was divided into three categories: narration, monologue, and dialogue. The lack of differences in the novel made the adaptation complicated for the actor. As a result, he divided the text and devoted himself to processing it in a form close to the narration. Frequent switching between monologues and narration mixes objective explanations with the feelings of the Araragi. It was  particularly difficult point he had to be wary of as not to make listening to the book harder. The number of sentences was overwhelmingly large, so if there is a number of words that one person could speak in a day, it seemed that one recording clearly exceeded that. By reading for other characters, Kamiya realized again that Araragi had all the answers in the anime of the original story. Kamiya kept reading the novels to understand Araragi's mental state. Until the last day of Araragi's high school life, the actor read all the stories and make sounds after understanding the meaning of all the lines. Director Akiyuki Shinbo found Kamiya useful in the making of the anime adaptation noting he had already read the novels before the premiere. In regards to his prequel persona, Araragi was properly portrayed to encounter apparitions and specialists for the first time where he also comes across as a more immature. His relationships with Oshino, Hanekawa and Kiss Shot were written to have a major impact on his life and develop him into his original Bakemonogatari persona in the process. The director wanted to learn why did Araragi choose between Senjougahara over Hanekawa. That was something he wondered about ever since he first read Bakemonogatari, and did not find the answer in that series. When he read the subsequent stories, Nekomonogatari Black and Nekomonogatari White, he reached the desired conclusion, believing he understood Nisio Isin's feelings. Appearances
Araragi is the overall main protagonist of the Monogatari series. He is a third-year high school student who fails every subject except math. After being attacked by a vampire during spring break and becoming a vampire himself, specialist Meme Oshino helps him become human again, though Koyomi retains several lingering side effects and vampiric powers such as enhanced regenerative abilities. As a result, he has concerns regarding his lifespan. These side effects are later revealed to be due to the bond that Shinobu and he share. In Kizumonogatari Koyomi encounters a vampire: she is Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade, also known as the "King of Apparitions." Kiss-Shot asks Koyomi to give her his blood in order to save her life, and when he does, Koyomi finds himself reborn as her vampire subordinate. Koyomi truly wants to become a human again and not stay a vampire. He asks Kiss-Shot how he can revert himself and she answers that he has to find all of her limbs that were cut by her killers. Koyomi and Meme succeed at fully restoring Kiss-Shot. Koyomi finds Kiss-Shot eating the eviscerated corpse of Guillotine Cutter. He is horrified at the realization that Kiss-Shot will now hunt humans again, and that he himself will want to hunt as well. Kiss-Shot admits that she was going to throw the fight, and explains that she has to die to restore a subordinate's humanity, but couldn't do so for her previous subordinate because she was too scared of death. Kiss-Shot demands that Koyomi kill her, but Koyomi instead yells for Meme's help. Meme proposes a solution that will "make everyone miserable": Koyomi will suck out Kiss-Shot's blood only to the point that she is too weak to hunt humans, leaving them both quasi-versions of vampire and human. Despite being threatened to keep away, Koyomi offers his help. Once Koyomi helps solve Hitagi's problem, she decides to become his girlfriend. He started dating Hitagi at the end of Mayoi Snail and later becomes her husband. After graduating from university, Koyomi follows his parents' footsteps and becomes a police officer. Although he is shown to be attracted to the other girls, he turns down their advances due to his loyalty to Hitagi. Reception
Koyomi Araragi has been a popular character. In Takarajimasha polls, he ranked sixth in the Best Male Character in 2009, second in 2010, seventh in 2011, third in 2012, and sixth in 2013. In the "Newtype Anime Awards" from 2016, Araragi took 4th place in male character category. In Charapedia polls, his relationship with Senjougahara stood out as one of the best couples in anime. Critical response to Araragi's character in the first story arcs were mixed. THEM Anime Reviews praised Araragi's relationship with all the characters he helps to solve a problem, comparing the protagonist with Kyon from Haruhi Suzumiya. He further praised how Araragi also has own personal issues to deal with when there are no girls in need to. However, he still criticized the characters for not being likable enough, finding Araragi's romantic relationship with Senjougahara to feel more of antagonistic instead and that some scenes where the former is excited by a younger girl might be creepy. On the other hand, this relationship with Senjougahara was also popular; Comic Book Resources noted to stand out thanks to their chemistry despite the story coming across as a harem. While finding the couple appealing, Rice Digital lamented there Senjougahara is not present in most episodes leaving their relationship minor in the first tv series. While enjoying the conflicts between Araragi and Mayoi in the first series, Anime News Network found their interactions in the light novel tiring as their interactions are longer. While adding tthe interactions between Koyomi and the rest to be the main selling point of the series, Comic Book Resources was against to how Suruga Kanbaru as a lesbian, women needing to be saved by a him did not age well. In a further analysis of the series, Anime News Network commented about Nisemonogatari, most specifically in Araragi's relationship with his sisters, Karen and Tsukihi, which come across as "creepy and wrong". The writer further highlights, an infamous scene from the same arc when Arargi uses a toothbrush on Karen's teeth, which is portrayed in "excruciating detail, framed romantically, overtly sexually, with groaning noises". This incest-like moment was noted as a potential turn-off for casual viewers. Despite Araragi's lust for women, the writer noted that the protagonist remains loyal to Senjogahara. Among other story arcs, Anime News Network commented that Araragi's heroic complex is developed deeply. The explanation of Araragi's and Shinobu's relationship in the second season led to further praise by THEM Anime Reviews but the writer had mixed feelings in regards to his screentime with Hanekawa. Barbara Greene from Journal of Anime and Manga Studies said Araragi is the "moe-kyara" stand-in for otaku-self insert, his liminal nature is likely a statement of otaku. Like otaku who find a multi-layered combination of the narrative of the real to be fulfilling, Araragi elects to retain this connection to the supernatural despite the hardships it can cause. This decision draws him towards an array of moe-kyarawho give him greater access to the database world that is the supernatural in the universe of Bakemonogatari. Even among Araragi's harem of possessed moe-kyara schoolgirls, there are only two who possess "real world" counterparts—Senjougahara and Hanekawa In general, Comic Book Resources said that out of several events in the franchise, Araragi deciding to stay as a vampire does not make sense as he will remain young forever and outlive Senjougahara. Isin's writing was also criticized for giving focus to Araragi's not corresponded loves rather than his actual girlfriend. The character's origins in Kizumonogatari were praised by Anime News Network for exploring his first meeting with Hanekawa and transformation into a vampire with the film using less words than the tv series to convey emotions. His fights were praised for how violent they are while adding sacrifice for everything he does in the story despite criticizing the obsession with fanservice. Otaku USA praised the fastpaced fight sequences for how appealing they make Araragi in the films when compared to the tv series while further exploring his first meetings with Hanekawa. Universidad del Vallle commented that Araragi's design is noteworthy for often changing between costumes which are considered fashionable in Japan in contrast to Hanekawa and Kiss Shot who always wear the same outfit. While Araragi is generally calm when interacting with Kiss Shot, the film's creators take advantage of his crush with Hanekawa in order to provide comic relief that contrasts the serious narrative; While Araragi is consistently portrayed as calm person, Hanekawa is instead portrayed as the one constantly getting into the protagonist's personal space, which leads to the two becoming friendly in the process. Universitas Diponegoro said the interactions between Araragi and Hanekawa were easier to understand to Japanese users due to hidden messages in some of the former's words which include dajare which contradicts the protagonist's attempts of being antisocial. GameRant described Araragi as a "a flawed but complex protagonist around whom a lot of equally complex characters appeared". Owarimonogatari managed to properly end his arc through his high school graduation as he kept saving other people from their own traumas. This led to several fourth wall breaking jokes in later novels where the protagonist continues insisting his story ended despite already given written an adult as he encounters new people in need to be saved. Refernces

Literary characters introduced in 2005
Male characters in anime and manga