I don't feel there's much point in going down the list of every character within this series, so I'll just be covering characters that to me seem the most notable - In other words my personal favourites.I feel this sense of searching for something, which I elaborated on earlier, really alludes to how this story is structured. It shows us how while our main character Araragi is morally justified and right, that he's also naive, searching and relying upon fragile solutions to problems or solutions that may not even exist, which would be his hope and desperate nature. He of course punished for this, and is at times, forced against his will to ultimately accept it. Without giving to much away, the general binary opposition that I would apply to Araragi's case would be his strong sense of justice and morality vs the laws of nature, which brings me to another point. At the core of this series is his stubbornness to not compromise. He's the type of character that will even save his enemies and loose sight of what really matters, he's greedy in that sense that he won't expect anything less, unless he's forced to, even if that ends up with his own damnation.
I feel this story shows how one can be morally right and justified , but still powerless to oppose the laws of nature. The mechanics of mythology within the monogatari series simply won't allow specific things to occur or happen no matter how cruel. In literary terms these "rules" are what make the Monogatari series very interesting, because a lot of them end up colliding with Araragi's sense of justice and morale, and him trying to protect the fragility of his happiness. It shows how desperate and pathetic we are against the tide of nature, that characters like Arraragi have to use every trick in the book to maintain something resembling a balance, which sadly are only stopgap measures.
Our fake Tsundere who's more of a Yandere - Hitagi Senjougahara is very much related to Araragi's happiness being entwined into the sprawling world of aberrations, as well as being Araragi's girlfriend. When I say fake, I don't mean that in a negative context, it has more to do with how the story pokes fun at itself and the general character trope and Senjougahara's own personal situation rather than her feeling like a disingenuous or facile character, not the case at all. Her 'Tsundere-ing' if you will is far more of a front and a ploy to maintain appearances, as well as dominance over her relationship with Araragi, because at this point it's become something of a fetish to punish Araragi and other characters in any way possible and it's hilarious at that. Her story is one of a sickly child, and unfortunate family tragedy - Which includes abuse in the shadows and divorce. Araragi - To her represents in my interpretation another chance at life, happiness and love, something perhaps that was absent for a long time in her life due to family circumstances. Asides from the comical use of the Tsundere personality, it functions as well as to give contrast to the more tender and unexpected moments in this series with Araragi, which of course is a staple of what took this series over the top for me. A very evident, intuitive and classic use of the Tsundere done right.
When we Do see her break character and she's caught off guard getting emotional it's either incredibly hilarious or very endearing. Why? Because the thing is, Senjougahara is a terrible at it!, and she's hilariously bad at lying. This sense of awareness over the characters flaws in this series and how they're exposed in the story and every dialogue is what makes this series so endearing and just outright hilarious at times. The sense of shamelessness is what makes some of the characters in the Monogatari series pathetic and flawed, but in a lovely way.
This story is a lot about characters trying to maintain facades, in one way or another. In contrast to both Senjougahara and especially Araragi, I've got to talk about Kaiki Deshu. The only character able to so far to actually get under Senjougahara's skin and push her buttons and the antithesis to Araragi. Senjougahara in pretty much, almost every situation is consciously able to dominate every conversation and everybody, to the point where it seems like she's actually bullying the poor Araragi. So it's hilarious to see another character, as equally as shrewd and well I guess shameless in way like Senjougahara. Trust me, it makes for some absolutely hilarious conversations. His most important function in this series though, is to be the counterpoint to Araragi, where Araragi may seem justified or right, Kaiki will perhaps offer a more compelling argument or solution to a problem. Kaiki is probably the most immorally deliberate and shameless character I've seen in quite a while, though he also has his own little touching story behind the act and pomposity of his general attitude. Though I do have to talk about another one of my favourite characters if I'm going to talk about Kaiki's personal ambitions. That would be Kanbaru.
You see, Kabaru no longer has her parents around and lives with her grandparents. Kaiki once loved her mother, and in the midst of passing away, she asked Kaiki to watch over her. So, although Kaiki, perhaps doesn't show it very often and is far from what I would perhaps consider a father figure, he does feel it is his responsibility to watch over her, even from the shadows. Though back to Kanbaru, you remember when I said Kaiki was probably the most shameless character I've seen in a while? Well scratch that, Kanbaru is definitely the most hilariously shameless character I've ever seen, period. You see she's grown to be a pretty close friend of Araragi, after they resolved her issues with him and of course somewhat resolved the problem regarding her involvement with aberrations. She's shown to be just ludicrously athletic, hyperactive, even more perverted than Araragi, and just hilariously stupid as she's quite the simpleton. She joke/flirts a lot with Araragi, usually clinging to him everywhere despite even knowing he's committed to Senjogahara as her boyfriend. It's pretty hilarious how it works really.
Like Senjogahara, her personality aligns with a general character trope, that being the "Athletic Girl" we may see in other Japanese related manga or anime, though again I feel Nisio Isin always takes it a step further almost as if to fun of the character trope itself and poke fun at the story. Though, despite all this, I do feel there is an earnest and unrivalled passionate side of her that separates her from the rest. I do believe that as a character there is another level of complexity to her story and character. In my eyes, when the moment gets heated, there's no other character within this series that gets as confrontational and passionately heated as she does. I suggest looking to confrontations with Araragi and also with Shinobu - Truly explosive stuff, I tip my hat to the screenplay writing, the vocal directing coach and of course the great character animations and design, really good stuff.I want to talk about one last character that will encapsulate my opinion of the characters within this series. Like I alluded to earlier, what I feel is the true secret to the Monogatari series is one thing.
Lies
Pretty much every single significant character within this series lie to themselves in a significant way one way or another, be it Tsubasa and how she deliberate tries never to confide her real emotions towards others (until later on that is), Sengoku who deludes herself into believing what's convenient to her or perhaps even Araragi. Oshino Shinbo - Formally dubbed Kisshot Acerola Orion Heart Under The Blade (Long I know) is no different. Before I get into it you see, I generally don't like spoiling details about a story, though with the monogatari series characters it's almost impossible to give meaningful coverage without doing so, due to the complexity of the characters themselves, unless I feel like doing an outright analysis catered to people who've already watched/experienced the given product. So going on from now I'll try to preserve as many details as I can.
Now you see, like Senjogahara, Shinobu is somewhat alike, given that they both have a sense of pride and because of that they both usually try to maintain a front that amounts to it. Since she's forever intertwined with Araragi, you often have them wrestling over power over their relationship, much like Senjogahara and Araragi would. Another similarity is that both respective women have troubled past of sorts and ideally want to change. The difference between the two sort of lie here, being that Shinobu wants to try to discard who she was for the sake of Araragi, and how Senjogahara is trying to get back to being a person who is looking forward to the future, but at the same time perhaps is also more vigilant to people deceiving her than she was in the past. I feel this sense of baggage perhaps is the source of her sense of doubt and uneasiness, in my eyes it's her pursuit to be more human, really, day by day as Araragi continues to imprint on her.The Monogatari series has many other characters that I like quite a lot, such as Oshino Meme, Ougi or perhaps even Gaen Izuko. Though the thing is up to this point, still characters remain quite ambiguous and and don't feel I can really elaborate much on them since we don't know much about them asides to what has been already given.
