Good news for those who have enjoyed the recent release of Kizumonogatari: Vertical has announced the license of Bakemonogatari, which will be released in three volumes. The first volume is scheduled to arrive December 2016, with volumes 2 and 3 to arrive the following two months.
Nisio Isin’s Monogatari series was released in Japan as two volumes of Bakemonogatari in 2006, which was followed by Kizumonogatari (a prequel story) in 2008. For the English release though, Bakemonogatari will be released as three volumes. So far there are twenty volumes of the Monogatari series in Japan total.
About Bakemonogatari:
Koyomi Araragi, a third year high school student who is almost human again after briefly becoming a vampire. One day, a classmate named Hitagi Senjougahara, who infamously never talks to anyone, falls down the stairs into Koyomi’s arms. He discovers that Hitagi weighs next to nothing, in defiance of physics. Despite being threatened by her, Koyomi offers his help, and introduces her to Meme Oshino, a middle-aged homeless man who helped him stop being a vampire.
This is a welcome announcement, as it seems to confirm that Vertical has found Kizumonogatari a success. I will have a review for that novel up shortly by the way, so be sure to visit again tomorrow…
Amazing fantastic news, but I wonder why they’re doing it in 3 volumes.
That’s simple. Kanji takes several meanings and often needs less space. When translation to English by the use of the roman alphabet all the surplus makes another book.
That may be true, but it is still rare for light novels to be split up more for English releases. It’s often the other way around actually, such as the recent release of Seraph of the End LNs v1-2 being grouped together.
In the case of Bakemonogatari, there may be a bit more collaboration going on between the translator and Nisio Isin’s team than is usual? This could be a case of them wanting to take some extra time on the translation, perhaps.
[…] that Vertical start with the Kizumonogatari volume. It was released in December 2015, and it was just recently announced that English volumes for Bakemonogatari will begin releasing December […]
[…] a reminder: Bakemonogatari has been licensed by Vertical! It is planned to release in three volumes, from December 2016 to February […]