Monogatari has a complicated timeline, and the release orders of its anime and light novels add more to the series' complexity. Hence, this Monogatari timeline will help old fans and new viewers alike understand the series' events chronologically.
Monogatari is about a third-year high school student named Koyomi Araragi who survived a vampire attack.
He then started helping other girls who were involved with other supernatural beings because of their mental and emotional problems.
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600 Years Before Year One
Before we talk about the present time of Monogatari, it is important to know what happened before the series' events.
We listed down the main events that took place 600 years before the first year in the series:
- Rola, a princess, was devasted that people only like her for her physical attributes instead of her inner beauty. So, a witch placed a curse on her so that only her inner beauty will be shown to people, leading people to kill themselves. This eventually killed everyone in the kingdom, and she then decided to find someone who can cure her.
- Now called Acerola, Rola met a vampire called Deathtopia Virtuoso Suicide-Master. The vampire promised the princess that she will help her find a cure for the curse, so the princess stayed in her mansion. The vampire’s servant, Tropicalesque Home-A-Wave-Dog-Strings, was angered by this and tried to kill Acerola. His actions backfired and he ended up killing himself.
- Acerola felt guilty and asked the vampire to turn her into them. The two decided to part ways, which somehow lifted the curse. Acerola then gained the name Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade.
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400 Years Before Year One
During this time, Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade decided to go to Japan.
She saved a local village wherein she got praise from the villagers. They considered her a god, which she accepted, and hid her true identity as a vampire.
She then met Seishirou Shishirui, an oddity specialist, and together, they slay oddities.
One day, the people of the village vanished, leaving only the two of them behind.
The incident was caused by Darkness, an anti-existence that swallowed the villagers in pursuit of Kiss-Shot.
It eventually swallowed Seishirou too, except for his hand. She grabbed it and took it with her as she went to Antarctica.
She decided to bite onto his remaining arm which revived him.
He became her first minion. When he found out that he has turned into a vampire, he decided to jump into the sun but failed to die.
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30, 18, and 15 Years Before Year One
30 years before the present time, Tamikura-sou was built. Then, 18 years before year one, Naoetsu Private High School started its operations.
15 years before the first year, Seishirou Shishirui’s ashes went back to the town where he used to live. It then destroyed the North Shirahebi Shrine.
On the other hand, the Occult Research Club was able to resurrect a corpse and named it Yotsugi Ononoki.
11, Eight, and Four Years Before Year One
There are two routes mentioned 11 years before the present time.
In Route X, Shinobu Oshino and Koyomi Araragi went back in time because of Shinobu’s failed time travel attempt.
Koyomi then decided to save Mayoi Hachikuji from her death.
In Route A, Hachikuji died in a terrible car accident and turned into a Lost Cow. In Route X, she was saved by Araragi.
Eight years before year one, Suruga Kanbaru was entrusted with the Rainy Devil paw and she used it.
Then, four years before the present time, Koyomi met Sodachi Oikura.
She started tutoring him and wished he’d notice the broken building and report it to the police, but he failed.
Three and Two Years Before Year One
Three years before, Hitagi Senjougahara’s family was torn apart due to a malicious cult. She then had the Heavy Stone Crab.
Then two years before the present time, Sodachi, Koyomi, Hitagi, and Tsubasa attended Naoetsu Private High School. They had a study group together.
The ones who joined the study group got better scores than those who did not, which caused controversy.
Eventually, Sodachi, the class president, was framed as the cause of the incident.
Year One
From this point forward, the timeline is divided into months focusing on Year One:
- March – Kiss-Shot came back to Japan. Meme Oshino stole her heart and made her weak, which is why when the vampire hunters attacked her, three of her limbs were severed. Koyomi and Tsubasa became friends. Koyomi then discovered Kiss-Shot and helped her.
- April – Kiss-Shot’s situation was fixed. Koyomi asked Tsubasa about the stone shrine he discovered. Tsubasa then transformed into a Black Hanekawa after her encounter with a sawarineko.
- May – Koyomi faced Black Hanekawa after borrowing Kokorowatari from Shinobu. He failed, and Shinobu decided to contain her after eating the energy. Hanekawa then forgot everything that has happened. Koyomi then decided to get some closure about what happened during the Hanekawa affair. He found out that Hitagi Senjougahara had the Heavy Stone Crab that helped her lose weight. He then took her to Meme Oshino and performed a ceremony to help her. They dated after. In the same month, he met Mayoi Hachikuji and found out that she had an oddity called Lost Cow. Suruga Kanbaru was possessed by the Rainy Devil and attacked Koyomi.
- June – Meme Oshino asked Kanbaru and Araragi to put a talisman on the North Shirahebi Shrine. They met Nadeko Sengoku along the way and found out that the shrine is now a sacrificial altar. They found out that Nadeko was cursed after she rejected a boy, and during the exorcism, they found out that she had two curses. Tsubasa gained cat ears which made Araragi believe that the Black Hanekawa will be back, so they decided to contain her. However, there were two routes under this incident: in Route A, Black Hanekawa was contained, and Shinobu decided to be Koyomi’s shadow. In Route X, Koyomi died because of Black Hanekawa, which helped Kiss-Shot gain her former strength. Kiss-Shot created a zombie infection that ended the world.
- July – Kaiki was being investigated by Karen while Koyomi was kidnapped by Senjougahara.
- August – Koyomi and Karen met Yozuru, then Koyomi met Yotsugi. Koyomi went to the shrine and asked if he can go back in time to finish his homework. Instead, he ended up going 11 years past to trigger the Mayoi Jiangshi. Seishirou saw Shinobu and decided to take on a physical form.
In Route X, Araragi and Shinobu went back 11 years and saw that the city was in ruins.
They found out that the world ended after they saved Hachikuji.
They tried to go back to the shrine but found a stronger talisman preventing them from traveling again.
Araragi and Shinobu decided to launch fireworks to look for survivors but ended up attracting zombies.
They were saved by adult Hachikuji. He explained that the zombie attack was the reason he did a suicide mission against Kiss-Shot with Kaiki and Kagenui.
Araragi and Shinobu went to the shrine to confront Kiss-Shot. For them to go to Route A, Kiss-Shot let Shinobu eat her, freeing the zombies. The world was fixed and Kiss-Shot died.
In Route A, Koyomi came back after the Mayoi Jiangshi incident.
Shinobu explained what happened 400 years ago, and eventually, Shinobu and Koyomi’s link was severed.
Meanwhile, Tsubasa encountered a tiger-shaped oddity that burned her house.
She went to sleep in the Eikou Cram School which triggered the Black Hanekawa.
Eventually, the Black Hanekawa absorbed Kako after he failed to eliminate her once and for all.
- September – Koyomi Tree started after Karen saw a scary tree in the dojo.
- October – Koyomi Tree started after Tsukihi told Koyomi about a ghost in the club. Koyomi then met Ougi while Sodachi joined Koyomi’s class.
- November – Nadeko became the god in Nadeko Medusa.
- December – Koyomi Torus started.
Year Two
Just like in Year One, the events that took place are divided here based on what happened in each month:
- January – Deishuu Kaiki deceives Nadeko Sengoku not to kill Koyomi and his friends. Koyomi Seed started.
- February – Deishuu Kaiki once convinced Nadeko Sengoku to become a human and warned Koyomi to leave her alone. Yotsugi Doll and Koyomi Nothing started.
- March – Koyomi is dead. Mayoi Hell, Hitagi Rendezvous, Ougi Dark, and Koyomi Reverse started.
- April – Suruga Devil started.
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