Monogatari Series - Volume 16 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

The concept of “foreshadowing” is an important element in novels, and in particular mystery novels; to give a crude explanation, it’s basically employed to make the reader think, “Oh, this is what that thing that time was all about!” But you know, it seems to me this sometimes happens in reality as well. Thinking back on it, this is what was going on; or, looking back now, this is what that was; or, too late now, but this is what that was all about. I imagine we’ve all had experiences like that, of reflecting on the past and realizing something along those lines. Which, how can I put this, seems like it’s probably accompanied by a certain amount of regret most of the time─like, if only I’d noticed earlier, this never would’ve happened? If foreshadowing ends up making us think, “I should’ve noticed then” or “If I were more observant, I would’ve realized what was going on,” then it makes a certain kind of inevitable sense that it would be accompanied by regret, but I wonder, is every recollection that makes us feel something akin to regret a product of foreshadowing? It certainly doesn’t seem like it. If you’re wondering whether an event in a novel that “in retrospect seems like foreshadowing” actually was foreshadowing, you can ask the author, and if the author is an honest person then he or she might even tell you. But in real life there’s no way of knowing. Human beings are prone to drawing all kinds of connections even where there are none, so depending on one’s interpretation, just about anything might be seen as “foreshadowing.” Not to bring up the whole “friend of a friend” thing, but there’s a theory that everyone in the world is connected by no more than six degrees of separation. This would seem to suggest that we live in a surprisingly small world, but is a “relationship” separated by six degrees really worthy of the name? Can you really say you’re connected to that other person? Can “a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend” really constitute some kind of foreshadowing in the tale of your life?

None of this foreshadows anything, of course, KOYOMIMONOGATARI being the second installment in the Monogatari Series Final Season. Originally, OWARIMONOGATARI: End Tale was going to be second, but this one inserted itself between TSUKIMONOGATARI and OWARIMONOGATARI because, after so many years and so many books, I’d started to feel like a disconnect had developed between the current story and the beginning of the series, way back in BAKEMONOGATARI. I thus conceived the authorial desire to look back over this year in the life of Koyomi Araragi and company and reaffirm the connection. And so this has been Calendar Tale, a work that took me one hundred percent by surprise: “Koyomi Stone,” “Koyomi Flower,” “Koyomi Sand,” “Koyomi Water,” “Koyomi Wind,” “Koyomi Tree,” “Koyomi Tea,” “Koyomi Mountain,” “Koyomi Torus,” “Koyomi Seed,” “Koyomi Nothing,” and “Koyomi Dead.”

Since this ended up turning into a short story collection, VOFAN has provided us with a lot of illustrations. I’m very grateful. The final season will continue with End Tale and End Tale (Cont.), so please stick around. Though who knows, something else might crop up in between, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

NISIOISIN