Monogatari Series - Volume 30 - Chapter Aft

Hint: To Play after pausing the player, use this button

Add to favorites

Afterword

As I continue this series for as long as it takes a newborn to grow into adulthood, it’s only natural that I sometimes find myself thinking about things that I can’t help but think about. Education that comes with growth is an incredibly difficult thing. While education is a perspective of those who impart it, it could be argued that for the recipients, it amounts to learning. No, I am not judging its content or evaluating its merits. Once imparted, education is difficult to reverse, and in today’s trendy parlance, reskilling, or unlearning, is a challenge we face daily. There is a saying that what a child learns at three lasts a lifetime, which proves that the proverbs learned in early childhood are invariably passed down through generations. The theories learned as children, even if overturned later on, inevitably stick with us. Take for instance, while in theory dinosaurs are ancestral to birds with feathers, it may be challenging for certain generations to accept. Likewise, even though it is said that current is the flow of electrons, but its direction is opposite, the rule cannot be bent. Or, when they say that the age of adulthood is eighteen, then Araragi-kun would have already been an adult in Hitagi Crab. However, some of the things we read in textbooks as children, and even books other than textbooks, are not only no longer true today, but can even be contrary to facts. Despite understanding that times change, it seems our brains are bugged and unable to reset once learned concepts… People tend to say that schoolwork has no bearing on their future, but even if it didn’t serve a distinct purpose, perhaps it’s rooted more firmly than we’d like to think. The same goes for knowledge acquired outside of school… It might explain why we find the comics we read as kids to be the most enjoyable—they’ve shaped our identity.

And with that, we have a long-awaited return to the Monogatari series! This particular volume might have easily been placed within Second Season, but in hindsight, it was deemed that presenting it in this point in time was for the best, as the chronology could have become quite tangled otherwise. Looking back, the three arcs of Bakemonogatari’s first volume—“Hitagi Crab,” “Mayoi Maimai,” and “Suruga Monkey”—could be considered the “Senjougahara Trilogy,” a story of healing for her. Having passed eighteen years since then, it is with great joy as a creator to once again cast the spotlight on her. It seems like only yesterday compared to the battle on Senjougahara, though. And so we have the first addition to the Monogatari Series’ Family Season: “Ikusamonogatari.”

As always, VOFAN-san’s stunning portrayal of the starry sky on the cover leaves me at a loss for words. My deepest thanks. Should there be a second part to the Family Season, it would presumably be “Tsugimonogatari,”31 another long-neglected story.

NISIOISIN

Translator’s Afterword

The splitting of the Killing Stone (Sessho-seki) was a real event which sparked much discussion, especially given the stone’s place in Japanese folklore. On March 5, 2022, the stone was found completely cleaved in two, likely due to natural weathering over time. According to legend, the stone contained the spirit of a nine-tailed fox demon. The breakage led to speculation on the internet that the demonic spirit had now been freed to torment Japan.

As the legend goes, the nine-tailed fox Tamamo-no-Mae once transformed into a beauty to seduce Emperor Toba, causing his illness. After the Onmyoji Abe-no-Yasunari forced Tamamo-no-Mae to reveal its true form, the Emperor sent 80,000 soldiers and Abe-no-Yasunari to destroy the demon. Though eventually killed, its lingering resentment caused the corpse to become a big stone that spreads poisonous gas to kill everything around it. A famous monk then used a ritual rod to shatter the stone into fragments scattered all over Japan. In fact, Japanese volcanoes are very active, and stones near volcanoes easily adsorb toxic gases, killing nearby animals and birds. Hence, the “killing stones” are marked with monuments.

For a little more context, you were able to read this story early thanks to my good friend xziomal0321xpl2, who provided me with a copy of the book and was part of my motivation, nudging Nisio Isin’s point about the power and value of human connections. Shoutout also to Studentofethereum, who helped proofread the chapters, and JoeOf_Rivia, who made this EPUB version. And thank YOU for reading my amateur attempt at translating a Nisio Isin novel. Not to

Conmal (whentranslatorscry)

Notes

[←1]

Originally: “DV”. Refers to domestic violence in Japan, where men who were previously reserved but become violent after marriage are called “DV Men”.

[←2]

Dragging empty cans behind a car is a couple activity, the loud clatter they produce being a symbol of auspiciousness.

[←3]

Tokyo Narita Airport is the largest international airport in Japan, and a necessary stop for many newlywed couples traveling abroad. However, because some shortcomings or habits of each person are exposed during the trip, many couples choose to divorce after leaving Narita Airport when their honeymoon comes to an end.

[←4]

Haneda: Tokyo Haneda Airport. Kanku: Kansai International Airport.

[←5]

Nikko is a city in Tochigi pref., and にっこり(nikkori) means charming smile.

[←6]

His name, Saru, means monkey.

[←7]

This entire sentence is a Japanese phrase, typically using “parent” instead of “boss.” Literally: there is not a single waste in a thousand of a parent’s opinions, just as with eggplant flowers.

[←8]

ワイフ, literally “wife” in English. 妻(tsuma) is the name for one’s wife. 愚さん(Mrs.) is the name for others’ wives.

[←9]

豚児(tonji) is something of an archaic way to call your child. The characters 豚 and 児 literally mean pig child separately.

[←10]

出羽守(dewanokami) is someone who likes to cite examples from other countries or other industries for criticism.

[←11]

This comes from the game Go, mocking those who think for a long time but still make a bad move.

[←12]

Comparison: 暦 (koyomi) meaning “calendar,” and the first kanji in 歴史 (rekishi) meaning “history.”

[←13]

Sodachi is a verb meaning “to grow”, and sodatanai is its negative form. This joke was actually first made in Owarimonogatari audio commentary narrated by Sodachi and Hitagi. That is the conversation Sodachi references shortly after.

[←14]

翼(tsubasa) means wing.

[←15]

Pun: 腐れ縁(tosare-en) meaning bad but inseparable bond and 不貞腐れる (futekusareru), to become unfaithful.

[←16]

上さん (kami-san): The word for “one’s wife” sounds like 神 (kami), which means “god.”

[←17]

忍野〆〆〆 (Oshino shime shime shime): The symbol 〆 is called “shime” and resembles the katakana character メ.

[←18]

Black Jack is the titular character from 1970’s manga “Black Jack”, a highly skilled and mysterious surgeon known for operating outside conventional boundaries of medicine. He is capable of performing miraculous surgeries and usually takes on near-impossible cases.

[←19]

Turtle Soup is a guessing game in which you repeatedly ask questions from a seemingly strange set of questions to arrive at an answer. It is also called lateral thinking quiz. The rules are simple, so even children can play.

[←20]

Pun on the 細 in 細々 meaning “little details,” and 細君, yet another word for “wife.”

[←21]

日光 (Nikko) means “sunlight.”

[←22]

The original sentence is awkward for the sake of making a pun with the words 養女 (adopted girl), 幼女 (little girl), and 妖女 (yokai girl, like vampiress), all pronounced the same way (yojo).

[←23]

Sainokawara, said to be the bank of the Sanzu River. Where children supposedly go if they die too young to commit any actual sins and have to keep piling up stones all day long to atone for the sins of their parents..

[←24]

笠(kasa) is a traditional Japanese monk hat which functions as an umbrella. The original pun is with Kasa Jizo, referring to an old tale about a poor man offering his homemade bamboo hats to a line of Jizo statues.

[←25]

宇宙(space) and 雨中(in the rain) are read the same way.

[←26]

Oishinbo is a cooking manga.

[←27]

The phrase 身も蓋もない (mi mo futa mo nai) means “blunt” or “frank,” similar to 率直な (soochoku na) mentioned in the line above. However, the literal meaning is “no containers and no lids.” Additionally, 味 (aji) can be read as み (mi), so 「ひと味もふた味も（違う）＝totally different」 can be read as ひとみもふたみも (hitomi mo futami mo), which sounds very similar to the first phrase.