Monogatari Series - Volume 6 - Chapter Aft

Afterword

Obviously there are real and fake things in this world, but when you really think about it, the two concepts form a pair, and there can only be fakes because the real thing exists, and without the occasional fake making an appearance, I’m not sure you could call it the real deal. Just as how in superhero stories, an imposter always shows up eventually. The fake hero, as it were. But taking this a step further, it’s important to note that even though fakes exist, it is not in fact necessary for the real thing to exist. If the real deal represents an ideal and fakes represent attempts to realize that ideal, then perhaps it is actually better if the real deal didn’t exist. Well, maybe that’s going too far, but if the real deal is an ideal, then we can also wonder if it is an illusion. Of course, what people idolize as the real thing must have begun as the pursuit of an ideal, which is to say that it wasn’t the real thing from the outset. If we roughly define the real deal’s value as the impact it has on people, however, perhaps it is the real deal, after all, that gives rise to real deals. Given the above, rather than say that the two concepts of real and fake form a pair, it may be more accurate to say that they are just two sides of the same coin.

As with the first part, I wrote this book two hundred percent as a hobby, but whether they form a pair or are two sides of the same coin, they’ve come out feeling fairly different. Fiction is a scary business. In fact, both of them having been written as epilogues to the main story, these novels were composed presupposing the existence of BAKEMONOGATARI, and yet, as to whether they wouldn’t stand up without having read BAKEMONOGATARI first, surprisingly enough that doesn’t seem to be the case. Well, some people might claim that they don’t stand up as novels at all. But the Araragi sisters were extremely fun characters to write about, and my proverbial pen flew across the page. As sheepish as I feel that so many people were willing to give me such leeway in pursuing a very personal hobby─including VOFAN, who provided such beautiful covers, and all of the readers─this successfully concludes the epilogue, with all the members of the Araragi harem doing fine despite ups and downs. And so that was “Final Chapter: Tsukihi Phoenix,” NISEMONOGATARI, Part 02.

One more thing. For all of this book’s insistence on it being the final chapter, I must confess that I’ve decided to write about two more episodes. I hope those of you who’d like to learn more about Mayoi Hachikuji and Tsubasa Hanekawa will keep me company. Now, how many of you might there be?

NISIOISIN