Mononogatari VS the Monogatari series (title explanation)

Feb 26, 2023 6:27 AM

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May 2021

1223

So here's the explanation for those that is confused between Mononogatari (the new anime released in Jan 2023) and the Monogatari series. I don't know what is the real reason behind it but I think these are legit.

1st, the word "monogatari" in Japanese means "story" or "tale".

2nd, based on this anime context, "mono" refers to "tsukumogami", and tsukumogami is a kind of spirits in Japanese.

From these facts, I assume it's also a wordplay combining both "mono" and "monogatari" to become a full meaning of "The Tale of Tsukumogami". If it's not a wordplay, the full Japanese title should be "Mono no Monogatari" -> "The Tale of Tsukumogami".

However since the title "Monogatari" has already exists, so they had decided to add a second "no" in the middle to diverge from the Monogatari series. At the same time, from another perspective, it's just "Mono no Monogatari" shortened into "MonoNOgatari".

These are just assumptions, but my 1st and 2nd points are facts. I also think they had be better off with another name actually. It's making people confuse and the credits might go to the Monogatari series instead.

𝑇𝐼𝑃𝑆 𝐼𝑁 𝐺𝐼𝑁𝑇𝐴𝑀𝐴

- NOT your usual shounen anime
- Pure comedy? DEAD WRONG
- Treat Gintama as SoL/weekly sitcom especially earlier seasons
- Ep 1 & 2 are for manga readers
- BIG patience for its 'slow' start

Feb 26, 2023 6:37 AM

Hikari5849

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Jun 2021

117

yeh dono why People are confused if they watched old monogatari so they should know

Aug 18, 2023 2:50 AM

xinyingho

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Jun 2019

It's mostly confusing for non-native speakers because monogatari and mononogatari sound nearly the same. But when you get the meaning behind, mononogatari is actually a very smart pun and that's probably why the author kept this name.

It's true that monogatari 物語 means tale, story, legend. This word is composed of 2 kanjis (i.e. Chinese characters precisely defining the meaning), mono 物 meaning object/thing/matter and gatari 語 meaning speech/word/language. So, at first, the title could be understood as mono no gatari 物の語. No の is the possessive particle, often translated as "of" or " 's ", sometimes as "about". So, mono no gatari could be understood as "speech on matters", the litteral definition of tale/story/legend. But this translation has no relations with the actual story. And the isolated kanji 語 would most likely be read as go, not gatari.

The title in Japanese is not written with kanjis but only with hiraganas: mononogatari もののがたり. For a native Japanese speaker, it would be obvious that the interpretation above is completely wrong. But they would still try to read it as a 3-word title : mono no gatari もの / の / がたり. Indeed, gatari がたり is an onomatopoeia for a bang, a clash or a bump sound. And without context, mono もの could be understood as the kanijs mono 物 (object/thing/matter) or mono 者 (person). So, the title should really be understood as mono no gatari the clash between objects and people. Now, we got a title that is definitely related to the story content!

xinyinghoAug 18, 2023 7:16 AM

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Mononogatari VS the Monogatari series (title explanation)

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