Monogatari Watch Order

Start with Bakemonogatari. The route below follows the broad anime release sequence, with the three Kizumonogatari films kept together. It is a practical first-watch recommendation, not an exact recreation of the dates on which every episode and film appeared.

Monogatari’s story moves between different periods of the characters’ lives. That does not mean you need to rearrange the episodes before starting. Follow the named works, keep each arc together, and use the package checks below to avoid missing or repeating material.

A complete starting route

1. Bakemonogatari: all 15 episodes.
2. Nisemonogatari.
3. Nekomonogatari (Black).
4. Monogatari Series Second Season: the original run.
5. Hanamonogatari: check whether your Second Season collection already includes it.
6. Tsukimonogatari.
7. Owarimonogatari: the 2015 run, through Shinobu Mail.
8. Kizumonogatari: Part 1: Tekketsu, Part 2: Nekketsu, Part 3: Reiketsu.
9. Koyomimonogatari: its 12 short episodes.
10. Owarimonogatari: the later 2017 run: Mayoi Hell, Hitagi Rendezvous and Ougi Dark.
11. Zoku Owarimonogatari.
12. Monogatari Series OFF & MONSTER Season: continue with its released episodes in their presentation order.

The two Owarimonogatari entries are intentional. The official 2017 site identifies the later three arcs, while Aniplex’s final-volume announcement places that continuation after Koyomimonogatari. A list ending with the first Owari run and Koyomi leaves you short of the later conclusion and Zoku.

Check these labels before moving on

Monogatari titles that are easy to confuse

Label	What to check
Bakemonogatari	The complete series has 15 episodes; a listing stopping at 12 does not contain all of them
Nekomonogatari	Black is its own earlier entry; White belongs to Second Season
Second Season	A collection may include Hanamonogatari as well as the earlier broadcast material
Koyomimonogatari	A 12-episode series of shorts, distinct from the Kizumonogatari films
Final Season	A group of works, not a promise that no Monogatari anime follows it

Aniplex lists 15 episodes for Bakemonogatari. Check that total before treating the next title in a catalog as the next thing to watch. Episode availability can vary between releases, so the title alone is not enough to confirm that you have reached the end.

The packaging issue is particularly visible in Aniplex’s Second Season box announcement: it includes Hanamonogatari among its six named stories and lists TV omnibuses separately as extras. If you watched Hana within that collection, do not add another viewing merely because the checklist also names it separately. Match the arc titles you have seen.

Where Kizumonogatari goes

We recommend watching the trilogy together at the point shown above. This preserves a single film sequence without requiring you to interleave it with the television releases. The official film news archive records the third film’s release in January 2017, while the official Koyomimonogatari page dates that series to 2016. Putting the entire trilogy before Koyomi is therefore a deliberate grouping choice, not strict release order.

You may also encounter Kizumonogatari -Koyomi Vamp-. The official announcement describes it as combining the three films into one story. It is another presentation of that material, not Part 4. For this route, we recommend the three-part version; the compilation can be a later comparison rather than another required chapter.

Why leave the chronology alone on a first watch?

Koyomimonogatari’s introduction gives a concrete example of the problem: its short stories take place between other Monogatari stories across a year. Inserting each short into that calendar is a different project from watching the series as presented.

Our preference is to encounter each work intact, then revisit the chronology if you want to compare what different characters knew at a particular point. That leaves room for other viewing choices without pretending that fans agree on one uniquely valid order. You can start Bake now without first mastering an episode-by-episode timeline.

After Final Season

The official Final Season collection runs from Tsukimonogatari through Zoku Owarimonogatari. The later OFF & MONSTER Season continues the adaptation project. Treat “Final Season” as a collection label rather than an instruction to stop looking for subsequent works.

For another franchise where subtitles can obscure the starting point, our Fate watch-order guide separates story routes, prequels and different adaptations.