First published as a light novel in August of 2005, the Monogatari series has been around for nearly two decades. In that time, the series has received manga and audio drama adaptations, but most people know the series for the various anime adapted from the series twenty plus books.

RELATED: Monogatari: 10 Most Confusing Things About Its Story, Explained

With Bakemonogatari airing in 2009, and Zoku Owarimonogatari seemingly concluding the main narrative in 2019, it’s been a busy decade. Over the years a lot has happened behind the scenes, and with so many new fans getting into the series every day, there’s no shortage of new information out there to be discovered. Here are 10 things you never knew about the Monogatari Series.

10 Production Schedule Issues

Studio Shaft is known for their experimental animation, as well as their unique artstyle. The studio has been around for decades, but is best known to modern anime fans for their work on the Monogatari series.

While Shaft unique approach played a big role in the Monogatari Series’ success, the production schedule for Bakemonogatari was rife with issues that forced the studio to cut corners at times. This was later fixed in the DVD & Blu-Ray releases, but you should still be able to notice them on streaming service versions.

9 Second Season’s Alternative Name

Monogatari Series Second Season’s name is as straightforward as you can get for an anime. With the series’ penchant for naming its arcs and seasons some monogatari variant, this might seem somewhat out of place.

Second Season was initially supposed to be titled Zenmonogatari, meaning every story. This was later changed as it was clear that not every story in the series would be covered in the 23 episode season.

8 The Haruhi Suzumiya Connection

Haruhi from Melancholy of Haruhi

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was one of the most popular anime of its generation. It proved to be the biggest role of voice actress Aya Hirano’s career, and made her one of the biggest names in the industry.

Hirano was initially penned to voice Shinobu, as she voiced the character in the Bakemonogatari drama CD. But issues would lead to her opting out of the role for the anime, with Maaya Sakamoto getting the nod from Nisemonogatari onwards.

7 Bakemonogatari Portable

It’s common for popular anime series to get game adaptations in Japan, and while the Monogatari series has certainly proved to be immensely popular, the existence of 2012’s Bakemonogatari Portable might catch some fans off guard.

RELATED: Monogatari: The 10 Most Experimental Scenes In The Entire Franchise, Ranked

Released for the PSP, the game is a visual novel style adaptation of the Bakemonogatari anime. The game allows you to interact with characters from that season in a similar way to the anime, and has a heavy focus on dialogue and dialogue choices which make up the majority of its gameplay.

6 The Official Watch Order

One of the biggest hurdles for newcomers wanting to get into the Monogatari series is the watch order. With so many entries and non chronological releases, fans have a few different ways of experiencing the series’ narrative.

Watching the anime in its release order won’t ruin your experience, but if fans want to approach the story as the author intended, then it’s best to go with the Nisio Isin order. This follows the order in which the light novels were released, and leaves you with a much more consistent narrative.

5 The (Book’s) English Dub

The Monogatari series has yet to receive an English dub, though fan demand for it is fairly strong. With its fast paced unique dialogue and word-play, it doesn’t seemlike the easiest series to dub, let alone dub well.

RELATED: 5 Monogatari Characters That Deserved More Screen Time (& 5 That Needed Less)

Eager fans however, got something of a conciliation prize when Viz localized the light novels for the English market and hired a professional voice cast to work on the audiobook. Only the first few entries have received this treatment so far, though Viz has stated that they’d be willing to continue should fans want more.

4 Araragi’s Design

Koyomi Araragi from Bakemonogatari.

While the anime adaptations of the Monogatari Series novels have been incredibly faithful, there is one interesting addition that Shaft had to make during the production for Bakemonogatari.

Araragi isn’t depicted in VOFAN’s illustrations for the light novels, and the novels themselves give very little insight into his physical features. The Koyomi Araragi design that fans are familiar with is actually based off of character designer Akio Watanabe’s work, and is therefore an anime only design that has since become Araragi’s official look.

3 So Many More Books

As most fans know, the Monogatari Series is based off of Nisio Isin’s light novel series. While the main narrative has now been completely adapted, the series itself is far from over.

RELATED: Monogatari: 10 Things That Make No Sense About The Anime's World

The latest anime adaptation, Zoku Owarimonogatari adapts volume 18 of the light novels, concluding the “Final Season” part of the series. But the novels are still going strong, with stories being published in the new “Off Season” series. Volumes 19-25 have yet to be adapted, though given the popularity of the previous anime series’ it’s only a matter of time.

2 The Author Started Writing The Series To Entertain Himself

The Monogatari books weren’t Nisio Isin’s first venture into the light novel industry, but they proved to be his most successful.

Nisio Isin admitted that he wrote the first few books in the series, not in the hopes of getting them published, but as a way of entertaining himself. Fortunately for him, he’s managed to entertain quite a few more people than he originally anticipated.

1 Nadeko’s Bad Personality

Nadeko was initially a fairly straightforward timid and shy character upon her introduction and subsequent appearances afterwards. But as fans of the series know, she does a complete 180 later on in the series.

The official guidebook to the series contains an interview between Nisio Isin and Kana Hanazawa, Nadeko’s voice actress. When asked what kind of character she wanted to play, Hanaza replied that she wanted to try playing an evil character. This could very well have been what inspired the events of the Nadeko Medusa arc.

NEXT: Monogatari: Why (and How) You Should Watch the Supernatural Series