Aniplex has released the first in a series of character introduction videos for the upcoming Kizumonogatari: Koyomi Vamp compilation movie. The first highlighted character is main protagonist Koyomi Araragi.
Kizumonogatari: Koyomi Vamp will premiere in Japan on January 12, 2024, with a North American release to follow later. The movie summarizes the Kizumonogatari trilogy (comprising Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu, Kizumonogatari Part 2: Nekketsu, and Kizumonogatari Part 3: Reiketsu). The movies, which came out in Japan between 2016 and 2017, adapt the third volume of Nisio Isin‘s Monogatari light novel series, which serves as the prequel to 2006’s Bakemonogatari Part 1 and 2.
Kodansha USA describes Kizumonogatari as:
Around midnight, under a lonely street lamp in a provincial town in Japan, lies a white woman, a blonde, alone, robbed of all four limbs, yet undead. Indeed, a rumor’s been circulating among the local girls that a vampire has come to their backwater, of all places. Koyomi Araragi, who prefers to avoid having friends because they’d lower his “intensity as a human,” is naturally skeptical. Yet it is to him that the bloodsucking demon, a concept “dated twice over,” beckons on the first day of spring break as he makes his way home with a fresh loot of morally compromising periodicals. Always disarmingly candid, often hilariously playful, and sometimes devastatingly moving, KIZUMONOGATARI: Wound Tale is the perfect gateway into the world of author NISIOISIN, the bestselling young novelist in Japan today. The prequel to BAKEMONOGATARI (“Monster Tale”), this is where the legendary MONOGATARI series, whose anime adaptations have enjoyed international popularity and critical acclaim, begins.
A TV anime adaptation of Bakemonogatari premiered in 2009. Many more installments followed before ending in 2019 with Zoku Monogatari. Bakemonogatari and Kizumonogatari are the only ones to be directed by Tatsuya Oishi, who also penned the scripts for the latter.
The Kodansha-published light novel series, which features illustrations by VOFAN, has 29 volumes as of May 2023 (excluding a crossover volume). The books have also inspired a manga adaptation drawn by Oh!Great.
Staff
• Chief director: Akiyuki Shimbou
• Character designers: Akio Watanabe and Hideyuki Morioka
• Sound director: Yota Tsuroka
• Music composer: Satoru Kosaki
• Animation production: Shaft
Cast
• Hiroshi Kamiya as Koyomi Araragi
• Maaya Sakamoto as Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-blade
• Yui Horie as Tsubasa Hanekawa
• Takahiro Sakurai as Meme Oshino
• Miyu Irino as Episode
• Masashi Ebara as Dramaturgy
• Hochu Otsuka as Guillotinecutter
Source: Aniplex Channel YouTube channel
