Why the Widely Acclaimed Monogatari Has No English Dub – And Likely Never Will (2025)

It wouldn’t be at all controversial to say that Monogatari is among the most widely beloved series in the supernatural anime landscape. First airing in the Summer 2013 season, the acclaimed adaptation follows Koyomi Araragi, a high school student who briefly becomes a vampire as he befriends a group of girls, all afflicted with supernatural oddities, and romances Hitagi, a classmate who is affected by an inexplicable and strange weightlessness. Though the story branches off in many ways throughout its run, its central focus is on these characters and their interactions with one another.

Given the experimental nature of the show, its popularity and its high rating online (a whopping 8.77 on MAL), it would seem a missed opportunity to not dub this series and capitalize on its success. However, no official English dub for Monogatari yet exists. There are a few reasons for this, as well as for why Monogatari will very likely remain dubless indefinitely.

Related: The Most Offensive Anime Dub Ever Has to Be Heard to Be Believed

The Complexity of Language and Humor in Monogatari Presents a Challenge

The most obvious reason for the lack of an official English dub of Monogatari is one that springs up in many localization efforts in the dubbing industry: the intense amount of focused translation that the effort would require. With some anime series, the effort it takes to move the audio and captions from Japanese to English is relatively minor. For those who are fluent in both Japanese and English, this labor, while difficult in terms of sheer time and energy, does not present any especially unique challenges in translation. However, with Monogatari, much of the series' tension as well as humor simply doesn’t localize well in English, and this is a unique problem, in tandem with the amount of text that exists on the screen when it comes to this series.

Monogatari also being a controversial anime presents an interesting possibility in terms of thinking about the noticeable absence of an English dub. The series has generated some criticism for its perverse subtexts and questionable presentation of lesbian sexuality, but it’s also widely applauded for its experimental style. The characters' moods and emotions are reflected in the visual and technical landscapes of the series, and the general look and feel of the show changes multiple times throughout its run. Its use of language changes alongside it, and thus the humor and language of Monogatari, is often as complex as its story.

Related: Why Steins;Gate Is Considered One of Anime's Best English Dubs

The Challenge of Aniplex

Why the Widely Acclaimed Monogatari Has No English Dub – And Likely Never Will (2)

Another factor that comes into the picture is the licensor, Aniplex of America, and the company’s notable lack of English dubs in the timeframe in which Monogatari was initially released. It seems that Aniplex is incredibly picky in what it chooses to dub compared with other big anime distribution companies. Around 2012-2015, major anime series releases like Sword Art Online and Kill la Kill received English dubs, but many popular series such as Monogatari did not. Even in more recent years, well-loved series like Wotakoi and Plastic Memories have not received dubs, even though other big franchises like Kaguya-sama: Love Is War have. In general, it seems that Aniplex is concerned with spending money and energy on subversive, controversial or otherwise potentially nonprofitable series, even at the expense of the potential success of these dubs.

It’s tricky to figure out with any certainty why Monogatari hasn’t been dubbed yet, but all of these issues likely play a significant role. No one directly involved in the anime project seems to have spoken out or said much about the potential for a dub, so it’s unlikely 10 years on that it’s on any of the executives' or creative professionals' minds. While disappointing for fans who wish to watch it in English, it also presents a great opportunity to appreciate Monogatari in its original format, with the intentionality behind the dialogue and other aspects of the story more obvious in the Japanese version. Monogatari’s dubbing history is interesting, and although viewers probably won’t get a dub, the series' light novels have at least been translated into English, so fans can enjoy the story through that medium even without an anime English dub.

Why the Widely Acclaimed Monogatari Has No English Dub – And Likely Never Will (2025)
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