Genre Animation

Kizumonogatari Part 3: Reiketsu (2017)

Item: Kizumonogatari Part 3: Reiketsu
Rating: 2.0
Author: Ross McLaren

★★ — Kizumonogatari Part 3: Reiketsu (2017)

Kizumonogatari Part 3: Reiketsu is the concluding chapter of the three-part theatrical adaptation of Nisio Isin's Kizumonogatari novel, the prequel story to the broader Monogatari series of light novels that has been a fixture of Japanese popular fiction since the mid-2000s. The film was released in Japan in January 2017, completing a trilogy that had begun with Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu in early 2016. In narrative terms, Reiketsu picks up from the second part and follows Koyomi Araragi as he works alongside the apparition specialist Meme Oshino to defeat three formidable vampire hunters, each guarding a severed limb of the powerful vampire Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-blade, whose restoration is the price of Koyomi's return to humanity. The story sits at the origin of the entire Monogatari universe, which makes it a curious artefact: source material written to explain a world that, in animated form, already had years of television series behind it by the time these films arrived.

The production sits at SHAFT and Aniplex, the same pairing responsible for the television Monogatari entries, and the co-directing arrangement between Tatsuya Oishi and Akiyuki Shinbo carries over from the earlier parts of the trilogy (you can find coverage of the immediate predecessor here). Oishi and Shinbo are not a conventional pairing in the sense of two directors working a single unified vision; SHAFT productions under Shinbo in particular are known for a house style that treats the screen as something closer to a graphic design canvas than a conventional animation frame, with Dutch angles, typography and extreme close-ups deployed as a matter of course. For Kizumonogatari, the visual ambition was scaled up for the theatrical setting, with a colour palette and action choreography that were always intended to feel distinctly cinematic rather than like a television episode stretched to feature length. At 83 minutes, the film is the shortest of the three parts, which on paper suggests a tighter, more propulsive experience for a concluding chapter.

The principal voice cast is a polished but unremarkable assembly of familiar names from the broader Monogatari world. Hiroshi Kamiya, who can also be heard in Dou kyu sei: Classmates, returns as Koyomi Araragi, having voiced the character across the television series as well, and brings the same slightly self-deprecating, neurotic energy the role demands. Yui Horie voices Kiss-shot in her younger, diminished form, while Maaya Sakamoto takes on the character's full, restored incarnation, and Takahiro Sakurai rounds out the principal cast. These are performers with long histories in Japanese animation, and there is a comfort and ease in the performances that suits the material, even if the demands of Nisio Isin's dialogue-heavy source novels are considerable for any cast to carry.

Kizumonogatari Part 3: Reiketsu (2017) arrives as the trilogy's climax with all the visual splendour Shaft Studio can muster. Fluid swordplay rendered in stark monochrome and crimson, surreal dreamscapes, and that signature Monogatari flair for turning dialogue into visual metaphor. Yet for all its aesthetic brilliance, the film actively numbs rather than thrills. The pacing, already languid in Nekketsu, grinds further into abstraction: endless philosophical monologues, circular debates about vampire ontology, and a finale that prioritises symbolic resolution over emotional payoff. By this point, the novelty of the style has worn thin, leaving only the hollow echo of a story that mistakes opacity for depth. Watching all three parts consecutively shouldn't be a chore but Reiketsu exposes the series' fundamental flaw: a narrative so preoccupied with its own cleverness that it forgets to make us care. Araragi's ultimate choice lands with a thud because the emotional stakes were never truly established; Kiss-shot remains an enigma wrapped in exposition rather than a compelling character. The animation is undeniably gorgeous, but beauty without resonance is just decoration. A technically accomplished yet emotionally inert conclusion that confirms Kizumonogatari as a triumph of style over substance. For fans already invested in the Monogatari universe, it may satisfy. Overall, a visually sumptuous slog that earns admiration without ever earning engagement. High praise elsewhere feels like a mystery this trilogy never solves.

Reiketsu is one of those films that I find genuinely difficult to score against its own ambitions, because on a purely technical level there is real craft here, and I don't want to dismiss that lightly. But craft in service of a story that keeps the audience at arm's length is only worth so much, and by the time the credits rolled I felt more relieved than moved. If you're coming to this as a Monogatari completist, you've probably already seen it or already decided you will. If you're wondering whether the trilogy is a good entry point into the franchise, my honest answer is that Part 1 at least has the energy of something building toward something. By Part 3, that promise has rather quietly dissolved. Beautiful to look at, cold to the touch.

Rating: ★★ | Year: 2017 | Watched: 2026-04-02

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Trailer

▶ Watch the official trailer for Kizumonogatari Part 3: Reiketsu (2017) on YouTube

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