Monogatari Off and Monster Season is resuming in the Winter 2026 anime season with Wazamonogatari: Karen Ogre, a tale involving Karen Araragi. According to the Monogatari Off and Monster Season website, the arc will see Karen, currently a high school first-year, going on a mountain retreat in order to further improve herself.
©西尾維新／講談社・アニプレックス・シャフト
The first Karen Ogre visual, which depicts Karen’s reflection in a body of water, was also released.
Karen Ogre is one of the stories in Wazamonogatari, the 20th volume of Nisio Isin‘s long-running, Vofan-illustrated supernatural light novel series. Another Wazamonogatari story, the Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade origin story Acerola Bon Appétit, was adapted for the first batch of Monogatari Off and Monster Season episodes.
The Monogatari Off and Monster Season anime, which was directed by Midori Yoshizawa (Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story Season 2 assistant director), originally premiered in July 2024 and ran for 14 episodes. Crunchyroll describes the series as such:
While Koyomi Araragi’s time may be ending, the journey continues with the girls he’s saved. Their own tales of struggles and supernatural threats once thought to be resolved are far from over. From the past to the future, discover their stories, challenges, and intertwined destinies they now face in the wake of Araragi’s departure.
Last July, it was announced that the anime would receive new content, with a visual teasing stories that involved Shinobu Oshino, Yotsugi Ononoki, Mayoi Hachikuji, Nadeko Sengoku, and Karen.
The Monogatari Series began in 2006 with the Bakemonogatari Part 1 and 2 light novels. The Off-Season books, which were released from 2015 to 2017, include the titles Orokamonogatari, Wazamonogatari, Nademonogatari, and Musubimonogatari. Meanwhile, the Monster Season stories, released from 2017 to 2021, include Shinobumonogatari, Yoimonogatari, Amarimonogatari, Ougimonogatari, and Shimonogatari Parts 1 and 2.
Kodansha USA describes Bakemonogatari Part 1 as such:
There’s a girl at their school who is always ill. She routinely arrives late, leaves early, or doesn’t show up at all, and skips gym as a matter of course. She’s pretty, and the boys take to whispering that ’s a cloistered princess. As the self-described worst loser in her class soon finds out, they just don’t know what a monster she is.
So begins a tale of mysterious maladies that are supernatural in origin yet deeply revealing of the human psyche, a set of case files as given to unexpected feeling as it is to irreverent humor.
The Bakemonogatari anime premiered in 2009 and was directed by Tatsuya Oishi, who also directed 2016 to 2017’s Kizumonogatari movie trilogy. The other previous Monogatari anime were directed by Tomoyuki Itamura (Call of the Night, The Case Study of Vanitas).
Production credits (Monogatari Off and Monster Season 2024)
• Chief director: Akiyuki Shinbo (returning)
• Director: Midori Yoshizawa
• Character designer and co-chief animation director: Akio Watanabe (returning)
• Series composer: Fuyashi To (returning)
• Series composer: Akiyuki Shinbo (returning)
• Art director: Hisaharu Iijima (returning)
• Color designer: Yasuko Watanabe (Zoku Owarimonogatari)
• Compositing director: Hiyori Hashimoto (Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story and RWBY Ice Queendom assistant compositing director)
• Compositing director: Mizuho Ishikawa (Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead compositing staff)
• Music composer: Satoru Kosaki (returning)
• Music composer: Kei Haneoka (returning, since Hanamonogatari)
• Animation production: SHAFT
Source: @nisioisin_anime
