Launching the third or “Final Season” of the international cult-hit series, Possession Tale returns the narrator’s headset back to high school senior and amateur savior Koyomi Araragi, who used to eschew friendship once upon a time because it’d lower his “intensity as a human”—a loner’s misgiving that was perhaps on the mark in a different way than he intended.
At issue now is not the precarious fate of one of his cherished confrères, or rather consœurs, whom he’d aid, sight unseen, with a monster’s resilience, but his own aberrant state and its prolonged abuse. If everything comes with a bill, and if no man is an island, then is the price of self-sacrificing amity—and the bloodshed it ironically occasions—becoming inhuman for good?
That being said! Our hero, whose first name means “calendar” but who has none in his room, sees no need to rush, so, on our way to the profound mysteries of the superhuman aspect, expect a super-shallow deconstruction of the alarm clock. On hand this volume to (hardly ever) humor his humor: his little sisters, a living doll of a corpse, and its violent mistress.
There are few authors in Japan who have reached the heights of success as NisiOisin. Born in 1981, Nisio dropped out of Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, to pursue a career in story-telling. Initially he had ambitions to be a comic artist, but when he realized his art was not up to snuff, he began to focus on his writing, eventually winning the 23rd Mephisto Prize, for Kubikiri Cycle (Del Rey) recognizing his talents as a mystery writer, at the age of 20. Since his debut in 2002 Nisio has penned more than 50 novels and a number of comics. And he has quickly become one of Japan's top selling author's in recent memory with more than 5 million units sold since 2009. In 2014, as in 2012, he was the top selling author in Japan (outselling Haruki Murakami by more than half a million units).
Nishio's works often cover themes of youth, but are framed in genres that are familiar to the masses. His works tend to mix mystery with comedy and touches or romance and/or the supernatural. He is a modern author in every sense, sometimes even experiementing with the Japanese language itself.
Many of his works have been adapted into animated television series and films. His best known works are the Monogatari series and Katanagatari.
