Kizumonogatari -Koyomi Vamp- (Limited Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing

Kizumonogatari -Koyomi Vamp- (傷物語 -こよみヴァンプ-) is a 2024 theatrical anime film based on NisiOisin’s light novel Kizumonogatari with illustrator Vofan. The film was directed & written by Tatsuya Oishi and produced by studio Shaft, with character designers Akio Watanabe & Hideyuki Morioka, and music composer Satoru Kōsaki. The film was first theatrically released in Japanese theatres in January 2024.

Background:

“Spring break, an interval of time between the second and third year of high school. Koyomi Araragi encounters a blood-chillingly beautiful woman. The iron-blooded, hot-blooded, cold-blooded Vampire, she calls herself “Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-blade.”

On the brink of death after losing her four limbs, she asks Koyomi to save her. After experiencing fear, chaos, and finally conflict, Koyomi gives his own blood in order to save her. But when he awakens, he finds himself re-born as her vampire kin.

Koyomi wishes to revert to being a human from a vampire. However, he must take back all of Kiss-shot’s limbs to do so. Working as a negotiator, Meme Oshino stands in middle ground as Koyomi attempts to recapture her four limbs by challenging three powerful vampire hunters.

This hellish spring break, the final one of his high school life, is only just beginning.”
Plot Synopsis via Aniplex’s Monogatari Website, January 2024.

When Bakemonogatari was first adapted into an anime series, Shaft revealed plans to adapt the Kizumonogatari story into a feature-length film in 2010, which went into production hell for quite sometime. The adaptation suddenly resurfaced in 2015 as a three-part film series; Tekketsu, Nekketsu & Reiketsu. Those films were great even if they were only roughly an hour long in length but offered quite the spectacle with its visual design and aesthetic. I also read the light novel beforehand as the film wasn’t fully out at the time but overall I enjoyed them.

Monogatari is known for being mostly visual and dialog driven (especially at a fast-pace), while Kizumonogatari does switch things up with a couple of action sequences here and there. The story is also chronologically the start of the Araragi story, taking place before the events of Bakemonogatari and Nekomonogatari Black as part of the Monogatari series: First Season line-up.

Which is why it’s weird to see Shaft announce in 2023 during an Aniplex Online Fest with a new theatrical compilation film of those three films with Kizumonogatari -Koyomi Vamp-. Because this is Shaft, who are also known for their unique visual designs, have made some adjustments to this new version (in relation to editing, music and sound) so its not just a straight-up edit like other compilation films, but more akin to how they handled the Puella Magi Madoka Magica series which for me is one of those rare cases where those compilation films were really good. I suppose Shaft going back to this story was more of a way for them to close the gap on what they had wanted to do the first time around.

Aniplex of America licensed the Monogatari anime instalments as they went along, and even theatrically released the films to the big screens across the United States. In the UK, we did manage to receive a theatrical screening for Kizumonogatari via Scotland Loves Anime though only for 2 of 3 parts from what I can remember, but the Kizumonogatari -Koyomi Vamp- version received a one day theatrical courtesy of Crunchyroll UK, with MVM Entertainment eventually being able to secure the home video license for the UK audience.

Limited Edition Contents:

Kizumonogatari -Koyomi Vamp- was released by Aniplex of America mirroring the Japanese Blu-ray release presentation so it’s not the same consistency as the previous Monogatari releases. The best comparison to make here is that it’s like combining the Fate/Grand Order -First Order- and Fate/Grand Order: Absolute Demonic Front box sets together into one with a Monogatari cover over them.

The limited edition Blu-ray release is presented with an o-card slipcase, a digipack housing both the Blu-ray disc and Original Soundtrack CD, and a 24-page special booklet that includes visual designs and artwork, information about the film, interviews with the staff and notes about the soundtrack and credits.

The o-card slipcase artwork is clean of any information and specs, with the title on one of the spine corners, while the obi strip sheet has the information and also an extra title on the spine if you wish to use it when slotting the set on a regular position for the shelf. The limited edition Blu-ray set was released for an SRP of $99.98.

I acquired Kizumonogatari -Koyomi Vamp- from the Crunchyroll Store alongside a few other Aniplex of America releases as part of a catch-up haul.

Physical Contents:

O-Card Slipcase with clean artwork
Obi-strip for information and specs
Digipack case packaging
Original Soundtrack CD
24-page Special Booklet

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Aniplex of America
Released: 18th February 2025

The limited edition Blu-ray release for Kizumonogatari -Koyomi Vamp- contains the film on a single Blu-ray disc, authored and encoded by Aniplex of America.

Audio options available are original Japanese audio with English subtitles and Japanese audio commentary with three of the characters from the film with English subtitles. No English dub was produced for this film.

The white subtitles are unlockable during playback, and the Blu-ray disc are region accessible to players set to A & B.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	Japanese
Audio	Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 2.35:1 aspect ratio
Region	A B
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	No
Discs	1 BD-50

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Japanese Audio Commentary with Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-blade, Tsubasa Hanekawa, and Meme Oshino
Teaser (DTS 2.0 audio, 00:47 runtime)
Official Trailer 1 (01:17 runtime)
Official Trailer 2 (01:17 runtime)
Character Movie 01: Koyomi Araragi (00:36 runtime)
Character Movie 02: Kiss-shot (00:40 runtime)
Character Movie 03: Tsubasa Hanekawa (00:38 runtime)
Character Movie 04: Meme Oshino (00:37 runtime)
Character Movie 05: Dramaturgy (00:34 runtime)
Character Movie 06: Kiss-shot (00:32 runtime)
Character Movie 07: Episode (00:32 runtime)
Character Movie 08: Guillotinecutter (00:32 runtime)
Character Movie 09: Kiss-shot (00:46 runtime)
The Longest CM in Japan: 480 Seconds (08:02 runtime)
CM: 30 Seconds (00:34 runtime)
CM: 15 Seconds (00:17 runtime)