Karen Araragi

Overview

Summary

Gallery

"You can lose the match and the game, but if you don't lose to yourself, it isn't a loss."

— Karen Araragi

Karen Araragi
Kanji Name	阿良々木 火憐
Kana Name	あららぎ かれん
Romaji Name	Araragi Karen
Character Information
Alias	One Half of the Fire Sisters
Age	15
Gender	Female
Personal Status
Classification	Human
Status	Alive
Relatives	Araragi Family Koyomi Araragi (Older Brother) Tsukihi Araragi (Younger "Sister") Unnamed Mother Yotsugi Ononoki (Housemate) Mizudori (Boyfriend)
Abilities	Karate Capoeira Other Martial Arts
Professional Status
Occupation	Middle School Student Police Officer (later)
Affiliation	Tsuganoki 2nd Middle School Fire Sisters Police Department, Public Safety Division
Media
Work of Origin	Monogatari Series
Novel Debut	Nisemonogatari (Part One)
Anime Debut	Nisemonogatari Episode 2
Voice Actor	Eri Kitamura

Karen Araragi (阿良々木(あららぎ) 火憐(かれん), Araragi Karen) is a character from the Monogatari Series. She is Koyomi Araragi's sister, a student of Tsuganoki 2nd Middle School, a martial arts practitioner and one half of the Fire Sisters (ファイヤーシスターズ, Faiyā Shisutāzu), alongside Tsukihi Araragi. Later, she becomes a police officer, alongside her brother, though in a different department.

Personality

Karen is a lively and tomboyish girl. While not particularly clever or flexible, she is confident and cheerful, making her popular with most of her peers. She has an unflinching sense of justice, which drives her to move forward with her activities as a part of the Fire Sisters. Her sense of justice is often compared to that of Koyomi's, but due to not going to the same sort of trauma as him, she doesn't possess the more cynical aspects of her personality, making her more innocent and pure-hearted in his eyes, but also causing him to not take her actions in the name of justice as seriously. Her clear idea on justice is also what causes her sister to believe and stand up for it, as Tsukihi doesn't have such a clear image of the concept herself.

While appearing cool and strong to her younger female fans, Karen's true personality comes out in her interactions with Koyomi, particularly after the resolution of the Deishuu Kaiki charm scam incident. When conversing with her brother, she comes off as goofy and airheaded, often blurting out whatever is on her mind without ever thinking it through. Nonetheless, during times of emergency, she is dependable, supporting her family in whatever way she can. Even so, because of her sense of justice and desire to appear strong and to be counted on, she has a tendency to bottle up her insecurities and push herself without relying on others, a trait that can also be found in Koyomi.

She cares deeply for her family, and has a particularly close relationship with both her brother, to the point where it worries Suruga Kanbaru, as well as her sister, Tsukihi, whom she is almost always around, the pair of them even being called "yuri sisters" by Koyomi. Another of her close relationships is with Kanbaru, whom she initially idolizes as a star due to the other girls' athletic prowess. After actually being introduced to Kanbaru, they become good friends, having fairly similar personalities to each other, and Kanbaru is shown to count on Karen even after Koyomi leaves Naoetsu Private Academy for college.

Karen claims that, during their childhood, she was more delicate and weak of heart, Koyomi's thoughtless words almost driving her to suicide at one time, and that this even is part of why she gained her extreme sense of justice. In her adult years as a police officer, Karen forges many friendships and is regarded as a mood maker in her department, showing how her bright temperament and cheerful attitude remains even after so many years pass.

Appearance

Karen is a young girl with the same features as the rest of the Araragi Family, namely grey eyes, black hair and an ahoge. She has a fit and well developed body, being very tall for her age (even surpassing Koyomi's height). She is initially shown wearing her long hair tied in a wavy ponytail situated to the right side of her head. During the events of the Tsukihi Phoenix arc, she cuts off her ponytail and begins wearing her hair short. When it eventually grows longer, she begins once again tying it in the same type of pony tail, though shorter. She is shown in a variety of outfits, boasting a mostly sporty and tomboyish look. Her most iconic outfit is her yellow and black hooded tracksuit, worn over a black tank top, as well as matching yellow and black shorts and red knee high socks and shoes. She is also shown wearing a red variant of this outfit, as well as the Tsuganoki Middle School blue and white sailor uniform and skin tight black and yellow workout clothes. During the events of the Koyomi Reverse arc, Karen's body became more petite, shorter and with smaller breasts.

Background

Karen was born about four years after Koyomi, with Tsukihi following just a few months later. The two sisters would grow up very close, with Koyomi being slightly more distant. She would sometimes play with Nadeko Sengoku, upon the girl being called over. She also remembers the time when a young Sodachi Oikura lived at their house for a short while, an event that Koyomi is still totally incapable of recalling. Upon enrolling in middle school, her mother sent the two sisters to Tsuganoki 2nd Middle School, as opposed to Nanahyakuichi Middle School, the school that both Nadeko and a younger Koyomi attended. In their middle school years, the two girls quickly developed a reputation as the Fire Sisters, engaging in many incidents and lending others a helping hand, and they quickly earned a following, many people being grateful to them. Karen began a relationship at some point with a boy named Mizudori, although not much is known about him.

Abilities and Equipment

• Martial Arts: Karen is a black belt in karate as well as a practitioner of capoeira, among other styles of martial arts. As a result, although a normal human, she is quite strong and agile, being easily able to defeat Koyomi in a fight despite his residue vampiric strength. Even so, she admittedly doesn't stand a chance against the likes of Yozuru Kagenui, whom she estimates is about as strong as the master of her dojo. Karen makes use of her martial arts skills later on while working as a police officer.

Quotes

• (Karen to Koyomi) "You can lose the match and the game, but if you don't lose to yourself, it isn't a loss."

Appearances

• Monogatari First Season Light Novel Series
• Monogatari Second Season Light Novel Series
• Monogatari Final Season Light Novel Series
• Monogatari Off Season Light Novel Series
• Monogatari Monster Season Light Novel Series
• Monogatari Anime Series
• Bakemonogatari Manga
• Seishun Kijinden! 240 Gakuen
• Okitegami Kyouko no Bibouroku x Monogatari Commercial

Trivia

• Karen's first name means "flaming mercy". Additionally, both she and Tsukihi have the kanji for fire (火) in their names. The first kanji in the names of the sisters also correspond to the Japanese names for the first two days of the week, with Karen's 火 matching the word for Tuesday (火曜日). This is a correlation to Koyomi's first name, which means "calendar". Karen's name is also phonetically a part of the English word calendar written in katakana (カレンダー, Karendā).
• Karen's last name, Araragi is made up of the kanji for "pandering", which is also a part of the word for "fool", the kanji for "good", repeated twice, and the kanji for "tree".
• Karen and Tsukihi are featured on the covers for the two parts of Nisemonogatari, which are the only books in the series to not have a new cover illustration in the English release.