

Each of the arcs of the _Monogatari_ series through the end of _Second Season_
(Hitagi Crab, Mayoi Snail, ..., Hitagi End) has had an OP theme sung by the
arc's heroine1, save for Shinobu Time (i.e. Onimonogatari), which did not have
an OP theme at all.

What gives? Shinobu's voice actress is Maaya Sakamoto, who is probably the
most talented singer out of the entire Monogatari cast! Why didn't she sing an
OP for Shinobu's arc?

* * *

1 Well, the OP for Hitagi End (Koimonogatari) was sung by both Kaiki and
Senjougahara, but I think we can agree that they were both the heroines of
that arc.


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monogatari-series maaya-sakamoto
Why wasn't there an OP for Shinobu Time?


Well, it turns out that Maaya Sakamoto doesn't like mixing her career as a
singer with her career as a voice actress, as she pointed out in [an interview
with director Masaaki Oosumi](http://osumi.air-
nifty.com/blog/2008/02/vol3_b9ea.html)1:

> **Sakamoto:** [laughter] [...] I'm old-fashioned - I don't want my work as a
> voice actress to get mixed up with my singing.
>
> —What exactly do you mean by that?
>
> **Sakamoto:** To me, my job as a singer is not so much a job, as it is a way
> of expressing myself - which is why I should write my own lyrics and sing
> under my own name. That's why, as a rule, I don't sing character songs.

Of course, all the OP songs for the _Monogatari_ series are character songs in
the usual sense (e.g. Nadeko, rather than Kana Hanazawa, is [listed as the
singer for "Mousou Express"](https://i.stack.imgur.com/22e5s.jpg)), and so it
makes sense that Maaya Sakamoto wouldn't sing an OP for Shinobu's arc.

Note that there _are_ shows for which Maaya Sakamoto has both sung an OP/ED
and voice-acted a character, e.g. _RahXephon_ \- but in these cases, it
appears that she is credited as herself, rather than as her character. (This
is certainly the case for _RahXephon_ 's OP "Hemisphere"; I imagine it is also
the case for the other anime in which this occurs, but I haven't checked.)

* * *

All that said, the Blu-ray version of _Second Season_ does, in fact, have a
minute-long opening segment for Shinobu Time. But it's set to the song ["white
lies"](http://vgmdb.net/album/42417), which is not sung by Maaya Sakamoto -
it's a non-vocal piece, aside from some choral chanting. (Though I should like
to mention that it's an incredible song in its own right, especially if you
listen to the full 3'23" version.)

* * *

1 To find the bit I've translated here, Ctrl+F for _私も古い考え方_.


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In kizumonogatari we got a french song (Etoile Et Toi) at the end credits
which was sung by an adult and later on by a child (3rd movie), which gives us
the overall journey of Kiss-shot (shinobu) from shrinking into a child and
growing back into a fully grown adult (especially the melons).

Also, it is said that she came from a foreign country (but was not stated
which country it was), and I guess that explains why her hair is blond in the
first place. She also loves eating donuts-- I mean french people love
pastries, but dunno lol.

Overall, even though we didn't get a song sung by her VA, it is still nice
that we got a wonderful french song that made kizumonogatari so beautiful. I
guess shinobu herself can't sing japanese that's why she sung in french. ;-;


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