Literature A terrible show done as well as possible
This is a terrible anime. It's pacing is slow, it's content is borderline offensive (unless taken as "satire"), and there's no reason why any sane person should watch it.
I've watched more than 70 episodes of it.
Why? It has really pretty colour palettes and the sound is just amazing (both the music and the diagetic sounds). The characters and their actions are either boring or despicable but the world they do it in is just entrancing to look at and imagine what it would be like to live in.
If you just want to relax, switch your brain off and watch something stupid and then complain about how awful it is afterwards while secretly enjoying the general mise-en-scene of the thing I cannot recommend much more than this.
Otherwise, watch Puella Magi Madoka Magica. It's infinitely superior in nearly every respect apart from the music.
Literature Is there a kami of 'SHUT THE F**K UP' anywhere around?
I personally feel the point of certain reviews isn't that you agree or disagree with them, but that you can see where the reviewer is coming from. I bring this up as I'm about to say something very negative about a series a lot of people like.
I detest Bakemonogatari. It's Mushi Shi without any subtlety, xxxHolic without any class or depth, Natsume Yuujinchou without any charm, Mononoke without any shock (that isn't superficial). Comparisons between Natsume and Bake are especially insulting, that's like comparing the sweet, innocent church-going girl (not really a 'church' but you get the idea) with a dirty prostitute.
So what does this series offer instead? A bunch of pointless dialogue that only exists to make the author look like a smartarse, and fanservice. Oh, and now Shinbo's typical forced, attention-seeking, not-actually-eccentric visual style.
You may have heard this series' dialogue praised to high heaven. Easily its most overrated aspect, as practically every conversation boils down to this same formula:
"Hey, I'm a bigger smartarse than you!" "No you're not" "Yes I am" "No you're not" "Yes I am" "No you're not" "POP CULTURE REFERENCE!"
Speaking of which, I'm surprised nobody ever says "I was frozen today!", it'd fit in so well. Save the self-referential stuff for the wikis, will you?
So if you think watching a bunch of smarmy brats trying to one-up each other constitutes fine entertainment, you'll love this series. Oh but they all have 'sad backstories', whch apparently makes up for all of it. Er, no it doesn't, they're just Nisio's way of saying "Ah, now you have to like this character, regardless of how annoying they are, because if you don't you must be a heartless jerk!".
Said characters can be summed up as: Kyon rip-off, guy who pales in comparison to Yuuko or Nyanko-sensei, "self-aware" tsundere, "self-aware" class rep, Yami "self-aware" class rep, offensive lesbian stereotype, girl people only care about because of her Image Song, and girl with really obnoxious Image Song.
I'm aware I probably sound quite bitter, but if you have a low threshold for anything smartarsed and pretentious try reading/watching this series and not feeling the same way.
Literature Good series but not for everyone.
I like the monogatari series. I've been watching the series for some years now and every time they announce a new season, I always expect quality and I usually get it. The art is almost always of high quality, showing great attention to detail. Seriously, monogatari to me is one of the most beautifully animated series around. You can see that the artists really put their all into it. I love how all the colors are so vivid and how everyone in the series looks distinct. You can tell characters apart and be amazed at how they look.
One of the things that makes monogatari one of my favorite series is the plots and the characters involved. The plots, to me, are very well-thought out and very complex. Just when you think that an arc is going to end a certain way, they throw a curve ball that changes the ending. Monogatari's biggest strength is how unpredictable the plots are and how things won't end the way the viewer expects it to end. I really love how the show takes the viewers' expectations and smashes it to bits.
The characters are another strength to this series. Their interactions with each other are sometimes hilarious, sometimes depressing, and sometimes disturbing. The way they play off of each is great and shows why I am a fan. The way they talk to each other is a mix of wordplay, obscure references, and just plain randomness. It's always a delight to hear these characters talk to each other.
While Monogatari has plenty of strengths, it also has a few weakness. It's not very action-oriented . The series rarely has outright action and instead makes up for it with lots of dialogue. This can turn off people who prefer something more action-packed. Another weakness that the show has a tendency to switch from comedy to drama to horror to romance at drop of a hat. One minute your watching characters making fools of themselves for comedy, the next minute your watching some get their intestines ripped out in very disturbing fight scene. This can be a bit disorientating to certain people, and again I can understand why some people might turned off by this.
While Monogatari might not be the most perfect series ever, it's a great anime series that should be experienced by as many people as possible. It does have its flaws, but to me the strengths more than make up for it. Give it a go if you feel like checking it out.