To be honest, the series didn't catch me til about halfway through. I remember when i first tried to watch it there was that silly panty shot and a bunch of stuff happening. I just turned it off because I thought it was gonna be some generic fanservice harem series. But no, it wasn't. It was a very trippy generic fanservice harem series, but then I realized it wasn't generic anymore.
What this series excels at is keeping up a very fast pace. Bakemongatari is a lot of things, but one thing it isn't is boring. There's actaully a bunch of nuances you'd find if you went back per episode, but that's not where you can give it credit. The fun is in trying to figure out what's happening when it's on the fly. I mean, if you watch it on TV, you usually aren't gonna keep hitting rewind (well usually...) It's not an easy series to watch, and we wouldn't want to have it any other way.
That being said, the series is also hard to watch for the wrong reasons at times, and that would be due to Shaft either being cheap, irresponsible or just unable to keep up a schedule. Even with the bluray versions that I watched, the animation is frequently nonexistent and sometimes I feel that it gets too gratuitous almost like Shinbo's going HEY LOOK IM SO COOL. It becomes hit and miss like every other Shaft show I've seen.
The sound is also fairly hit and miss. I noticed some rather high energy BGM during the tense scenes, though often the BGM is droning and repetitive, which can hurt the enjoyment of the long conversations they have. The OP/EDs tend to be good-- Staple Stable being the best, and the others are decent except Mayoi episode OPs which are just like GAH GTFO.
The most outstanding thing about the sound is the voice acting, which is consistently top tier, as opposed to the series itself. Chiwa Saito did an amazing job in giving Hitagi a sexy voice, and God knows it takes every bit for me to be able to stand her. To a lesser degree this applies to Kana Hanazawa and Nadeko.
The characters were probably the hardest part for me to enjoy. I just didn't like any of them that much. Koyomi gets a few points here and there for being funny and dynamic, certainly an above average male lead with a thing for lolicon; but man every time he tries to molest Mayoi I just facepalm. So he wasn't bad but I wasn't especially interested. Hitagi is probably my hugest barrier to enjoying this series. I simply have no interest in her and incidentally enjoyed the half where she wasn't prominent in, and yes before you guys get the pitchforks I understand that she is vital to the story and both her and Koyomi develop through their interactions through others. But the problem is that she just feels like such a friggin black hole of a character in which she turns everyone else [the cast] that happens to be nearby into mindless worshippers. Well, not exactly, but she definitely has people that seem to eventually revolve around her. You'll have conversations going, and then Senjoughara this and Senjoughara that like ZOMGZ she is so awesome. Any fanservice moment with her causes me to cringe. In the end, I feel like the show's attempts to shove her in my face ultimately backfired. It tried too hard. She's also a fucking bitch. Yes she has reasons and eventually mellows out a bit more but I just don't buy her depth enough to grudgingly give her a pass like say Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Episode 12 made a fine effort in this regard though, almost.
Mayoi and Kanbaru are great supporting characters that tend to bring a large amount of comedy with them. I feel that they are the light to the show, though Kanbaru definitely lost points once I realized she's just there for fawn over Hitagi. Interestingly, Kanbaru actually shines in Nadeko's arc-- props must be given to the show's concern for continuity. Naedko and Tsubasa.... gah. Tsubasa worked out somewhat at the end, but still too boring to really keep me interested. Nadeko appears to be a fanservice prop, and I just wonder why she's in the show. Yes, she technically had a plot element and the plot itself wasn't too bad, but I was focusing on the other people rather than her.
Oh, and FAQ guy Oshino. Yea, he's cool
Still, the show excelled in being funny when it wanted to be, and provides stories of a hidden layer that the lazy probably won't get. It's unfortunate that in the end that I couldn't give a damn about this cast, and just found them to be not as deep as the stories they were involved and the presentation was just too wonky at times to keep me hooked. Still, they are amusing so 7/10 it is. Perhaps when Shinbo does a little less drugs and they maintain a proper schedule then I will truly be able to enjoy it.
But, I'm here for Nisei, so it was worth it.
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