Spoilers! (kinda)
✧ Introduction/the story
Bakemonogatari, A story of a guy that casually meets different types of girls throughout the episodes. Coincidentally, all of those girls are possessed by a curse that resembles an animal.
✧ The characters
The protagonist is a guy that wants to help every single girl he meets, even if he met her only 5 minutes ago, just like your typical self-insert protagonist. Like a male lead in every harem out there he is bland, boring, and doesn't know what to do with his life.
The story just introduces female characters that are all very archetypal, but they want to "hide" this fact through the pseudo-intellectual dialogue. Most of the time, their role is diminished to flirting with the protagonist, adding nothing to the typical formula.
I might add that the "jokes" between the protagonist and the little girl, Mayoi, are very disgusting and uncomfortable. I'm not going to describe all of the girls because they are forgettable due to their lack of charisma and originality. You can describe them in one sentence, except for the protagonist's girlfriend, Senjougahara. She's kind of memorable thanks to her attitude towards the protagonist and because she has the most screen time out of all the females. But she is not an important character after all.
✧ The script
Unless the dialogue is made with a bit of effort, it feels pretentious and unrealistic. It's not intellectual, it's not deep, it only tries to make you think that they are saying something smart, but if you analyze it properly, it makes no sense at all and most of the time it doesn't add anything to what's going on. This is just an attempt to "not to be like the other harems with empty dialogue and bland characters", but it ends up being almost the same at the end. Why? I'm going to explain it.
The story is divided in mini-arcs in which the protagonist meets and interacts with every cursed girl, conveniently, every girl ends up having a "crush" on the protagonist, so the show becomes a harem really fast, but there is no plot, there is no sense of progression, there is not a specific goal that would drive the plot.
✧ Production values
The art is amazing and very versatile, but most of the time it feels like an ornament more than an element that would complement the actual story. Sometimes the art has nothing to do with the story or the characters at all. This, plus the dialogue, which is not as smart as everyone says, are the most recognizable elements about this anime, and that's why it's loved so much.
The seiyuus are very good, they fit the characteres very well. The music is not that memorable and sometimes it feels repetitive, but it's apreciated how they made one opening for each arc.
The ecchi shots sometimes feel completely out of place, ruining the atmosphere, and the same goes for the jokes. One moment they are trying to sound smart (and failing miserably) and after two seconds the conversation changes its focus to panties or "touches". This all happens without a proper transition and I can't take what they are saying seriously because the fast change in tone overwhelmes me.
✧ Conclusion
Bakemonogatari is try-hard slice of life harem that wasted all its potential to be meaningfully different by staying in its comfort zone and the show ended up being mediocre.
