For the conflicts that happen throughout the story, the lessons are meant to be learned figuratively. Things that happen within the plot feel satisfying due to unique character actions and interactions that feel realistic and understandable.
There is very little generalization upon any one character besides Sengoku Nadeko. However, this problem is washed away upon Second Season where her character blooms fully. Every other character feels unique, meaning they generally do not feel like other characters. Now although in wording it may sound simplistic and therefore unimpressive, Bakemonogatari handles the difference of characters in believable ways with each character holding many different set of morals, beliefs, knowledge and anything a person may possess. Time is something valuable, and Bakemonogatari uses this time wisely to not only let us bond with the characters, but to let us understand that there exists a critical dimension of personality for its characters.
This is how stories make good characters. Good is not something like a good person though... Good is how realistic & believable a character feels; and to make a character feel real, there must be little room to question the aspects of their lives that we do not see.
This anime is visually unique, possibly one of the most abstract creative artful anime. The animations may not be filled with a lot of doing, but the show may have still-shot images to fit and invoke the atmosphere of the scene.
Music-wise, the soundtracks are extremely pleasant. Not the exciting kind of pleasant, but more so on the relaxation side; you could listen to this music in any generic time, like when you are doing your homework. It's not precisely relaxing like meditative music (although that's possible), but its great for a casual life. And because of this, the music helps greatly to let yourself be at ease while you watch the show.
With those two aspects said and done (Art & Sound), mainly I will review why the writing for the characters of Bakemonogatari are done so well.
The characters aren't simply unique towards one another, but the major uniqueness comes from its realistic and believable characters compared to other anime. You get the sense that these characters more than likely exist; or at least someone out there would be almost identical to them in personality, beliefs and/or ideals. While watching the show, you get to experience and explore the thoughts and actions of the characters, and each and every character is mentioned often enough (whether they are on-screen or not) that it's as if the viewer will understand the sense that those characters are living their own lives, not actually being scripted, even extremely minor characters such as Senjougahara Hitagi's father.
The production's styling of the characters in relevance to the overall story is something special. It's not neither cliche nor forced; we expect to not see the end of any one road/conflict, because the characters themselves have no goal that feels generic like saving the world, defeating evil, etc. Even if that kind of concept is iterated upon certain characters, it is a mindset for the characters (to emphasize their personalities) rather than a plot's purpose. Characters are shown as if they are naturally so, like human beings living their lives without a clear end-goal.
Lastly, the show does well towards its emphasis upon the feelings of characters, more than anything else. That's where its sole objective lies: "How Do These Characters Feel as the story progresses?" And we majorly discover and discover... repeatedly discover more and more that we are wrong. That we are always wrong. Wrong about how we saw these characters in the first place, and that these characters are like real individuals; unable to be judged by our preconceived notions. This is the dimension of character complexity that makes Bakemonogatari a respectable work.
