Story 3/10
To call this anime a mystery is a bit of an exaggeration; in mysteries, characters do things like collect evidence, develop theories about the crime, question witnesses, and reveal who the criminal is. This anime's idea of a mystery is this: Araragi meets a girl with a supernatural problem, he asks Oshino how to solve it, Oshino tells him how to solve it, Araragi does that and the episode is over.
For such a simple plot the writer's sure know how to drag it out; every episode is at least a two-parter. What makes these story arcs so unnecessarily long is how about 95% of each episode is just the characters talking, with the other 5% being the supernatural stuff. It isn't even like they're talking about anything important; Araragi and Hachikuji waste so much time arguing about Hachikuji mispronouncing Araragi's name!
Characters 4/10
Araragi is a good character; I like how kind is and how much he wants to help people. Also, he plays a pretty good straight-man as he's always at the receiving end of all the supernatural craziness.
Senjougahara is a tsundere. That is a fact not an opinion because she call herself a tsundere in the first episode. She's also acts like a stereotypical tsundere by constantly insulting Araragi, the guy she supposedly loves, and only acts bitchy to hide her true emotions. However, what I hate about Senjougahara is how she's just a tsundere and there isn't anything complex or unique about her. All she ever does is insult Araragi and tell him how she loves him at the same time. It's pretty bad to have such a bare basic main character!
Oshino is a good character, but I was really disappointed we never learn more about him. Why does he live in an abandoned school? What does he do when Araragi isn't around? How did he and Araragi meet? Maybe these questions will get answered in season 2.
Art 2/10
Now, let me address the elephant in the room: the animation.
It's obvious this anime had a small budget to work with, but there's cutting corners and then there's having scenes that are just a black canvases with the words "animation number: none" at the bottom of the screen which happens regularly throughout each episode. Even stranger then that there's one episode where Araragi and Senjougahara are walking then Araragi's head turns into a live-action cake that a bunch of live-action people eat. Why?
I really don't know if this was some artistic choice by the creators, maybe the cake is a metaphor for something, or if my first assumption was right and the animators had an extremely small budget, but either way the animation is what really ruins the anime most for me.
Overall 4/10
I really don't know why so many people seem to think this anime is a masterpiece; the story was mostly filler with very little mystery, all the characters, except for Araragi, are more like character archetypes then real fully-developed characters, and the animation just seems to cut in and out whenever it feels like it!
If you want to watch a good supernatural mystery, I'd recommend either Ghost Hunt or Garden of Sinners.
