Story: 7/10: The story is great, and it has the same Monogatari feel as usual. Its basically an origin story for Araragi and it delivers on that. I don't want to give away any plot details so I won't, because I think you should watch these movies for yourself. The pacing is actually very good, which surprised me because I expected something very sluggish after watching Bakemonogatari, but it surprised me by keeping me engaged for the whole time. It has some weird edits and cuts that can be expected because its basically what makes this series unique. It only got in the way of my enjoyment a few times but overall pretty good story pacing. The story is filled with dialogue once again, which is no fault, just sorta a quirk of the series. It has some action scenes that can very violent thrown in. And when I say violent, I mean violent, like lots of decapitation, ripping off limbs, lots and LOTS of blood, and one scene of a vampire eating a person's corpse.
The action is very good, but can feel like its repeating with Araragi starting off cool, then freaking out and running away like a coward, then beating the opponent with anger or some sort of primal fury. The relationship between Hanekawa and Araragi is fantastic, I found myself loving the interactions between the two. But one problem, I have no idea how they weren't in love or had some sort of affectionate feelings for eachother. To be honest, at the end I was rooting for Hanekawa to end up with Araragi instead of Senjougahara but that didn't happen.
In terms of the story making sense, it has some problems, like the fact that Araragi went missing for like 2 months with the only person seeing him being Hanekawa. Just baffles me that his sisters or parents didn't call the cops or freak out after a week of him not being absent from their lives.
Art: 8/10: The art is somehow weirder than Bakemonogatari or the other monogataris. It has some weird Cgi and photo realistic backgrounds, environments and objects that stick out like a sore thumb which really disrupt your inmersion. I found myself often annoyed with how Araragi, a 2-d character was awkwardly put in a 3-d environment. Some random objects were real images that they put in and almost give it a stop motion feel which really tripped me out. Most of the time, the 2-d mixes very well with the 3-d, and it's one of the examples of good Cgi in Anime but there's always some things that just don't look right at all.
The characters designs are clever and subtle, for example I completely missed that when Araragi became a vampire, his little Alfalfa looking thing disappeared, but when he turns into Pseudo-human it appears again. For some reason, Hanekawa is oddly sexualized in the 3 movies, like lots and lots of jiggling boobs, panty shots, her giving her panties to Araragi, letting him "cop a feel". As he call its, which eventually didn't happen because he was too embarrassed. But it doesn't get in the way of most things. The way the characters move are all great, with faces that are very realistic (in terms of how it moves and works). I did notice that one shot was repeated many times, that being a close up of Araragi's pupil narrowing and then opening.
When characters are moving fast, the animation style changes into a more sketchy and rough design, but their moving so fast that you can barely see it. The fights are all well choreographed with characters moving very smoothly and fluently. One of the running cycles was very very janky but it was only shown for a total of 6 seconds so not that big of a deal.
Sound: 6/10: It's pretty average in terms of sound effects. Nothing really stands out as super amazing. Everything adds up and its fit. Its just it really isn't special. The music equally isn't really special, with the usual Monogatari soundtrack in place. I think the best part about it would be the voice acting. The voice actors did a superb job. They capture every kind of emotion and change in voice that the characters are going through. The voices also differentiate between each other which makes it very easy to know which character is speaking when we don't get to see their lips moving, unlike other series (looking at you One Piece).
Characters: 8/10: Like previously stated, the relationship between Hanekawa and Araragi is fantastic. Each character interaction between them feels genuine and real, which just ups the quality of the anime ten fold. This also brings me to the Character Interactions. They are great, and they stick to the characters very well. Its mostly made up of Character Interaction so it can be expected to be good. Each emotion feels real and realistically leads to something that would be expected. Very good in that department.
Enjoyment: 7.8/10
Overall: 8/10
