Shaft is well known for their different artistic work, and here they really were able to make something with an outstanding visual. Making quick frame cuts to show texts revealing Araragi's thoughts, the close-ups in the girls while they speak, the fluid animation, are only a fraction of all the quality that we see in this show. Many people sure will think this is awkward, but it was what made me keep watching most. The songs are really well used during the scenes, and they don't fall in the cliche OST category.
Another thing that I simply loved is that in each arc we have a different opening with a different song. To make things better, it always reflects the girls’ personality and the feeling of the arc that we will watch.
The characters are all interesting, with really different personalities and making you care for them. Obviously, the girls represents all the fan services someone would expect: Tsundere, Timid, Athletic, Moe etc.. Well, fan service is really massive here, if you like it, you will have plenty of stuff to satisfy yourself. I really don't like fan services, but Shaft manages to make it in some interesting ways... like close ups in the characters lips and hands, to make us feel better what Araragi is feeling.
But... why 7? Here is why: It is REALLY slow paced, and in a bad way. Mushishi is also slow paced, but I fucking love that anime... the problem with Bakemonogatari is that it is full of dialogues, like... all the time. And worse: they make a bunch of jokes involving cultural jokes, and a lot of puns with their alphabet and Japanese speaking/writing, making for us a lot more difficult to pick up the conversations and enjoy them. Oh yeah, most of the time the conversations have nothing to add with the plot, being only casual or pervert talking. Most of the time it's just boring, and if the problem was only the fact of having a bunch of dialogues, I wouldn't enjoy Tarantino's movies the way I do.
Overall, Bakemonogatari is artistically incredible, but the massive dialogues makes it difficult to keep the pace, and the inside jokes makes it even more difficult for us to enjoy the show. But it is worth a try.
