blah blah blah; obligatory disclaimer goes here: show discussed was rated 18+ in most countries, putting this here so i don't get sued., thank you COPPA ..

The Monogatari Series, published originally in light novel form by Nisio Isin in 2005, adapted into a manga by Oh! Great in 2013, and adapted into an anime by Studio Shaft in 2009 is probably one of the most, if not the most problematic series to come out of Japan. I've consumed the series in all of these formats numerous times, but for the sake of accessibility to the bulk of people, I'll be predominantly highlighting the first season of the anime, for the sake of convenience, and for the sake of spoilers.

After that nightmare of a starting sentence, you're probably wondering what exactly is so bad about this series, and why I'm shilling it to you. I don't really intend to tone down what's wrong about this series, in fact, I'll summarize it in a single sentence. I genuinely think it's impossible to find a series that juxtaposes masterful wriiting with pure degeneracy like the Monogatari series. There's plenty of other problematic shows, but people solely watch them because they're problematic, so they don't exactly fall into the same category as Monogatari.

I could probably go on and on about what's wrong with this series, but quite frankly, there's plenty of people who've done it better than me, including the first 30 seconds of the show, find the show on your streaming service of choice, or elsewhere, and watch the first 30 seconds of Bakemonogatari, I was going to attach it here, but then I realized that my website host probably wouldn't appreciate that, so come back after you do that, or don't, I'm not your dad.

Now, before I expalin what I like about the series (and there's a lot), I feel I should probably give some context as to who I was when I first consumed it, you see, I was the prime demographic for being able to ignore all of the borderline insanity I mentioned above, I was in my early teens. Quite frankly, I probably wouldn't touch the show with a 50 meter pole if I didn't get into the series then, as I don't think I'd be able to turn a blind eye to a lot of the things in the show if I watched it for the first time now.

Okay, okay, the four paragraphs of disclaimers are done, I can get into what I wanted to write this for, now. I think the Monogatari Series has some of the most compelling characters, and easily, the best animation style of any modern anime. This show relies heavily on 25 minute long episodes that are solely comprised of a few monologues, or a single conversation, yet it's because of how fleshed out these characters are that they don't feel boring, it genuinely feels as though you're watching a standard conversation. Studio Shaft, however, not wanting for the viewer to get bored, relies on a visual style unlike any other series (except for other Shaft series) to provide visual stimulation to the watcher.

I obviously can't simply attach a full episode here to demonstrate the style, so instead, here's a trailer to the prequel of the series, which still shares that distinctive visual style:

I honestly would love to ramble on about this franchise for ages, but quite frankly, if what I said didn't make you hate the show, then you should watch it, if it did, then don't. That's basically it. I did what I could to shill it, and also did what I could to scare you away from it. My job here is done, I think..