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This is such a phenomenal show, and I highly enjoyed my rewatch of it. The animation style is gorgeous with snappy dialogue and character interactions to match that tempo. It’s packed with cultural references and wordplay every minute. That’s the one part of the show I didn’t understand at all, but more props to you if you have the knowledge to pick up on it.

You can’t get into the girls without spoiling details and all the arcs, but there are many very likable heroines in this show. Their feelings towards Araragi are believable. And the main girl herself, Senjougahara, is the perfect choice ... for him. This is one of the best harems around, and it wouldn’t surprising if it influenced many later anime.

My main and only hang up is the specific… “fetish elements.”Fanservice itself is fine, but there are some very borderline moments that taint an otherwise great show. Araragi is a great protagonist, but jesus. These Diddy moments I’m talking about kind of ruin my view of him and the show’s more wholesome elements. But it’s better just ignored. I hate mentioning it, but it’s necessary to bring up for any wary of such things.

Moving on from that dour note, Monogatari is a whole universe of winding shows and arcs to follow, but you can stop here if wanted. Bakemonogatori bookends its season very nicely and ties up most of its plot details. As a stand alone show, it also works well. I do intend to watch more.

Upon rewatching this for the first time since probably 2019, I’m proud to say it holds up as well as expected. Being a few years wiser and well removed from high school at this point, this definitely doesn’t hit as hard as it used to and seems much more angsty than I remembered. But… Hachiman and the show are intentionally written that way. It’s a coming of age story after all and from the perspective of a doomer teenager who still has a lot to learn.

So what we get over the course of the season is him gradually coming out of his shell and ... learning to become a more sociable person, even if he still remains quite stuck in his ways. Snafu isn’t much of a romance show in this first season, but mostly a comedy slice of life. Which is perfectly fine. It’s slow paced, but deliberately lined up to have bigger things happen later on.
What we establish here is the main cast of characters and their quirks. There are definitely lesser characters who are stereotypes and not with much depth.

For example, we get a token Chūnibyō and a Fujoshi, who are effective comic relief but not necessary at all. The core characters are very good though. Both romance leads, Yuki and Yui are very likable and have surprising layers to them in this first season. Their optimist and pragmatic outlooks serve for a very interesting contrast and both have great chemistry with Hachiman.

He’s a refreshing protagonist because he’s relatable and highly flawed. He’s also not a blithering idiot or a doormat like most Harem MCs. I do have some minor criticisms of the first season, but frankly they’re not worth mentioning. Great first season.
I’m looking forward to seeing the secondary cast fleshed out and actual romance.

Found this through an Interest Stack on here (user-created lists) called “Watch with the homies for a laugh.” So… right off the bat I had no expectations. And no worries, this show doesn’t deserve them. One saving grace is the short length. If it were multiple OVAs I would drop this.

Anyways, so where to start? The story is a rom-com with an aloof nobody protagonist and some hot chick he probably doesn’t deserve. She literally wakes up in his bed and wants to bang him. Despite all the rampant nudity and how old this is, there is generally no actual objectionable content. It’s mostly ... harmless comedic fluff, and (thankfully) has no weird rapey shit or something else you might expect from such a lewd show. In that way, it’s a gag/sex comedy very much in the style of Ranma (but without all the elements that make Ranma a classic.)

There is substance to the plot…maybe? Most of it is the protagonist getting hassled and stopped from meeting the girl again. This leads to some lame action and tension, with nothing much happening. It’s all fluff to pad the run time.

Without spoiling the details, all is well and they get together at the end. It’s a cute little OVA, but none of it makes any sense nor is it good. Some lame City Pop music is shoehorned in to sell CDs too, so if you want to buy a $90 copy on Discogs, go ahead. No clue why this was made but it’s a curious time capsule. It’s far from the worst anime I ever watched, however it didn’t need to be 40 minutes. Let alone 20.

It’s pretty hard to specify what makes Lain so damn good without vague spoiling, so that’s unfortunately going to be an obligatory part of this review. Lain is first and foremost one of those watches that falls into the late night category. It’s dark, atmospheric, provocative, experimental. Prime Adult Swim material.

Lain depicts a world of cyberpunk dystopia where technology is king. Everybody is cold and distant, having lost touch with the real world. It’s kind of scary how timeless and ever present this world feels even though it’s rooted in the 90s. A mark of any well written social commentary is its ability to ... be relevant long after. The existentialism and philosophy embedded give this story many layers, and I’m not going to sit there and pretend to get it all. But it left me with many feelings and questions, something that classics like 2001 do.

In the first half you’ll be struggling to unravel the mystery and comprehend the situation. The second half is the unraveling, and the meat of the plot. Without going too in detail, I will say it has a happy ending. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. It is a taxing watch in many ways, but if you get past the tough exterior there’s an amazing show inside.

Easily one of the most impressive narratives and experiences I’ve seen in my 10 years of watching anime.