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Monogatari has two sides to it. One side is a thrilling, genre-switching visual and narrative treat, full of symbolism about people, their relationships with one another, the complications of those relationships, ethics of heroism, and more. For instance, Karen Bee argues that in the face of a world where the supernatural is very real, that the most dangerous thing is a middle-aged Japanese salaryman that gave up on life and morality. Tsubasa Cat shows the poisonous side of love, and even the very first arc is pretty straightforward about the cost of cutting yourself off from emotion to protect yourself from the pain of your ... past.

However.

There's the other side. You know the side. Anyone that's actually reading this review knows the side I'm talking about. The side where Monogatari gets weird, and gets fetishey. The side that Nisemonogatari in particular made infamous, the side that hides in the whole franchise but is most obvious here. It doesn't step over the line for any thematic reasons in Nisemonogatari, it does it because some sweaty weirdo somewhere is going to get off to it. This is enough to destroy the entire franchise, let alone just Nisemonogatari, in some people's eyes and to be frank, I agree with them. It really doesn't matter how deep your themes are if people can't watch five minutes of it without Koyomi groping a primary schooler, or without Koyomi and his sister doing...whatever that was about. It's such a problem that discussions of these elements often overtake discussion of everything else more compelling. I can't blame you if you don't want to watch Monogatari for these reasons. Seriously, I won't even implore you to "try to grit your teeth" or to "ignore" them, not only because you can't, but because you shouldn't. They are abhorrent elements that drag this series down from being an interesting thematically rich treat to a gross wet dream forced on me.

Despite all of that I still love this series, I really do. But if you don't, or even if you hate it...believe me, I understand more than you might think.