Bakemonogatari

I really need to stop interpretting tashiro's comments of "have you watched X" as meaning he's watched more than a single episode himself or is strongly recommending it.

I decided to give the anime series Bakemonogatari an episode to see what I thought. When the first little story continued into the second episode, I watched that too, and apparently that's more than he saw. Heh.

The concept has some reasonable potential - modern world with lots of supernatural stuff in the shadows, including a main character who has recovered from being a vampire. That's... really about all I can give it, though. Nothing really drew me in.

Now, I'm not above appreciating sexiness in entertainment, but opening episode one with a panty shot that had nothing to do with anything and the second episode with a shower scene just felt gratuitous and pointless. The visual style (or perhaps "direction") bugs me almost to the point of headaches, frequently flitting between different points of view or close-ups of a character's eye or some abstract image that might thematically be related to the conversation in the scene or brief images of text that go by too fast to read most of the time. I'm also unclear on how serious I should be taking a setting in which someone can produce copious amounts of office supplies as improvised weapons while not even eliciting a comment.

I'd need to see evidence of some really appealing characters or plot for me to watch more of the series, and it just isn't there. Pass, thanks.

Addendum: Well, I feel like an oddity. Most of the reviews I've seen after looking seem to praise the series in a lot of ways, including artistry, while I find it barely watchable. I guess that's opinions for you.