I'm just watching it now. Whatever I was expecting, it wasn't this. I guess this is a slice-of-life with gods, ghosts and demons.
I LOVE how stylised the graphics are. This is a visual feast for anyone into contemporary design and composition. It's a showcase of Japanese art, with ancient, traditional, hyper-modern and international elements detectable. I especially loved the snake shrine episode graphics, with all the bamboo. I love the post-modernesque blank cells that get named, along with real-film cutting, different artwork style cutting, and use of subliminals at the start of episodes. I have to watch every episode with my finger hovering over the pause button.
Come to think of it, the short sub-stories are a great shot of Japanese traditional/historical culture injected into the present. Fun AND educational.
The female lead Hitagi SenjÅgahara is gorgeous to watch, and very interesting. She may be an unsocialised b**ch, but at least she acknowledges that to Arargi. She says such outrageous things. The male lead Koyomi Araragi is handsome and appealing, if not visually in the same league. But his personality is wonderful. Who can go past someone with such a kind and generous heart?
I just watched episode 12, and that scene of the two of them together on the blanket watching the stars was unbelievably touching. The build up of the series, getting them to the point of finally opening up so sweetly to each other, while having serious cause to maintain their physical restraint with one another for the meantime was such well calculated scripting. I cried.