Bakemonogatari ep. 1 and 2 -

Pros: Eye-exploding arthouse animation; snappy, entertaining dialogue; hilarious meta; TAKAHIRO SAKURAI.

Cons: Wants to be a modern-day Mononoke for fanboys, but isn't nearly as clever at it. Tbh, though the pretty animation and rapid-fire dialogue somewhat distracts you from the fact, it's not particularly clever at all. I feel a bit like it's trying to pass itself off as artsy, when it's really... not.

(Also, while it's really neither here nor there to me, some people will have issues with the fanservice. There's rather a lot of it.)

Eh. If Oshino remains an important character throughout all the arcs, I will keep watching. Sakurai, JUST. KEEP. TALKING.

(Seriously, I didn't even recognize him at first - his voice sounded so different as Oshino - but then it got to the part where they were going to pray to the god and he was asking Senjougahara all those questions and it sounded just like the Medicine Seller interrogating the victims of a mononoke-haunting. ♥_♥ It's like hypnosis, I simply can't resist...)