Are you my clone? Our opinions are the same.
I take it you didn't like the series? :) I thought it "interesting", and some of the character dynamics worked well. The one character I didn't like at all was Nadeko. Quite why she is so popular escapes me.
Of course, the series has its faults, not the least of which is the overt sexualisation of some of the younger female characters. Shinobu I can understand, as she is an adult, centuries-old vampire, but the treatment of Nadeko is plain creepy in places. Araragi's behaviour in some scenes involving the younger females doesn't help matters. However, his relationship with Senjogouhara is oddly endearing, and works well.
On the whole, I enjoyed the series, though I recognise it's not to everyone's taste.
Did you watch the second season? If you didn't like the first the second, but it's far superior and would at least explain to you why people like Nadeko.
Tastes might differ. While I'm not a great fan of Bakemon (I prefer Medaka Box from the same author), I must say that in my opinion (and many of my friends') Bake is actually interesting to watch.
While, personally, I fell asleep multiple times while trying to watch Natsume. Yes, it's heartwarming and good, a fairytale without bad guys, just hearts, love, sunlight and rainbows, but watching it for more than 1 episode is sleep-inducingly difficult.
Some similes are unexpected. So, you suddenly compare "Natsume and Bake" with "the sweet, innocent church-going girl (not really a 'church' but you get the idea)" and "a dirty prostitute."
If you feel the need to compare anime to people, I'd rather say that "Bake" is having sex with a professional prostitute, while "Natsume" is having sex with a.. VERY underage church-going schoolgirl. Probably innocent. And sweet.
(I totally agree that even starting to compare those 2 titles is wrong, due to how fundamentally different they are.)
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Is there a kami of 'SHUT THE F**K UP' anywhere around?
I personally feel the point of certain reviews isn't that you agree or disagree with them, but that you can see where the reviewer is coming from. I bring this up as I'm about to say something very negative about a series a lot of people like.
I detest Bakemonogatari. It's Mushi Shi without any subtlety, xxxHolic without any class or depth, Natsume Yuujinchou without any charm, Mononoke without any shock (that isn't superficial). Comparisons between Natsume and Bake are especially insulting, that's like comparing the sweet, innocent church-going girl (not really a 'church' but you get the idea) with a dirty prostitute.
So what does this series offer instead? A bunch of pointless dialogue that only exists to make the author look like a smartarse, and fanservice. Oh, and now Shinbo's typical forced, attention-seeking, not-actually-eccentric visual style.
You may have heard this series' dialogue praised to high heaven. Easily its most overrated aspect, as practically every conversation boils down to this same formula:
"Hey, I'm a bigger smartarse than you!" "No you're not" "Yes I am" "No you're not" "Yes I am" "No you're not" "POP CULTURE REFERENCE!"
Speaking of which, I'm surprised nobody ever says "I was frozen today!", it'd fit in so well. Save the self-referential stuff for the wikis, will you?
So if you think watching a bunch of smarmy brats trying to one-up each other constitutes fine entertainment, you'll love this series. Oh but they all have 'sad backstories', whch apparently makes up for all of it. Er, no it doesn't, they're just Nisio's way of saying "Ah, now you have to like this character, regardless of how annoying they are, because if you don't you must be a heartless jerk!".
Said characters can be summed up as: Kyon rip-off, guy who pales in comparison to Yuuko or Nyanko-sensei, "self-aware" tsundere, "self-aware" class rep, Yami "self-aware" class rep, offensive lesbian stereotype, girl people only care about because of her Image Song, and girl with really obnoxious Image Song.
I'm aware I probably sound quite bitter, but if you have a low threshold for anything smartarsed and pretentious try reading/watching this series and not feeling the same way.