For whatever reason, I've really wanted to go back and watch the Monogatari series. I haven't seen it in a long time. When I first watched it, there were only two seasons done. I was high on Penguindrum and Utena at the time, so I felt like I had to watch it. I recall it really making an impact on me, in the best and worst ways. Since then I've done a lot of living and feel like I'm seeing it with new eyes. I feel like I understand more about it, get more out of it than just being a profoundly trippy ecchi show. I've made it a decent way in, about through half of all of there is. Not gonna lie, as awesomely-cinematic and occasionally even brilliantly-done as the fan service is (toothbrush scene, as awkward and degenerate as it is, for instance, also has serious creative merit,) it wears me down.
I mean, most of this is narrated by Araragi... so I kind of take his gross actions as a self-reflection on parts of himself he doesn't like. Whenever you see him on screen, you are seeing the person he sees himself as... it's actually important in different arcs, he literally looks different depending on his role with regards to which character in which story. You understand things differently when you realize that the camera gaze isn't yours, or for you, but rather Araragi's gaze. It's showing you what he sees and looks at, how he imagines things to be in his horny, childish brain. The shame is always on him in those scenes, the female characters he sexually harasses and objectifies always seem to come out of those exchanges on top and it doesn't really take away from their characterizations too much. Like, they are still respectable people. They aren't necessarily infantilized, they aren't dumb moe-blobs. To me, they're the real protagonists - you root for THEM, not Araragi. You understand and sometimes relate to their ethos and pathos, while Araragi is almost intentionally un-relatable in so many of his actions. Araragi is kind of my least favorite character. All of the girls are far more interesting than him and his gropey ways. Sometimes I think a large portion of the fan service is just part of the meta-commentary. But... without going too far into it "Cuties" is also a commentary... with the ability to be enjoyed by the targets of its own critiques. I still am not the biggest fan of it... Araragi is still likable to people who actually enjoy those fetishes and the show doesn't exactly do much to punish or dissuade the fantasies. It makes all of that stuff seem much more normal and harmless than it could ever be.
Like, even as a commentary or a writing device, lolicon and siscon are still gross to me. It's still a show I don't feel like I could mention to a girl I am dating (even if she says she watches anime,) or even the wrong friends. It smells like sticky otaku pandering. Don't get me wrong, I think it makes some earnest attempts to dunk on otaku pandering, even just in the absurdity of the presentation. But to do that, it's still got to take you to the ecchi. I cite the toothbrush scene again. It's almost impressive, how convincingly erotic that is for the characters... like, the whole build up and framing really makes you understand how that feels, for them. To any normal person it's foreign, and profoundly uncomfortable. But it only hits like that because they do such a good job of setting the tone. I appreciate that about it. A lot of ecchi shows will just throw a panty shot anywhere but in Monogatari it nearly always feels more like a part of the whole scene, if that makes any sense. Like, it's not just done just because in that moment they felt like they needed to hit an ass-shot quota. Those moments are instead used as devices for framing or context. It makes them a lot more bearable for me than they would be otherwise. This is Shinbo writing... literally everything has to be symbolism
I will say, the series is still one of a kind, fan service and all. Outside of that nagging component, I think the visual design still kills a large chunk of shows being made today... especially in the genres Monogatari portrays. The visual design is simplistic - almost sterile, and minimalistic in it's use of texture (relying more on tones and geometry,) but not lacking in diversity or willingness to break signaling. It's max aesthetic and not everything is as meaningful as it wishes it was, but because of that nearly every frame is visually pleasing and striking. It's a very flexible style that allows the visual conveyance to be all over the place, it can take you on a ride through different forms of visual symbolism as conversations go, often being more interesting (and even more informative) than the conversations themselves. A lot of what you're meant to understand about the characters and interactions is baked into the visuals... it really pushes the envelope on visual communication in animation and I really like that about it. I feel like it does a lot more to try to leverage the medium as a whole in just how visually expressive it consistently is. You can get hung up on some of the dialogue... a lot of times that even has red-herrings which juxtopose against a lot of the visual messaging and in there are puzzles you can solve before the plot catches up to you. There's a lot of intentional awkwardness and mixed signals, and even a lot of the fan service is tied up in that.
