The journey of my attitude towards Monogatari as a whole is very similar to that of Garden of sinners. When I first dipped my toes into them, I recoiled. I couldn’t go further than a single dip. I didn’t dislike them because they were bad, unlike those shitty isekai’s out there, I didn’t like them for how brash they were. They were confusing, they didn’t have a coherent and easy for follow narrative, and most of all, they demanded me to pay attention and piece the story together. To some, this kind of introduction works like wonders, to me, it was screaming boredom.
However, as time went on and I immersed myself more into the medium, I started seeing patterns. I noticed that even if a story is at first oblivious, there’s always a point, if the story wills it to be so, the characters and the world starts making a coherent narrative that isn’t as demanding as it originally was. Allowing you to enjoy the connections and the drama, rather than focusing all your energy into seeing past the translucent veneer wrapped thickly around the premise. Case in point the otherworldly disarray of the Fate universe.
After coming all the way to the final sequence I can say that Monogatari is not a show I like. It’s not even close to WHAT I like or expect in an anime-the monotonous color scheme, the blatant disregard of normal storytelling. But it sure left an impression, one that’ll stick with me for a very very long time.