Review of Bakemonogatari

_Bakemonogatari_ won my heart with Senjougahara's dialogue and got me to tolerate its idiosyncrasies like an entire magic system apparently based on lame puns and folk etymologies; I then got to episode 12, and I had forgotten just how daaawwwwesome it was and I loved the series all over again. What really killed me is when the ED starts playing and you realize the lyrics were describing that scene all along! Such a great episode to end the series that I founding myself wondering if I even wanted to finish the series - maybe I should just drop it at episode 12. (Ultimately, I'm gladI finished it so I didn't continue to labor under mistaken notions about the vampire 'charisma'. Interesting ending; I was not surprised that Oshino left, since it was very in the _Tsukihime_ vein of _Bakemonogatari_ and there were plenty of hints that Oshino was 'teaching' Arararagi, but the Shinobu/cat thing is a little mysterious - she was trying to force him to call on Shinobu?)