It's approximately a first episode. They continued with a nine-episode ONA series in 2020.

It's okay. I didn't mind it, although I fast-forwarded through the Vanguard-esque card battles. It feels as the target audience includes me, instead of being only for small boys. There's a funny bit when the protagonist's sister finds an (emotionless AI) girl hiding in his cupboard. It's set in a slightly SF near-future, with moving pictures in the newspapers and intelligent AI in human form that fight with you in Zenonzard card game battles. It's fine.

That said, though, the protagonist's an idiot. His friends were bad losers, so he started deliberately losing against them and ended up thinking that winning is bad and it would be wrong to take pleasure in playing. Good grief. Just give your friends a handicap, you plonker. Take out the strongest cards. Don't tell your friends that you're doing this, if their egos are fragile, or maybe even let your friends use those cards instead.

There's also a weird prologue with a witch being burned at the stake in 1666. That'll become important in the 2020 episodes.

It's still basically a toy commercial, but the Zoids look cool. They're robot dinosaurs. I can't dislike that. (Or dinosaur robots, or something. Don't ask me about the details.)

I watched a random episode. Lots of fighting between the Zoids and the human military. It's quite exciting.

The Monogatari series is huge (100 episodes) and has passionate fans, but I find it unwatchable. I like Studio Shaft's visual style, but I can't stomach Nisio Isin's voice. Even his fans describe him as self-indulgent, filling his scripts with pretentious dialogue that doesn't go anywhere. ("Writes as if for the stage" might be a generous way of putting it.) This is bold and unique, I suppose. His work has its own kind of pacing and development.

On the other hand, though... well, here's a quote. This is the protagonist's inner narration after the opening credits:

"The next day. As usual, my sisters would wake me up in a violent manner... or not. My lovely, but foolish, little sisters delivered a declaration. ["Nii-chan, you're not a high-schooler any more! Starting tomorrow, you'll have to wake up on your own!" "That's right! Just as she said!"] Right. Right. As of today, I'm no longer a third-year student of Naoetsu high school. That was the natural state of affairs. Nothing more, nothing less. Yet I felt more at odds than against any oddity I faced so far. There was a clear difference between my recent and my old graduations. The fact that nothing was ascertained about my future. Nothing but uncertainty. By the time I graduated from elementary school, my enrolment in the 701st middle school had been decided. By the time I graduated from the 701st, I had already received a positive response from my dream school, Naoetsu. Basically, graduations so far marked simple shifts in status. To put it another way, moving from one stage to another. This time, it's different. While I have graduated from Naoetsu, I have no idea what will happen to my future self. In more practical terms, as of today, the 26th of March, my university of choice has yet to post any results. My prospects are unknown; my future is uncertain. There's only myself, bereft of status. In my purest form. Not a high school student, nor an examinee. Not an undergraduate, nor a flunker. Of course, I'm not employed either. I'm just Araragi Koyomi, without any labels. If an officer inquired about my occupation, how should I answer? After such a train of thoughts, I laughed. The weird situation made me go weird. I must be feeling sentimental after graduating, nothing more. Let's make the best of this. This short period which, in reminiscence, will seem to have been a fleeting moment. Let's enjoy this statusless existence. And if an officer does ask about my occupation, I can just say, 'I'm Araragi Koyomi. A man who's exactly what meets the eye.' I'd be put in chains. They might call for reinforcements. I might be surrounded and besieged."

He says that while walking though beautiful but meaningless Studio Shaft imagery. This takes a long time. He then gets sucked through his bathroom mirror and talks to his naked little sister, who stands boldly before him without hiding anything. She puts on her bra, slowly, then pauses. She puts on her knickers... and THEN she asks him to leave.

I've always found it hard to sit through more than five minutes of this series.

There's a 2014 anime called Z/X Ignition that no one liked. This is its sequel, sort of, but Ignition was based on a game franchise while this is based on a manga. It looks okay. I'll watch this show.

A girl (Rin) has spent years in a coma in a recovery pod. An older girl (Rigel) wakes her up and asks if she wants to live. Apparently that's related to human-zex (aka. Z/X) partnerships. Rigel set a condition that she wouldn't get turned into a card. There's a girls' school for partnerships, although it has swaggering idiot students who attack each other with knives. Soon, though, schoolgirl knife fights are trumped by an energy weapon bombardment from space.

It probably helps to know nothing about Z/X before you start watching. The worldbuilding is mental. Warring beings from five different dimensions visited Earth and signed a peace treaty. I liked it, though. I like Rin and Rigel. Happy to continue.

Is this series set before or after Z/X Ignition? I'd assumed it was long after, because of this line: "Way long ago, lots of aliens came and attacked, but we're all working together now for a bit, yeah?" Nonetheless, every character here was in Z/X Ignition... yet there's no acknowledgement of that. It smells like a franchise reboot. That would be disappointing, but so be it.

There are bits I disliked. On rewatching, the crazed driving is absurd enough to be annoying. Why does Rigel cling to the outside of the car instead of using the spare seat inside? (The answer to that is clear, but it's distracting.)

I'll still keep watching, though.