Orius

>its kind of pretentious It's best not to take anything in the series too seriously. If you continue on with the series, the tone/atmosphere becomes much more intense, so much that it turns comical. It is difficult to explain the way to interpret the series, but it becomes more clear with time.

When I went back and watched Bakemono (i was planning on rewatching the whole series), I was disappointed, it wasn't as good as I was expecting. I wouldn't say to skip it, but definitely don't focus on Bakemono too much. The Hachikuji ark might help you get a glimpse of where its charm lies. The flashing text is very poor in Bakemono, by the way. It becomes much more tolerable and tasteful in later seasons.

I found episode 2 to be quite surprising. Didn't see that coming. The play on subverting the tsundere personality was pretty clever, the way they explained she was aloof and stoic before this episode. And of course, that was also a rather dark backstory. Man. The mythios with the gods and everything also kinda reminds me of Mushishi.