Mekakucity Actors was a bizarre show for me to sit through. Most of the time, I as wondering if I had accidentally gone to an alternate universe where Monogatari and Kiznaiver are mashed together into one show, but without some key characteristics. Kiznaiver without the melodrama that bogged it down and Monogatari without the witty dialogue and brilliant storytelling through said dialogue. This isn't to say that Mekakucity Actors lacked any of these things completely, but it certainly dialed it way back in those aspects for a more artistic and simple approach to story and conversation between characters. These distinctions feel extremely important because of how similarly the stories of Monogatari Second Season, specifically Nadeko Medusa, and Mekakucity Actors really play out. There's many of the same themes and some story beats even completely mirror each other, which isn't a bad thing in any way, but it just makes Mekakucity Actors feel tough to put on its own pedestal without unfair comparisons.
On an artistic level, I love how Shaft brings the world of Mekakucity Actors to life. The color theming of the characters, while it admittedly isn't a new concept by any means, is really satisfying and helps one keep each individual character straight and distinct in the beginning where many characters and ideas are getting thrown at you from all directions. Beyond just that, the show just oozes that classic Shaft style, with countless quick cuts, odd camera angles, and, of course, the Shaft head tilt. This is another reason why the Monogatari comparisons will never leave this show alone, because the even look the same.
On the music front, Mekakucity Actors has some fantastic insert songs, all arranged by Jin with various accompanying singers. My favorites were the ones made for episode 6, Headphone Actor, but that's for a more personal reason I think, which I'll get to more later on. Otherwise, there's not a whole lot more to say in the sound department. The voice acting is good, the soundtrack is passable, everything checks out as average to good.
Favorite Character: Takane Enomoto
If we're boiling down Mekakucity Actors to its greatest strength, it lies in its aforementioned ensemble cast. Every character is lovable in its own way and the way that they all interact with each other is so fun and makes them seem like actual friends. The real tragedy is that we don't have more episodes to spend with the gang just being friends and bantering with each other. While Mekakucity's dialogue isn't genius level like Monogatari, its more real and relatable, which may be strange for those who come from Monogatari expecting similar mind bending conversations to find them not really present. Another thing I really enjoyed about Mekakucity Actors was the story after the credits on most episodes. It was beautifully drawn and an absolute genius stroke of storytelling to tell the context of the story in a way that didn't break the flow of the overall plot.
On the less great side, the story was somewhat convoluted, especially towards the end, where it felt like the storytelling skipped a few major points just the get to the finale, where everything just kinda....happened. Then everything is fixed and everyone lives happily ever after. It just didn't feel like the setup and the climax got the time it deserved to really make an impact after you spent like ten episodes just learning about the cast, their backstories and how they ended up where they were. I've already mentioned it, but I wish that there had been a few more episodes to really make the cast feel as if they were bonded together and really fighting because they were friends and not just because.
Overall, I feel as if the overarching plot could have been told a lot more tightly and certain characters could have benefited from interacting with other characters, but otherwise, I thought that the story was told about as well as it possibly could have been with the way that it was laid out and put together in the first place. I loved the atmosphere that Mekakucity Actors exuded and really wished that there could have been more of it, that it had played to the creepiness of its setup more and taken more risks to separate itself from Monogatari's shadow, because the unfortunate fact of Mekakucity Actors is that it will forever be living in that shadow through no real fault of its own. Despite that, I give Mekakucity Actors a huge recommend, especially if you're a fan of Monogatari and the Shaft style.