Senjogahara is riviting, easily the most complex and substantive of Araragi's supporting cast. Her presence buoys scenes--and, more significantly, her absence noticeably dulls them. A brilliant, biting, and viciously territorial girl whose deadpan expression only barely contains the roiling sea of insecurity, timidity, and love that consumes her within. Calling her "best girl" would be selling her short.

Though a seemingly small-fry player in Araragi's misadventures and the least outrageous member of his leash of foxes, Tsukihi's charm is in her nuanced turn as her brother's often philosophical inner voice: scolding and perceptive and jealous. Plus, what's not to love about a genteel seductress who spends her time lounging around in a loosely-tied yukata?

Shinobu starts as a curiosity, an unanswered question languishing throughout the start of the show, and becomes perhaps the most important--certainly the most intimate--relationship Araragi has. The disparity between her arrogance and her appearance (which flagrantly rides the line between adorable and uncomfortable) makes her the most organically hilarious character in the intentionally too-clever cast. And she is arguably the only one whose character arc legitmately extends across the whole of the series.

A mystery wrapped in an enigma shrouded in the stuff of nightmare. Ougi Oshino's otherworldly appearance and seeming prescience make her an utter fascination--and completely unsettling to behold.

No, seriously, she's creepy. Like, really f***ing creepy.

And a girl. Probably.

...no, definitely a girl.

Probably.

Hachikuji is Araragi's whimsy, his escape from the responsibilities he has given himself in light of his exposure to the world of weird. As such, she is a walking compilation of running gags and deliberate banter--and a refuge for our protagonist's oft-burdened heart. Her on-screen turns are delightful, endearing, and always perfectly proportioned. 

Araragi's incomparably energetic, deliberately inappropriate, and circuitously chatty kohai is an almost self-aware projection of the fanservice and over-clever dialogue that makes up 69% of the show's DNA, relentlessly trying to trip up our protagonist as though she is testing the limits of what the story will allow. As such, Kanbaru too often appears as a weapon, as much against mortal danger as against the inconveniences of the plot. (Which works better in the novels, where her personality is not in competition with the show's frenetic visuals.)

Oh--Sengoku! That's right, she's in the series too. That is, she's a secondary character so secondary you might forget she's there--until she steps directly in front of you and makes you take notice. Charming and disarming and maybe the most grounded of the girls, even as her personal tales of woe take her on perhaps the most over-the-top (though soundly storiented) journey of them all.

Hanekawa's strength as a character comes from her function rather than her personality. That is, she is fascinating and fun as an extension of Araragi's world, when she is acting as his idealilzed perception of her: an omniscient force of nature. When the story humanizes her, she becomes...dull.

The feisty, physical half of the Fire Sisters and the first hiccup in this harem of weirdos. Her...um, choice dental practices notwithstanding, Karen's standout trait is trying too hard--both in all of her personal pursuits and at being one of the quirky girls in Araragi's orbit. Ultimately, she's just a watered-down Kanbaru who dresses like Bruce Lee.

She's a plot device, mostly--and sadly, too, because she's an interesting one. Like many of the characters in her sphere (or related to the world outside Araragi's town), Ononoki bares most of her personality much too late in the game for her presence to seem like more than just an impedement between us and our circle of familiar faces. But where a new character like Ougi Oshino manages to change the landscape from within, Ononoki is a force from without, less a game changer than the standard of a whole new game...that you have to start playing before you're done with the old one. She's also the only one more contrivedly odd than Karen, even if she does have good reason to be.