Art: The art was, in my opinion, not bad. The character designs were true to the manga, I didn't notice any particularly huge problems with inappropriate scenery or just general sloppiness. However, this anime was based on a very violent, sword-fight laden manga, but there were few fights scenes to get overly excited about. The fight scenes that were shown were brief and unsatisfying. For example, if Manji is fighting someone, the beginning of the fight will be shown, then they'll either switch to another character who is watching the battle or even to someone completed unrelated to the current battle. Then suddenly, oh! there's the end of the battle. It was completely unsatisfying. The gore was toned down tenfold.
Sound: This was by far the worst part of the anime. If you like the opening theme, you'll love the sound. But whoever sings this song, her voice just grinds the gears in my head. And you'll hear her pipe up at the most random and inappropriate times. Sad? You'll hear her. Happy? Sounds the same as sad.
Character: Overall character development, I'd say was average. Despite reading the manga, I didn't leave this show feeling super connected to any of the characters. There was room for improvement, but it really could have been worse too. I noticed a couple moments that were glaringly out of character from the manga, but I tried to give some leeway.
Enjoyment: It was slow. There were times when I could have easily fast-forwarded several parts and not have missed any plot. One would think that by the twelfth episode, the penultimate episode, some sense of suspense would be building, or at least some problem that could feasibly end the series and/or set up a second season. Nooooope. Episode twelve left me with little desire to see the last episode. The slowness combined with the hideously poor sound and mediocre characters left me with little satisfaction at the end of this series.
Overall: If you haven't read the manga, you may enjoy this series. It is my opinion that if you were a fan of the manga, you should avoid this entirely. Seriously, you won't laugh at how bad it is--it'll just make you sad. It made me sad. So very sad.
