First, I'd like to say that I'm a big fan of this series and I'm trying my best not to be biased.
Story - 3/10
Quite possibly the worst aspect, in my opinion, is the story. From the first episode, Mekakucity Actors (MCA) feels extremely rushed, the exposition thrown at the viewer may be hard to catch on the first viewing and , and nothing really happens until episode 9. I can imagine it can be really confusing to some viewers, and may choose to drop it rather quickly. However, on some forums that I frequent, I've seen that some viewers find joy in the mystery aspect of the anime's story. For individuals who have read the manga, novels/ watched the PVs you will most likely be very annoyed by the storyline. Many of the facts which were stated within the universe are broken, and there was some obvious retconning which occured to make the story less tragic.
Art - 4/10
When I heard SHAFT was doing the art for MCA, I was ecstatic. I thought the anime would have looked absolutely amazing. As shown by my score for the art, I was extremely disappointed. In many of the scenes that took place within a character's conversation or within the city, the backgrounds were simple, boring and really distracting. There was the odd scene where they showed some really good metaphorical art, and beautiful scenes, however these were mostly present during times when they played the original songs that Jin had written. However there was a scene where use of a 3D modelling system was used, most likely in a rushed attempt to finish it, or maybe because the artist thought it would be artistic, but either way it was was a bit weird as it felt really detached from the anime's art style. For all the bad however, there is some good; A lot of the times the Character Art was extremely well done, and was almost as good as Monogatari's character art, most of the time.
Sound - 9/10
As said before, I am a big fan of this series and as such I really enjoy the original songs which initially ignited the beginning of this story. I honestly have to say, I was blown away by the music. Instead of using a vocaloid to perform the song, they hired professional singers, and boy was it worth it. The singers breathed life into the songs which I thought I had heard many times before, and brought with it a different yet added feeling to the songs. I don't particularly remember any of the background music, but I guess that gives you an idea of any if it were there, isn't really notable, doesn't produce much feeling (which is why I dropped it down to 9). The extremely enjoyed the work of the voice actors and thought they performed their characters really well.
Character - 5/10
The most consistent aspect of the show, was the portrayal and explanations of the characters. The producers were able to explain the basic aspects of each character, their backgrounds, and kept the characters consistent to what that character would actually do in that situation. All of the characters felt different and each had their good side and bad side (Also as I said earlier, some things were retconned from Jin's original work, so this may piss off some of the fans who have been with the characters since the PVs). I really enjoyed the work of the VAs and thought they suited their characters really well.
Enjoyment - 8/10
Whilst there were a lot of bad aspects to the show, I believe that the good shines brighter than the bad, and for some reason it was able to keep me enthralled week after week after week. I guess I just really enjoyed the feeling of the anime, and truly felt pleasant to watch.
Overall - 6/10
In conclusion, I'd say that the problems this anime faced was a rushed schedule and not enough episodes to properly convey the story, given these things, I feel like the anime could have been a huge success and more enjoyable that it has already been. However bad the anime seems, it's a useful tool for any of the dedicated fans of the series, as it helps explain the links between the PVs, characters and helped to explain how the members of the Mekakushi Dan ended their tale (and if you don't like the retconning, then just disregard it and wait for the manga to end).
I'd recommend anyone who enjoyed this series to check out the manga and PVs as you might enjoy those too!
