Story 8/10
Now the story for Root A does not follow the manga; does that bother me? No. The story is pretty simple, but it always has a curve ball ready to throw at you. However this can lead to some unanswered questions and/or mysterious characters with no build-up which I'll talk about later.
Art 8/10
Overall, the show is pretty well animated. The main issue I have is the censoring. They tend to censor the fights in some sort of bizarre way,whether it be through adding random shadows to the scene, or maybe adding a filter to the shot. It can be really frustrating to be watching an awesome fight scene when out of nowhere a random shadow is added to block some wounds/blood on a character. Looking past the censoring though, there are some gorgeous shots throughout the show.
Sound 8/10
Sound is kind of hard to judge for me. I love the atmospheric tacks they play in the background of the scenes, I love the voice actors, I love the opening and ending tracks, there's really not much to complain about. That being said, they ending track seems out of place to me, it seems too upbeat for the ending shots they show.
Character 7/10
This where the show really drops the ball, there is little to no character development in either seasons of this show. That tends to be people's biggest complaint with the show. While it does bother me, I try to look past it. I view this show as a standalone from the manga. I have read the manga the whole way through, which makes me kind of sad that they don't build up characters as well in the show. If you haven't read the manga, you probably wont notice this or be bothered by it as much, but I felt this was the shows biggest flaw.
Enjoyment 10/10
Looking past the shows flaws and just viewing it as a standalone from the manga, its really enjoyable. The fight scenes had me on my toes, the story pulled me in, and the characters...well they tried?? Either way this show is really enjoyable to me. I already plan on buying the blu-ray when its available. I would definitely recommend this to anyone that likes a story based anime.
Overall 8/10
As mentioned above the story is okay, the art is gorgeous, the sound is enjoyable and immerses you into the scenes, and the character development (though lacking)
is still passable, while adding in my own personal enjoyment, leaves the show with a final score of 8/10. I would definitely give this anime a try.
