TL;DR: If you like unintentionally funny and have a good knowledge of tropes, you can probably enjoy this a fair bit. The characters have some incredible stupidity going on, which can actually end up being charming. Eventually, it can grow on you as well. If you don't like that stuff? It won't have much to offer you.
Cerberus is not a great show, it's not even a good show.
It is, however, a hilarious show.
Now I'll be up front. If you're looking for a good story, with good production values, excellent characters, world building, deep meaning, and original twists then....
None of that is to be found here. (Maybe check out Re:Zero instead)
Cerberus uses a pretty much by the numbers hero's journey comboed with a revenge story, makes use of pretty stereotypical character archetypes without much thought as to development or characterization, has quite a generic fantasy world (with an odd fascination with crystals) and tropes and twists pulled right out of all kinds of other fantasy and mystical shows. It's not original, and quite frankly I can't argue with most of the reasons people give it a 3-5.
However, in exact opposite to other reviews, I think the show actually has a very weak first episode and gets better from there.
So you start off in the first episode with a generic, sneering edgy protagonist who seems like he's going to be overpowered and played up like a badass. He's got a giant sword, the camera actually focuses on his glinting sorta-jewelry and people are reluctant to pick fights with him/are intimidated by his presence. In other words, a typical power fantasy.
And oddly enough, if you like those type of power fantasy protagonists then you should stop watching Cerberus *immediately*.
By the next episode, it's revealed that the main character is actually *incredibly* incompetent. He barely can wield his sword right, he loses to slimes all the time during training and he can't keep his shit together for five minutes. Yet, beautifully, he still keeps CLAIMING to be a badass. He does this for a good portion of the series, and all the other characters recognize the immediate discrepancy between his bark and his bite.
Headed up by this clumsy asshole, the party consists of a greedy, whiny lizard dude, a sneaky titty-cat girl, a put-upon blue-haired conan (who serves as the protagonist's mentor), a straight-man boy thief, and a wandering moron with a female voice actress so bored that the character sounds like she's on tranquilizers for the whole shebang (or maybe the VA was).
These fools are the only ones that can stop The Villain(tm) and his quasi-competent raging shithead loli sidekick.
Hilarity ensues.
The show seems to waffle between taking itself seriously thus generating humour from the incompetent flailing of the protagonist as he tries to stumble his way through the (honestly not that challenging) plot, or seeming to know damn well what it is and having the other characters point out and make fun of the protagonist's nearly endless flaws. If you're ready to laugh right along with and at the show, and if you get a perverse kick out of crappy tropes, you'll like this. It's one of those so bad it's good things...for a while.
See, what the show accidentally does with all the character's incompetence is successfully make him the underdog, which makes it kinda easy to root for him. The other thing is that the characters, while generic, aren't really bad people either. As one of my friends said, that means that the protagonist might grow on you like some kinda purple haired fungus, and his companions as well.
Suddenly, you're into the story and realize you're actually engaged with Seisen Cerberus of all things.
Of course, your mileage will vary.
So:
Story gets 6/10 for being competent enough, though tropey, to hold itself together. It's servicable as a vehicle for the comedy. If you're actually looking to take it seriously, however this would be a 3/10 as there are little to no surprises here.
Art 6/10, it's serviceable with some generic designs and a weird crystal aesthetic. Nothing offensive, but nothing too pretty either.
Sound 6/10. It does its job, and the voice acting is okay for the most part although Saraato (the wandering moron)'s VA's performance is so phoned in that it comes out on the other end as hilarious and AMAZING. If you're actually taking that seriously though, a 4/10 would be more accurate.
Character 7/10. Tropes! Tropes! Tropes! However, the endearing hilarity and odd ability for them to grow on you makes this a weak 7.
Enjoyment. 9/10 I loved this. It was hilarious, and by the end I found I was satisfied with the simple story. This is my own experience, though, so I can't really speak for anyone else.
Overall 7/10. It was good due to its comedy, both intentional and unintentional.
That's Cerberus for you, barely competent enough to get by while being hilarious unintentionally, much like its characters. But, like its characters, you might find it grows on you by the end.
