Story: 8/10
Well, since the story is based on the manga, 8/10 is more like my rating for how the story was projected in the anime and not the story itself. Although tbh, even in the manga, the plot line has a number of holes already (like, wtf, as if Link could actually manage to hold off more than one Level 4 when it takes like 2 to 3 exorcists to kill one) so I wasn't really expecting much from the anime version. Although I kinda don't like the way they switched/changed some parts of the plot at the beginning.
Art: 6/10
Ahhhh. The most disappointing of all. I don't know what happened with this one. Is it the low budget? not enough time? or whatever?
I can kind of accept the fact that the characters doesn't look exactly like Hoshino's work, but my gaaaddd at least be consistent. Most of the time, the characters are drawn off-model, and tbh, the new look for some characters (my baby Kanda!!) is kinda urgh-ish for me.
As for the animation, the action scenes are ok to me. But some of the slow-paced ones not so much. And the facial expressions! Some times they don't match the emotion in their voices at all. I feel like I'm watching lame actors trying (and failing) to lip sync their lines. Urggghhh
There are also some scenes that I think could have been composed better. And there are a lot of cheat-scenes (scenes where instead of having actual animation, they just draw a single frame/illustration of the scene and then rely on camera movements/effects/shake-shake and whatever) which is quite unprofessional for me. The only excuse I can accept for this is low budget, otherwise I would think the animators are just plain lazy.
The color script is good to me as well as the compositing. The backgrounds are excellent too.
Sound: 9/10
I have no problem with the music and sound effects. They're actually quite good. The voice actors, not so much (though that may just be my biased mind talking. Bring back Takahiro Sakurai and Kenichi Suzumuraaaa!!!). Allen's new VA (Hinata Shouyo ^^) is actually ok but the rest, meh. They're ok I guess, but still BRING BACK THE ORIGINAL CAST!! >.<
Character: 7/10
hmmm.. I guess it's the same with the story. I'm rating the characters more on how they are portrayed in the anime and not... how they actually are?
Anyways, they only got 7 because I can't accept the new voices XD
They felt like different people to me. Not to mention the disappointing way they are drawn some times, but that's definitely the animators' fault :P
Enjoyment: 3/10
Maybe I shouldn't have expected too much. 'Cause the disappointment definitely hurt after I had my hopes soar so high.
I love D.Gray-Man. I really do. But this season just killed whatever enthusiasm I have for the series' anime adaptations (current and possible sequels).
Ahhhh... And most of it is centered on Kanda's background too, which I've been looking forward to since forever. Which makes it more disappointing since I expected so much.
Overall, this season is something I can't be proud of. It doesn't matter that I've waited for a lifetime for the anime to finally be resumed. If I had known it would turn out like this, I wouldn't mind waiting for another ten lifetimes. At least maybe THEN the animators would have finally gotten enough practice and produced something better. As it is, I can only try my best to pretend that Hallow didn't exist and that hopefully sometime in the future somehow they'd do a remake of these season (crosses fingers).
Argghhh My heart hurts
