Story: 5
The sorest disappointment of this show is its story. As a huge fantasy fan, I was drawn in by the witch versus humans plot; but alas, the writers failed to pull it off. Their two biggest sins being a lack of focus and plenty of plot holes. Such as how long the war has been going on, the nature of witches as a species, why did the story move in that direction, minimal effort was put into world building, etc. A lot of this could be forgiven as long as it didn't inhibit how the audience felt towards the show - which it did. The story distorted which side to root for without achieving an effective grey area. It's like the writers were trying to make the story morally ambiguous at times but they did it in such a sloppy way that they just confused the audience about how they should feel. Luckily, the story didn't do anything that made me livid (such as constant misunderstandings)- mainly wasted potential due to mediocre ideas and slopping execution of good ones. However, the traveling and subdued parts of the story were enjoyable. These moments felt a lot like Spice and Wolf at times and provided the most entertainment in the show.
Art: 7
The art was pleasant enough. Nothing fantastic or distracting, but the character designs were nice to look at. Thankfully, there were no still shots. My chief complaint though would be the lack of magical action scenes. I'm fine if the anime is not meant to be a fighting anime. But when the story dictates that the characters will have to fight at times and the world has magic, then how come I can count on one hand how many fight scenes involved the protagonists using magic? A magic show without magic fight scenes is wasted potential. However, when they do have these scenes, the magic looks really nice.
Sound: 7
The OP and ED were not obnoxious and they fit the show well. The OST was not stand-alone fantastic but it served its purpose well. Other than Zero, the seiyuu were average but fit their characters. Zero's seiyuu I thought did an above average job.
Character: 6
Zero was the best character out of the cast so it was enjoyable to watch her interact with her Mercenary. Her teasing nature and noble air stood out to me. But like the other characters, the writers don't develop her much. As for the rest, they weren't terrible but not memorable characters. They had to potential to be memorable, but the writers just got lazy and didn't develop them much. I would have scored it higher if they didn't use the "introduced as a corrupt villain but is actually a good guy at heart" cliche.
Enjoyment: 8
Since I'm a Spice and Wolf fan, I enjoyed some of the banter and fantasy-feel in this show. This is chiefly because I liked Zero's character though. I was disappointed by the lack of follow through, but nothing made me hate the show. It was short and story-driven enough to avoid boredom (even though the storytelling made it hard for me to care about what was happening) so I found fulfillment in watching it.
Overall: 6
I would have given it a higher score, but the story really hurt my impression of this show (especially in the second half.) It just kinda feels average. There's nothing in this show that another anime has done better. But if you just have some time to kill or don't want to think while you watch, you might enjoy this show.
