I watched the show with the ADV Dub and it was pretty good though not without one major and unfortunate flaw. For some reason Ahab got a typical 'Shiver Me Timbers' Pirate accent which is some terribly lazy direction. I think the actor did an okay job with it but it was pretty bad they chose that, very close minded. Even some of the dialogue was changed specifically to play up the Pirate Accent. Shiver me timbers is seriously muttered by Ahab in the dub on multiple occasions. Anyway yeah other than that the Dub was fine and while I have moaned about it Ahab's accent choice is not a deal breaker in my opinion.
Animation was delightful and I have to say this is without a doubt a fantastic transfer from ADV for the DVD boxset which is how I watched the show. Clearly they had access to great masters. Series was beautifully detailed throughout but I do wish the show wasn't always so dark. Seems alot of shows around this time favoured a dark blue hue and palette, Perhaps it was a cost cutting measure? I think it was almost halfway through the series until we actually saw something resembling an actual daylight scene. Dezaki's classic still painted shots are a plenty across the 26 episodes and all were superb. Character designs were a nice slightly modernized (for the period) version of Dezaki's classic style also, I liked them. There was some really outstanding scenes for the animation that I can't really go into due to spoilers of course but just know that in the shows more climatic moments the series often looks breathtaking for cel TV animation. I was floored by certain sequences.
Soundtrack didn't really stand out to me as anything overly special, though often times thats something that tends to change overtime as I tend to listen to OST's after watching a show. But at least in the moment the OST sufficed and that was about it really. Maybe over time I'll come to love it but as of right now it served it's function and that was it, no tracks really stood out. The OP/ED's were fine.
Overall this Anime is a good show but not quite a great one. There is a ton to enjoy about the series and it has a certain amount of whimsy that's hard to not love. Story might not be quite as grand as perhaps the creators had intended in many ways but it was always interesting. It was a strange ride at times but with plenty of left turns the show did a good job at keeping a stranglehold on me. I was never left bored by it as I could never really confidently predict what it had in store next. So with all that said I give it a solid 7/10 'Good'.
