If you considering watching this anime right now, then:
If you are a big shonen fan, then you should try it. I doubt it'll become one of your favorites, but at least you should enjoy it
If you are not a fan of shonen, but you don't mind watching a good shonen, then you shouldn't bother trying it. At the very last, watch it only if you don't have anything else to watch, because you most likely won't enjoy this one much.
Another notable thing about this series, is the fact that the second part of it is fillers. I don't mean the type of fillers in which there is no continuation of the plot. Those episodes simply don't follow the manga, and thus the anime also has a different ending. If you decided to watch the anime, then you should stop around episode 35 and think for a second. If you feel like you really like the series and it's one of your favorites, then you should stop watching the anime and start reading the manga. If you feel that it's a "nice" series, but that you don't really mind seeing a "fake" ending as long as it's pretty much on the same level as the rest of the series – finish watching the anime.
Now, the review…
Story: At first, I pretty enjoyed the plot and I thought that it's not your regular "heroes vs. evil organization" thing. Even though it was pretty similar to this pattern, which appears in almost every shonen series, I still found it "different" and "refreshing". But that didn't last too long. Sadly, after a while, the plot went on the same road as other shonen anime and turned into your classic shonen story. That's probably where I already realized that this anime won't answer my expectations.
The only thing that stayed true during the whole series, is the fact that the plot isn't dragged around like most shonen. When an enemy appears, you go and kick his ass. You don't wait around and do nothing until you meet him by chance. Every time when I thought that "it'll take another 20 episodes until they fight this enemy", I was surprised again and again by the fact that it actually took less than 5 episodes. This, and this alone, made me respect the plot in this series more than in some other ones. But even so, I think the plot itself was pretty weak like in most average shonen.
The thing that most amazed me in this series, is how professionally it can ruin its best parts. There are always some parts in a series which are average, during which you aren't necessary bored but neither you enjoying much, and there are parts which are great, interesting and enjoyable. For me, most of the anime was the "average" type. I wasn't bored and I had a few laughs now and then, but I wasn't hooked into it and I didn't feel that "I like this series". Like any normal series, this one also has its "great parts" during which I even considered giving it a score of 9/10. But the problem is, that they were too short. Every time I got to one of these "great parts", the second I finally started really enjoying these parts – they ended. Just like that. This anime starts something interesting, but finishes it at a blink of an eye. The moment I realize I'm starting to enjoy, the enjoyment fades away again. In the end, it just made series even worse.
Characters: It has a pretty classic shonen cast. A boy with a great talent who screams the whole day – check. A girl who hits her friends when she's angry – check. A teacher who sometimes acts cool and sometimes acts like an idiot – check. There were only two characters that I think are rather original. The first one is Death The Kid. While still being the classic "a cool character who sometimes acts like an idiot" type, I liked his huge addiction to symmetry. I think every human has something like that – something you like for no actual reason. It's like people who like even numbers more than odd numbers.
The second character is Excalibur. While it's a little sad that they turned the legendary sword I like into a character which other characters in the series see as "annoying", I found the character pretty amusing. The idea itself is pretty funny, as Excalibur supposed to be a legendary holy sword of heroes which is hard to pull from the ground. In this case, it really is a powerful weapon, but it's hard to use not because it's hard to pull, but because it turns into an annoying creature who talks non stop and doesn't listen to anybody. I found this character pretty original, amusing, funny and his phrase "Bakame!" is one of the most memorable things about this anime for me.
Excalibur isn't the only parody name in this series. You'll see many parodies about real life or legends in this anime. For example: a student called Ox Ford, a witch called Medusa, a sword named Ragnaroka and more.
Art: The animation itself is great. The characters move swiftly and it's nice to watch how they fight. But the art style itself, is just… not my cup of tea. At first glance it looks like the art style is simply low quality and lame. But when you watch the series, you'll see how the whole series actually has quite a different art style than other anime. For the most part, I don't have problem with the art style. But as I said, it's not a style I like much, and what I really hated is how the noses of the characters are drawn. It looked just… strange…
Enjoyment: A really average enjoyment. While I can't say there were many parts during which I was really bored, there also weren't many parts during which I really enjoyed. There were a few nice jokes now and then, but most of the time it was just average. Even the battles weren't as enjoyable as in other shonen. As I said, every good part was ruined in this series, so the only parts that left were the average ones. Thus, battles couldn't become interesting and thrilling like in other series. At the very last, I liked the fact that the battles were pretty short.
