Art-
I found Hell Girl's art to be absolutely gorgeous. Symbolism is absolutely everywhere, it's quite colorful and this anime's depiction of Hell is artistically beautiful. The visuals aren't flashy but they do not need to be and this anime has an undeniable dark, tragically beautiful feel to it, which fits perfectly with the story.
Sound-
The voice acting here is quite good, with Brina Palencia absolutely nailing her role as the titular character and the supporting cast, with particular props going to Luci Christian's Tsugumi, also delivering strong, believable performances. I'm also a huge fan of Hell Girl's soundtrack and have several of its tracks on my personal playlist. The show emits a sad and ominous beauty throughout and the music is a huge part of that. The sound is definitely one of the highlights of the series.
Character-
The characters are hit or miss. Hell Girl herself, Hajime and Tsugumi are far and away the stars of the show whereas other named characters feel both underdeveloped and at times outright unimportant. That said, the story of those three aforementioned characters alone is strong enough and fascinating enough to keep you gripped the whole way through. The problem is, the latter two characters aren't even introduced until episode 8, at which point you may be understandably a bit bored and underwhelmed with what has been, up until that point, an episodic and repetitive experience using the same base formula repeatedly. Had the whole show continued in that way it absolutely would have worn out its welcome, and I feel it took a bit too long (one third of the show) to get away from that, but once it finally does the quality of the story improves dramatically and it never drops off again.
Enjoyment-
As mentioned in the previous section, the show takes a while to get to its meat and potatoes and it is initially quite repetitive. After five, six, seven episodes of essentially the same thing it's only natural to feel you don't need fifteen plus more episodes of this and begin to lose interest in the show. However, if you can make it to episode 8 without losing interest, it only gets better and better from there and it'll take you on a journey well worth taking. When this anime concluded I felt quite satisfied and glad I stuck it out.
Overall-
Dark, beautiful and intriguing Hell Girl is well worth your time if you can make it through the slow, repetitive start without losing interest.
+Distinctly dark, sad, beautiful style resonating from all parts of the show
+Great voice acting from the leads
+Show gets better and better in the mid to late stages
-Initially quite repetitive and formulatic
-Slow to get to the parts truly worth watching
OBJECTIVE RATING- 7
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 8
