Story - It's a fairly standard 'kill the bad guy who killed my family' story, with a bit of Tokyo Ghoul tossed in. It hits several common shounen tropes and executes on them somewhat-competently, I guess: a training arc, an exam, another training arc. Not only is the story mildly interesting at best, but the serious moments are regularly undercut with jarring and awkward "comedy" bits or exchanges. The atmosphere of the show is regularly undercut by a bizarre compulsion to insert silly character reactions, goofy voice acting, or a cliche gag.
Art - The art for this series is very polished, and the animation for the fights is top-notch. The character's main attack style has a unique aesthetic for anime. The actual character designs and art style is on the standard side but is distinctive enough to stand out. The look of this show is definitely one of it's saving graces.
Sound - I'll say it now - the Adult Swim 30 second edit of this OP is all you need; there's almost nothing substantial in the other 60 seconds. That 30 seconds is an absolute banger, though. In general, the OST for this series is great, and it likely set the tone better than the writing ever could.
Characters - Make it stop. When I was forcing myself through this show, I would've paid money for a version of these episodes with Zenitsu's constant shrieking cut out. Did the producers actually find this funny? I don't know if I've ever encountered a more actively irritating character in my time watching anime. Most of the other characters are just bland. The MC has almost no personality and basically serves as a vessel to drive the story. The other characters are embodied entirely by the first sentence of their character trope on TV Tropes; nothing else that's memorable or even remotely interesting at all. Even the villain falls flat at first, because the series has no idea how to introduce him correctly.
Enjoyment - There were maybe three good episodes in the entire series, the rest range from skippable to very skippable.
Conclusion - I wish I had some explanation for the absolute explosion of popularity this series had. Is the fanbase primarily 12-15 year olds watching their first anime? Do people just look at the art and not read the subtitles? Is there a waifu in the manga I don't know about? Whatever it is, it should be made more clear, so people like me know to just skip this show, skim the manga, and rewatch Hunter x Hunter instead.
