From worst to best:
The story gets a 5 - While the moment-to-moment plot reveals are definitely engaging and competently written, it's incredibly formulaic to the point that it practically becomes a singalong. Add to that, that plot points come and go like targets on a shooting range - this show is incredibly fast paced, but we'll come back to that at the end of the review. Not that it was bad, mind you... but it was *aggressively* average. Boilerplate. It was competent, but did nothing special.
The characters get a 6 - there's a lot of people here who end up throwing you for something of a loop, either because they were expected to be evil but ended up more towards the good half of 'morally complex', or because they ended up being SO cartoonishly evil that it defied expectations in the exact opposite direction - either way, there's some engaging people here who were written fairly believably. That said, this is no Your Lie in April. It gets a pass, that's all.
The sound design gets a 7 - music matches the tone of the moments it's played in, the actual fighting effects are weighty and have that meaty hit sound to them, and the special effects play off my nostalgia for Yu Yu Hakusho a little bit so I might be biased there. Also, the OP is an absolute TUNE and I will hear no arguments to the contrary. This goes beyond base competency and into 'actually pretty good' territory. It won't blow your socks off, but it's better than average for sure.
Enjoyment gets an 8 - what can I say other than that I'm typical shounen trash, and I love me some Magic Punch Boys beating the particle effects out of one another until they discover the power of friendship and scream themselves to victory. This category is 100% subjective and your experience may vary - please consult your doctor if you experience any of the following effects: elevated blood pressure, extended cranial piloerection, uncontrollable screaming, and elevated power levels exceeding 9k or more on a standard readout. These are signs of a serious side effect, and you should stop taking Shounen Action and consult your wise old medical practitioner immediately before continuing.
Art gets a 9 - but then, it's MAPPA getting help from JC Staff, I'm not sure what you were expecting. This stuff is gorgeous in motion, and the fight choreography takes direct cues from real tae kwon do and jiu jitsu as well as several other fighting styles. I will say, the fight choreography AND artistic direction are significantly better in the first act before the power escalation, where it was basically just all kinds of real-world fighting styles pitted against each other. Not only did we see some awesome choreography, but also studio MAPPA delved into some really gorgeous mixed-media scenes like inkblotting and oil-on-glass, kinda reminiscent of what Bones did with Mob Psycho 100 - and that's high praise if ever I've given it. Just a shame that that ended up getting binned about halfway through in favor of ki beam spam and Personas - oh well, it was still gorgeous. 9.
And of course, 5-9, 6-8, and 7... all average out to a 7, obviously, so there's your overall score. It's good, it's not amazing, I recommend it if you're shounen trash like me and you have some spare time on your hands (and let's be honest - it's 2020. You have spare time).
I will say that these scores all become irrelevant in the face of the original manhwa, which apparently was MUUUUUUUCH larger and more detailed than the anime. From what I've seen of comments from Manhwa readers, Crunchyroll apparently ordered MAPPA to cut out *massive* chunks of the original as part of this anime adaptation, which also explains the recklessly breakneck pace of the plot mentioned in the first part of this review.
