I have to make one thing clear in advance, if you want to watch "Pandora Hearts" but at the same time you are a manga reader, do yourself a favor and read the manga.
The anime adaptation of Pandora Hearts includes the first 3 arcs and thus roughly the first 35 chapters. The last 3 episodes are filler episodes with an alternate ending.
Although I was mostly entertained by the anime, this is one of the worst manga adaptations I've seen. The pacing was almost non-existent, and some episodes dragged on for ages. Tension was completely undermined thanks to that, of course. Even some of the most important moments from the manga seemed almost like minor dialogue. As for the ending, there are good and bad ways to present an alternative ending. And here, probably the worst possible was done. It would have been better to just declare the anime over from the Ludwig arc on, rather than allow such a disaster.
[Story 6]
Nonetheless, this adaptation contains a lot of original material from the manga, which still delivers the same content despite atrocious pacing. Pandora Hearts is one of the few anime/manga whose main focus is based on storytelling, twists, and buildup. This show has an immense amount of hidden detail and foreshadowing for future events, which turns the entire plot picture upside down the more of it is revealed.
In the adaptation, unfortunately, we only see some of the setup, which seems relatively minor without the resolution. Almost nothing about the Abyss, the characters, and the "truth" was revealed in the anime and remains hidden until the end, for the anime-only viewers.
[Characters 5]
By the end of the anime series, the characters have developed only minimally and most of their important moments and developments are yet to come. However, even here you notice how multi-layered the characters are even though they seem like stereotypes at first. Oz (whose entire existence is a collection of plot twists) is a relatively interestingly written protagonist, since, among other things, all of his character traits and problems are resolved by the end. Again, we already saw many of his self-conflicts based on his childhood and how he tried to overcome them. In a more or less self-critical and yet rational way.
Alice. The tsundere is a gluttonous, arrogant protagonist who is more a wild animal than a human being. Which, thanks to her background and her eternal existence in the Abyss could hardly be otherwise. She is the most boring of the protagonists but has enough character to be average.
Gilbert has his moments of brilliance, though later in the manga. In the anime, he only seems like a sidekick.
Most of the side characters all have their respective character arc and important relevance to the main plot, as their fates are related to each other and the truth behind the story. And some side characters, are closer to the "real" plot than one would think at the beginning.
[Animations 3]
Environments have very little detail, especially from the middle on. The dynamics are non-existent and the freeze-frame battles are immensely monotonous. Pacing is near-record poor, a single dialogue is delayed to 2-3 minutes, and fights that barely lasted 5 pages in the manga are at least 5 minutes here.
[Music 6]
The osts are quite appropriate for this kind of story and very apt in style. The intro is also well done and fits perfectly.
The biggest flaw here is how the osts are placed. In some episodes, the music plays even though nothing happens at all and in other scenes, it is missing. Imagine the character walking up the stairs with nothing happening and the main theme playing in the background.
[Conclusion 4]
You can watch this anime, especially if you are new to the anime scene and have little experience or comparative material. For anyone else, I definitely can't recommend this anime. The manga, on the other hand, I can. Despite a disappointing ending, the manga was a very interesting experience with a very well-thought-out plot.
[Enjoyment 5]
