Konjiki no Gash Bell!!

Konjiki no Gash Bell was a very interesting anime in its own ways. There are many times of extreme laughter, as well as times when tears will fall. The storyline was pretty well-written and the characters were unique. Overall, I could only give it a 9/10 because many episodes were boring fillers (don't get me wrong, some fillers were actually pretty funny).

Story: 9/10
The story is a 9 because I've never seen one like it before. There are some pretty sudden twists in the story that kept it exciting and fun to watch. The fillers could be funny, but they were mostly pretty boring. Also, the ... ending was a bit obvious, so that's why I gave it only a 9.

Art: 9/10
I don't usually criticize art, but if I had to score it, it would definitely be 9. The reason being that for most of the characters, you definitely tell them apart. However, some characters are drawn poorly or they look unnatural so the final score is a 9.

Sound: 9/10
The sound for this anime was great. There was pretty good music overall and the character's voices matched the character's personality. The quality was not bad and the music was all very original, however the music could get a little repetitive at times.

Character: 9/10
As stated before, all the characters are unique and have special personalities. I think that they are all funny and a key part to the anime. There was definitely a lot of thought put into each individual character. Some are a little annoying or unnecessary, though.

Enjoyment: 8/10
Unfortunately, I could only give an 8 for my overall enjoyment because the fillers became very boring and tiring to watch. They were unnecessary sometimes and very repetitive. The action-packed episodes were great though, and some fillers were making me laugh out loud, literally.

Overall: 9/10
For the above reasons, I gave this anime an overall rating of 9/10. It was a very special anime to me and the ending was pretty exciting. The only part I really don't like is the ending that just leaves you hanging. Even so, I enjoyed this very much and I'm glad I decided to watch it.

This anime is at its best when it isn't trying to be an action series. The comedy is well done and the punch lines can be quite funny; however, this is often bogged down by overwhelmingly one-dimesional villans and a non-existent story in an attempt to create tension when there never needed to be any. Unfortunately being a Shounen manga published in the early 2000s, the author felt pressured to add random (and at times creepy) sexual references and action to entertain young boys. I would give this show a higher score if it maintained the energy of the first two episodes all throughout. It ... is too bad that it only ends up digging itself deeper into the generic shonen action hole.

This simply does not work well as an anime like it does as a manga. The only part that does work is Gash being cute due to the greatly innocent/cute voice. A big culprit in this is the slow pacing of everything - all the dramatic cries, the pacing of any fight, the way people move - which really takes the impact out of the comedy, the fighting, and the drama. It especially hurts the fighting, in which everyone always seems to have an incredibly long time to finish the opponent off, yet strangely never does so. They also cut off the entire last arc ... from the manga, and change the previous to last significantly at the point Gash and Zeon meet, mostly by cutting out details, so it leaves you short of a lot of important plot.

Maybe a specific scene to point to as a difference would help my explanation: in the manga, there is a page where Gash is cutely wandering to find what to play with, has a close up :O moment, then it zooms out to him with a traffic cone; he has that on, then repeats the :O frame, then zooms out to a samurai headdress; finally, it is all repeated again with a dog as the newfound object. In the manga, the stopping gives it a firm, comedic pace, and everything just piles up as this cute and funny moment. In the anime, the execution is clumsy and I basically did not even notice the moment at all.

The art is pretty much atrocious, and while it is not like I expected anything incredible, since the manga's art is below average as well, it hurts the anime more than the manga by making it feel much more like a kid's product. I am sure part of the consideration has to be budgetary/time, but there are soooo many still shots.

Gash's voice acting is great, Kiyomaro's is average, and everyone else's is pretty much bad or hard to notice in a major role. Demons have fun voices sometimes though, like Umagon/Schneider and Victoreem. The music never does a good job, outside of the goofy songs, of doing anything particularly good or bad...just incredibly average. The goofy songs are pretty well executed, like Tetsu no Folgore is pretty typically funny, not annoying. The opening and introduction songs seemed to be a lot higher quality at the start of the series, but that might just be personal taste. The departure of Gash's normal, better voice actor for maternity leave is not really the series' fault, so I am not holding that against it!

There are changes to the plot and bonus stories. I think the bonus stories were a better idea than not, since what other reason do you have to keep watching a series this long (although I would advocate not watching it all the way...I really enjoyed it through about fifty episodes, but I was really bored the rest of the way)? I think some of the changes (especially the ending to shorten the story) weakened the story...matters were not really hashed out well toward the end.

The manga is not perfect itself, but I think that it makes more sense, has a better pacing, and that the art is a lot more compelling to look at. The drama is less grating, what with the endless FRIENDSSSSSSSS! stuff going on, the fights are more cohesive, and you get the full plot, not the version which prematurely ends.

However, saying all that, since it is a touching and extremely fun manga, it is fun to see it in animation, and it is fun to see Gash and Umagon especially in motion with good voice acting!

(I know my ratings are "higher" than 4, but it is not like I suddenly hate the story or characters...so the art, sound, and enjoyment are more applicable here, at least to me).