>>10157924>>10157832>>10157844the designs are wierd at first glance but the manga art can get absolutely amazing once you get into it
easily my favorite shonen series of all time, shame the anime adapation has so many issues.
Here's a decent article about what makes it good:
https://sequentialplanet.com/zatch-bell-the-best-shonen-no-one-talks-about/ though I would add that this actually UNDERSELLS just how tactical the fights can really get once you're past when characters only have a few spells during the early villain of the week stuff (the manga doesn't start as strong as some other shonen as a result but unlike a lot of them, it only gets better and expotentially so the further and further in you get, the shift to being arc based around volume 12 is a major milestone here but there's gradual improvements before then and even in vol's in the late 20's near the end it's still improving despite already being incredible) and that it doesn't talk about the tonal contrast much: The series does a lot of power of friendship and absurdist comedy and slice of life stuff that in another series would be generic and corny, and deep dark emotional gut punches that might be tryhard elsewhere, but the manga is incredible about using the contrast between those two extremes to really help both feel genuinine and hit harder and more effectively.