This manga is a jewel.
The story is very simple, the characters are fun, cute, and charming, and the art by itself is good, nothing groundbreaking, but the artist IS very good, but... the way the fights are done.
Since I started reading this manga, I still can't believe how INCREDIBLE the storyboarding of the fights is, it is... cinematic, there is no better way to describe it.
I have nothing against when images are "still panels", but the greatest artists are those who can draw motion in a way that is vivid... Satou-sensei goes a step further, he composes the scenes like they are part of a movie. There is a dynamism here that I very rarely see.
Which brings me... to the anime... truth be told, I knew the anime wouldn't have the same feel as the manga, which is... kinda ironic.
When they chose the artist to draw this one, they struck a DIAMOND mine, i dont think i would like this story as much as i do if Satou-sensei didnt had such a incredible hand for composing the fights, and by some things i read he may have made a few changes in the flow of the story too, or maybe the Sagasaki-sensei did those to vary the versions a little.
With each new fight this gets better and better as new strong fighters enter the story, with diverse style of fighting, and the fact that you can see that they fight diferently of each other is amazing, like someone pointed out... the fights play like a dialogue, you can see the words not written in every motion of each character.
Seeing the way the old man uses his magic was a joy.