ReIIy

Since Hoozuki no Reitetsu is a seinen (geared towards young adult and adult males) commedy, one can safely assume that the job of this anime is not to keep little kids entertained.  If you find yourself feeling like, "This isn't that funny," or "This isn't very interesting," then you are probably, mentally or physically, a little kid.  Probably a little boy, because little boys love complaining about how anime that went over their head was "not very good."  If you fall into one of these categories, you should probably stick to something simpler than Hoozuki no Reitetsu.

This is an anime that kept me interested and amused the whole time.  Not like hysterically laughing; this isn't Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network.  The humor is in the characters and in the conversations they have and the situations they land themselves.  At the first episode, I wasn't so sure I was going to really like the series, but my feelings quickly changed.  Hoozuki is an oddly charismatic and adorable character, and he's so funny partially because he's unpredictable.  He's calm most of the time, but when he's not, you're never sure what's coming.  His work-dynamic with Enma is also amusing.  By the time I finished this anime, I was dying for the second season and a little sad that I don't live in Hell.  I'm looking for a giant poster of Hoozuki to go on my wall, too.

The story is meandering.  There isn't a real storyline other than daily life in Hell, because this isn't a shounen anime where everyone only has one life goal that's going to take up all of the screentime.  There's a relaxing feeling to watching Hoozuki tend his goldfish flower garden, meet new people and go about solving Hell's many problems.  A few times every episode, some seriously funny or surprising shit happens that makes the show all the more worth it, but there's a lightly comedic feeling to just about everything, from the weird sonds the goldfish flowers make to the casual mentionings of torture to the simple things, like Enma's gut being too fat for him to pick up his fallen pencil.

The art and animation is beautiful.  The general visual feeling of hell is that of woodblock prints and ukiyo-e paintings, slightly similar to Mononoke, ultimately making Hell seem like a strange, beautiful and complex place.  The characters--and there are many--are not bursting with immediately apparent complexity but instead are normal people (most of the time) going through their everyday lives, showing their personality and querks over time.  Another nice aspect of this anime is getting to know the characters.

I completely disagree with recommending Noragami and Gugure! Kokkuri-san in relation to Hoozuki no Reitetsu.  The only thing they have in common is a focus on Japanese folklore and commedic themes, but the commedy and atmosphere in shows for younger audiences is different and will leave many people disappointed if they are looking like a show like this one.  And I do not understand why two people recommended Gintama for people who like Hoozuki when they have almost nothing alike whatsoever and when comparing Hoozuki to Gintoki is like comparing apples to elephants.  Ticks me off when people want to reference every anime back to some shounen title, as if all Japanese animation revolves around adolescent boys.  Blech.