With the anime on the horizon, if you have any qualms about reading "GoH" or even watching it when it comes out, I'm here to put those to rest.

Art: It's amazing; from start to finish. The artist does an outstanding job depicting action and letting scenes lead your eye through the page.

Character: I have my gripes about how some of the characters are written, but for a series originally about a fighting tournament, they didn't even need to be written this well.
This could've easily just been a "Fight-Win-Fight-Lose-Train-Fight-Win" cycle, but the author put forth the effort to make every character feel important and valued to the story, and while not always to their fullest potential, the effort should still be appreciated and respected.

Story: This is where my problems come in. Without spoiling anything, all I'm going to say is that there are a couple of arcs that last too long, some that are too short, and plot points that remain, or were never, unexplored. Things and Characters get introduced only to be tossed away later never to be used again. Though the author came out to apologize for it, and things have seem to come full circle in the story, but it's the little things that really get to me, and why I cannot rate this series higher than an 8 overall.