Story-9
Episode arcs held suspense very well, especially in the detective scenes. The only flaw I can think of the awkward pacing at the end of series where the one-off episodes seemed too stilted in comparison with the holistic architecture of the whole series.
Art-8
The animation could have been better but the erratic outlandish scenes were pretty entertaining.
Sound-8
Maybe a wider variety of soundtrack could have done more favours to the series as a whole but the music was adequate to the action of the characters.
Character-10
This is where the show really shines. The energy conserving Houtarou is completely antithetical to the excitable curious Chitanda. While Chitanda spurs on Houtarou, in the process of solving a new mystery, both characters find more to their own character and innate nature. The relationship between Satoshi and Mayaka, although more or less crude, gives a contrast to the connections made between the main protagonists. I couldn't believe Kyoto Animation managed to thread in some romance into the character development or Houtarou in subtle places throughout the anime. That was very well done.
Enjoyment-10
A breath of fresh air to the rather loaded school genre with a lot of moe and cheesy romance. Although this series have some romance, the focus was on the discoveries spurred on by the ever-present 'kininarimasu!' from Chitanda. Many allusions to the mystery classics such as Christie and Sherlock Holmes were not overdone, but done in an intelligent manner. Those sparkling eyes on Chitanda were so cute!
Overall-9
