There isn't a real "story" in HaruChika, so to speak. The episodes mostly revolve around some issue the titular characters solve. This is mostly Haruta in the end though, and he gets pretty annoying when he solves one of the mysteries with little effort. It's also just sort of boring. The whole execution of the show feels rather bland. It's hard to exactly pinpoint a certain example in the series because of this, it all just sort of runs togther in an uninspired mess.
The characters were another low point in the series. I could care less about Haruta in particular-the second episode especially made him come off as a douche with little respect for others' feelings. The show also makes it seem like he was doing the right thing when he solves the mystery of whatever, but it really doesn't. His character was probably not written like that on purpose, but he was one of the biggest detracting factors for me.
A lot of people told me to ignore Haruta and focus on Chika, the main heroine, but I wasn't a big fan of her either. I don't see her as a bad character, but she wasn't ever a very good one for me either. She wasn't very memorable, and I just couldn't get attached to her. None of the side characters were memorable enough to mention.
Considering P.A Works, the production values were pretty good. The colors were bright, but were toned down into softer shades that gave the anime a nice look. The character designs were okay, not too special but they didn't look bad. The animation was also okay-something about the hair movement bugged me, but other than that it was satisfactory. On a similar note, the soundtrack was also okay-nothing too memorable, but the music fit the scenes nicely. The opening and ending themes are worth a listen too.
In conclusion, HaruChika was an anime with a bland, boring story with annoying, unmemorable characters., and nice pproduction values. It's far from the worse anime ever, but I believe it's below average, earning it the rating of 4 (bad.)
If it sounds interesting to you, give it a go, but know it doesn't change much after 3 or so episodes.
