Stories are just weak, and it's not the "there are no boobies and guns blazing, and no one is punching someone" weak, it's a "nobody gives a single fuck about this story, and it's not written well enough to be interesting" weak. I've seen my share of slice of life, no-drama anime, and it's my favorite, which is why I tried watching Aria, so don't shit me with your "hurr durr it's animu for acquired tastes of elite individuals, not bleach fans".
ALL of it's characters have annoying catchphrases that they try to force into every single thing that escapes their badly animated mugs (i'm looking at you, alice. I'm fucking looking at you. fuck your dekkai everything.), the main mascot is just ugly and retarded (it took me 2 episodes to determine it's actually a cat, and only thanks to characters explicitly saying that it does belong to felis catus species).
Slice of life genre itself exists as a testament to superior ability of storywriters, who manage to make day-to-day life interesting, soothing and fun to watch, a concept the creators of aria obviously failed to grasp.
And before nostalgia templars move in, no, this anime doesn't deserve any bonus points for being 10 years old, nor it's "quirkiness" can be appreacieated only by "not kid audience", as there are many, MANY shows with better stories than this.
tl;dr
show is mediocre at best, and if there are any hidden values or qualities making it worthwhile, I certainly couldn't find them. I don't know how do succesing seasons fare, obviously, but this one effectively discouraged me from giving them a chance.
