I'm Taiwanese-American, which means that I can read some of the kanji in the anime. I think one of the reasons that I enjoyed it so much was that kyo-ani effectively used the written Japanese language in a visual sense to guide the audience through its interpretation of the original light novel.
Also, I haven't read the actual light novel, and to be fair it's not really right to compare the manga too heavily with the anime because at the end of the day we're all going to be hating the anime a ton if we do.
Art: Oh. My. Goodness. Kyo-ani does it again. It is absolutely stunning. Although overwhelming at times, it truly does show off the studio's artistic capabilities through it's lavish and otherworldly scenes. 10000/10 it's so good.
Sound: I don't remember much, so I'll say a 7. The sound isn't a big part of this anime anyways and nothing stood out to me as horrendous.
Story: Slice of life. What can we say. There is a hint of romance at the end, but one has to take into account that it was never meant to be a romance anime in any way. I would say the mysteries are somewhat trivial compared to some other ones, but the way that Kyoto Animation portrays them makes them so intriguing. The mysteries are in a more literary sense rather than a physical mystery, which heavily relies on the way that the studio chooses to interpret and portray it.
Characters: Meh. I've seen more genuine characters before, but the play between polar opposite personalities of Chitanda and Houtarou is quite interesting to follow. The characters aren't very developed in any way, but I think it's due to the whole slice-of-life plot nature as well.
Enjoyment: I loved this anime. It was so captivating to see the subtle and obvious visual elements put into place by the studio.
Overall: 9. This whole anime could have been mediocre or even absolutely boring. But it wasn't. It was so interesting. I absolutely loved this anime and it seriously deserves the score that it has on MAL. This thing is truly a work of art and everyone should really watch this.
