ART AND MUSIC:
As you'd expect from Kyoto Animation: an excellent score composed of classical pieces mixed with cerebral BGM. The art is on par with some of my favorite anime solely based on the quality of the production. That beautiful art is, however, in service of a mediocre story.
STORY AND CHARACTER:
Here is where it fails for me. First off, the decision to make the series into an anthology of mysteries in and of itself is not a mistake. But a failure to create an overarching story that encapsulates all of the anthology is. Though each arc is interesting and somewhat engaging, there isn't anything that keeps you drawn to the characters or the story as it proceeds. Despite having somewhat enjoyed the series while watching it, when looking back at it, the series feels vapid and lacks its own personality.
Furthermore, I found issue with attempting to add in a romantic element. If you attempt to categorize what Hyouka is, most would probably conclude with a few genres: mystery, comedy, high-school life. But if you toss in elements of romance into the main story, that story starts to go off-track because of the audience's expectations. When they introduced the romance element early in the series with two of our main characters, I thought nothing of it; but when they re-introduced it at the very end with no time left, it seemed to be an element for absolutely no reason other than to have some quippy moments throughout the series. In that same vein, in the last episode when more romance was further introduced, it made for a severely lacking and uninteresting ending. The characters are written shallow and one-note, particularly regarding Fukube Satoshi and Oreki Houtarou. It isn't necessarily a bad thing if neither a series' characters nor their intentions change over the course of the series. But in this case, when the writers tell us in the second-to-last episode that a character has changed from their past self, it is not satisfactory to simply tell us these things; we as an audience need to be able to see that as well by some progression of character. And if there is no progression of character, at least have a character we can relate to, and Houtarou is such a dull character that seems entirely uninterested in his day-to-day activities that it's hard to get into his shoes.
OVERALL:
In conclusion, despite its wayward story and lackluster characters, I still found enjoyment watching the series for the briefly engaging mysteries it posited and the beautiful artwork accompanied by a well-made score.
