Left to his own devices, Oreki Houtarou would make as little use of his abilities as possible. There is a certain amount of effort that is required to maintain a life with few complications, and that is how much he will expend. There is a certain amount of participation in society that is required to keep you from drawing attention, and that is how much he will participate. He gets amused or annoyed, but not excited or angry... this isn't because he has iron self-control, it is because he has spent years reinforcing the habit of avoiding that level of involvement.
In the show, this is described as a grey course of minimal participation in life, as opposed to a rose/pink course of actual involvement (with all the dramatic ups and downs that involvement can bring). He doesn't choose the grey course because he believes it to be superior... the show's early minutes make it pretty clear that, if anything, he is inclined to feel the opposite. He chooses the grey course for himself because he honestly believes it to be the right course for him... he is an outsider. The rose course is foreign to him, and filled with behavior and situations he doesn't understand, and that he doesn't have the energy to deal with. He is fascinated with it, as any outsider is with the inside, but he doesn't see any reasonable way that he can be an authentic participant inside. As a result, he has consciously maintained his reclusive approach for many years, comfortably secure even in the face of the goading and criticism of his small circle of acquaintance. His story begins in earnest when he first enters the club space for the Classic Literature Club... and encounters Chitanda Eru.
Chitanda is as successful at the rose course as Oreki is at the grey course. Like him, she isn't a participant in her course because she has decided it is the best course for everyone, or because she needs to climb these ladder rungs to reach some particular future goal. She has a natural bent that encourages her course... she has retained a childlike curiosity, coupled with a childlike ability to focus. Those could be applied in successful ways to the sorts of structured challenges we set up for childhood achievements, and I suspect that is the primary source of her list of accomplishments. Unfortunately, there are problems that her curiosity and focus lead her to, which are too complicated for curiosity and focus alone to solve. She needs someone who can analyze things at a system level to proceed, and it was just at a point that her need was the greatest that Oreki Houtarou came into her life.
Because of this combination of timing, need, focus, and curiosity, she innocently becomes the arch-nemesis of Oreki's path through the grey course. She repeatedly pulls him along (often literally) with her on her rose course path, and forces him to become involved in activities and situations that he would otherwise have reflexively, and effortlessly, withdrawn from. Oreki's reactions to her onslaught are beautifully (and hilariously) illustrated by a series of fanciful representations of their interaction, where he is caught in her web, and forced away from his comfortable course, by her singleminded need.
She isn't cruel, and doesn't dominate him or abuse him... those approaches, often a staple of "lazy guy" anime, are ones his habits would allow him to simply sidestep through the logical course of withdrawal. Instead, she -needs- him... desperately, energetically, tirelessly. It is the innocent need a curious child has for someone they trust to help them. As with a child, he could end the relationship in a short order by actively disillusioning her, by breaking her trust in him. But he finds he can't bring himself to do that, and that reluctance is where he becomes pinned down and unable to escape. That reluctance stems from him not being sure he even wants to withdraw from her influence... she is satisfying a need he has, as well (though one, I suspect, that he has reasoned away as unrealistic in the past).
As Oreki is forced to use his abilities for more than treading life's water, he learns more about himself. While the initial puzzles just laid the character groundwork for us, the first arc puzzle, where they learned the story behind Hyouka, was a bigger milestone. This journey to the truth was deftly handled, so that we could follow the compelling path of discovery he shared with the other club members and, through Oreki's thoughts, the way it touched him in particular.
While Oreki's experience with Chitanda has led to him actively considering the merits of his path through the grey course, this is certainly not the first time he has had cause to do that in his life, so we'll have to wait to see how things develop. While the course of the story and the characters will ultimately decide how I feel about the series, I feel comfortable enough at this point to say that it's unlikely that my final score for the series won't be in the 8-10 range. Even if it is handled in a way that I don't consider interesting, the show itself has other merits to recommend it.
For one thing, it is rather beautiful.
The presentation quality is notably high. Far from panning across a still picture, here we see students walking in the distance that are actually walking, etc. In addition to the main setting of the anime, there are flashbacks and reconstructions (as well as those flights of fancy that are used to illustrate Oreki's point of view at that moment). These are presented in unique and creative styles that distinguish them from the main setting, and serve to create a mood that enhances the impact they are intended to have on the story. Sound and music are also well-handled, and support the story in a rich way without becoming distracting.
I find the character designs I've seen so far to be both attractive and appropriate. As for the characters themselves, I've gone on at great length about the main [an/pro]tagonists, Oreki and Chitanda, above. Oreki has two acquaintances from middle school, Fukube Satoshi and Ibara Mayaka, who also have been drawn into the Classic Literature Club's circle. Ibara Mayaka has not received much development at this point of the series, so I don't know what her role may end up being. So far, she seems just to represent an embodiment of an unsuccessful approach to negatively-motivating Oreki into action. While Fukube's discussion approach has also proven unsuccessful in the past, the addition of Chitanda has given him more of a king maker role now. While he has been active in supporting both Oreki and Chitanda's positions in the interactions between those two, he frankly seems more amused by (and more in favor of) Chitanda drawing Oreki out. Fukube is also the single greatest beneficiary of the animation quality of the series, since it allows his continual overly dramatic mannerisms to be portrayed in just about every opportunity he has to speak. :)
I don't think the show will be appealing to folks who are big fans of traditional mystery anime settings. It also doesn't have a hint of fan service, if that is your thing. At this point I'd say an overt romance story is off the table. If you are a fan of an intriguing story that may end up featuring some interesting character development, however, I would say you should definitely check at least the first five episodes of this one out, to see if it works for you.
