Well, my friends were always talking about this anime, so I figured I would pick it up and see what all the fuss was about. I wasn't disappointed at all, and if you go into it expecting a typical boring slice-of-life anime, you will probably be pleasantly surprised, at least if you like this type of anime. If not, steer clear of this anime as it is just about the daily lives of some art students. If you don't mind anime about everyday life, though, I think you will enjoy Hidamari Sketch.
Story:
The story is the only category I really subtracted a bit from. The story is a typical bunch of girls live together, become friends, and go to school deal, but this is really what you should expect in this type of anime. The story doesn't disappoint, but it doesn't redefine the anime genre either. Despite this, I thought it was good.
Art:
The art style is honestly one of the main reasons I decided to watch this anime. You can't really make an anime about an art school and have bad art. That just wouldn't work well. The art style in this is very unique, unlike anything I've seen before, at least one of the art styles in this anime is. There's a typical Japanese anime realistic looking style which they use a lot and isn't really unique, and also a super deformed almost chibi-looking art style which is very cute and each character has an extremely wide face. The art style was wonderful, in my opinion. I won't ramble on any more about how great it is, but I really liked this aspect of the series.
Sound:
This anime has a VERY catchy opening theme and perhaps a not-so-catchy ending theme, but they are pretty good. It gets you in the mood for the anime and does its job well. I also found the music in the preview for the next episode to be very relaxing for some reason and it fits the "everyday life" theme well. The characters all sound very cute. The sound is creative and used well.
Character:
Well, there are quite some odd characters in this series. Most of them tend to be flat (one-sided, don't change much), but that's exactly what I enjoyed about them. The characters were so predictable in their actions you could almost imagine what they would do in any scenario: Yunocchi worries about lots of stuff, Miyako eats anything available, Hiro worries excessively about her weight, and Sae worries about writing stories and her sister. How each character is so one-sided they seem like they have infinite sides to them somehow is what made me like the characters. They are very enjoyable to watch interacting with each other. They tend to be very simple characters, but all of them are cute in their own way.
Enjoyment:
I highly enjoyed this anime and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys slice-of-life anime. I never got bored with it and never paused for very long to stop watching. It is a very fun series, in my opinion. If you enjoy anime of this type, you will probably enjoy this series.
Overall:
I rated it a 10 simply because it's just about the best everyday anime I have seen. You may or may not like it as much as I did, but I mostly found this to be an excellent show. I tend to rate things higher than most people do, but I really thought this series was great. So, if you haven't seen it yet and like slice-of-life anime, I would recommend watching it sometime.
