Did it succeed? No. As presented _ragaku_ was an interesting premise but turns out to be hideously unfunny and one sympathizes with the occasional kid or person pointing out that 'once is enough' (and, as unkind an observation as this may be, one understands why there might be only four 'seats'/theaters left). The characters are decent enough (as promised by the self-description of cute girls talking) and aren't as 'archetypal' as in _Sayonara_, and would give the occasionally alluded to K-On! a run for their money. The animation quality held up to the end, I thought.
There were some bits that were quite funny (I loved the Christmas story with the oversized tree). Some bits were surprisingly reflective: episode 9 has an unexpected take on Chuang-tzu which was fast enough to leave an impact, while Mari's little time-travel to the bubble era evokes Lieh-tzu's pillow story. There were more allusions to Western material than I am used to (unless the fansubbers are really messing with me), and the fourth wall bits were not annoying.
But overall... this was, for me, a lot like _Nichijou_: a few good parts trapped in a lot of basically filler. The dialogues and analyses weren't as sharp as _Sayonara_, the backgrounds/scenes weren't as beautiful as _Nichijou_, the overall humor weaker than _Azumanga Daioh_... I don't regret watching it, but if this was the best comedy of the season, there mustn't have been any really good ones.
