Thoughts on Haruchika

Minor spoilers ahead!

Just watched all 12 episodes today, I wanted to watch something light-hearted so I picked this. It's listed as mystery/slice-of-life/music which is basically a few of my favorite genres mashed together so I thought why not? It's about two childhood friends that are part of the brass music club that try and recruit more members and solve mysteries that pop up along the way. I would say mysteries make up the largest component of the show, followed by some slice-of-life and music moments. I would have liked the music to be a larger part of the show, since I like classical music, but it felt like you could switch out the brass music club to something else and it wouldn't be too different. As I watched the show, it kept reminding me of Hyouka with the school setting and solving mysteries. Although originally I thought the series would be more light-hearted, there were some deeper issues that were touched on such as suicide, loss of a loved one, and struggling with disabilities--but I'm not sure how realistic the depictions are as it kind of feels like everyone gets over their problems quite easily. There's a love triangle that I thought was progressive at first, but it made me feel a little uncomfortable that two minors have a crush on their adult teacher (though I get that this can happen innocently). It just didn't feel crucial to the plot of the story, though it drives some of the comedic bits in the show. The characters are quite likeable, though most of them don't really have fleshed out personalities besides one or two main traits. The ending felt a bit rushed and didn't feel like there was proper closure. I know this is based off of a light novel series, so I'm not sure if this was released before or after the series finished or not (actually I'm not even sure if the series is still ongoing). Overall, I think I enjoyed watching it, but I don't think it was amazing either.

Anyway, those are my thoughts about the show that I wanted to jot down quickly so they may not be organized well.

Edit (3/24/2020): added image