what shirayuki (look up, fourth from nechi) said about it being a shoujo manga was a bit surprising...coz when i watched it, i thought "whoa, if only my family could appreciate this work of art"
hachikuro is held in very high esteem in my opinion, as it's very complete from its comedy, to it's characters who depict the perfect models of our daily selves, to it's drama, as well to it's sound and art. a must have for anyone who calls himself an otaku, so what are you waiting for?

the characters were very complete and yeah, the sounds were l33t
the art wasn't bad, tho. well yeah, it's different, but trust me, it's loads better than the manga's initial art (which was, to put it kindly, pretty childish...but of course it evolved as well!)
then again, the developers did a good job with the alternate storyline to that in the manga, which is WAAAYYY different (but pretty cool as well) where some of the characters died differently, or new characters are introduced, and even a bit of a different character history...what are you waiting for, go get the manga! :P