Handa-kun is too weird. On one hand that could mean that Handa-kun, the titular high-school calligraphy genius, is too weird. But on the contrary, he might be too normal for his show. Despite the cult following he inspires in his class, his only superhuman traits are his calligraphy and his ability to completely ignore reality, and live in a deluded fantasy land where everyone hates his guts despite them fawning over him in painfully theatrical fashion. I suppose he also has the power to accidentally substantiate everyone's love for him, to give them the life-changing advice they seem to desperately need. But really, what does that get chalked up to? Outlandish friends, cosmic alignment, karma? If nothing else it comes down to a world that's just too weird for its own good, to the extent where the protagonist just becomes an awkward fit, shoehorned in for the sake of contrast.
There's not much to talk about when it comes to Handa himself. When we look at earlier shows from this year such as Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto or Tanaka-kun is Always Listless, it's easy to notice a trend of shows where a wholly irregular high school guy ends up in the middle of a normal—or at least comparatively normal—group of souls waiting to absorb their teachings, their bible of oddity. Because Handa-kun pulls the opposite, there's not a lot to talk about as far as he himself is concerned. His penchant for picking up followers by saying cool lines, either to himself or on accident, is admirable to an extent, but it's easy to wonder if he could have been replaced by Spongebob's magic conch.
So that leaves it to the supporting cast, who unfortunately spend all their time defining themselves with respect to Handa, to the extent that ehy deny themselves any real hope of development or interest. There are plenty of tropes filled, to be sure. A delinquent, the straight-laced class representative, a model, and the straight man, along with more infrequent characters including a Handa clone, an assassin, and a sprinter; actually the straight man is the only one who makes himself memorable, by way of having no overly distinctive stereotypes to live up to nor having a life that revolves around Handa, which left him time to be a character in his own right. Ironically enough, even though him being normal makes him the person closest to Handa in terms of personality, he manages to be the most developed character even as part of the supporting cast, while Handa himself, being pigeonholed into setting up the show's one gag, is the least.
The only things that would be left to save the show would be the jokes or fantastic technical aspects. In a comedy, the jokes would be enough to make the show worthwhile, but there's only one joke to be had, and the more the show tells it the less believable it becomes. There is no animation worth writing about and no musical prowess worth qualifying, just as there's no character or episode worth discussing at any length. If it sees the light of day again, it'll be in a discussion about what AnimeNewsNetwork's Jake calls “the weird dude comedy”, and again I would consider that to be a poor genre name for Handa-kun, however it might appear. It may have done fine as a single episode, an OVA of dramatic irony and a genius' misunderstanding, but by the end of the show I was so exhausted I couldn't even tell you that.