Best Anime of 2012

I'm only counting shows that ENDED in 2012 (Robotics;Notes, Little Busters and Shinsekai Yori aren't on there)

Hyouka narrowly beats SAO and Sakamichi no Apollon. Narrowly.

The art was better than SAO (though SAO was really pretty).

Story and character-wise it's on par with Sakamichi.

The only thing that really pushes it to be the best this year in my opinion is that it's a mystery show with no murders. And difficult, plausible mysteries that are, indeed, solvable. Those are really hard to come by, even in literature.

So really, I think it's the best because it's different for something that's so straightforward.

Very true. It was quite original, with good characters and good art.

To justify my choice (Mouretsu Pirates), it has good art, especially the 3DCG composite work was some of the best I've seen. It has interesting, standalone, strong characters and an engaging story. The sci-fi is well done, worthy of merit outside of just anime.

I would post my justification, but I don't really have one, this year last year I was just stepping in the anime, and I watched more finished anime than new/just finished.
The only ones I saw of the last year are Accel World, SAO and Little Busters, all the rest already finished, like Fullmetal Alchemist, and stuff