Review of Hyouka

Overview: No matter how much of a mystery buff you may be, or how many detective stories you have read or seen over the years, I can guarantee that you have never watched a series quite like "Hyouka". Rather than following a hard-boiled detective who investigates murders in a crime-ridden city or countryside, "Hyouka" instead follows a group of teenagers investigating various mysteries around their school. This unique premise proves to be both the show's greatest strength and biggest weakness, resulting in a series that's certainly worth watching, but far from the best of its kind. Story (7.5/10): The protagonist of "Hyouka" is Houtarou Oreki, a lazy teenageboy who has recently enrolled in Kamiyama High School as a first-year student and makes a point of not doing anymore than he needs to- as he puts it, if he doesn't have to do something, he won't do it and if he has to, he'll do it as quickly as possible. Unfortunately for Houtarou, the moment he enters high school, he gets hit with something he has to do, namely become part of a club that his older sister was once a part of (the Classic Literature Club, to be precise) in order to prevent it from being shut down. Once at the club room, Houtarou meets Eru Chitanda, another first-year who has also joined the club for her own personal reasons. Very intelligent and incredibly curious, Eru is someone who can't stop thinking about mysteries until they've been solved, and so Houtarou can kiss his chances of living a peaceful, relaxing school life goodbye, since he just happens to be very good at answering questions. From there, the story follows these two high school students, along with Houtarou's friends from middle school Satoshi Fukube and Mayaka Ibara, as they uncover the causes of various incidents around their school, and occasionally the village they live in.

In addition to being unlike any other mystery series out there, "Hyouka" sets itself apart from most other school life anime as well. It does this by tackling various themes that most other anime of its kind wouldn't even think twice about, like the line between standing up for what you believe in and just throwing a tantrum over nothing, and how what seems like the former when you're young can feel like the latter when you get older. It also deals with the consequences of humility, and how those who don't recognize that they're special or have talent often end up hurting those who aren't as fortunate. The latter theme in particular is one I never expected to be explored in an anime of all things, and one set in modern-day Japan no less, since taking pride in or even acknowledging your own strengths and accomplishments completely goes against standard Japanese social norms. The majority of the series is divided into three major arcs, all of which are in some way connected to Kanya-sai, the Kamiyama High School culture festival that's held every autumn and widely seen as the biggest event the school has. Each of the three arcs have a core mystery that the main characters are compelled to solve, and each of these mysteries are just as compelling as the one before them.

The story's problems are small, but numerous. For one, while the arcs of the series are really compelling and satisfying, some of the standalone episodes, particularly the early ones, are as dull as dish water, dealing with incredibly mundane mysteries like "Why was the room locked with somebody in it?" or "Why does a book keep getting taken out by different people?". There was actually a time or two when I felt really let down from watching such a boring episode straight off the heels of a really interesting one. Additionally, as great as the arcs are, I noticed after a while that they tend to follow something of a pattern, with Houtarou having apparently solved the mystery at a certain point only for it to be revealed afterwards that he was either way off-base or didn't go far enough. While this does allow for more complex storytelling, the fact still remains that by the third arc I could literally predict that there was something Houtarou had missed once he was convinced he had gotten the answer. What's more is that the third arc actually ends when there's just under a quarter of the series left to go, and while the last few episodes are certainly better than earlier standalone episodes, the series ultimately fails to truly wrap things up, either narratively or thematically, though it certainly doesn't help that "Hyouka" was originally a series of novels, with the anime only covering the first four.

Art & Animation (9/10):
As is expected of a Kyoto Animation project, "Hyouka" is a fantastic-looking series. Not only are the character models and environments incredibly smooth and detailed almost all of the time, but the series also makes great use of visual effects whenever Houtarou is making deductions. Notably, the series almost never reuses the same type of visuals, and instead uses different types for each mystery, which generally depend on what kind of mystery it is and what kind of deductions are being made. All in all, "Hyouka" is yet another piece of evidence that KyoAni go above and beyond when it comes to animation.

Sound & Dialogue (8/10):
"Hyouka"'s soundtrack is pretty average overall, with no real standout tracks that I can think of. The opening and ending themes are watchable, but none of them are really what I would call great, except maybe the first opening "Yasahisa no Riyu". The voice acting is good, but the dub consists mainly of voice actors that were fairly new to the industry at the time, with the exceptions of some veterans like Caitlin Glass and Alexis Tipton. That said, I did really like the performances from the two lead actors Adam Gibbs and Madeleine Morris, with Eru serving as the latter's breakout role. As a whole, the sound design gets the job done, but nothing really beyond that.

Characters (7.5/10):
Houtarou has been described as "Sherlock Holmes as a high school student", and for good reason. He's rather socially inept and generally apathetic, but his way of thinking is incredibly logical, and frequently allows him to figure out all kinds of things via tiny details. Unlike Sherlock, however, Houtarou is incredibly humble about his talents, often writing off his deductions as just him getting lucky, though the people around him can tell he's not giving himself enough credit. That said, while pushing him into solving a mystery is very possible, especially if you're Eru, Houtarou's determination to conserve as much energy as he can is still hard-wired into his being. As such, he'll often consider a mystery solved even when there's clearly something he missed (which really bites him in the ass in one particular arc), and he often has to have an inconsistency pointed out to him by someone else. Unfortunately, much like Yuichi Aizawa in "Kanon", Houtarou's backstory is overall pretty lacking despite him being the protagonist, with the exact reasoning behind his "energy conservation" habits being hinted at but never actually revealed. In short, he's an interesting and likeable protagonist, but I've definitely seen better.

My favourite character in the anime would have to be Eru (with Houtarou being my second). It's established in the first episode that she comes from a really wealthy family (one of the four wealthiest around the area the series is set), but in spite of this, Eru is easily the nicest character in the series, being able to get along with and befriend just about anyone. Of course, her defining trait is her curiosity, to the point of having "I have to know!" as her catchphrase, with Houtarou eventually being able to predict when she's going to say it. Eru is so obsessed with mysteries, in fact, that she approaches even the most mundane aspects of life as a mystery to be solved, an example being when she's trying to figure out why a teacher of hers picked the wrong lesson to teach the class one day. Houtarou even suggests that she simply ask the teacher himself how he made the mistake, but she refuses because, in her own words, that would take all the fun out of it. In other words, she has a complexity addiction. However, rather than this being a serious character flaw that eventually blows up in her face (as it is with practically any other character who has it), in Eru's case, this never becomes anything more than a harmless vice. Her only real flaw is her naivety, as while she's really intelligent and certainly not lacking in social graces, she tends to assume the best of situations even when there's clear evidence to the contrary. Ultimately, Eru is just a very lovable character all around, even if she can be a little annoying at times.

Then there's Satoshi Fukube, Houtarou's best friend who can easily be summed up as the John Watson to his Sherlock. In contrast to Houtarou's apathy, Satoshi is generally very cheerful and friendly, though he's also more grounded and realistic than Eru. A self-proclaimed "database", Satoshi is very knowledgeable about a lot of subjects, though he's of next to no use when it comes to actually providing answers, even outright stating on multiple occasions that it's not his function to draw conclusions. He mainly serves as comic relief until the final quarter of the series, where several facets of his character being suddenly cast in a much more serious, somber light than before. Lastly, there's Mayaka Ibara, a girl who's known Houtarou and Satoshi for about as long as they've known each other, and has a crush on the latter, which doesn't really go anywhere despite Satoshi being aware of it. While Mayaka does do a good job at rounding up the main cast, she sadly is nowhere near as likeable or interesting as Eru, Houtarou or Satoshi, and ultimately she doesn't get a lot of focus. She's also surprisingly childish, even for a teenager, being very short-tempered and having a tendency to blow a fuse over the tiniest of things, in contrast to the other three who only get angry on very rare, specific occasions.

Besides the main four, "Hyouka" also has a pretty large supporting cast. One such example is Houtarou's older sister, Tomoe, a graduate from Kamiyama and the one who convinced Houtarou to join the Classic Lit. Club in the first place. Tomoe is noted to be even smarter than her brother, as well as being much more cheerful, with Houtarou even calling her "the queen of sunshine". Unfortunately, despite Tomoe being the whole reason the series is even possible, her character remains largely a mystery over the series to the point that I can't even put a face to her name- and I mean that literally, since she's only ever seen from the mouth down, so it's never actually revealed what she looks like. There are a bunch of other characters I could talk about, but doing so risks spoiling huge parts of the series, so I think it's best to just end the section here.

Enjoyment (7.5/10):
For a down-to-earth anime set in high school, "Hyouka" is surprisingly dark, especially when compared to other school life anime produced by KyoAni. While humour is indeed present, it tends to be very gentle and low-key and the series definitely isn't opposed to showing the uglier parts of humanity, with several characters' actions being portrayed as really petty despite them seeing their actions as righteous and the series dealing with things like manipulation and blackmail. The arcs also tend to have highly bittersweet endings, and there's even one case of "the bad guy wins".

Overall:
"Hyouka" is definitely far from being a masterpiece- its music is largely forgettable, several episodes left me bored to tears and it ultimately ends before it can really make the most out of its unique themes. Yet despite these shortcomings, it's still a very enjoyable, interesting and unique anime with fantastic visuals, clever, complex storytelling and likeable, well-rounded characters, making this well worth a look for any mystery or slice-of-life fan.

Score:
7.5+9+8+7.5+7.5=39.5/50=7.9/10