Review of Hyouka

I will start by saying that it's a real shame that people write this anime off as disappointing because the mystery element of the series was not enough to satisfy their expectations. This is actually hinted in the show, where it is said that for the average guy with not much genre knowledge, Horror is usually lumped together with Mystery, when in this case they are very apart. Many have arrived at this anime under the assumption that it is strict-mystery (kind of like Sherlock or Death Note or similar works), when Hyouka is mainly a Slice-of-Life anime show which uses mundane mysteries as ameans to make the characters interact and develop in a distinctive way. There's also the element of comedy present in the story as well as a tiny bit of romance.

The story follows the main protagonist, Oreki Houtarou, and it is told from his seemingly gray and dull perspective, so we can see his inner thoughts along with the flow of the episodes. In the first episode, we see his situation is changed by the arrival of a letter sent by his sister, Tomoe, which tells him to join the Classics Club in his high school so that it won't be abolished because of a lack of members, and the fact that he joins a club greatly surprises his closest friend, Satoshi. In this club, he meets Chitanda Eru, a girl who acts as the driving force that puts Oreki in a variety of situations that involve different mysteries (which are for the most part very mundane).

The story is structured in three longer arcs which are adapted from the first three volumes of the novel (which is the source material) with some side stories here and there, which are adapted from the 4th volume (and one of them from the 6th). As most adaptations, this anime has some little script issues because of the time constraints but in the end it works out well. For most of the mysteries, the clues used to solve them are subtly shown so we can see that the reasonings made from them and the conclusions are not being pulled out of nowhere. The initially light-hearted atmosphere established in the beginning turns into something more serious and more dramatic as we get deeper into the longer arcs, which provides us with some necessary contrast that prevents the show from becoming boring. This change, however, brings with it some exaggerations or over-dramatizations, which are not done all that badly, but that still stand out given that the show is very well crafted overall.

The place where Hyouka falls a little bit short would be the mysteries themselves. While this is not my personal opinion, one could say some of them are just boring because they feel trivial and are more akin to a simple question than the notion of a mystery and they are not deep enough to really feel engaging and get you hooked. None of the mysteries are what I'd call bad, though, you just need to know how to give value to the ordinary. I think it's very positive that the show's mysteries focus more on the reasons and motivations behind them than in how they happened. One could also say that the ending was a bit of a shortcoming as well, but that is because Hyouka is not a finished work as of yet. The strong point of the anime is definitely its characters and the relationships between them (particularly the relationships between Oreki and the others), which are captivating and realistic, and it is where the show greatly compensates for its shortcomings. There is also no infallible mystery solver in the show (except perhaps Tomoe, but nobody really knows since she's shown to be capable but very mysterious as well), which makes you feel somewhat included in the mystery solving process rather than making you feel like a spectator of an unrealistic detective.

As I said, the cast is one of the things that shines the most about this show and it is what truly makes it unique. The four main characters seem to have very distinct and defined personalities and specific roles in the club: Chitanda is usually the one that incited the mystery due to her innocence and curiosity, Satoshi and Mayaka provide information and different points of view and Oreki takes the information together and wraps up by making deductions. However, while the show advances, the characters break this seemingly formulaic structure and do things that would be usually considered unlike them, such as Oreki being the one that is curious and instigating a mystery or Satoshi trying to solve a mystery himself.

Over the course of time, the characters develop through the various incidents that happen in the story. Most of the development is shown in Oreki. At the start he doesn't want to do anything that isn't absolutely necessary, which causes him to search for the quickest method to satisfy Chitanda's requests and to try to avoid them if he can because he thinks they're just troublesome, but as a result of the time he spends with the Classics Club (among other things) he starts to realize that maybe getting involved in these situations might not be all that bad after all. Later on, he even acts of his own accord without the need for others to get him to act, and of course, for someone so focused on saving energy to start doing that, it's obvious that those close to him would notice the change in the way he behaves. Other characters go through their own changes as well, like Satoshi, who can't help getting a bit obsessive about mystery solving at one point in the story and starts feeling like he's more of a Watson than a Sherlock and that he's in Oreki's shadow, so he starts feeling inferior and jealous, which is a big contrast to his usual happy and carefree self that is even used for comic relief earlier in the story; and Mayaka, who gets more screentime later on, in which her place in the Manga Society and her relationships with its different members are shown to instill change in her. That being said, Chitanda actually doesn't change all that much throughout the plot of the anime, but I wouldn't say she really needs to, since she serves as foil for Oreki.

The art and sound in Hyouka are absolutely outstanding. It is KyoAni after all. The atmosphere of the show is very well set by the use of colors, lighting and shading and different camera angles. The use of subtlety and symbolism makes it so that every time you watch you can find out something you didn't notice in your last watch; this show has a lot more to tell than it would initially seem and one can really see its depth when one knows how to analyze and read into things. The quality of the animation and the designs truly make you feel like the characters are alive. Some scenes are just visually stunning, and a particular example of something I enjoyed a lot would be the scene when Chitanda's hair seems to grow and trap Oreki to show how he's captivated or even bewitched by her, which is rather abstract and dream-like; this contrasts well with the scene earlier in the same episode when Oreki meets Chitanda for the first time, which is one of my favourite first time meeting scenes of all time, it's just wonderfully done. What stands out the most is the attention to detail that KyoAni put in the anime, like the subtle hints that are shown for the mysteries or the small, yet important body language such as eye contact, facial expressions and movement of the characters, including secondary ones like the class 2-F students and even those you could call irrelevant background characters are well done and detailed.

Hyouka's soundtrack fits the show perfectly, boasting with different tunes ranging from bright classical music pieces to dark and intriguing melodies that boost the sense of mystery, make the designs and animation shine and stress the different emotions shown throughout the whole show. When the soundtrack is heard, be it in a tense, solemn or light-hearted moment, it is never out of place.

Hyouka is an anime that shows you how one can find value in the mundane and the ordinary, and it is one of the most enjoyable shows I've come across, so much so that I binged it and even read the novels, all of them (which I highly recommend).

If you're looking for a fresh, well made series, I can assure you that Hyouka is worth and deserves your attention.