Review of Hyouka

Sometimes when I’m feeling sad or stressed, I like to sit down to a cutesy shoujo romance to lift my spirits. That was my intention when siting down to Hyouka. Unfortunately, I found it difficult to get into this one. The first half of the show is episodic and formulaic with very little variation. The characters are cute; but, it does very little to help a monotonous storyline. I like a good mystery story; but, something about this fell flat. However, I stuck around because something caught my attention. There are little moments of surrealism in certain episodes where a character’s thoughts and feelingsare visually represented in an interesting way. For instance, the first time Houtarou is ensnared by his cute companion’s curiosity, the audience gets a view of his perspective through an imaginative lens where he is literally ensnared by her hair and surrounded by flowers (there to represent her overwhelming cuteness). These moments come off as artistic and deliberate rather than just part of the cute fest.
Because I allowed myself to continue to watch this anime despite my relative boredom, I managed to make it to the second half of Hyouka. The second half managed to capture my attention as the story became more intricate and focused on character development. The second half of this anime had everything that the first half lacked and more. As it came to a close, I found myself saddened by how soon it ended. The story just started! I had just gotten to know these interesting characters and I wanted to know more about them!
Overall, I think this show had a lot of potential for an interesting plot but was sidetracked by its formulaic mini mysteries. There isn't anything particularly terrible about it; but, I cannot whole heartedly recommend it unless you’re really just looking for something kind of cute and without a ton of depth.