Review of Hyouka

I was thinking a lot about this show. This show is a typical example of: "Something is missing here, but I don't know what". The show has a really good production value. Animation wise it is gorgeous. Audio wise it's a correct work. As for the story and the dialogue it is neatly written. The characters were absolutely cute, loveable and their interactions were heartwarming as hell. It's a tidy anime. Moreover Chitanda is an exaggerated version of my type (so she could have been best grill). Even the detective stories were interesting, because it was lifelike. The idea that everyday events are the mysteryto solve, was really unique in my opinion (but of course it wasn't jaw-dropping, because of the simplicity of it).

So why it is not a 10/10 then? Well I realized the reason is simple. There is no character development, they were static. Which shouldn't be an issue if this show would be purely a detective story. The reality, however, is that it focuses heavily on the characters' everyday problems and personal lives. The only thing what changed through the show is that our main MC was a little bit less aloof. I mean really just a little bit. Additional issue was that the characters were written for each other, and the goal was obviously to make them a couple, but their relationship didn't move forward at all. I mean even the characters knew from the first episode that they are like perfect match, yet their relationship didn't move forward at all. I mean yeah, they are young, but I was 15 too, and heck I tried to do something, just something to happen.

I think the perfect summary of the issue is, the anime didn't really had a start, and didn't really had an end. The whole show felt like: "This is a slice of life from april 10 2008 to june 8 2009, and these are the interesting events from that time period." (by the way the dates are caught in the air I don't remember the exact date if there were any) The thing is even for a slice of life show I would expect some kind of arc or at least something.

In summary: It's a good show. I can hardly say a bad word about it, and I enjoyed it, but whole show felt like a stalemate. However as far as I know the second season is coming soon, and I may revisit this review after I saw the second season.