Review of Hyouka

Curious right? You can't stop thinking about it can you? Why in goodness name should you watch this anime? It makes your eyes glimmer right? Well hold of your frustation of me pulling that lame pun and let me begin my review of Hyouka! Story: Hotaru Oreki is a dull and unenthusized Teen entering his first year of high school. Not giving a crap about studies or clubs his motto is "If I don't have to do it I won't, If I do, I'll make it quick" and believes to conserve as much energy as possible. At the request (almost borderlining demmand) of her sister toJoin the classics club to save it from disbanding due to low members and there meets a girl who hadn't realized that she was in a locked clubroom. After the minor mystery is solved Oreki finds that this girl, Chitanda Eru is quite the curious type and for whatever reason he can't quite say no to her. Its from there, that a series of curious cases begin. Notice I didn't say mysteries because to be honest the mysteries are quite mundane. to quote the movie other guys, its not miami vice where its Drugs and Murder scandals, it's quite small scale only increasing slightly and no one's life is at risk, its the simple cases one gets during their highschool year. Now why did I give this an 8? Well its not only a character driven thing, but fact of the matter is that these cases really are the more likely thing one will encounter in high school and the writing is done in such a way that you realize these characters are taking it seriously to the point where you want them to chill out. But as one character put it, they're high schoolers and their sense of importance is overblown. Staying true to its setting it can be a negitive for mystery pursuists while for slice of life enthusists it could be a plus, where I stand, is that it does its job to move along the next section-

Characters: I always tell myself that characters are just as heavy as plot in a series and either one can carry a series over. In this case the Characters are definetly the stronger piece, because there are no other characters better for this story than Houtarou, Eru, Sotashi and Mayaka. These four that make the classics club are very entertaining to watch, not only to bounce off of each other but in their own right as well. Houtarou is the most likely to connect with the lazy in all of us (me especially) and even though the cases he goes through are small, he's a BEAST at solving them and is just smart in general *he even works his way through a few bribes for good mesure*. Eru can be either really cute or really annoying to the viewer, either way though its undeniable she's important as she's the trigger for Houtarou to get involved in these cases (and the recent onspring of curiosity memes online) and later in the series you can see subtle ways in how they connect with each other and its always a pleasure to see people blushing. Stoashi appears to be the comic relief but he's harboring quite the odd colors of emotions, not that he's two faced, but you can't quite view him the same once the series is over. Mayaka becomes important later in the series but her squabbles with Satoshi are amusing and what she goes through in the third portion of the story is likely to draw intrest. Through the series these characters change very subtly and its not through speeches or puffing on about friendship but almost like acctual people, the writing for them is done so well and subtly its amazing and it gets to the point where you find out that this is the main strength of this show...and speaking of strengths...

Art: Now, I've only cared about two shows from Kyoani, and one of those shows had a little movie called 'the Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya'. Its simple, take the art and animation from there, put it here and add much more well done lighting, some great and sometimes surreal art style changes and thats pretty much what you've got for Hyouka in terms of art and animation, simply outstanding.

Sound: The Music here is very fitting, its classical, a bit bouncy when need be but not to the point of annoyance and is sort of soothing. Its the kind of music that really makes you think and at other times its really soothing and fitting of the normal setting. The Opening and Endings are also easy on the ears though you may be more distracted by the visuals they present. The Seiyuus here do a fantastic job at portraying their characters to the point that the stories I hear of Kyoanim getting bigname actors to play these roles isn't surprising in the slightest to me.

Enjoyment: with amazing technical values and the enjoyable yet interesting cast of characters I never regretted watching a single episode, even when the case at hand was just too mundane. It makes for a great viewing experience and at the end you'll really grow t like the cast and their relation towards each other. The cases on the otherhand can be either really mundane or easy to solve (I couldn't solve a mystery to save my life, but I was close to solving a handful of them) and the points in which the characters play up certian cases to be bigger than they are (oh second portion) while realistic given the setting can be a tad annoying.

Overall: Focus on the mysteries, you'll really dislike this show, but come here for character and by damn it you'll have a show. Once you realize what the show is truly going for with its characters you'll really come to enjoy the ride and the writing put into it. May not be a perfect show but its definitly worth your time.