Review of Hyouka
"Watashi wa himei o ageru" "Hyouka" (lit. Frozen desert/icescream) is anime adaptation of Honobu Yonezawa's light novel series "Ko-tenbu" (Classic literature Club) which covers the story line of the series first 4 novels. Hyouka is a mystery story. It heavily relies on mystery element for each episode yet doesn't differ majorly from other slice-of-life series in sense. Every story has it's carrying elements, after all. In Hyouka's case many of the events follow pattern of inspecting abnormalities or "interesting" factors and then using "logical" (quoted because of the certain aspects which I'd rather not regard logical but you will be able to make your own conclusionon that after watching the series) deduction to explain the case.
Hyouka revolves around the group of four: Houtarou Oreki, Satoshi Fukube, Eru Chitanda and Mayaka Ibara. These four first years join the Ko-tenbu (classics Club) that would otherwise be cancelled due to lack of members. The kotenbu itself is already a huge mystery: in addition to having no meaning to its existence it also has some peculiar links to people outside the school. Other point setting the kotenbu apart from other clubs is that, in what I could tell, it is the only club with no "senpai".
Story wise the series wasn't that good. On micro scale the individual mysteries/arcs were entertaining and the puzzles were rather enjoyable. It didn't feel forced or like the narrator was playing it dirty. Even though the mysteries themselves feel rather "out of place" time to time the execution feels good. That being said the there was little continuum in the actual story and after ten hours I didn't feel like there had been any particular development from the beginning.
Certainly the characters had grown and changed. There had been emotional turmoil. But in larger scale it didn't feel like miles had been traveled. Rather the end scene was more of a cliffhanger telling that everything is just about to start, which, considering there is no promise of the last book being turned into anime, was rather disappointing.
Lack of development isn't necessarily bad thing. Every story doesn't necessarily have to have plot that has definite beginning state and conclusion. However, Hyouka definitely feels like series that lives and dies by its development and it did feel like more should have happened. By this I don't mean that I wish the series to have flashy confessions, dokidoki-cuteness or anything of the sorts. I simply wish that the glimpses of characters exploring themselves had been more frequent.
Music and art wise Hyouka might as well be called masterpiece. The animation couldn't technically be better. There could be some arm-wrestling regarding whether or not the big eyed anime style was suited for the series, but there is very little room for improvement on the path the crew choose. Characters are beautiful, scenes are refined and appealing and various effects used in illustrating the mysteries are interesting. Music wise there isn't much I can say: beautiful, inspiring, moody and suiting. Part of good sound design is combining certain feeling with tune and making it work. When certain tune starts to play you know the case is going to be solved; when certain song plays you know it's play time. One thing I keep encountering more and more in new anime I come across is the heavily western sounds. But hell if I'd argue that as a bad thing I might as well blame all anime for being animated in low frame rates. I'm not going to be that picky.
All in all Hyouka is interesting package of mystery, slice-of-life and character interaction. If you can find enjoyment in viewing everyday life from another perspective, enjoying conversations between (Guy who was too busy to conserve energy to ever get to know himself) (Girl who pretty much finds everything mysterious) (Happy-go-around guy who has self-esteem problems) and (tsundere cosplayer librarian) and getting outsmarted Hyouka might be just the thing for you.
As a warning though: be ready for some cliche and SERIOUS repetitive carry elements.