Review of Hyouka
Too lazy to read this review? Yeah I know, just conserving energy. Drink an energy drink? Yeah I know, too tired to even opening the lid, just conserving energy. Houtarou Oreki is an energy-conserving boy who avoids non-compulsory activities at all costs. However, he joins his high school’s classical literature club at the request of his sister to keep it from being disbanded. In the club, he befriends a girl with boundless curiosity named Chitanda Eru, whose personality is outwardly the opposite of his. Alongside his friends Satoshi and Mayaka, Oreki finds himself unwittingly dragged into activity by Chitanda’s curiosity as they attempt to solve mysteries ineveryday life.
Hyouka started off way too slow, but that ended up ironically being its biggest strength. That, and a ton of other things, but your mileage does indeed vary.
Hyouka never conforms to one specific style of storytelling (compare the Kanya Festival arc versus Chitanda and Houtarou trapped in a shed), it never just sticks to the mysteries (indeed, my biggest complaint with this show was the assumption it was going to be a mystery show) but yet the constant references to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the creator of Sherlock Holmes) and other famous mystery writers are persistent. The characters started off a bit one sided, but eventually were given ample time for development. You never can pin down what Hyouka will do next, or how it will do it. Indeed, the biggest mystery in this show is the show itself. My answer to the question posed above: It is what it is.
The series is laid out with basically three major arcs, and all kinds of random episodic stories in between them. The episodic stories are nice and creative, but this series really sets itself apart in its multi episode arcs. The stories around them are simple, yet have very complicated stories behind them. They are full of people speculating different theories, and often getting things wrong. The storytelling takes a while to get going due to all of the slice of life put into it, but that allows it to put a ton of detail in these stories, examine everything on multiple layers, and the pay-off really manages to make use of its build-up.
The series features excellent music, voice acting and general sound work. From the extremely memorable two OP/ED songs to the general OST, Hyouka is just simply special and magical. To add to the already high bar set by the series, Hyouka features some of the Anime industry’s most talented seiyuu. These amazing voices appear sometimes in no more than one episode minor roles, adding to a near magically performance and great believability to every character that appears on screen, for however long.
And if it’s an attention to detail you want, then Hyouka really delivers on that. Whether it’s in the relationships between the characters, or the different environments. Kyoani’s animation really brings those to life. The characters themselves are all teenagers who at first sight seem like the usual stereotypes, yet develop into completely different directions. There is one character who will probably get on people’s nerves a lot though: Chitanda. She’s well fleshed out in some areas, but also rather forceful. Or make that very forceful.
The mysteries that Oreki solves, tie directly into his own personal life, development and that of his friends. With every event, the characters, very organically grow and mature. At the same time, the story develops and builds on top of little events to create some really big pay off moments. When at its best, Hyouka truly shows what the Anime medium is capable, fusing intricate story-telling with amazing character development.
For all that Hyouka achieves, which, lets be honest at this point, is more than most anime series have achieved in the last few years, it does have one flaw that may prevent some people from being engaged with it. Hyouka is simply put a sophisticated piece of storytelling. Perhaps a bit too sophisticated at times? Basically, the series is at times unapologetic and feels slow. Like any great story, Hyouka slowly and carefully builds up to some truly amazing story and character moments. The issue is, that while there are a lot of good moments, there are truly only two stand out “epic” parts. The stand out parts of the series being both the Kanyaa Festival arc as well as the last two episodes of the series, add up to a total of two.
Life definitely feels like its being “led” by the characters in the series. By the end of the series, each character has gone through a major character arc, and in the process, truly changed and grown as a person. While the ending could be described as “open-ended”, it is, in fact the best kind of open-ended ending one can hope to find in anime. It brings the theme of the series full circle, and really shows how far all the characters have come.While there are definitely more novels to potentially adapt a second season from and continue the franchise, Hyouka is also one of those rare series that actually delivers a satisfying open-ended conclusion.
Though I agree sometimes the lack of actual consequence made the mysteries…inconsequential, Hyouka gave me an appreciation for the long, twisting stories surrounding the ordinary things filling our day-to-day lives. Animation was brilliant, as to be expected, but Eru’s eyes took character design to new level, something about those
Hyouka is a series of tremendous style, intelligence and wit – a series that indulges its own creativity and treats the audience with respect. It’s a series
exploding with heart. A heart full of intriguing characters, a heart with an eye for artistic beauty, a heart with a sense of restraint in music and a heart that always opened itself to our viewing pleasure.