Review of Hyouka

They sure don't make anime like this anymore! It actually took me a couple of episodes to notice why I was so in awe of what I was looking at, and it amazes me how so many reviews here completely miss it: The production values are simply through the roof! Every background is a work of art. The detailing is mind blowing. I can't recall watching anything quite like it, to be honest. The background art alone could be used for teaching anime artists how to do this stuff. The same goes for character animation. The movements are amazingly fluid and natural, body language and facialexpressions are the quality of animated movies with much bigger budgets. Kyoto Animation truly knocked it out of the park on this one. Visually it's a masterpiece.

As for the story, it's based on a series of mystery novels written by Honobu Yonezawa. It's obvious that the target audience is younger people (early- to mid teens I believe) as the "mysteries" are all fairly benign every day type things. I found it entertaining and cute. It's not exactly Agatha Christie or Conan Doyle, but more in line with The Three Investigators book series or The Famous Five by Enid Blyton, though much less fantastic as the "mysteries" here truly are something taken from normal every day things. It mostly works, though a few of the episodes could easily have been left out.

Aside from the "mysteries", Hyouka is about friendship and first loves and for me, it's the interaction between the characters that makes it worth watching (besides the impressive artwork). I'd have appreciated a more definitive conclusion to the relationship between the two main characters, but I've come to expect from Shōnen that romance is often expressed internally rather than externally. Even romantic animes aimed at older audiences often don't show the protagonists kissing or even holding hands. This can be frustrating for Western audiences who like everything expressed in ways that leave no doubts and nothing to the imagination, but it is what it is. Cultural differences and all that.

Sadly, the director and several of the animators who worked on Hyouka were killed in the arson attack on Kyoto Animation in 2019. If nothing else, this anime stands as a permanent testament to their awesome talent. Hyouka is anime done right.