Review of Hyouka

At the risk of coming across as a hipster, in 2012 prior to the massive influx of new anime fans from Attack on Titan & Sword Art Online, long before I joined MAL, when people were obsessing over Fate/Zero’s second season and Kuroko no Basket, Hyouka came out, almost entirely looked over. Coming in fresh off of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya ready for something to grab me and disappointed with the lack of non-tea-drinking substance that was K-On, Hyouka was a quiet masterpiece that I, along with many others it seems, was both pleasantly surprised by and not entirely ready for at the time.Hyouka revolves around Oreki Houtaro’s dream of a grey, energy conserving life and the rose colored attacks that plague his determined pattern of life. Under pressure from his sister he joins the classics club in order to keep it alive for her (which is probably not the first, and definitely won’t be the last time he gets strong-armed by powerful women in his life). Whether he is conscious of it or not his life changes when he meets the Classics clubs sole eternally curious rose colored member, Chitanda Eru. His uncanny ability to solve little day-to-day mysteries that otherwise would go unnoticed turns Chitanda into an unstoppable force that won’t rest until they are solved. Satoshi & Mayaka add dimension with their own personalities that will be better explored elsewhere.

For thoroughly being a slice-of-life with a heavily mystery inclined tone, Kyoto Animation pulls all the stops to raise the bar once again when it comes to artistic quality in animation style. It is presented with every opportunity to exposition dump but it refuses to do anything short of using it’s visual creative muscle to clearly communicate how each character is interpreting the world & events happening around them. It’s score is made up of a handful of classical pieces along with its own stunning original work by Kouhei Tanaka. The tight, multifaceted interactions between characters and their own complex emotions & motivations draw out more of who they are as characters. The tone throughout is mostly grey & earthy sharply contrasted with the cherry-blossom colored tones used to reinforce Houtaro’s battle with the rose colored life those around him continue to invite him into.

If I had to identify any weaknesses the show possesses, it’s a show that moves at a snails pace at times, which, much like in the currently airing show “Sing Yesterday for Me”, is a central component needed to enjoy the realistic subtley of the microscopic developments that happen over the course of its runtime.

Ultimately Hyouka is a reflection on the “rose colored life”; it’s about becoming unavoidably enchanted into enjoying the life available to us as it presents itself to us with the people we are surrounded by.

FFO: Sing Yesterday For Me, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Welcome to the NHK, Mushishi

(Anituber Replay Value has hours of content exploring the depths of this show that I highly recommend for any of its fans)

100% Seinen Jump approval.