Review of Hyouka

Let's state something from the beginning: Hyouka's one of the best romance/drama/school animes I''ve seen so far. I'll just spend a few words on the technical features: colours are wonderful, the design of the characters is amazing, with a pretty cool protagonist too. The setting gives the watcher the true feeling of belonging to that school as well. You'll get morbidly attached to that quiet club room, where the four friends spend their days just being wonderfully together. But now I'll get to the point: what's great with this series is the characters' system. First: not even the slightest presence of the lately omnipresent harem; finally themain character is not hunted by a herd of ravenous women. Also, his best friend Satoshi is not the flat support character type, but he has a strong personality and a will of his own. The same goes for the absolutely adorable Mayaka Ibara, which is the first female character I fall in love with much more than with the main female protagonist (as a comparison, if you've seen Sakurasou no pet na kanojo, it's quite difficult to find Aoyama more attractive than Shina, or Minori than Taiga in Toradora). This is due to her personality alongside with her cuteness, that are able to match those of Chitanda Eru, making the preference a matter of taste for who's watching.

Putting the single characters aside, the fact is: we can see ourselves and our desires in this quartet. The reason we are able to sympathise with Oreki and Satoshi much more than with Mayaka and Chitanda lies in a simple structure: those two girls are special beings who exceed the average level (for different reasons) but they are stuck in their own duties and pursuits, and this makes them wish for what's normal but still beautiful (love and curiosity for example). The two guys are absolutely average, in terms of social status and aiming. This does not mean they are stupid or trivial, on the contrary they are quite the smart and original type. But still they cannot avoid to look up to what's special and extraordinary in those princesses walking beside them. And this is the situation for the watcher: he's able to understand the hesitation in the main male characters, the distance between them And the two girls, and the desire to lower that distance.

In the end, I recommend you to watch this series, it'll remain, I'm sure, as a beautiful memory.