Overall Review: Hyouka

I have never in my life been so captivated by a show about absolutely nothing.

Well, perhaps nothing is a bit strong. Hyouka is definitely about something, namely, a group of kids in the Classics Club who occasionally come across "mysteries" to solve; however, there is so much more (less?) to it than that, and what Hyouka really is is slice of life as an art. Real, gorgeous, honest-to-goodness art. Just look at it! I'm no stranger to KyoAni, or to their infamous time-wasting style of storytelling, but this is the first time I've ever thought the time-wasting to be wonderful rather than simply amusing, as was the case, for example, when I watched Haruhi Suzumiya way back in the day. Under normal circumstances I'd argue that watching a bunch of high school students sit around and kill time with essentially petty curiosities could never be even remotely as interesting as an actual mystery series (the kind that runs in the same family as Gosick or Dantalian no Shouka), but Hyouka is it's own animal and rightfully so. That doesn't mean it didn't have its flaws or stumbling points, but, Sweet Hylia, that was a beautiful anime.

As breathtaking as the visuals are, I use the term beautiful to encompass the various aspects of the series as a whole. "Simple and clean" is often far more pleasing to the eye and warming to the heart than complex and boisterous, and I think that's the take home point here. Sometimes, just talking with your friends or puzzling over something you're curious about is more fulfilling than actually being productive, and I sure as hell miss that aspect of being in high school. That nostalgia and feeling of idleness really helped drag me into the series, and as mundane as the mysteries actually were, I always had the sense of amazement when they were solved, even if I guessed some of them before they were revealed. Some of that had to do with presentation; the various visual styles of explaining Houtarou Oreki's (Yuichi Nakamura) thought processes and deductions were always a treat to watch. They were lavishly animated, abstract in a sophisticated way, and simply good writing presented in a brilliant way. Some of it was build up and subtlety. It's rare that I can find an anime that can pull off subtle (my usual example is Eureka Seven, but I think Hyouka is actually better at it) but in some ways, subtlety drives the entire series. You don't need to be told how and why characters feel and act the way they do, because every movement, every action, every conversation and look tells a story about each person in and of itself. The characters may not be too out of the ordinary, but this subtle characterization really strengthens them in a way most series just can't or don't pull off.

Of the four characters, however, I think the most important and interesting ones are the two boys, Oreki and Satoshi Fukube (Daisuke Sakaguchi), and these are also the two characters I relate to the most. Satoshi is a monster all to himself, a seemingly normal guy (and a really nice one) who believes in living life as brightly (or pink) as possible and thus creates a new personality for himself in order to remove the burdens of trying and failing and the associated lack of self-confidence. If you never take anything too seriously, if you try to have fun all the time, wouldn't you be happier? At the same time, of course, Satoshi's real feelings are only bottled up inside, and he's afraid of becoming too focused on one thing (in this case, Mayaka Ibara's (Ai Kayano) affections for him) and reverting to his narrow-minded and unhappy inner self as a result. It sounds complicated, but I think it's true that to some extent this is what youth is all about: trying to figure out who you are and what about that makes you happy. Sometimes, the real you, the inner you, seems to bring only disappointment or causes you to lose confidence in yourself, so what better way to fix it than to change? I can relate to Satoshi because I did this myself in high school, always throwing myself into clubs and activities I wasn't really interested in so that I could experience the bustling youthfulness of those days, and on the outside, I seemed motivated and interested, but the inner me didn't usually agree. This, interestingly enough, is where I relate to Houtarou.

Houtarou Oreki is one of the laziest and most unmotivated characters I've ever seen, and funnily enough, it's like watching my inner self (the self I now proudly display here at college when I'm not doing homework or blogging) except I'm unluckily without the perceptive and deductive mind. A self-proclaimed "energy-saver" whose motto is "I won't do something if I don't have to, and if I do have to I'll get it over with quickly," Houtarou's idea of a bright high school life is to get by without lifting a finger more than he has to. It's only grudgingly that he joins the Classics Club at the urging of his older sister, and even more grudgingly that he finds himself fatally attracted to Eru Chitanda (Satomi Satou) and her deadly catchphrase, "I'm curious!" Chitanda is the most static character of the bunch, but her role as plot device and catalyst for Houtarou's change is evident in the fact that she effectively tangles him up in her cheerful and blithering ditziness. It's Chitanda who forces Houtarou to use his "detective skills", and I don't blame him. The girl is a storm of energy and charisma, and it's hard for anyone to turn that sort of person down, especially when you're interested in them. Still, Houtarou resolves to cling to his way of life as much as possible, and his growth is so slow that it's nearly imperceptible, but grow he does. By the end of the series he's become a curious individual himself, someone less dedicated to doing nothing and more to following through on his impulses, though he still "lives as a hermit crab" (By which he means he lies around in his sleep wear, kills time in whatever way he feels like, and doesn't comb out his bed head. Yeah, it really is me plus the deductive skills). Laziness is just one of those things that really defined my high school era outside of clubs and sports, and that's what Houtarou's life is like as well. Of course, Houtarou isn't completely normal in that he's what I'd call an unmotivated genius; he has the innate ability to bring clues together easily and almost effortlessly into cohesive theories (though for him this is too much work) and for people like Satoshi, who feel that they can never be the best at anything despite effort, this is almost insulting to their self-confidence. It's a little sad to watch Satoshi forever act as Houtarou's sidekick, but that's the way it is, and their friendship transcends that jealousy.

Of course, it wouldn't be a discussion on Hyouka if I didn't mention the famous Kanya Festa, and I have to say I seriously missed out last year by waiting until now to watch this series. If Hyouka goes down in anime history (and it is going down, from what I've seen), it's because of these episodes more than anything else.

Here's what I thought going in: "Oh great, another school festival arc."

Here's what I thought coming out: "Holy, sweet, hell, what was that?!"

So what's so amazing about the Kanya Festa? Simply this: it's a school festival! A real, honest-to-goodness cultural festival.

Cultural festivals are infamous events in anime and manga, but they're always used as plot devices, as vehicles to push couples together or delve into character interactions. Most of the time we see very little of the actual festival outside of the occasional haunted house or maid cafe, and it gets very repetitive very fast. In general I've come to dread them, but Hyouka, as only KyoAni could do, actually managed to make an arc during a school festival about the festival and make it utterly engaging and fun. Hell, I seriously wanted to be present at Kanya Festa; Chitanda wasn't the only one who was wide-eyed and excitedly distracted at all the stalls and things to do. Of course, the festival arc here does have a point, a mystery at its heart (the best one of the whole series, in my opinion), but it takes its time showing itself. There are clues here and there of the "Ten Characters" case, but a wonderful bulk of the arc is just the experience of the festival in all its KyoAni devilishly expensive glory. I'm way too scared to find out how much the production of Hyouka cost; I'm sure you could probably feed several hundred (or thousand) starving kids in the world with that kind of money, but the studio certainly didn't hold back. From high name seiyuu in every role, gorgeous animation, a very pleasing soundtrack, to careful and detailed writing, this is a love child of money and prestige.

Of course the series isn't perfect. Sometimes the selling point as a mystery series made the "mysteries" less captivating than the simple atmosphere of it all, and sometimes the character development was too slow or imperceptible to really make certain characters interesting to watch (usually this was the case for Houtarou or Chitanda), but I think that in general those flaws were fairly small. For the most part, this was a great anime, though not quite a masterpiece.

Still, I don't think calling this anime simply another show really brings it justice either.

This is art.

N.B.: Many thanks to my good friend Ivan for taking the time to take all these beautiful screencaps!

Episode 1 Screencaps: "The Revival of the Long-established Classic Literature Club"