Hyouka Review

Man I’m really plowing through these anime from last season. Next up on my list was Hyouka, an anime centered around the characters you see in the picture above. Hyouka focuses on solving mysterious, some small and some big. There is no real story progression, rather we see some minor character development instead. The basic structure of the entire anime is presented at very first episode. Chitanda, the girl you see with long black hair, gets interested in something that seems odd. Oreki, the dead looking guy in the middle, uses his supreme logic to get the center of it all. The characters at the ends, Satoshi and Mayaka act as supporting characters if you would, but I personally think the story was interesting mostly because of them…

The problem Hyouka has is the stagnation of Oreki and Chitanda’s characters. What you see in the first episode you see throughout the rest of the series till about the last 3 episodes. Whereas Satoshi and Mayaka evolve throughout the series. They are much more dynamic characters, portraying human emotions more realistically than Oreki and Chitanda. Sadness, jealousy, love. Satoshi and Mayaka are this shows saving grace as they show these emotions with ease. By contrast, Oreki and Chitanda keep hitting the replay button on their personalities, which gets boring after a while. Overall Id say the show was enjoyable, but I wish our real main characters developed more.

Score - 8/10