The high school literature club solves mysteries.
I adored this show. It’s beautifully executed, as we’ve come to expect from KyoAni. It has some of the best characters I’ve seen in the past year. Chitanda with her boundless energy, Oreki with his laziness that can only be dispelled by Chitanda, Satoshi with his strange aloofness, and Mayaka.
I’ve seen some people complain that the mysteries are trivial things and don’t really matter. But that’s part of what made this show so endearing to me. It’s a show about ordinary high school students, in the truest sense of the word. Their adventures are corresponding ordinary. And yet, even their ordinary lives are filled with mystery and excitement when they search for it.
I’d also like to point out that although it wasn’t the main focus, this show had some fabulous romance. I really hope it gets a sequel.
- Storytelling – A – Tells simple stories and makes them profound.
- Voice – A – A whole sense of Houtarou’s laziness pervades the show.
- Characters – A – Mayaka = best character ever
- Attention Grab – A – Never lost my interest.
- Production – A – Beautiful, superb voice acting.
- Overall – A-
Recommendations – Bungaku Shoujo, Gosick (second half), Haruhi Movie
Why the minus?
There’s a big jump in my rating scale from B+ to A-, an even bigger jump from A- to A, and the biggest jump from A to A+. I’ve only given one show an A+ ever. In the past two years, I’ve only rated two shows an A: Hourou Musuko and Penguindrum. Hyouka is great, but I don’t think it’s at the level of those two.
I loved, loved Hyouka so much. The characters were so incredibly endearing. I don’t always agree with your ratings, but this time, I definitely do.
You don’t always agree with my ratings? But I’m always right!
Yes you do, they just doesn’t understand your elegance of the thinking.
i do understand it my friend, i do.
I second Ougon why the minus?
At least animation should have deserved your top rating imo. Episode 14 was the best directed and best animated anime episode I’ve ever seen!
But okay, in total it’s “only” 9/10 for me as well. That’s b/c the first episodes dragged along a bit. Call me stupid but I wasn’t able to solve a single mystery myself and even after Oreki solved them in some cases I didn’t completely understand how he did that. I guess that has to do with the wordplays and use of kanji where my knowledge is rather limited (read: zero).
Re Mayaka I can only add that she was even better than best in that vintage Mahou Shoujo outfit! But I also came to like Chitanda as in the last ep. it turned out that she is far from a stupid moeblob actually a girl who makes plans for herself and thinks about the future.
I read somewhere that Hyouka was a commercial failure so I doubt there will be a second season. But of course I’d love to see one or at least a movie!
See my earlier reply to Ougon. The animation was definitely excellent. And I do agree that the first episodes started slowly.
Mayaka is awesome. Best character of the year. Chitanda’s good too though! I really liked her in the third to last episode as well, when she got locked in the shed with Oreki. That was adorable. I just wish Houtarou had actually said what he was fantasizing about in the last episode.
This was a commercial failure, and Queen’s Blade and Koihime Musou had three seasons? Sometimes I hate Japanese viewers.
Not much to say, but it’s the type of quality production we expect out of Kyoto Animation.
It was beautiful indeed.
Not just beautiful, but epically beautiful.
“An piece of excellence that will not easily forgotten through the ages”
– Abdel Shallejah, Turkish blooded anime reviewer
Simply perfect.