Kyoto animation never stops to impress me, truly a tragedy what happened to them last year with the arson fire.
Oreki houtarou is our protagonist, he is your average high school student. Houtarou is lazy to the point where his life motto is “if I don’t have to do it, I won’t --- If I do have to do it, make it quick”. He is forced into joining a classic club by his older sister, where most of our cast hangs out, and where he meets the main female protagonist, Chitanda Eru, and will be the one to change our lazy main character. Everything about her is the polar opposite of Oreki which tends to push him out of his comfort zone when her curiosity is peaked and needs to be satisfied, by doing so she pushes him to discover new stuff. Oreki’s grey world would slowly start to take color as she drags him from his side to hers, seeing the beauty and the magic of the other side slowly starts to change him to become someone he never expected to be.

Hyouka at its core is a mystery anime, with each arc we have a mystery we have to solve. It is very unusual for a mystery anime to be this light-hearted, all these “mysteries” are just mundane issues like “how did I get locked up in this room without me noticing” or “why did different student from different years borrow a book from the library at the same time every Friday and returned after 3 hours?” see? Very silly but with our colorful characters and their interactions it makes for a whole new experience. But this experience needs strong and powerful characters, otherwise, it’ll become stale with time, but this is where Hyouka shines. The main characters each with their own struggles and personality make their interactions feel real and alive, each line is delivered with care and they are full of emotions. The most surprising character is definitely Chitanda Eru, at first glance she is your average shallow moe moe main character but that is quickly proven to be false.

This show at a first glance might look like your average slice of life anime in a high school setting, but it hides multiple philosophies and issues adolescent students face in their lives. As they solve their low-risk no reward mysteries.

Music: 9.5/10
The music in this show is phenomenal, it is not a masterpiece but it just fits, light-hearted most of the time with a soft and heavenly piano playing in the background. Sometimes they will switch it up for a harmonica, and other times with slightly ominous piano that makes you on edge. Every scene has its own unique music that conveys what the characters are feeling without overshadowing their conversations.

Animation: 10/10
Kyoto animation is known and praised for its cute, bubbly, and well-animated characters. Every detail is drawn with care and every frame is drawn with attention to detail. This show alongside Violet Evergarden and silent voice are where Kyoto animation shines the brightest, their use of “show, don’t tell” is apparent in every show they have. In Hyouka, most of the time you will not be needing a narrator or a character monologue to understand what is happening. The character’s distress, happiness, and sadness are all clearly conveyed through the animation. The cinematography, shadows, and coloring is a very important aspect of this show, as they use it very often to convey the internal struggles the characters happening. I would love to keep talking about it but then we will be in spoilers territory.

Characters: 9/10
This is where Hyouka excels at slice of life, every character has its own unique appearance and characteristics, no two characters are the same and no character is shallow to be overshadowed by our main cast.
Our main character is Oreki Houtaro, a lazy bum but smart, your generic main character with no ambitions and goals but that all changes when we meet our Female protagonist Chitanda Eru which changes his life completely. Without going into spoilers, chitanda eru at first glance is very shallow girl with purpose of just moving the main character and progressing the story, but as we go through the series that statement is flipped on its head. She is the deepest character in the show with her own struggles and issues that are made clear throughout the show. She does not overshadow the other cast one bit, each character is has its own depth that makes them unique and are discovered throughto the series.
The other 2 protagonists, Ibara Mayaka, a strict and frank person which acts as the rational person in the group. Ibara was never overshadowed by our female protagonist but she did not get enough attention which is a little sad as she holds potential but it is understandable due to the show’s pacing. Fukube Satoshi is the other guy in this group, he advertises himself as the database, the one with the useless knowledge that you wonder where it comes from. He is a very cheerful and bizarre personality, he always manages to liven up the mood in the classical club but as the show goes you start to understand that there so much more to him than it meets the eye.

Plot: 8/10
The plot is very simple yet complicated, our cast is faced with issues and mysteries that they solve. There are three major arcs in this show each focusing on different sides of our characters and how they grow and learn from them.

Final score: 9.5/10
Its a must watch show if you like slice of life and enjoy light-hearted drama and comedy

You will enjoy this show if you liked:
Oregairu (My teen romantic comedy SNAFU)
Gosick
Suzumiya Haruhi no yuuutsu