Apart from Detective Conan, Hyouka was my first full-fledged mystery anime. I saw it during the summer of 2022 and for most of the time I enjoyed this anime experience!
In my opinion, Hyouka was a bit weaker in the middle part, but it easily made up for it with the pleasant episodes towards the end. Former was mainly out of the reason, that the mystery which was in the center of the episodes in the middle part, didn't caught my interest by lot. But to focus on the positive aspects, nearly all of the presented mysteries and riddles, were interesting, well constructed and entertaining. The plot consists primarily out of these diverse mysteries and puzzles that are the driven plot point of the episode. Some are covered in just one episode, while others cover multiple episodes.
The main cast was overall likable, with the limitation that it bothered me especially at the beginning that three of our four protagonists only served as keyword givers. But this factor wasn't of high importance for me later on, as I got used to the characters and began to like their own personalities, and different roles and functions in the anime, aside from the one that I described. My favorite figure stayed with the character of Oreki Houtarou. He developed into one of my prefered characters who make large use of deduction and have an analyting mind. He became one of my prioritized anime detectives :)
Spoiler, click to viewIn this regard, it's obligatory to talk about his character development, at first I could empahsize highly with our protagonist and his desirable mindset and lifestyle, which was the reason I rejected and was mispleased with our other characters who didn't always respected and even less understood his way of doing things. I'm talking mainly about Ibara and Chitanda. I just didn't like that they wanted to drag him with them even though he was heavily against it. But with the series progressing and different experiences, Oreki and his views changed more and more, in small steps but continously, influenced by the people around him and new characters who offered a different perspective to him. At last like Oreki I accepted that change, supposely on my side more conscious of that than he was, and it made him a more social, reflected human being that he was before.
In terms of music, I enjoyed the usually fitting osts, and the first opening was a musical pleasure.
Spoiler, click to viewIn regard of the last episodes of the anime I have to admit, that I would have enjoyed it, if just a slightly bit of more romance had been presented in the show.
Summarized a very sweet mystery anime, that has a likeable cast of characters, one of the best anime protagonist ever and an unmistakable atmosphere that creates a very pleasant feeling and is catching. I can fully recommend it, even if mystery or slice-of life aren't your prefered genre in anime.
