Summary: Hyouka follows Oreki, a low-energy high schooler who gets thrown into solving small mysteries by the curious Chitanda. Rather than focusing in big the show focuses on subtle, grounded puzzles that tie in to everyday school life and personal experiences.
Characters (7/10): The majority of the characters in this anime are nothing unique but well done, besides Oreki and Mayaka who are memorable, and not too one-dimensional character that they are un-interesting and their personal dynamics with eachother and minor characters are entertaining. This is BESIDES Chitanda. For the first 17 episodes (as can be seen here) I found her irritating. Pre-ep 17, she's a bland FL that disregards the MC's personal space every 5 seconds and stubbornly forces him to solve mysteries more pointless as time progresses. And when he ends up agreeing, she's no help and he ends up doing it alone, despite her being the "smartest". It feels very manipulative. I know she doesn't mean bad, but a she's stereotypical polite, no-personality, anime girl you see often, apart from this rlly annoying character trait that takes place once or twice an ep which is the only memorable thing about her. She develops and shows her true feelings in the last 4 episodes and is interesting then, but it took a long time to get to.
###
Story (7/10): The story focuses around solving minor mysteries and Oreki being a genius solver which is entertaining to watch. But the plot repeatedly progresses through Chitanda always forcing him to get involve became frustrating to watch eventually . It started out as "Please help me find out what happened to my uncle!" to episodes where it was situations such as "Please I need to know if these two random art images I've never seen before match I need to know!". And her expecting him to help and not taking no for an answer, like in ep 17 where he didn't want to + have time to solve one as he was solving her other mystery, and she starts saying "PLEASE ORUKII!" until its awkward and he's forced to comply. This format that initially worked well, coupled with repetitive jokes calling Orekui lazy and unbothered, made the anime fall flat after a while
Animation & Sound (9/10): Living up to Kyoto Animation's reputation, this animation and visuals are absolutely beautiful, despite it being produced in 2012, and combined with the complementary visuals is a standout point of this anime.
29 out of 42 users liked this review
