Hyouka is an anime of tastes. Either you love it, or you hate it. There is no midway. Dubbed by /a/ as the most boring anime ever, it is obvious that it doesn't quite have what it takes to be at the top. Still, /a/ has gone to shit so taking its opinion on anything is pointless.

In which case, it really does come down to one's own preference. Its story line is actually reminiscent of K-On!, which is to say it has something like a a story, but its too loose to be called one, and it relies on its moe to grab attention.

Still, I would be lying if I said Hyouka didn't have a certain charm to it. What the charm is, is beyond me. Perhaps its the mystery, or perhaps its the SOL, but I can't say what exactly makes Hyouka tick.

_ As a side note, all pictures in this review are taken from the OP/ED to ensure complete a completely spoiler free review _
Artwork and Animation (18/20)
The artwork is fairly average at first glance. Still, it improves on your everyday slice of life palette in tiny -almost minuscule- ways until the result is actually quite stunning.

Firstly, let's start with the character models and faces, which in itself has always been the lifeline of the slice of life genre. I found the character models to almost beautiful. Admittedly, having everyone with purple-coloured eyes breaks the scheme and stands out, but that is what makes -almost defines- the artwork of Hyouka, as is evident in its flagship - Chitanda. Chitanda is the very embodiment of Moe (I was never into moe culture, but I'll concede that Chitanda is cute), and while it takes a bit of getting used to her, she still stands out as one of the best character models in the Slice of life genre. Expect the same quality outstanding quality in other characters.

Moving on, the environment. The environment is surprisingly detailed for an anime based in high school. Even though the story of Hyouka uses a club, the club isn't just packed boxes in a corner with a table and some chairs. Its actually very well detailed, and even when the club members are going around the school you will see a heavily defined environment.

One thing of note in the environment is how well the animation links with it. Snow and rain are quite life like, but the thing that stands out is sakura (Cherry blossom). Now, falling sakura petals is one thing which is downright beautiful, and hyouka is able to correctly portray it to a great degree. However it is sad how this was not done more often. Admittedly, realism dictates that sakura petals only fall once a year, but it is so beautifully portrayed that you just wish it happened more often.

The animation is very good, but its wasted because Hyouka lacks any action or fast moving scenes. Its like using a Nvidia 580 to play Age of Mythology - It is overkill.

As yet another side note, Hyouka has very dull colouring (when inside classrooms and stuff), if it gets to you, pump up the saturation on your monitor.

Sound and Music (18/20)
Even a cursory glance at the characters will show you that Hyouka has a solid voice acting team - and it shows. Yuuichi Nakamura voices Oreki (this is the guy who voiced Tomoya in clannad and is voicing Tatsuya in the now airing Mahouka), Satomi Satou voices Chitanda (this is the person who voiced Wendy in Fairy Tail and Ritsu in K-On!) and Daisuke-Sakaguchi voices Satoshi (this guys voiced Shinpachi in Gintama)
Not that most people care for a voice acting (because subs), but still, Hyouka has a very strong voice acting crew.

Then of course is the thing people really care about - Music.
And Hyouka puts your trouble to ease with a very good OP01, a somewhat nice OP02 and two average EDs.
OP01 (Yasashisa no riyuu by Choucho) is the best of the lot by a long shot.

Story (12/20)

pic related, its mfw watching Hyouka

Hyouka is quite boring to be honest. It relies on a mundane mystery genre to present the story. Why mundane? Because while it IS mystery, Hyouka isn't about murders or thefts. Its about Oreki (who is good at deducing stuff) satisfying Chitanda's curiosity. Whenever there is an miniscule unexplained phenomenon/rumor, Chitanda freaks the hell out like her life depended on it, yes, even if its just pointless gossip. Enter the knight in the shining armor who makes a straight face and calmly solves everything. Hyouka makes it look like Oreki almost knew the answer before Chitanda even opened her mouth, which is quite annoying to be honest. Oreki also makes extremely long-shot deductions based on circumstantial evidence (the biggest example of it would be a certain announcement) which will upset the mystery buff. On the other hand, the average viewer will be in awe of Oreki's detective skills. That is not to say that the storyline is bad, Hyouka gets a lot of stuff on target and the some mysteries were actually quite intriguing.
Hyouka transforms as it moves from an episode to the next one -not the characters- the story transforms. Hyouka starts off as your typical slice of life anime, slowly turns into an episodic comedy, then changes into an arc based mystery and then turns into an emotional rollercoaster. Its almost as if Hyouka can't decide what it wants to be, which can be off-putting at time and great at others.

Even though it is tagged as "romance", there is little of it to be found, and other than some very vague hints, no romance is present. Of course, the novel (Koten-bu, from which Hyouka is adapted) follows the romance arc at volume 5, but Hyouka ends at volume 4 itself, leaving much to be desired, while simultaneously dispelling all hopes for a second season (one volume is too small for an adaptaion), and that is just a disappointing way to end things, considering it could all be easily avoided if some filler-esque episodes were replaced with actual story. But then again, that just might be hypocritical of me considering I thought the last episode was just beautiful, and I doubt that a similarly great end could have been achieved if Volume 5 was incorporated into the original series.

Still, to call the entire storyline a sham is taking things too far. It isn't really as boring as I made it sound, its great for light watching.

Characters (14/20)

I found the characters to be great...yet, they were unbelievable. While the characters were likable, sweet, caring and generally good, they just weren't like real people. As I mentioned before in the story section, Chitanda's reactions to the most minor stuff is way out of line with reality. Same could be said for almost every other character present, none of them showed reactions a normal person would within boundaries of normal sense, and most people reacted to petty stuff with a reaction more fit for a tragedy.

The character development is faded at best. with no one other than Oreki getting something approaching a 'normal' development. Chitanda hardly changes and Satoshi changes a bit but reverts almost instantly. Oreki's development on the other hand was very natural and subtle, it happened slowly and carefully, and I have to hand this one to hyouka for great development. Of course, people commenting all the time on how Oreki has "changed" makes it look a bit forced.

The support crew goes without much in the way of development at all. Still, the characters were very likable and I can't really say anyone amongst them could be really hated.

Enjoyment (15/20)
As I said at the very beginning, either you love Hyouka or you don't, If you love it, you will enjoy it quite a lot, if you don't, you are gonna get bored out of your ass. It all really depends on what you want.

To top it off, I would suggest hyouka to anyone who like the slice of life genre or likes mystery (plenty of Agatha Christie references here), but if you aren't into either, you should still give it a try. If even after three episodes you can't really enjoy it, then Hyouka isn't for you.