a genius with a hair fetish, a human database, a hot curious farm girl with purple eyes, and a manga activist. Oh, and roses. Hyouka is labeled as "One of the most boring Anime Ever", due to, well, people finding it boring. At it's surface this show is nothing more than a slice of life with a bunch of mystery, with it gaining it's popularity due to it's main character, Oreki, being known as 'chill' and 'cool' and 'laid back'. You know how it goes. However. Key word: "At it's surface". Underneath that surface I found compelling characters and themes that hit RIGHT home, along with an ending that in my opinion, is one of the greatest endings to an anime ever, and one of my personal favorites at that. The anime Hyouka, produced wonderfully by Kyoto Animations (like always) is an intimate and close-case to my heart.
While I could talk about Hyouka's wonderful direction, or it's beautiful animation, I'd like to focus on it's themes, rather than all it's technicality, as I find the show to be much more personal. The MC, Oreki, is an exaggerated version of who I am (and hopefully one day, used to be). Someone who didn't try, didn't want to try, at not even the things I enjoyed doing. If i didn't have to do something, I woudn't. I settled in life. I didn't leave my comfort zone, I lived a grey life, covering it up by being the funny guy in class, or playing sports. I just went with the flow. It is what it is. I'll end up where God or the Universe want me to be. And that's right to some extent, but I took it much more weighty and serious than others. In some cases, I definitely did want a rose colored life, which is a theme throughout this show, but I thought it was just too much effort and too much risk. This is something Oreki himself acknowledges as he mentioned how he didn't understand why people risked wasting their energy and time on something like a rose-colored life when you could just lead an average grey-colored one. Ahhhh I'll just stick with who I am, is what I'd always say to myself. I didn't want to go against the flow, and when I did, I'd get all motivated and try to change myself, only to fail and return back to the flow, living just how I used to. I'll make up a sorry-ass excuse to cover up the fact that it's just truly my fault, and that it's my fault I'm not living a rose-colored life. And then the cycle begins all over again.
As I'm writing this, I haven't found my Chitanda. And no, I don't mean a cute girl to have a romance with. What I mean by a "Chitanda" is an angel. Chitanda was an angel. She dropped down from heaven and gradually opened Oreki's eyes to see the beauty of the life around him once he put down the book (mans was always reading). Through her does Oreki finally start doing things, just for the thrill of it. Because he's curious. Episode 1 Oreki, Episode 14 Oreki, Episode 18 Oreki, Episode 21 Oreki, and Finally Episode 22 Oreki (the final episode), are all almost entirely different people. But they're not. I didn't just see Oreki develop into a rose-colored life, I watched him progress his mindset and grow into realizing that, through Chitanda, there is beauty all around him (as mentioned before), and ultimately, he should leave this grey life that he's so accustomed to behind. That's what a Chitanda is. Someone (or something) to open my eyes up and lead me to my rose-colored life.
