Hyouka

Would you just stop for a moment and be in awe of how amazing the trees in the background are being meticulously painted with mesmerizing shades of yellow and green to suit the very scene they're at now?

Now breathe.

Ok! You've just re-anact the exact scene a year ago when I first googled up on Hyouka and came across this image (except that my eyes went bigger). First thing that went into my head was 'Beautiful animation' and I especially love the colours of this anime. They were not vibrant, but very soothing instead (plus point). The drawings itself were very detailed (refer to the picture again and notice the grills of the fence and be in awe again) and I really like the art style. 

argh such quality, my eyes!

This anime lies more on the mystery side, where this group of 4 joined the Classics Club and found themselves trying to solve mysteries together with each case spanning from 1 to 5 episodes. 

We have in this team:

1. The ultimate brain kid

Who is also very nonchalant, impassive, uninspired, *inserts all words pertaining to 'heck it'*. Oreki is the epitome of lazy and lives by his motto: "If I don't have to do it, I won't do it. If I have to, I'll do it quick." 

But if he gets his mind working (which is usually forced), he'll come up with brilliant and logical theories which are often accurate. Such is what amazes Chitanda, who is...

2. The curious cat

Daughter of a prominent family, Chitanda is expectedly the sophisticated lady with good manners, although she can get a little too curious and forcefully demands Oreki to solve mysteries, much to his reluctance.

She demands by going close to him and exclaiming "Watashi wa, kininarimasu!"

Poor Oreki inevitably drawn into more energy-draining activities, often leaving him feeling like:

It might be a good change for Oreki though, which often prompt him to question whether or not he wanted a 'coloured life'.

3. The database 

and also a chilled-ass joker. Satoshi is an easy-going person although he has his serious moments.

He was actually jealous of Oreki's deductive-inclined abilities, though he himself has a rather good memory that was evidently useful.

4. The typical loud girl

Not that she's the pop kid, but Mayaka has a really loud (physically) character who gets easily angered by simple things. 

This gif is hilarious. Mayaka was shouting at Satoshi while Chitanda was trying to calm her down. Of course the book is not real, it's supposed to be cookies hahaha

Look at the number of times she's frowning goodness (am still admiring the quality of the anime on a side note).

So then, How did I feel about this anime?

Quality aside, the 22 episodes long series was appropriate (Most mystery animes span around 20-25 episodes) but I personally felt the show was...

1. Rather boring

Pretty much my face while watching half of this show

There were a total of 10 mystery cases that were solved, 7 of which were cases that were solved within 1 episode. I felt that they should have instead scraped off the idea of 1 case 1 episode and develop ones that would span about 3-4 episodes each. But no can do, since they have to follow the manga after all.

I found most of the plot for the short cases uninteresting because it was so brief and underdeveloped to the extent that I was questioning myself 'Huh? That's all?'. I even could describe the entire plot in a sentence like, 'THE MYSTERY OF THE LIBRARY BOOK BEING BORROWED EVERY FRIDAY that was actually by the art club who needed it as a reference.' And there! That was what episode 2 was about. The end.

'Huh? That's all?'

I suppose you're expected to enjoy the process of deriving the conclusions, but if the mystery itself was boring, the thought-process wouldn't be any better. Because of that I was not anxious about watching the next episode to see what happens and remembered that I even contemplated on dropping off the anime.

2. Of appropriate level of romance

But of course I didn't drop it... Because I did want to see a little something going on with Oreki and Chitanda.

What nice flowers... Of course hahahah

They did display some form of affection for each other eventually. It was the really shy and innocent kind of atmosphere they had between them, where in general society you'd call it... Skinny love? (Whytf is it even SKINNY love)

Wow much skinny love

There were a lot of people who wanted to see something more between this two, like a further progress in the relationship but I felt that mmm this was just right. It was ultimately a mystery anime and had there been plots like them confessing to each other or hugging each other etc., it would be a complete change of genre. So I was largely satisfied with the subtle romance that laid right underneath in general.

3. Still supported with certain interesting cases

However only referring to the cases which were 3-5 episodes long. I particularly like the mystery of Chitanda's uncle and the meaning behind Hyouka. He was the one who named the Classics Club Anthology as Hyouka 45 years before, and Chitanda was trying to find out his past and to recall certain memories. It was a tad exaggerating (don't get why Chitanda must cry), but it was engaging and got me really curious.

This was the cover for the anthology. A picture of a wolf biting a rabbit while other rabbits stayed away to watch the helpless victim. It was interesting to begin with.

P.S Chitanda's uncle is in the picture, look carefully hahahahahahaha (Give up? Watch episodes 3-5)

That was very much about this anime and well-suited for people who are into solving mysteries. It was perhaps at times lengthy (the development of theories that is) that I actually drifted off into my own thoughts... So I did finish watching this anime without fully understanding how certain cases were solved.

I would have given this a 6 but because of the outstandingly sharp graphics, I rate this a 6.5/10 (^・ω・^ ) 

To end it off:

Someone did the most unimaginable face swap hahahaha