Hyouka – 02
Let us ponder about the meaning of life!
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I’m actually on time this episode! 8D Tomorrow’s a public holiday here in Singapore so I finally have time to take a breather. Let’s take a look at what’s happening this week in pretty Hyouka~ |
It’s been about a month since the trio had joined the Classics Club and pretty much nothing has happened since then. Eru decides that the time to act is now – she wants to publish an anthology to distribute during the school festival, continuing the 40-year tradition of the Classics Club. Houtarou agrees and the two head to the library to search for copies from previous years to refer to. We meet Mayaka, the childhood friend of Houtarou and Satoshi, who’s working her shift as the library assistant. She says the anthologies might be in the archive, but they’ll have to wait for the librarian to finish her meeting. Meanwhile, Satoshi has something up his sleeves once again and he nudges Mayaka to tell them the story.
Basically, there’s been a weird incident that’s been going on for 5 weeks now, when one 2nd year girl would borrow a particular book during lunch every Friday, and return back on the very same day after school. It’s strange because the loan period is two weeks, so why would a group of girls be continuously borrowing and returning it on one day for such a long period? After shooting down several theories, the group is stumped. Then Eru, with her superior sense of smell, points out that had a faint fragrance of paint. With this, Houtarou figures it all out and leads them to the art room – it turns out that the book was borrowed to be used as a motif in an inter-class art project! Mystery solved. Just at the right time, the librarian appears and tells them that the anthologies aren’t in the archives either. Left with no other choice, the trio decides to leave it there for the day and continue searching later on instead.
The following Sunday, Eru asks Houtarou out for a meeting at a nearby café. She appears to be really nervous and admits that she has something to confess to Houtarou…
Quality freaking animation
Watashi wa kininarimasu!
Eru has no idea about the effect she has on people.
I would actually watch this. Bocchan Houtarou & Meido Eru FTW!
Look at those eyes, look how they shine for youuu~
Cutest. Bedhair. EVER!!!
Um that was a… slow episode. There really wasn’t much progress made at all and the so-called “mystery” wasn’t terribly exciting either… Hyouka whyyy are you doing this?! It has so much potential but it’s wasting it on such low-key mysteries! >: They did touch on the Classic Club’s anthologies though, which is a good sign. We’re slowly moving on onto the main mystery of the anime, and I’m trying to convince myself that it’s gonna be awesome. At the moment I honestly have no idea as to what the real mystery is going to be, but the alternative title for this anime is Hyouka: You Can’t Escape. You can’t deny that that sounds incredibly cool. I really hope it delivers. One thing I liked was how they presented the mystery and Houtarou’s theories – the cute and sometimes headless graphics were easy to follow as long as the subs covered sign-posting.
This episode also raised some questions on Eru’s motives in joining the Classic Club. She’s been giving the excuse of “it’s personal” couple of times now, but I think the confession that she’s going to give to Houtarou will be explaining that to us. The title of the next episode is “A Descendant of the Classics Club and Her Reasons”. I’m guessing that maybe it is a tradition for members of the Chitanda family to join the Classics Club? Perhaps it will also explain her phenomenal sense of smell and hearing and that ability of hers to convince others easily! At this point there’s no telling how far Hyouka will go into the supernatural. All the solutions for the mysteries so far have been based on logic, but there’s really no way to explain Eru’s weird abilities. Maybe the main mystery is linked to the Chitanda family, and for some reason Eru has been given the responsibility to solve it! It’s anybody’s guess. xD
I believe I forgot to address this last episode, but I really like the OP. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard some lovely acoustic music in anime, and along with the beautifully animated PV, I think it suits Hyouka perfectly. Another reason why I like it so much is because it’s sung by Choucho, who’s a Niconicodouga utaite I really adore. I’m glad she’s made it into the anime world and that all her hard work has paid off :’) The ED is pretty cute too, and uh, also full of fanservice, for those who like that kind of thing. It’s sung by Eru’s and Mayaka’s seiyuus, Satomi Satou and Ai Kayano respectively. Hyouka has done wonderfully in terms of animation of the episode too, it was 100% derp-free and for the first time I can finally say this without being sarcastic – it has quality freaking animation. Alright, that’s it for this episode, and I am hoping with alllll my might that there’ll be more plot development soon.
About Miyu
A stressed-out jyoushi kousei doubling as Metanorn's loli with a soft spot for sappy romance animanga. She will watch anything with bishies in it. :3
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Freaky quality animation is always the way to go; no matter what the plot, at least you have something pretty to look at. A critic once described Stanley Kubricks’s cinematic work, Barry Lyndon: “It was like watching a very beautiful painting dry” As far as I recall that film masterpiece contained not one single moeblob, much to it’s detriment.
It’s still early day’s for this production; so I’m comfortable with the easy characterization. I’ve said before, considering the first episode, and now the second, that we are peeking into the thought process of Oreki; and Chitanda pretty much hangs a lampshade on his bare bulb.
And we thought that Io (from Acchi Kocchi) was dense. Boy, this girl has it for you in so many ways. Learn to invest energy; it has startling way of coming back, as he is still learning.
As you say, Miyu, the ED contained a good deal of fanservice. They could have gone to a much more tawdry place. As it is the animation is gorgeous, and the characters are alluring, innocent, and sexy, with high marks for vocal quality. As for yuri, it looks like Ritsu’s VA is getting that in spades with weekend (see Bodacious Space Pirates for Jenny x Lynn)
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
…That song that they used in the cafe scene. I swear I’ve played it before. ARGH I’m going to need to find the name for it or else this is going to drive me crazy.
Anyways, yeah it was a slow episode, but I found myself not minding so much this round. This world is extremely immersive and easy to get into. …I don’t think Eru’s confession is going to be much, but I do think the anthology will lead up to the main mystery.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Sicilenne
..props to Ichigo over at the Mazui subs site for posting.
POWUH: Meta Team and Megane-chan with 3214 comments
YES! THANK YOU!
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
It seems odd that the library wouldn’t keep copies of the Anthology. Even weirder that the librarian was so sure without needing to check.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
It must be a forbidden tome. Look for the Hyou-ka x Haiyore! crossover next week. I wonder what Chitanda thinks Cthuko smells like?
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Even if the story crashes and burns, I’d still watch this for the brilliant animation quality. Like Nazo no Kanojo X before it, Hyouka is slowly growing on me. It doesn’t have much excitement that action junkies would be interested in but it has a nice, slow, subtle and relaxing feel.
One month has passed since the last episode? Wow, the Classics club has been busy. Houtarou’s impatience and most of the time bad attitude reminds me a lot of Sasuke Uchiha. But I’ll also say he’s broken the recent streak for male leads where they’re overly shy and nervous about most things. Like when he was at the restaurant with Eru and she was stalling for a long time, he didn’t waste any time and just said what he had on his mind. Not many male leads do that.
I’d like to know more about Eru’s personal agenda. Whatever she’s doing with Houtarou seems to get her even closer to what she’s hiding. She also likes to stick to him like glue until he cooperates. And Satoshi is the accomplice since he already knows Eru’s habits so he deliberately kept Houtarou behind. It looks like Eru’s confession might stir up a lot of contraversy.
POWUH: 700-799 and Parkouring Fanboy with 776 comments
Definitely enjoying this show. The various visual techniques to show Houtarou’s thought process (as well as his sister’s letter in the cold open) are nice. Visual flair and a level of abstraction that I’m not so used to in KyoAni’s works. The fact that the mysteries are nothing to write home about doesn’t really concern me; they seem like asides, bonuses if anything. I’m still curious about the histories and motivations of the main characters Houtarou and Eru, and I guess we’ll see something of Eru next episode. This show doesn’t really excite or enthrall on an episode-to-episode basis, but if it can make everything pay off by the end the same way 2006’s Haruhi did, this could be something special (and KyoAni’s first good TV series since that one).
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
I don’t think KyoAni got enough credit for re-working the episode order to make Haruhi season 1 a good story. The order they were forced to use on the disc release peaks too soon, then we get side stories until the end. The broadcast order was brilliant with the climax coming right at the end, but always delivering something strange in the meantime.
I wonder if we will get another thoughtful adaptation here. Clearly a lot of work went into planning and executing the visual aspects, but the same can be said for Endless 8, which didn’t quite pan out as a story-telling exercise.
POWUH: 700-799 and Parkouring Fanboy with 776 comments
One thing I have a hard time wrapping my head around are people who decide to watch Haruhi in chronological order instead of airing order. Part of the genius of that show was indeed in the way the ordering was switched up for pacing purposes. The choice of stories to adapt was based around that non-chronological order, and the 14 episode series follows a natural arc thanks to that order. It was a clever trick that was executed perfectly.
On the other hand, Endless Eight was another attempt at trying to be clever that ended up being an abortion…
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 144 comments
The mystery wasn’t particularly exciting, as in “Oh my god that was CRAZY!” However, it was definitely interesting to see our protagonist’s mind at work as he puzzled out the solution. And that’s just it, there was no supremely obvious solution this time. I actually had guessed someone was using it to prop a chair up
which I’ve done. It had an elegant solution which also made sense, and makes me look forward to future episodes.POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 243 comments
Still waiting on the plot. It looks kinda like something is going to be starting next week. ‘Till then, ZOMG awesome animation and stuff!