This is a bit of a strange arc here. Hyouka is technically a mystery-series, yet there is about 0 seconds of mystery in these past two episodes: it’s the story about the mysterious stolen props. Instead, this arc is about showing off the school that this series takes place in. We’ve seen glimpses so far, but this time we really get a good overview of what the school looks like and what kind of culture it’s got.
This is something that Kyoani often likes to put emphasis on, especially Kanon of all series took place in what really felt like a school, rather than have this be an obligatory place for people to meet. As someone who hasn’t been in a high school for seven years (god, I feel old saying that), I definitely appreciate that.
I also like the variety in this arc a lot: the creators gave everyone something significantly different to do: Chitanda to be overwhelmed by the different clubs, Satoshi keeping track of all of the events, while succeeding in promoting the classics club, Oreki is his usual self doing nothing, and Ibara took care of the tension and drama with her manga club. They balanced together quite nicely.
Oreki had some interesting moments in this episode with Chitanda’s photos, but I also want to talk a bit about the OP. I don’t really like the OP: the visuals aren’t as inspired as the first OP, and the song is just dull J-Pop to me (I think it’s clear by now that I’m really not a fan of J-Pop and J-Rock), but it does stand out in how it portrays Oreki, especially at the end in which the rest of the characters doodle on his face and he gets angry and starts chasing them…. now does that really sound in-character? Would he really be the type of character who would get so pissed off by this that he’d forget his own laziness and start chasing people?
Rating: Excellent
Oh I liked that aspect of the OP the most. I wouldn’t call Oreki lazy, he is indifferent, that’s why Chitanda throws him off so much, Chitanda seeks to be involved which is a completely opposite personality trait. I like how the OP portrayed Oreki “there but not there” until the very last scene where he catches up with everyone, I think it translates well the main theme of Hyouka, ie how Oreki slowly transforms from being “indifferent” to “involved” and from being a loner to having friends.
Agreed. And, while I’m totally against bullying, I found Satoshi and Mayaka’s dark faces of glee pretty funny. XD
The Manga club scene after the argument cracked me up. The club president taking off the sign that says “Must see! battle in progress, Girls battle in Manga club, intense manga debate ongoing, Shrine Madien versus Transgender”
What is it with female senpais in this school? It’s like they take a class in high manipulation
Hahaha. Yeah, that was quite a punchline. I’m not sure what to make of it though. Is it a funny or serious thing? It reminds me of the last arc. I was expecting a light ending but it turned into something pretty dramatic. Is this a case of the senpais knowing Mayaka so well that they’re able to take advantage of her assertiveness to hold an impromptu debate show or are they bullying her?
I’m trying to figure out what that Miko-senpai was thinking when she couldn’t respond properly to Mayaka bringing up that manga. Perhaps she couldn’t respond because that manga was her work and she couldn’t bring herself to shoot it down. But if that was the case, I would have expected her to blush a little at Mayaka praising her work so much. It’s also a bit of a mystery how Mayaka’s copy went missing. Is it connected to the various club items going missing throughout the Festival? I wonder if this mysterious thief will target the Classics Club too.
I liked the OP (even if I liked better the first one). I don’t think there’s anyone who can not snap after that prank, and I even see Satoshi and Mayaka more out of character by doing it. About the episode it was a lot of buildup, I’m not that interested in Mayaka’s sub-plot but I do want to see what happens with Satoshi’s rival and Oreki’s item trading. I have no idea what’s going to happen with the new mystery so I don’t really care about that yet.
strangely enough, I get the feeling this could be an Mayaka arc like the first arc was a Chitanda arc and last arc was an Oreki Arc
I guess you are right, specially with the next ep. preview. May the next arc will be a Satoshi arc? I don’t know if that sounds good or bad.
Yeah the OP was definitely not as inspiring
I don’t know. I liked that we get to see other supporting characters in the school that the Classics Club have/will encounter. Actually, I wonder if they’ll change the op to reflect new characters that may appear in future arcs. This is just the halfway point after all.
I doubt it, its usually OP for the first and second half, anyways, I really like having OPs and EDs I actually want to watch every time, that means its well done to the point where its almost art, but maybe thats just me speaking as a video editor, I can really get into that stuff, its a good OP though
Don’t you think that the lamp-lit bridge, torii and sakura over the river scenes are kind of missing something? What if they’re not random scenes but are key to certain future arcs? Perhaps new(?) characters will appear as their arcs are unveiled.
Mystery is why Satoshi Fukube lost the Quiz on purpose…
Hm. Not sure if he did it on purpose. If he had won, he could have used it to raise publicity for the Classics Club too.
He definitely hesitated. He was about to push the buzzer and he stopped.
Yeah. So did he know the answer or didn’t he? Hm, I kinda wonder if he was waiting for the quizmaster to finish her question though. She kinda paused like she had more to reveal about the question then suddenly said “that’s all” and the fourth girl got the drop on Satoshi. *shrug*
Hyouka is technically a mystery-series, yet there is about 0 seconds of mystery in these past two episodes
I think there still is a mystery but the clues are still being laid out for the audience.
Yeah, i think this ark they went a bit Agatha Cristie route, things are definitely happening.
First arc took about a couple episode before the main mystery was revealed as well. It really is just a slow developing way of the series
oh i just mean that previously little mysteries would happen off screen in each episode for Oreki to solve, but this time around the mystery is getting set up right in front our eyes (never mind that the cast is not fully aware of it). If i had to make an analogy to a murder case then all the previous episodes would start with the appearance of the dead body, here the “murder” is still in process and we get to see glimpses of it.
I’m noticing the stolen items all look to have something in common:
The note for the stolen tarot card said 十文字, the first character of which is “ten” (the others are “character”).
The guy from the Go club mentioned ten stones were stolen (or so).
On the page where the Classics Club is listed, their club is the tenth from the right. (You’d count right-to-left in Japan)
Is someone trying to subtly frame the Classics Club? I suspect more clubs will be finding stuff missing…
I doubt anyone, even the laziest person in the world, wouldn’t get angry if your friends started putting weird stuff on your face.