We’re back to episodic stories again for a while, though this episode was slightly different from these kinds of episodes that we saw in the first half of this series. Instead of some small incident happening with Oreki having to solve it, it turned into a bit of a character-study for one of the teachers that the characters had when they were in middle school.
On top of that, this was a really interesting episode for Oreki and Chitanda. The two got to spend a lot of time together, and on top of that they both showed different sides of them in this episode: Oreki for finally being a bit mildly curious on his own accord, and Chitanda for sacrificing a lot of her time to just be with him in this. The end of the episode, in which Oreki explained why he went to the library to check things up really brought out something good out of both of them.
On a side-note: this has piqued my interest after that really long school festival arc: it looks like next episode will be a standalone story as well. That means that the conclusion arc for this series will just be three episodes long (Hyouka only has 22 episodes). So yeah, it’ll be short and sweet for this series’ standards, but I wonder: is it just going to be another arc like the previous ones, or one that actually feels like a really good conclusion?
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)
I think, there are more novels.
I expect a conclusion to this arc.
Maybe, it can get another season a la Haruhi
Volume 5 is the last book, volume 4 are anthology of short stories. It most likely ends with this series
I really liked this episode. It felt different.
Solving these mysteries is becoming easier, you’re provided with all of the necessary clues, I really love the way Oreki thinks. I really want to be able to mimic this type of thinking in a realistic way.
With all that being said I was slow in solving this,
I needed to know about him being cleaning up the mountains before it all came together, and it was pretty obvious by then, lightning, helicopters, mountains= someone got stranded, died, the that’s why the teacher reacted in such a way, though I was wrong on a few points.
The dialogue and interaction between Oreki and Chitanda was interesting to watch. It was a rather pleasing episode for me, one that put a little bit more development between the two. I find myself also worrying about the ending, will it be one of those? “Just another day! blah blah blah” One of those cut off endings or the actual end? To me seasons never mattered, I just want the story to conclude with a satisfying last bite.
Isn’t it a plot hole that Oreki had to look up this incident? I mean it was only three years ago and in that regard wouldn’t two people dying in the mountains close by be a pretty big deal? I highly doubt there wasn’t a housewife whispering “Oh those mountaineers died. Were they lead up by that teacher? You know what’s his name…”
Either way this is another one of those mysteries without consequence. Let me give you the realistic version of this episode.
“Hey, that teacher liked helicopters.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Maybe we should find out the reason he liked helicopters.”
“Fuck it, I don’t care.”
And that’s pretty much the gist of every mystery in this series. Without Chitanda’s “Watashi kininarimasu!” no person would ever be bothered to solve them. And in the end solving these mysteries does absolutely nothing. Ultimately the giant problem with this series. They try there hardest to get you interested I admit but it’s difficult to get invested in such mundane and pointless mysteries.
Actually, I sometimes find myself in a mood to look up something that’s bugging me, and those things can be really random. It’s perhaps not as extreme as with Oreki going to the library for it, but it’s also a bit too much to just call it unrealistic because you don’t have those experiences.
@Aidan: In my own opinion of the series it is the regular mysteries that are in the ability of a student to solve is what interests me, its because the mysteries are so different from say for example, a murder mystery plot or finding whose the spy. They are interesting to me for their mundane, ordinary nature.
I think that really is the point to these mysteries. these really are high-school mysteries and they are treated and solved as such. i agree these 1-episode mysteries are sort of more pointless, but the longer arc mysteries usually led to a deeper issue that was hidden underneath triviality.
In terms of the School festival arc that did influence characters. However the first arc influenced no one. Chitanda was a Moe blob and remained one. Learning about her uncle didn’t effect her at all. In the end learning about her uncle didn’t have any result other than satisfying curiosity. Therefore pointless.
The second arc should have been over once the characters just asked why they couldn’t ask the writer for the ending. It was strange how it was just said that she was sick and nobody even questioned it. Even if the characters didn’t take the time to find out the ending the end result would just be one of the other members writing it. You could say this arc developed Oreki but did it really? Did his bundler make him more cautious and thorough in his deductions? Or cause him to lose confidence in later mystery solving? Nope. He just kinda went back to square one. Making this mystery pointless.
The school festival arc gave us a look at Satoshi more interesting side beneath his highly stereotypical exterior. I also admit that the final irony of people who have great talent but disappoint expectations was interesting. Mayaka I question whether she developed at all. Mostly it seemed like side characters that got most of the development. In regards to that I hesitate to call it pointless but I do consider it mostly pointless.
Perhaps I need to start reading deeper than I do into things and more to the extent you do Aidan.
Though i think showing Oreki being wrong whether or not we call it legitimate development or not did dispell initial worries I had that he may have been too perfect or a gary stu. It wasn’t much but it still showed us he wasn’t always perfect. Then again…does Oreki’s stereotype/personality make him flawed enough as a person to be exempt from Gary stu status anyway?
I do also think that just by being more open and at least noticing Chitanda and becoming awkward around her, especially in the episode with the pool and the one with the hot spring scene. Those are huge clichees yes but it does show he has at come to have at least some level of attraction her/
Well, the first arc was mainly an introduction to the characters and their respective abilities and merits, so of course there would be no drastic changes. it’s establishment, not development. in the case of the second arc, i say that it was a continuation of fleshing out Oreki’s character. Oreki is a flawed detective, to the point of having made incorrect deductions several times throughout the series so far. what keeps him on track is the fact that the rest of the club asks the right questions, provides him with the right information, keeps him searching for answers. i think the relationship between them is what is explored rather than their individual selves in these arcs. the school festival arc is where their individual characters were developed and explored.
As a man who loves mindless flashy series action just as much as just as I much as I love more intelligent script driven Hyouka I can say that never once was I bored with this show. Your plot hole theory is a bit… just because something bad happens doesn’t mean everybody is going to talk about it, aside from that I’m sure the teacher wouldn’t spill out his feelings to class out of nowhere.
The selling point for me with this author and mundane mysteries(there is a more traditional mystery called Calculation) are often not the mysteries themselves, occasionally there are some, but ultimately it’s usually what solving the mysteries reveal about characters. The author also tend to leaves thing a bit bitter despite the solution of the mysteries to illustrate youth as not being as perfect and vibrant as people tend to remember. So on the one hand people may think it’s a weakness, but it’s also his selling point.
As for the plot hole. Maybe I was just a giant dick of a teenager, but I could not remember if I ever cared about the news or neighborhood rumors at all when I was a middle schooler. Unless it directly involve me, chances are I dont know it
I think Aidan has a point here. Also, this was one of the easiest episodes to predict. My friend and I predicted exactly what happened just from the first 3 minutes. Even if one likes mundane mysteries, it would be nice to make them more mysterious… Hopefully the show will be better about that in the next episode.
That said, nice character development here.
Oh theres no doubt about it, he does have a point his comment did alert me to that plot hole he mentioned. Yes, true this episode was simple but I didn’t really bother to take too much notice or issue with it because it brought oreki out further. The pool episode gave me the same feeling too, I felt this episode was more focused on Oreki’s development with the mystery being tacked on as a device.
I do however feel that Chitanda is a plot device though wrapped up in a moe girl though.
The school festival arc too, it put satoshi into the spotlight too and look at that early arc about Chitanda wanting Oreki to find out about her uncle. In alot of ways I think the mysteries in this series exist more as backdrops, tools for the character development.
So in that regard I don’t feel the mysteries don’t achieve anything.
So that was it ? The deceased in the mountains were not friends of the teacher or anything ?
Meh… feels like a 1/4 of a story to me…
As far as character development was concerned, there wasn’t much either, or at least much less than in the previous arcs.
A cute date at the local library. Not even a coffee or ice-cream afterwards…