Hyouka – 22

So Hyouka’s finale isn’t a big arc, but instead a collection of small stories. There’s a lot of character development in them, but nothing is definitively resolved. Pretty much a life goes on ending due to there still being a novel left unanimated, which I suspect will be saved for a movie if the sales go well enough. Kyoani has the tendency to announce those much later after finishing the series, so who knows when that will come, if it’ll come at all, so right now, I’ll just conisder this as the ending of Hyouka.

And while it wasn’t the best episode, both in terms of content of how far it pushed the relationship between Oreki and Chitanda, I still quite liked it. The parade was a very nice way for the animators to show some of their skills, and it was very well directed there, and it does serve as an interesting closure. The mystery itself was probably one of the simplest yet, and I feel like the creators could have done more during the cherry blossom scene at the end. I like how the creators toyed with the cherry blossom tropes by using Oreki’s imagination there… but it’s not quite there yet.

The one thing I also liked a lot about this episode is the detail it put in local customs, and the things it takes to organize them, the people who are all involved with them and the effort it takes to make everything go without a hitch. I didn’t care much about the mystery of who was behind the bridge, but the stress that this created was very well portrayed.

So yeah, Kyoani really need to so a non- moe slice of life series, however Hyouka was a very good compromise. Next season they’ll have Chuuninbyou, which unfortunately looks much more generic in terms of formula. But it has a great director, so who knows what’ll happen?
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

9 thoughts on “Hyouka – 22

  1. Gotta give kyoani a break on the moe, they simply only have moe artists working, and it’s what’s conssistently been their money make. You dont tell Apple to stop making iPods

    1. Don’t miss the point, most of us just want KyoAni to do something else. They can keep right on making moe shows, but it feels like a waste for them to not try to use that talent on something more substantial and timeless. Even Apple does a lot of different things; the iPod isn’t their only product you know.

      1. Sorry, better analogy, You dont ask Apple to stop making stuff in silver and white.

        It’s neither here or there. Munto was not their best work, so they regrouped and found a formula that works best to their artistic strength. Eventually they’ll foray into more diverse genres again. I mean if you watched Nichijou, you know they can do a lot of different things beyond slice of life. Hyouka is not supposed to b Moe at all, but the art and their casting makes it much more so.

  2. It was a rather likable episode, and thankfully the mystery was smooth and easy. It was a good ending, though it’s true I would have liked to see just a tad bit more.

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