Episode 01-
Kyoto Animation, in recent years, has been a studio known for it’s somewhat polarizing shows. Series such as K-ON, Lucky Star, and to some degree Nichijou, are series that supposedly embody the “moe slice-of-life trend” that older fans tend to dislike for being too “cute”-oriented. The pacing for these types of series tend to be slower, there’s usually no real signs of an overarching continuous plot, and the stories are setup with an emphasis on silly interactions and comedy. It’s a formula that Kyoto Animation has used time and time again, often with tremendous financial benefits and strong levels of popularity. As for my own personal opinions on these types of series, I enjoy them but don’t find them particularly revolutionary or compelling.
Hyouka seems to deviates a bit from the usual material that we’ve recently seen from KyoAni, instead opting for a mix of slice-of-life and mystery. It’s a combination slightly reminiscent of Kamisama no Memo-chou, and one that you would at first think is rather odd for Kyoto Animation.
What I’m finding peculiarly interesting about Hyouka, so far, is the way in which it drives it’s comedy forward. Hyouka uses small, trivial mysteries to place emphasis on the at times silly character interactions. The mysteries themselves revolve around silly rumors at school, and are all easily explainable with some common sense.
The key detail to note here is how these “little mysteries” bring almost no supernatural or “serious” element to the story. Curiously enough, this lack of seriousness leads to an emphasis on the character interactions, and not the mysteries. In other words, the mysteries themselves aren’t the point of interest, and instead, it’s the character interactions that result from the mysteries that are entertaining.
So yea, long story short, the mysteries are a plot device to help our characters interact in goofy manners. If you think about “mysteries” as the equivalent to the likes of “cake” and “music” in other KyoAni productions such as K-ON, it quickly starts making sense as to why they picked up this series. The “cake” and “music” are central topics used to get the characters to interact with each other, and the exact same concept can be applied to Hyouka’s mysteries.
Even so, I much prefer Hyouka so far simply for the fact that this premiere has some sharp dialogue and decent chemistry between the characters (and because there are *gasp* guys in the main cast!). Though the dialogue is a tad pretentious, the resulting character interactions are fun to watch. The way in which the main character tries to preempt the ever so curious Eri Chitanda is amusing, and his resignation to a more noisy high school life has it’s charms. There’s a certain level of wit to the dialogue that I find enjoyable, though it’s also easy to see how this can quickly become boring.
And of course, as expected of Kyoto animation, the animation quality for this episode was superb. There was some stylistic flair we’d expect from the likes of Shaft and Silver Link here, such as those random surreal flowery hair scenes, the overflowing bulletin board, and the demonic pianist. For the most part, though, artwork itself was fairly standard, which is a slight surprise considering the outstanding levels of production quality. The only real concern I have for this series at this point is how future episodes of this series will turn out. Will the series continue with it’s string of minor mysteries? Or will the series attempt to have more long term story elements? This episode was a solid, albeit slightly slow and somewhat dull, introduction to the series. However, I can’t imagine it working out too well in the long term if every single episode is similar to this premiere.
First Impressions: 7.0/10
P.S. Just realized that this post is pretty much a review of Kyoto Animation, as opposed to strictly writing about Hyouka. But hey, the only reason why there’s a strong level of interest around this series is because of KyoAni’s reputation, so I guess it’s no surprise.
And also, Air on G-String + Moonlight Sonata gets some bonus points from me. Gotta love classical music in anime. :3
Screenshots are later in the post.
OP01 – Yasashisa no Riyuu (優しさの理由) by Choucho
Distant Paradise 