Hyouka, a series that caught my attention due to its K-On! character designer and the charm of the female protagonist. However after watching its first episode I’d have to say that the series is very generic and different at the same time.
At its core the series comes from what seems to be becoming a generic trope of a lazy-ish protagonist, who would rather not to things, and an energetic female protagonist, who acts as the catalyst for our protagonist. Yes, Hyoukas first episode is quite similar to the “Haruhi Suzumiya” series. However! This series seems to have its building blocks at the right places, making the series come from an idea of another but built into something entirely different.
Our protagonist, Oreki Houtarou, is the series very own lazy guy. And throughout the series his actions and motives are very clear and is what drove the first episode to be what it is. It is also apparent that he is quite the thinker capable of solving and creating mysteries. And because we have ourselves a lazy protagonist, this is where our female protagonist and catalyst comes in, Chitanda Eru.
Chitanda Eru, a beauty with what I’d like to call an “Angels Glare”, a character with the stare that rattled Orekis mind. And for the rest of the episode we see how Oreki tries to deal with her. The episode does a good job of showing how he reacts and goes to work after being enchanted by her. On another note, I really love the way they depict how Oreki was enchanted by her.
In the final scenes we also get to see how Fukube Satoshi, Orekis best friend, helped build and support the mind set of Oreki after stumbling upon Chitanda. These scenes really show a good example of a good supporting character. Overall this was another example, of a few, that the series is a character driven series.
In the end, Hyouka looks to be a slice-of-life, mystery anime. Though there seems to be some sort of connection between Oreki and Chitanda, I doubt there will be any romance, it would be a good addition to its genre. The series may be very ordinary for some but from my stand point is a very interesting and a worthwhile anime due to the “ingredients” put together into this series. Though I don’t expect the series to be something equal or greater than the “Haruhi Suzumiya” series, I expect it to be a well-plotted, well-directed, series that could at least try to get up there. Hopefully this series would get its viewers’ attention because of its art, design, story and most of all it character driven events.
OkamiSan~
