Hyouka 13-18: The games of a Genius are the bane of the Ordinary

No I’m not gone… Just had to concentrate on my final VFX project for my 3rd semester. Then again I won’t be doing a weekly post from now on. I’d only be posting either every other week or when an arc ends or just when I feel like it. Also, I’ll be making shorter posts now since things are still getting busy.  ヾ(￣0￣； )ノ

Anyway, I pretty sure we all already know how awesome the recent arc is. How they started off with multiple events then slowly and flawlessly tied them all together. We also got to know more about Fukube and Ibara. Who are the main focus of this arc.

With Ibara, we found the not so friendly relationship she is having with her fellow manga club members. I find it admiring that she is capable of coping up and resisting the harassment from them. But this shows her strong will and love for manga, which I found very attractive.

Now this time, Fukubes part in the arc is more “Important”. Since he is the stories detective maniac, he tries to solve the Juumoji mystery. But then he finds a rival, Koureyuki Tani, and his purpose for fighting Fukube is one mystery that has yet to be solved. However the rival Fukube finds is of course Oreki. And throughout the arc he desperately tries to solve the mystery to prove to that he too can be a detective.

Chitandas role in this arc has been brought down to a support character and she didn’t really do much so we’ll skip her. So Oreki on the other hand has had a peculiar role in this arc. On one hand the arc shows little of him making it seem like he is a support character like Chitanda, but then in those little scenes he tends get the key pieces to the mystery.

So while the arc tries to focus on Fukube and Ibaras story they bring in this odd feeling by making Oreki take all the big pieces. Which actually works because with this arc they were clearly trying to show “the difference between talent and skill”. Which is pretty much the meaning and idea to the whole arc. This idea is also apparent from Ayako Kouchi and Jiro Tanabe’s jealousy over Haruna Anjo and Muneyoshi Kugayamas work “A Corpse by Evening”. In the end, the way the writer fuses everything together throughout the arc is just so seamless and perfect. *Applause*  *Applause* *Applause*

However it is NOT safe to say that what they’ve shown here is the difference between talent and skill. Talent and skill are not so far apart, in the end it is the one who develops that particular ability throughout the days who will be the one to come on top. Now look at Oreki, he wasn’t even developing his talent until recently but then he was able to figure out such a complex mystery through some “I never thought I’d find a clue there” ways? Lets face it Oreki is a genius and genius is something high above both talent and skill. So rather than saying “the difference between talent and skill”, the right term here is “Genius vs Ordinary”.

As for the recent episode, meh. Good filler but the only thing we could get out of it the more development from Oreki and Chitanda, especially in the end part.

OkamiSan~

Hyouka 11.5-12: Fanservice and Romance?

Don’t expect any good episode 11.5 screenshots on this, I can’t find any high quality copies of the episode. Which is extremely sad since it’s got Chitanda fan services!

Okay, so obviously episode 11.5 is meant to cover up Orekis dilemma on who he is. But in my opinion, they didn’t need to make this episode for such a reason. I mean, the closure done in episode 11 was already well done even if it was short. What I do want to see from the last arc is a better closure of Irisu and who exactly is that sempai she was chatting with. But oh well, perhaps they will reveal it in another arc or something.

High quality PLEASE?!

On to episode 12 and you should have notice an insane amount of detail that was put into the cultural festival, not to mention the work they put into designing and drawing Idara and Fukubes rooms! I’m pretty sure we all have a general idea of how cultural festival works and how it looks but no where else have I seen an series gone this far into putting life into the festival. This was the first time I’ve truly felt liveliness and splendour of such a festival; it really did make me feel like I too was in the festival.

But not only that, the animation! Not only did they give great animations for the characters in focus but also the character behind the scenes (like the ones in the shot above). I mean this is quality you only get to see in high budget movies!

Fanservice!! We finally get to see more hawt sauce from the ever so sexy and adorable Chitanda in both 11.5 and 12 (I’m talking about the photoshoot she had). Granted 12 can’t exactly be called fanservice as 11.5 was, it was still great. I’ll leave Chitandas body in 11.5 to do the talking and go onto 12 where the fanservice was brought on more from her adorable nature ontop of the amount of detail they put into drawing her.

Early into the 12th episode we see Idara feeling awkward when Fukube openly talks about her hobbies. Then later on we see that she has some sort of disagreement with her fellow club mates, who unfortunately were cosplaying Vocaloid, which by the way is a fantastic add-on to the episode.

From this, we will probably see Ibaras story arc up next. It’ill be very interesting to see how the producers would handle her arc if it was decided to run along the cultural festival since it would hurt the producers pockets if they kept the high quality production along multiple episodes.

If you guys may have noticed from episode 1 all the way till 12, we see Oreki checking out Chitanda in one way or another. However I feel these shots suggest something more than just meets the eye. In episode 11.5 Chitanda tells Oreki that he is someone special to her right before calling Ibara and Fukube the same. But we all know how it really works right? Right?! Now jump to the ending song of episode 12, we have detective Chitanda and Ibara chasing Oreki and Fukube. Notice that when they have them handcuffed, both Chitanda and Ibara blush and flutter. Romance in Hyouka? Personally, I feel it would a fabulous idea to add light romance to an already fantastic series. And really, who wouldn’t want OrekiXChitanda or FukubeXibara?

Oreki 'Holding the fort'

In the end, though the episode didn’t officially bring in a new mystery and was more like a filler plus a prologue into the new arc. Also it was a kind of sweet candy or like an appetizer of sorts for us viewers to keep your eyes stuck on the screen. So overall (づ￣ ³￣)づ

OkamiSan~

Hyouka 11: Puppets of the empress

So Orekis first mistake and we got his friends trying to get him on the right track. Though I like how Chitanda, Fukube and Ibara secretly tried to tell Oreki about his wrong, the way they treated him on his first mistake was in my opinion… over the top. I mean, it’s his first mistake, you can’t expect him to be perfect even if he did do well in the past mysteries. Yeah I guess you can scold him a bit on his mistake but their reactions were as if he did a bigger taboo. I guess the producers were trying to exemplify the smaller, more subtle emotions since the series isn’t exactly big on the epic stuff? This was really something that stood out in the episode that isn’t exactly good in my opinion.

I got “sad faced” when I found out the true scheme of the empress, Irisu. I really liked those striking eyes, white skin and black(-ish) hair, but in the end problem was brought to its level because of her. With all that said the last scene of her chatting left much to be desired. Who was the senpai she was chatting with (I’ll go more into that in the last paragraph)? They didn’t really put a close to the part where Oreki and the team find out about the empress’ true objective. Hopefully this is actually a bridge to another story arc later on.

I still like her looks though (づ￣ ³￣)づ. Also kudos to her genius in manipulating the people around her.

Taking a look at the mystery itself, it really wasn’t anything. I’d say it’s not even at the level of those generic mystery cases. But there’s this saying, “it’s not the destination but the journey” and this saying can be placed well with the mystery. When you take a look at the way they got to the conclusion, all the twists and turns and mistakes our characters went through, it comes together as a very entertaining ride. Not to mention the way story was plotted out is something a lot of other stories are missing. The writer did a good job in controlling what you know, kind of like this episodes “narrative tricks”, to create a more exciting twist when a surprise comes up (Now I’m talking about the entire series, not just this arc).

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For those of you who didn’t understand what whole conclusion and how the mystery came to be, read the following:
Hongou actually tried to create a mild mystery where no one died, because she preferred happy endings instead of tricks. And apparently it was the tricks that Oreki concentrated on in order to find the true end instead of figuring out the kind of person Hongou was.
So while making the story, Hongou made a poll asking people whether they prefer death in the story or not. Although the poll told her that people wanted at least 2 deaths, she ignored that fact and went for no deaths. But since she wasn’t in the set at the time of the shooting, the crew also ignored her script and went for the blood.
After Hongou saw what they filmed and she felt guilty for ignoring the poll results but she isn’t the type to fight back. This is where Irisu comes in and from the start she too didn’t like the story and thought of the situation as an opportunity to reject in the script in a way that wouldn’t hurt Hongou. So Irisu somehow managed to make Hongou feign illness and leave the script undone.
Now Irisu brought in not the mystery solvers but the new script writers. She made the Oreki and the rest think that the film was Hongous original idea and asked them to solve it. But in reality Irisu just wanted someone to continue writing the script.
Awesome story isn’t it?
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Looking back at the first episode of this arc, I now know that the person typing on the phone was Irisu who was exchanging text messages with Hongou. Now the person Irisu was chatting with on the computer, the person who used orange text was her senpai. Next using the pink text was Chitanda, this was when Irisu invited her and company to come in. Going back to Irisus senpai, they never told us who he/she is… however!! Her senpai did say this “but you shouldn’t lie to me either since I’m on the other side of the world”. Those words, “on the other side of the world”, makes me think that her senpai is somewhere else. Also it was this senpai that introduced our protagonists to Irisu. So how would someone somewhere else know about the detective team? Only one person fits that bill, Orekis sister. Now you may ask why then did Irisu not go directly to Oreki and instead had Chitanda introduce everyone. Well it’s to simply hide her plan more thoroughly. Of course this is all just theory, a theory that has a lot of holes so in the end it could still be anyone. I’m just solving things based to the circle of knowledge I have right now. Though it would be awesome if it was Orekis sister eh?

OkamiSan~

Hyouka 10: What about the Rope?

If Chitanda is the catalyst, then Irisu is the invoker. In the first scene we get to see Irisu put her “empress” name to reality and slowly make Oreki realize his unique ability. It’s nice to know that the producers not only tell the personality of a character but show it. This scene really made me like this Irisu character a lot more. Also unlike most “S” or empress-like characters, I like the subtlety they added to her personality, it’s neither over-bearing nor too little, they showed just enough for us to know how she gets what she wants.

Fukube was actually jealous of Oreki, or at least that’s how it looked like in the second scenes. This could a foreshadowing to Fukubes arc just like the “colourful school life” was in episode four. Also judging from the way they made that shot of Fukube being jealous, I’d say it quite a serious matter. This is surprising coming from a character of Fukubes type, oh well we shall soon see.

Now for the conclusion that Oreki made, I found it really intriguing and unique that they made the cameraman the culprit. I mean seriously, who would’ve thought? So that’s why the shots were so bad! We yet again see how unique the series can go.

Of course in the end it was all for not as Oreki missed a crucial clue, the rope! Personally I forgot about the rope as well, though I did feel as though there was something wrong. Well, something wrong with Oreki and not his theory. I felt as though his development was a little too fast, I don’t really know how to explain properly how it felt then. Either way this was Orekis first fault.

So the arc is still on and I expect quite a lot to how Oreki would clear his mess. However I do feel like they added Orekis fail at the right time, it added a new and refreshing feel to the cases that the series have undergone, though I would’ve like it either way.

OkamiSan~

Hyouka 09: Instead of 3 suspects, 3 theories

From the last episode, we were introduced to three new characters and given the situation and the feel that they gave; I was expecting some sort of debate and rivalry. I thought it’d be interesting to see how a verbal fight is handled by the producers of Hyouka. But then again, I forgot how Hyouka is known to take generic tropes and twist them into something unique.

So besides an all-out fight between the three and Oreki, we have them giving out their own theories on the mystery whilst Oreki’s team decide to go with it or not. Along the way we see Haba Tomohiro (the glasses guy) obviously trying to pick on Oreki to be the better guy, the same can be said about Nakajou Junya (the other, bigger guy) but I feel he is more into his whole “Capture the viewer” thing. Never the less the producers still manage to throw in a nice amount or rivalry into the episode. Now I’d love to see their faces as Oreki blows them out with his conclusion.

This episode has become quite elaborate as multiple theories, clues and evidences are being thrown here and there. I’m guessing the producers what us to come up with our own theories on the matter and have those theories changed as the evidences are given. I on the other hand wasn’t able to come up with one simply because the pacing of the explanations was just too much for my head to process fast enough. Though I did understand it in general, I had to watch it again to soak in all the info. But that’s just me. I found it surprising that they didn’t provided adequate visual explanations to Haba Tomohiros theory. His was the most confusing as words were just flying everywhere. I guess that’s a small one where they failed at, meh~

On the other hand, we see Chitanda getting drunk over whisky chocolates. Whisky Chocos… how’d she manage to get them? Aren’t they under aged? Whatev’s, if you guys know the answer to why then post it below. Anyway, seeing her getting drunk was a very nice addition to the scenes as it added a different feel as the main plot passed by. Not to mention she was extremely adorable.

Try to pay attention to the scene composition; you will notice that they do well to try to tell the viewers that something is up with those short half blurred shots. They signify either a foreshadowing or the character in that shot found out something. I noticed that the producers put quite a lot of those throughout the series.

Other than that we have the ending scene of Oreki meeting Irisu. All I can come up with is that she will provide new and compelling evidence or some sort of surprise that Oreki will somehow uses to solve the mystery.

Oh~ on a side note, it’s funny that as most murder mystery series go with three suspects, Hyouka opts for theories by three different people instead.

OkamiSan~

Hyouka 08: Rivals to come

Finally a multi-episode arc and I must say the idea they came up with is quite astounding. I mean seriously, they really did their best to create different kinds of mystery arcs, simple mystery arcs that are still kept very different from other typical mysteries. But I’m sure you’ve already heard me say something similar. Other than that, there isn’t really much to talk about in this episode, the good parts just about to come in the next so I’ll keep this short.

So here they introduced a new character, unfortunately for me she’s just a supporting character. Irisu Fuyumi, the empress of a character, really caught me there. Because yes I’m into those kinds of girls, her striking eyes, long black hair, and white skin. I’ve recently found out that I like these kinds of girls, girls like Horo, Senjougahara Hitagi, or Makise Kurisu, just to name a few. Don’t take me for an M though -_-“. Anyway, I just hope they show more of her later on.

In this episode they decided to show their sub story (in this case, the indie film they watched) in such a way that mixes 3d space and 2d characters. Now against the pretext of the film being made by students, those moving shots were understandable. But the film was just way too jittery and the shots weren’t too well integrated. Though I can understand the shots not being well integrated because its 2d in 3d space, I wish they did more work in making it not shake too much. Then again, this is all just me having too high a standard and expectation since this series has been doing well. So either way, all’s well.

In the final scenes, I find that the way they put together the shot compositions and dialogues leave the impression that there is another mystery at hand involving Hongou-sans illness.

Since this is the first episode where they showed a lot more characters, I’ve noticed that they also put effort into giving each and every one of those characters a personality and difference in appearance. This is just another note that I’d like you guys to notice and appreciate.

As I’ve said earlier the real fun starts in the next episode as they introduce other detectives into the arc. The rivalry and debate over the mystery is gonna be soo much fun! Looking forward to next week!!

OkamiSan~

Hyouka 07: Just a bit of Fan service

So far we’ve had two separate episodes each with their own mystery. It seems as though they are, for now, down to the generic mystery trope with each episode standing on their own. I’m not particularly saddened by this; it’s just that I prefer the longer awesome arcs than episodic stuff. Never the less these two recent episodes have been extremely well made and are in the end, entertaining episodes.

I’ve noticed that the way they’ve gone through each mystery arc to be very different from each other. They’ve made sure to keep fresh to the viewer’s how the mystery is solved, showing different ways of unravelling and solving a mystery. This really ties in with the different ways they convey a sub story or visually explain something.

In the mystery of this episode they decided to go with the generic way of slowly feeding us with information, making us draw out our own theories, like a detective show. Although near the end, it was quite obvious who the “culprit” was, we were still left asking the question “what have they done”, this keeps our interest in the episode while still making things different from others. Yet again, an applause must be given for such efforts.

Just wanted to note, Nice save kid! Scenes like these are always fun to watch

Character development is another thing they decided to add to this episode. Here we get to know more of Chitanda and what seems to be Oreki getting attracted to her. Though romance in the series is not very likely, it would be awesome if they added a pinch of it in just like in the Haruhi Suzumiya series. Though I don’t really know why I like subtle romance, I find it to be the best kind if the series doesn’t plan on getting to Clannads level or something. Then again, Okreki may just be deluding from his motion sickness and too much hot springs heat… I want some romance though and you can say that the way he sees Chitanda in the other episodes and the fact that he hasn’t just left her despite his personality must mean something.

So the awesome character designs, plus the effort they put into its detail, then add that to long awaited fan service of this episode, then you got an extremely hot scene of pure awesomeness. Granted it isn’t as much as most fan service scenes of others, it should be known that this series thrives in its simplicity and the subtle way it deals with itself as it tries not to show too much or too less. So in the end, it’s just pure hot sauce FTW.

OkamiSan~

Hyouka 06: Ki ni narimasu!

First up is about the author’s idea of sin and I must say, he has a very wrong idea of sin. Yeah, if you’ve got no pride then you’ve got no self-confidence. But pride only becomes a sin when combined with arrogance or when you regard yourself above other. Also raking in money for one’s family isn’t greed, it’s when you want more money than you need that it becomes a sin. What I’m saying is that these things become a sin when you go overboard with them. It’s much like everything else in this world, too much of anything is bad, well, too much of most things in this world is bad.

I’m sure you guys have already noticed this by now but the way they illustrate sub stories and explanations always differ some each other. With each properly complementing the feel of the sub stories or explanation, this yet again is another small thing that they put a lot of effort into and so I believe must be given some praise. This can also be said with the way they show how Chitanda annoys Oreki (As shown above). Though I would really like to see how they first did it in episode one with Chitandas hair growing and entangling Oreki.

Story wise we see yet another extremely simple plot, this time concerning Chitandas anger. However it was quite confusing to understand the goal that Chitanda set. First they talk about the seven sins, and then Chitanda asks Oreki to solve the reason why she got mad. So she told him the sub story, Oreki finds no problem with the story, then Chitanda changes the question to why the teacher got mad. Oreki solves the mystery and Chitanda says that she overstepped her bounds by yelling at the teacher.

So above was pretty much the summary of the story and it doesn’t really have a goal or a compelling reason to be in the series. So I’ve concluded that this episode is just some sort of bridge to the real story arc to come up. This reasoning is backed up by the way Chitanda reacted after the mystery is solved. But then again, this could be a foreshadowing to another different of story arc.

Despite the small confusion, the pros still outweigh the cons and this is still a good episode.

OkamiSan~

Hyouka 05: Ice Cream

 
OMG… like amazing. Just… wow… Words simply are an understatement to how well done this episode is. Yeah~yeah, I’ve been saying the same thing in each episode, but seriously. You can’t deny the flawlessness of this episode.
 

 
In the beginning of the episode we finally see the change in Oreki who sees the efforts that others put in their life. So with Chitanda as his first catalyst, he began putting some effort into his life. You can clearly see his change due to the way it can be contrasted to his past self. And I must say they’ve done a better job of conveying a changing character than most other series. Granted the change may be quite fast, I overlooked this since the transition was clear with pretext and not forced. Also it is out weight by the pros of the episode.
 

 
Here Oreki wonders what is rose-coloured life was and from here on begins to put in some effort to the things he does. This “rose-coloured life” thing also seems to have a connection to the back story of Fukube and though small, this is another foreshadowing to his arc. However the foreshadowing is not the main reason for the “rose-coloured life” thing. Its true purpose is to bridge the scene back to Sekitani Juns arc, which fortunately was not over.
 

 
Now this is where Hyouka truly shines. In its core, the mystery story isn’t anything epic or complex; it’s a story so simple its mind boggling to see that it’s amazing. You see its flawlessness from its mere simplicity comes from the way they conveyed and portrayed the story and the way they built the tension towards the end. The story’s shot composition, dialogue, the placement of plots, and the way everything was put together created a scene as moving and as great as this.
 

  
I noticed that another redeeming factor of the series is its grand animation. There are many scenes and shots in the series that have a lot of well-done movement. An example I’ll use is the scene where Ibara helps out the librarian teacher, there is a lot of animation there that the story could do without but they put it there simply to complement the environment and create a better school-like atmosphere. So not only do they put effort into animation directly for the story they also put in extra animation to things that would complement the overall feel of the series.
 

 
I also love the fact that they put effort into the smaller things such are the time lapse of the librarian teacher to 45 years ago, or the reason why the martial arts center is still up, which is apparently was a foreshadowing from episode one, even the reason people called the cultural fair the "Kan'ya Fair", this too was a foreshadowing from episode two. The series may go without these details but it is these details that make the series greater.
 

 
Personally, I find the scene of the rabbit and the wolf (shown as the first image in this post) very moving, it clearly shows the gravity of the situation and the emotions that Chitanda felt. Simply amazing. Also the ice cream pun and how it ties with the club, it is yet again so simple, but it works so well! Really, this series must be celebrated as it does away with complex plots and twist that others try so hard to go with and fail and opts for the simple. It takes this simplicity and surrounds it with other simple features then strengthens the structure of the story leaving its viewers stunned.

Yes, I may be exaggerating the awesomeness of this episode but I’m the kind that either praises what I like with my might or destroys it with everything I got. Also you don’t get to see a series as well done as this everywhere do you? Truly this is a series worth your while.

Ice Cream… for the Sekitani Jun
Ice Cream… for the flawless series
Ice Cream… for Hyouka
Ice Cream…

OkamiSan~