First Impressions / Hyouka

Episode 18
Show Images ▼

Episode 19

「連峰は晴れているか」 (Renpou wa Hareteiru ka) & 「心あたりのある者は」 (Kokoroatari no Aru Mono wa)
“Is the Mountain Range Sunny?” & “Anyone Who Knows”

For the inquisitive mind who loves to question the how and why of anything and everything, Hyouka’s everyday whodunits can be quite compelling to watch. They don’t have to be standard crime mysteries involving theft, murder, or criminal conspiracies for me to enjoy putting myself in Houtarou’s shoes, playing detective, and then trying to solve them before he can. Even if a case is mundane and unimportant in comparison to the mysteries found in other shows, they are still able to capture my interest completely from beginning to end as I work through possible theories. In a sense, the mental exercise this show provides feels more rewarding than other mystery shows because of how practical and realistic they are to us everyday armchair detectives.

A perfect example of why I enjoy this show so much was the “mystery” presented in episode 19, and more specifically, a look into Houtarou’s process of deduction. Listening to him walk through his thought process when creating his theories was enlightening to say the least. When attempting to solve mysteries, or even just a regular problem, I often work off of intuition when crafting my theories. More often than not, they tend to be on the right track, but if I am asked the reasoning behind how I built these theories, I wouldn’t be able to explain it very well. For example, immediately after hearing the school’s announcement, I had a feeling that the school was looking for students who were in trouble, a feeling I’m sure many other viewers had as well. However, I wouldn’t really tell you exactly how I came to this conclusion. After all, how do you explain intuition? A hallmark of a good detective is the ability to explain how you came to every conclusion, every theory, by walking through the thought processes used to arrive to them. Watching Houtarou at work made me realize I still have a long ways to go.

By all appearances, Houtarou is not one prone to letting his intuition dictate or guide his process of deduction. To start off, he relies on his superb and oftentimes uncanny powers of observation and memory, such as noting what is unusual and what is normal about events that most people would miss any incongruities. Houtarou is able to hone on a specific word used, the manner the announcement was made, so on and so forth, in order to narrow down the logical possibilities of the events that led up to the mystery at hand. This winnowing, this logical elimination is crucial in making a theory that fits and makes sense in the context of the mystery. Not every theory can stick – it’s usually only those that are made following these important steps. The sequence Houtarou went through in making his eerily accurate theory made me realize the limitations of working solely through intuition, even if some of it may be based on logical deductions that I just may not have explicitly voiced.

Good detectives build their cases on sound and logical reasoning, but I feel great detectives have a measure of intuition that helps guide their thought processes as well. From what we’ve seen so far, Houtarou seems to be lacking in this area. He’s undoubtedly a genius detective, but even his talent can fall short at times without an intuition to keep his theories in check or guiding where they should begin. Fortunately there’s a girl by his side who may not possess anything even approaching the same level of deductive reasoning that he has, but instead has a talent for intuitively knowing whether or not one of his theories feels correct. Time and time again, Chitanda’s curiosity has been by far her most visible personality trait and therefore the one she is best known for. That said, I would argue that her intuition is at least as important to the series, if not more so. We saw it at play during the movie arc and now again during this intellectual exercise that it’s clear that without Chitanda’s objections to Houtarou’s theories, his final theory most likely would never match the truth or come so close to it. Her influence on him is invaluable, and in more ways than one.

Yet for all the mysteries we’ve seen, Hyouka at its core is not a show that is driven by them. Although not every character may have his or her fans, they are its strengths nonetheless, and that’s what makes this series more of a character-driven one. As we saw in the previous school festival arc, the way Hyouka combines a compelling mystery with wonderful character development has been truly a pleasant surprise. It’s why I feel that even when the mystery at the center of the episode is unexciting at best and banal at worst, the dynamics between the characters and their continuing character development can carry the show by itself. With most of the supporting cast having their day in the sun during the school festival arc, it was nice to see the spotlight returned to the two most iconic characters of the show: Houtarou and Chitanda. From day one, this pairing has been set up as one of the central themes of the series, and it’s hard to see why not. We all knew that eventually, her childlike curiosity would have an effect on him, but we didn’t know how exactly it would manifest.

After seventeen episodes of Chitanda’s constant “kininarimasu!” Houtarou has changed from a person defined by apathy and inaction to one who is increasingly showing signs of curiosity and initiative. Before he met her, he would probably have never shown a curiosity about why his old teacher took such a keen interest in a helicopter that one time, or went to such great lengths to try and figure it out by going to the library after school. Houtarou’s energy expenditure has seemingly multiplied tenfold after meeting her. It’s not just his curiosity and initiative that has grown and benefited from Chitanda’s influence either; as mentioned earlier, his already prodigious detective skills have been undoubtedly improved by the guiding hand of her intuition.

With the two characters becoming closer and closer and their personality development seemingly becoming more intertwined, a romantic tension forming was a nearly inevitable outcome. All the near kisses and sparks flying between the two have made me interested in seeing how their relationship continues to evolve as the series begins to approach its conclusion. The everyday mysteries aspect is what brought me to Hyouka, but it’s the characters that have kept me coming back week after week.

  • Apologies for the extremely late post!

63 Comments

    2. Honobu Yonzewa must publish more novels… ;_;

      I really want to see this come to a closure. Though most of these romantic/tension stuff is not really present in the novel. It was simply not implied nor does it refute these.

      Dunno how credible this is but someone said that Yonzawa his plans for Oreki and Chitanda’s relationship is not in a rush. Apparently he also said that he’s going to continue the story beyond the high school time line.

      megalith
      Reply

      1. yah
        there’s currently 5 vol and the anime covers about 3 of them. As stated above the romance is slightly less implied on the novels, or rather I think the process is a bit more sped up in the anime and I’ve also read that the story will continue past high school. Also when in the anime you look at the characters from outside, while the novel follows the thoughts more and Houtaro as well as chitanda are the kind of clueless persons who will take a long time to realize they are in love. Houtaro is clearly affected by chitanda, she is probably the cause of him changing, I think he is in the process of falling in love with her but just hasn’t realized in yet 🙂
        It’s not really a romance novel though, what I love about this series is it’s freshness, easy to watch and so pretty. No drama or twisted strange unlikely plots. It just fills me with a happy feeling 😀

        Natasha
        Reply

  2. Every single mystery that pops up on this show always pulls me in, there is so little to fault with Hyouka. Would pitch it as some of, if not one of the best animes of the year. I’m curious as to how it’s all going to conclude =S

    Mutare
    Reply

  9. While I may agree that Eru has been the motivating factor behind Houtaro’s mystery solving, I believe that Houtaro always had that curiosity. He just lacked the initiative to tackle mysteries.

    From what we’ve seen from the major arcs, Houtaro has trouble figuring out people’s motives until they’re spelled out for him. After the film mystery arc and the recent Kanya Festival arc, Houtaro’s realizing that he can’t be “insensitive” about his conclusions regarding people. It’s perfectly fine to come up with a sound conclusion, one that sounds correct, even good enough to impress Eru, but is it actually correct? It seems that Houtaro is no longer satisfied with what sounds good enough but what is the correct conclusion when it involves people, even those who he’ll never meet again. Truly an admirable quality about him.

    I basically had the same reaction as Eru at the end of episode 18, which was awe and rising respect for Houtaro. He’s one of my favorite anime characters now, despite his penchant for frowning.

    Isabel
    Reply

  10. I seriously cannot get enough of Hotaru and Eru. They are one of my favorite couples of all time. I also like the fact that it is no longer the story driving the show; it’s the characters. I’ve grown to love all of them and I pretty much ship everyone with everyone (too much time on tumblr xD).
    Gonna be in my top 5 shows of 2012…for sure!

    Nikku
    Reply

  11. Episode 18: Prior to the Kanya Festa arc, there was an episode where Chitanda almost nearly adopted Houtarou’s energy-saving ways, much to the horrors of Satoshi and Ibara, and to the secret delight of Houtarou. (Though he was later disappointed to find out she was merely joking)

    Now the opposite is true, with Houtarou seemingly infected by Chitanda’s brand of curiosity that Chitanda herself had to find out why Houtarou felt curious about the case of his teacher.

    https://randomc.net/image/Hyouka/Hyouka%20-%2018%20-%20Large%2019.jpg
    Talk about a golden chance totally wasted by Houtarou. XD

    When a girl actively volunteers to walk with you after school on a bike, you simply do not send her riding forward even if you feel embarrassed about riding with her. 🙂

    Episode 19: Houtarou at first wanted to prove to Chitanda that his deductions were more down to luck than his own abilities by attempting to BS his way out of the case of the school announcement. But as time wore on, he became more and more serious about actually wanting to solve the mystery, eventually guessing the whole thing correctly. And all this time Chitanda never needed to activate her “Kininarimasu” Geass at all. lol

    https://randomc.net/image/Hyouka/Hyouka%20-%2019%20-%20Large%2032.jpg
    https://randomc.net/image/Hyouka/Hyouka%20-%2019%20-%20Large%2033.jpg
    Besides the mystery, I just love how Kyo-Ani inserts these subtle changes in the character interactions as the series progresses. In the beginning, whenever Chitanda was in her “Kininarimasu” mode, she would disregard all etiquette and unconsciously intrude into Houtarou’s private space, leaving poor Houtarou clueless at what to do with such a mesmerizingly cute girl staring at him at such close distance.

    While she still goes into her old habit of intruding into Houtarou’s space, here we see that she begins to actually realize how embarrassing her unconscious intrusion was becoming whenever she snaps back to her senses, suggesting even she is beginning to show some feelings for Houtarou.

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

  12. I can’t really believe it. When I first stated watching this I was bored out of my skull. But now with all these compelling mysteries and character development it has become one of my top ten favorite series!

    Censor this!
    Reply

  15. Hmm… where the Mayaka x Satoshi moment?? The only moment they have is the culture festival “hug”….

    Aside frm tht, no complaints. H-ka is the only show in recent memory tht is able to pull an episode out of a BS and passing mention of teacher liking helicopters lol.

    D-LaN
    Reply

  16. It’s sad to see this series is coming to an end. With only 1 of 5 volumes left, odds are we’ll be seeing a second season in about 5 years time(earliest). Well in any case if the author picks up his pace then we’ll be seeing this soon.

    Seeing a sequel for this is higher than FMP and that’s fine by me. Though since this is Kadokawa don’t bet on it.

    Regarding ep 18 and 19. We had a sweet build up between the relationship of Oreki and Chitanda. It’s nice to know that if he tries to stick his nose into something he does it well to understand the situation. Like Oreki said in ep 2, he doesn’t want to be held responsible for misunderstanding or doing something wrong with regards to any investigation. It was nice of him to do a little investigation to clear up any misunderstanding(even if it is only within him).

    Also it was nice in ep 19 to get some tension. There were some awkward silences right here and there and that totally was pleasant to watch. Aside from that, we see Oreki totally lose track of his “mischievous” plan. He actually ended up enjoying the theorizing session him and Chitanda did. And for once we see Oreki’s true and earnest smile. And to top it off it was with Chitanda. >o<

    Anyway next episode is great. I've been in a lot of discussion about it already. Thanks for picking this up again.

    megalith
    Reply

    1. Seeing a sequel for this is higher than FMP and that’s fine by me. Though since this is Kadokawa don’t bet on it.

      Maybe that’s why FMP author Gatou Shouji is the script coordinator for Hyouka. He probably begged Kyo-Ani to adapt his novel to the end and he would offer to work for them in some capacity in return. lol

      Kinny Riddle
      Reply

      1. That’s possible but they’d still need to collaborate with Osamu Horiuchi(the one who did the character designs for the anime) if they want to stick close to the art style.

        Anyway I think the one of the main reasons that’s pegging them is FMP’s resources. Fumoffu had a lot of non-KyoAni staff members work on it. Even though Second Raid seems to be more handled by the KyoAni staff they were probably still aided by outsourced workers.

        Time will tell if KyoAni can handle the mecha genre.

        megalith
        Reply

  18. This season is flowing with OTPs: SAO’s Kirito x Asuna, Hyouka’s Hotarou x Chitanda… I’m a bit conflicted with Kokoro Connect’s Taichi x Himeko because that is still contested with Taichi x Iori… Then there is AO’s which seems non-existent… *rant rant…*

    The Moondoggie
    Reply

  22. Very nice analysis of episode 19 and Chitanda/Houtaro as a fledgling couple.

    Personally I’m sad for the lack of in-depth dissection of episode 17, which I felt was a rather dramatic departure from the lighthearted/happy-ending scenarios we’ve been met with since the Sekitani Jun arc concluded. The ending in particular struck me as heartbreaking, all the more because of Houtaro having an inkling of it, giving it the tragic feel of inevitability. That said, I can understand the confines under which you guys are working with this blog, so at the end of the day I’m grateful for any coverage and intellectual discussion of shows of this quality. <3

    Ashen
    Reply

    1. Not that it matters anyway but yeah this was a damn shame. I wish this got at least a final wrap up during the time it mattered. The way finale closed this season was great. Would’ve loved to have a discussion at the proper moment.

      Hopefully… This doesn’t happen again. At least not to a show that’s delivering so well.

      megalith
      Reply

  26. I’m not complaining that the last few remaining episodes of Hyouka review are stalled for more than a month. But what I’m wondering is that if Verdant is able to do PSYCHO-PASS reviews, then can he just finish this series so we can all stop raging?
    Again I’m not complaining Verdant, but you said it is done 50% from 2 weeks ago. So please give us like a proper deadline, even an estimation would be okay.

    Gary
    Reply

  28. Been waiting for 2 months, and I know I’m just adding onto here… but no matter what, a promise is a promise and when its forgotten, people remember. Just a word of the wise, also cannot wait for the last post that reviews a great finale by a great show.

    blahblah0625
    Reply

  31. Hey look everyone, I can’t stress enough that I’m really really sorry that my posts for Hyouka haven’t come out yet. I hope you can accept my apology, and I promise that will complete them someday. It pains me that such a great show was left off like this, but this wasn’t done without a good reason, which I hope you all can find room in your heart to understand.

    None of us get paid for writing here – it’s just something we do in our free time as a hobby because we love anime and sharing with others what we think about it. Unfortunately, I also have real life priorities that I have to attend to, and it really only leaves me with barely enough time to cover PSYCHO-PASS as it is. I only took on Hyouka after Takaii dropped it because I felt that I could do the show justice with my long posts.

    To be honest, some of these comments made me a bit sad in regards to their attitudes. I’m taking my free time to write these posts, and I ask for nothing in return, but in the end, this is the thanks I get. Again, my apologies, but please try and understand the writers’ situations before becoming angry at us.

    verdant
    Reply

    2. Ah. I’m sorry to hear this, but at the same time I can absolutely understand. You gives are all “volunteers” for this blog, and real life obligations do and should always come first.

      No worries, love. Whenever you get the time to come back to it, I’ll be thrilled. Since there are so many other great series airing right now I think I’ll leave Hyouka where it is from this entry. Since I enjoy the show so much more when coupled with these in-depth and insightful reviews.

      Finally, I know it’s not much but I want to extend my most sincere gratitude to you and the other RC bloggers for doing what you do. RC is my number one go-to for anime coverage and intelligent dissections of a series. <3

      Ashen
      Reply

  32. Just to be clear, as far as I’m concerned, I don’t remember having directed any message specifically to Verdant, although he was the one writing the reviews.

    My point was that, the way I see it, the lack of a finishing post reflects badly upon RCs reputation.

    As for your reply, Verdant, that you do this for free, well, although that is true, it doesn’t really serve as an excuse, now does it?

    The moment you create expectations and have people following you, you are indeed obliged to, at least, and in the proper forum, give some kind of explanation as to why you could not or would not fulfill those expectations.

    Simple legal example, somewhat related: If you park your car on a free parking zone inside a shopping mall and it gets robbed, the mall is still liable for your loss. Being free does not constitute a valid excuse, exactly because of the expectations that were created when it allowed parking.

    Anyways, I am glad we or I finally got an explanation and, for the last time: as far as I am concerned, you really should not bother finishing the post, since it is way too late for that.

    Sorry to have bothered you and I wish you the best on your next endeavors.

    Fluca
    Reply

  34. I don’t profess to speak for everyone in the scanlation/translation/anime blogging community, but being in charge of a light novel translation myself, where you commit your free time out of love rather than for money, it is better not to make any promises concerning deadlines. Had you have said “Hyouka coverage is currently in hiatus due to IRL issues, will resume when said issues is resolved or new committed writer is found” rather than setting any solid deadlines, you might have received less ire from some of the less forgiving posters.

    Still, this being a highly visited blog, it is perhaps better to find a replacement writer as soon as possible if you’re really struggling to find time. Already, I see you lagging nearly a week behind in your Psycho Pass posts.

    If I was being unkind, I would have lashed at you by saying “if you’re so short of time, you ought to have wrapped Hyouka up before even committing yourself to Psycho Pass” or something like that.

    This leads to my third point: I’ve been saying this for some time now, and it’s not directed personally at Verdant but the way RC is run in general lately: What is the point of hiring so many new writers if they can’t even find the time to commit themselves to their sections? OK, I understand Takaii has dropped the series due to IRL issues, but now even his replacement writer is going through the same thing. I thought hiring new writers was precisely to allow the writers more time to commit to the series they have pledged to cover.

    If still no new posts come through in the near future, I would suggest just asking Guardian Enzo to lend his posts on his own blog over to fill in for the remaining episodes.

    Kinny Riddle
    Reply

    1. Re: “The way RC is run in general lately”

      First and foremost, as an avid reader of RC prior to becoming a writer, one of the best things about the site was the fact that coverage was released on a timely manner… so believe me when I say I understand why you and some others are discontent.

      It’s true. It’s true that there have been occasions where posts have taken longer than the usual 24-48 hours post-sub that we usually aim to get our posts out. I won’t deny that. You argue that hiring new writers was precisely to allow the writers more time to commit to the series they have pledged to cover… and in ways, it’s a logical argument.

      But the thing you have to know is that the shows each writer covers is set in stone before the season starts and that typically, a writer ends up covering whatever number of series they feel comfortable doing. For the sake of keeping a diverse and broad coverage, that number is very close to the maximum commitment a given writer can do. As you can imagine, unforeseen problems or issues will thus result in the inability to cover a given series. In addition, because of the near capacity of other writers and the difference in shows each writer watches, it is also not always possible for someone to immediately step in for someone else when such an unforeseen circumstance occurs… leading to the delays.

      Basically, there are only so many things you can do in the face of unforeseen circumstances. We continuously strive to do our best and get posts within a reasonable time frame, but sometimes, things don’t usually work out. But do not misunderstand. It’s not like we’re also idly sitting by either, because as you’ll notice, compared to last season, a much larger proportion of series this season are being released at a reasonable time frame than before, despite similar % of coverage in regards to how many shows are actually airing.

      Also, you have to note that Verdant wasn’t one of the new group of writers to be hired… which goes to show how much he’s going through–so much so that even an experienced senior writer like himself is falling behind on posts. As such, I do ask that you cut him some slack, especially considering the effort he puts out in his posts and the quality results that come out on a regular basis.

      Overall, the thing to note is that we’re all human in the end. We’re trying our hardest to continue giving the best coverage we can, as often as we can, and involving as much shows as we can. We understand that there are certain expectations in regards to our posts (especially our timeliness), but we also ask that you also try to understand that there are scenarios that happen that we just can’t do anything about. For those times, we apologize, but at the same time we do ask that bear with us and know that it’s not like we do these delays or w/e intentionally, and that despite it being a free-time hobby, we do take things very seriously in terms of expectations and quality.

      In the end, it’s like the writing process–it’s a dynamic process. Things happen, struggles occur, problems pop up. But as long as we keep at it and institute new ways to improve ourselves, things will work out. The post-Divine transition hasn’t been perfectly smooth, but know that we’re constantly trying to improve while maintaining the quality and timeliness viewers expect There will be rough patches sure (and there have been a few already), but I hope that you know and understand that the writers are constantly giving their all and that well, the best is yet to come. All we need is some room to breathe first, and some patience.

      Zephyr
      Reply

      2. Remember that Hyouka and Psycho-Pass are being done by Verdant, whose circumstances were already explained above. In this case, consistently late is precisely because of real-life priorities that have popped up and are taking a while to settle.

        As for K, 24-48 hours post-sub means the post is still timely by Saturday night… and getting slightly late by Sunday night (72 hours). Ep 1 released within 24 hours… Ep 2 released early morning Sunday only a few hours past midnight… Ep 6 released on Sunday. Considering the amount of FL’s she usually does, more than half the episodes were released on a timely basis. The remainder I can’t say I know exactly why, but it’s not particularly impossible for it to be unforeseen. Remember, she’s also covering a manga and other stuff too, so if delays happen there she has to do those first.

        And if anything, even if you count K as “late”, it’s 1 out of 21 shows being covered this season (4.5%). It just so happens the shows you’re following hit certain blocks, but the overall scheme of things is that late shows are a much smaller ratio compared to last season = proves my point on steady improvement and the fact we’re not exactly perfect.

        Zephyr
        Reply

      3. I can’t apologize enough about the lateness of my posts, and no matter what the excuse is, a late post is a late post. I’m not happy about my performance on the site as of late either, but that being said, I’ve at least tried to inform people on my posts why they’re late. And believe it or not, stuff tends to pop up now and then IRL. I won’t go into excruciating detail, but when my mom comes up to visit me (and I usually don’t see her for a couple months), I’m going to prioritize spending time with her over anything else. Likewise, when I’m sick, I’m going to prioritize getting some rest so I can put myself in a condition I can write properly on top of working 8 hours a day on a physically exerting job.

        So I really am sorry for being so late with my posts, but it’s really only this week’s that I can think of that’s suffered such a blow on “timeliness”.

        BakaMochi
        Reply

  35. Being Verdant is suffering. . .

    I think all of us would had stop whining a while ago if the writer was a crappy one.
    Damn it, we got spoiled by one of the best ones and now we lost our toy; hence the negative feedback.

    It sucks that Verdant must read this and gets upset about it, he is human after all, and if I was in his shoes I would feel pressure to put it out already, but also extremely discourage with a needle inside my stomach. When something great is speculate, and its built up over time, you expect the hype to be there. If I was the writer I would feel more pressure by it as the days go by to the point of not caring anymore. Someone said earlier to just forget it, and I’m fine with that. It’s a little upsetting but we’ll survive. We already have for many weeks as it is. Verdants great flaw was making a deadline, and that’s what appears to be bothering many users. It doesn’t pay to be nice and make everyone happy by saying something they may want to hear when eventually that may not be the case due to how RL can be so unpredictable sometimes. Trust us, we get it. It happens all the freaken time.

    Verdant could have probably saved all the trouble if he just said “You know what, screw this. It’s been weeks. I don’t want to do it. I’ll find someone else. I even found something else! I’m dropping it. Sorry. Don’t expect me to cover this anymore. Thanks for the ride guys!”

    Now before you say anything, think about it. Is that really any worst than what we currently have? I personally would be relief, because even if it’s not professional, kind, nice, proper even, its realistic and understandable. I’m not being lead on and that’s the best gift any writer can do for me. To be put out of my misery. Tell me straight on what to expect instead of being nice about it and provide more harm. Regardless, as a Verdant fan I would read the Hyouka review whenever if ever gets release. And I’m pretty sure I would enjoy it with a big smile across my face.

    Solara
    Reply

  36. Zepyr, BakaMochi thanks for clearing things up.

    This is exatly what I was talking about and, although you guys don’t owe me or anyone any favours, it is and was respectful to your readers and, most often than not, fans, to do so.

    To Verdant, what others have said regarding setting expectations up reflect my point of view as well, so I won’t touch the subject again. I’m really sorry you are going through a rough patch in life and sincerelly wish you the best of luck on solving the problems. Ganbatte!

    Fluca
    Reply

  37. Guys, we all know that you’ve got your own, real lives and probably more important duties and obligations to attend. We also all appreciate that you write these posts sacrificing a huge chunk of your precious free time. This IS the greatest aniblog out there for sure. The only thing I take issue with is the form, or lets say, the treatment of the matter at hand. A simple ”sorry guys, I haven’t got time to deal with it right now but I promise I will release the last Hyouka posts as soon as possible” would really suffice and none of this raging, whining and complaining would have happened. That is all it took… Anyway, I will be looking forward for that long awaited conclusion to the series, no matter how long it takes.

    Cheers

    Prejsu
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *