In a lot of ways, Hyouka is strange.
It can be scattershot, mischievous, quirky, elegant and sometimes oddly creepy, and it
often seamlessly integrates all of these aspects together to interesting and unique effect.
With a couple of rare exceptions, nothing much aside from general slice of life events
occur across the course of the episodes, and the anime doesn’t really have a definitive
conclusion.
It provides us with some notes of finality for Oreki’s arc, but it is very much open
ended.
Oreki and Satoshi in particular do go through some very substantial growth and I don’t
want to underplay how awesome and rewarding it can be to see these arcs slowly come into
fruition.
But even still, while I love Hyouka’s character growth and will discuss it quite a bit here,
to me what’s more interesting than the growth itself is the approach the story makes with
regards to that growth.
I’ve always felt that Hyouka’s interesting in that it maintains a distinctly consistent
feel of priority throughout.
It remains on an even keel of dramatization, on a level such that the more impactful moments
on paper feel understated - not all of the time, but most of the time - and the most
mundane stuff may feel like greater weight is being placed on it proportionate to the
actual events happening.
And I think the reason for that has to do with one of the main messages of the anime.
In short, Hyouka is an examination of why the mundane matters - and while I’m definitely
not saying that this idea is revolutionary in and of itself, the way that the story executes
and approaches this is special.
And the best way to examine this is through the wonderful Eru Chitanda.
Very often the spark, heart and injection of life into Hyouka, Chitanda is extremely
easy to adore.
But everything she is is vastly important to the story aside from just her curious spirit
and likeability.
We see this through her knack for gradually helping Oreki come out of his shell to feel
more comfortable and happy with life - and the most amazing thing about this is that
while she obviously cares for Oreki, in my eyes a great deal of this is actually unintentional,
just a bi-product of her being her amazing self.
She’s simply just that affectionate of a person, and lives her life in an honest way
to express that.
Oreki calls her a nuisance at times, but maybe in this context being a nuisance isn’t necessarily
a bad thing.
Chitanda’s approach is extremely instinctual and stream-of-consciousness - she feels her
way through life and does things for the simple reason that she wants to do them.
Chitanda lives fully in the present, in THIS moment, and in being questioned about the
longevity of this sort of attitude she asserts that because these events matter to her in
the moment, she pursues them hoping that they’ll continue to matter in the future.
If you really think about it, that sort of reasoning does make sense in contrasting the
alternative, and its a beautiful and pretty inspirational contrast to the type of timid,
cautious and scared way that lots of people approach their lives.
Those who contribute to her joy in that moment are special, and the things that capture her
interest are worth being interested in simply because they’re interesting.
And due to this outlook, Chitanda, along with Satoshi and Mayaka of course, help Oreki to
break out and stop viewing life as someone on the outside looking in.
And this doesn’t mean he has to completely change his personality or anything, because
Oreki definitely doesn’t experience as heavy-handed or dramatic a change as that.
But it just helps him to engage with life more, to invest more time and energy into
things and gradually part the clouds.
But as I said, the character growth itself isn’t actually my biggest draw to the series.
It’s mostly the little moments and situations that compile to contribute to that character
growth.
And as I alluded to, something I appreciate about Hyouka is that it really gives off an
air of confidence through how much it allows the characters to seize the moments and engage
naturally.
It doesn’t try to force emotions out of the viewer.
It’s very organic, with a detailed understanding of these characters and the strengths of the
series.
It knows what it is, and it just sets those elements off for the anime’s run.
The character animation and general expressiveness have to be among my favourite in the medium,
and in tandem with the loveable and endearing personalities and the fun and cute way that
they bounce off each other, along with the expert direction, I could watch these characters
just hang out for hundreds of episodes on end.
It’s very charming and endearing, and it doesn’t often coincide with extremely dramatic
or emotional territory, but sometimes that’s okay and it can be entrancing to simply watch
a bunch of loveable dorks interact, follow their instinct and try to find a place of
happiness for themselves while getting swept up in the intrigue of the moment.
The mysteries our crew gets into are generally well-constructed and planned out, but all
in all, these are days spent questioning what would seem like arbitrary and mundane things.
Why a library book is being read in strange schedules, why Chitanda got angry, what the
source of a strange shadow at a hot springs inn was.
Oreki even sometimes describes these days as wasted.
But they were never really wasted, were they?
Chitanda wanted to know what she wanted to know, in that moment.
It engaged her, and because of her magnetic personality Oreki was himself engaged in humoring
her and helping her out.
And for Oreki, we see that getting wrapped up in these things, while tiring, is far more
meaningful than the trapping alternate of just alienating oneself.
Hyouka is essentially an examination of moment-to-moment interaction and living in the now, no matter
what that moment may be, and seeing where that approach gradually takes these characters.
But while I said that it doesn’t often coincide with heavier stuff, sometimes things aren’t
quite so wholesome.
We also see the dark personal struggles of a writer feeling like the walls are closing
in on them, we see the long-past pain of Sekitani Jun, who shows us that the most he could do
to communicate his agony after being sacrificed and exiled for the good of his classmates
was convey the words “I scream” through some some abstract wordplay essentially indiscernible
without context - bringing us to the sad title of Hyouka.
We also have some surprisingly weighty character writing for Satoshi as we approach the end
of the series, seeing his reservations with his tendency to get too wrapped up and possessive
about things, and his struggle to move forward and pursue the things he wants in spite of
that.
The weight of these kinds of things really sneaks up on you in Hyouka.
The characters go about their lives and suddenly, we’re hit with an emotional revelation or
development, whether it be positive or negative - horrifying, sad, mystifying, happy.
And then the story move on, while never forgetting the weight of these things.
Kind of like real life.
And the vulnerable and bright-eyed cast are there as our companions along the way, taking
this in and sometimes experiencing these big moments as realizations or developments they
find out about themselves.
Oreki progresses to moving outside of his low energy, high efficiency and sheltered
lifestyle into slowly coming out of his shell and wanting to explore other avenues while
internally affirming his own worth.
He eventually seeks to maybe think about a genuine rose coloured life of his own, to
perhaps start giving himself credit and not deem everything he achieves as lucky or rudimentary.
It’s approached with a characteristically understated touch, but it is beautiful in
its own way.
Because gaining confidence and realizing these things about yourself, slowly coming into
your own.. sometimes it isn’t this grand, hugely emotional, sweeping moment.
Sometimes it’s a series of little moments that feel greatly meaningful in and of themselves
- and are presented as such in the anime - that you can slowly but surely take satisfaction
in, as you begin to realize the type of person you want to be.
Taking this into account, it is totally understandable how much emphasis the story puts on making
these seemingly minor moments feel unique, and in that way, this is probably one of my
favourite manners of execution when it comes to character progression.
But even regardless of this and before his growth, Oreki, despite his very low-key demeanor,
is far from detached.
He’s actually incredibly empathetic and able to understand or at least attempt to
understand the feelings of people from years past through a few obscure details.
He’s very sensitive and tactful too, not wanting to make assumptions of those he doesn’t
know when the actual truth of the matter may make his seemingly harmless guess insensitive
or disrespectful.
Yet at the same time, he can’t help but get intrigued by these sorts of mysteries,
he can’t help but try to understand.
And so with all of this in mind, we see that he was always curious underneath all of the
layers of apathy, with the classic literature club bringing out what was hidden rather than
planting a seed.
In this way, they all really are similar through their inquisitive and warm passion for this.
And having THAT sort of cast to guide you through these episodes is a joy in and of
itself.
Hyouka is a masterclass at making the mundane magnetic, at portraying the magic of the present,
and at integrating all of that with the philosophies and growth of its cast.
To me, it is the ultimate slice-of-life, with Chitanda pulling Oreki from in front and Mayaka
and Satoshi pushing him from behind.
I’d give so much to be able to see where the lives of these characters go from here
in animated form, but even as it is, I find it satisfying knowing that they’ll continue
to listen to that enthusiastic spirit inside of them and continue following their hearts.
Many thanks for watching.