This anime is one of my favorites, if not my favorite anime. The genre is mystery, but don't get fooled. There are no British detectives in trench coats with magnifying glasses in the 18th century. Instead, there are Japanese high school students in uniforms with realistic problems in the 21st century. The mysteries are the type of thing any one of us could experience in our school lives, and that's something that helps connect the audience to the show. The art is somewhat realistic and immersive, while the sound overall creates a relaxed atmosphere, connecting the audience to the anime even more. The characters are very much like people you would see daily, and all of this immerses the audience into the show. The mysteries are clever, the artwork and sound is very well done, and the characters are relatable.
Story: 9.5
Art: 9
Sound: 9.25
Character: 10
Enjoyment: 10/10 would enjoy again
Overall: 9.55, it's almost outstanding.
More details down below:
-Story
The Story of Hyouka isn't one overarching story, rather, several separate subplots. Each subplot is around 3-4 episodes long and are all well done. The pacing of clue giving is good and at the end of each arc I would sit back and be amazed. Along the way, characters explain what they've put together so far based on the clues, so the audience has equal opportunity to solve the mystery. However, Oreki Houtarou will still probably outdo you, and that's a good thing according to me. It's not like Houtarou has some "trump clue" that hasn't been revealed to the audience or anything of the like, he's just... good. At life. So the stories are satisfying and realistic enough and the mysteries are unique. Hyouka is just as good a mystery story as Holmes is, but set in high school and not as dark, which is refreshing in a genre filled with the 19th century and trench coats and murders and detectives that smoke.
-Art
The Art-style is good. The coloration is more realistic and it could stand on par with 2014 anime, despite being made in 2012. Really, it's beautiful. And I'm not just saying that because a couple of landscapes look nice. The art is really immersive and the artwork for the first opening always gives me goosebumps.
-Sound
The voices are good. They match their characters very well. The soundtrack, however, is probably the best part about the sound. It's a mix of classical, horror/mystery, and classy as f*ck detective music. While some soundtracks end up being overused, how incredible the soundtracks are make that problem miniscule. The opening and ending themes are very good as well.
-Character
The characters are very relatable. Houtarou, the main male protagonist, isn't like normal main males. He's not some incredibly selfless, caring, valiant guy. He has his flaws. He isn't honest with himself and, quite frankly, he's a bum. Each of the other characters have these flaws and are pretty unique. They don't follow archetypes. (Archetype, for example, is the "strong dude that's dumb and only cares about sports." Sorta like a stereotype.) The characters all get to share the spotlight nearly equally, and could be compared to real life people. They're developed so well and so deeply, they could pass for real people.
-Enjoyment
I really enjoyed this, as you can probably tell. It created a very laid-back, relaxing atmosphere while immersing me with it's realistic mysteries and well-developed characters.
