The good:
-Outstanding animation. Kyoto animation is known for stellar animation, and Hyouka doesn’t disappoint. I don’t think words can describe the insane fidelity of the animation of this show, it might actually be the most beautiful non-movie anime I’ve ever seen.
-Stellar music/sound. Hyouka doesn’t have much original tracks to boast of, but they use beautiful classical pieces, as well as good j-pop songs for their openings and endings.
-Some good dialogue and drama moments. Even though Hyouka isn’t a drama show primarily, the dramatic moments are beautifully orchestrated.
The neutral:
-The characters could be perceived as boring to some. The main four characters are somewhat realistic in their presentation, and they don’t follow any mainstream stereotypes. However, it is blatant from the beginning that these characters have few flaws, and few strengths, making them quite one-dimensional. These characters are not very interesting, and they mostly lack character-progression as well. Despite all this, I think it’s nice to have some characters that don’t follow stereotypes.
-The mysteries are mostly episodic. Some episodes follow short arcs, while some episodes are stand-alone. But, every episode has a mystery. Like in Scooby Doo, each mystery is solved in a formulaic fashion. The mysteries are quite unambitious, meaning they’re small, simple and frankly, somewhat uninteresting. This could be because you don’t feel it’s up to the viewer, but to the main characters to solve them. I think you would need to be a staunch mystery fan to enjoy the mysteries any more than the banal romance/slice of life moments of this show.
The (somewhat) bad:
-The writing is very predictable. Because the characters are so one-dimensional, and the episodes so formulaic, the show has a deep lack of surprises. This wouldn’t be bad in a slice of life show, but this is also a drama show, and a mystery show.
-There is a weird lack of stakes in this show. There are very few moments where I felt the need to root for the characters. Most of the mysteries they solve have little to no significance to the character’s ego, so it feels weird for them to bother with the mysteries. Frankly, the mysteries seem forced upon the plot, and I think they should have focused more on personal issues, which would bolster some much needed character development.
Conclusion:
Hyouka is a beautiful and great sounding anime that is bottlenecked by unambitious writing. It’s a shame that Kyoto animation put so much effort into this, because without the stellar animation and sound, I think this show would be quite mediocre. Hyouka is a great example of novel that does not fit in the anime format, in my opinion.
I don’t recommend this to anyone but “high-school life” and “mystery” genre fans, or those whom are curious about great animation. This is not particularly for “slice of life” fans, because there’s not much comedy to enjoy.
Because the animation and sound was so great, I’ll give this a 7/10.
