You never know if you are going to watch something that you like or not, the only thing that might help you know are the ratings or the reviews from other people. When i was going to watch Hyouka i thought that i were going to watch something average and not so good, well i was wrong.
Hyouka is an anime that will surprise you, it takes everyday mysteries and makes it to something interesting. It's actually quite cleaver and after a while you wont be able to stop watch it. By the ratings from other animes i think that Hyouka is underrated, one of the few animes that i think deserves more points that it has. Well, i would rather see that pretty much 90% of the animes that are higher rated than Hyouka would have less points, because it should mean something to have a high rating. And i also think that NOTHING deserves a perfect 10 in a review.
The anime is about the boy Oreki who is really bored and hates to do stuff, and then he meets the girl chitanda, and when chitanda has something on her mind she NEEDS to know about it. Oreki will solve some basics mysteries for her and after that some more complicated ones. Oreki got his BFF Fukube who is a nice side character, and the you have the fourth and last main character Ibara that's inlove with Fukube. All of them will gather in the literature club, they will talk a lot and solve some mysteries. If you are not sold about anime yet, trust me it will actually be quite good.
Animation: Hyouka is looking quite good, the scenes when chitanda transforms in orekis mind are done great. The background is really nice and characters are done very well, only thing that's bad about the animation is that it has some quality drops were everything about the animation gets worse. But the openings... if you just would have counted animation quality in openings then Hyouka would be at the top!
Sound: Here is the part where Hyouka shines, it has one of the best (probably the best) soundtracks from anime. The classical music is just wonderful and it fits so well, the openings (first one is better than the second) are really good and you get a great feeling from watching them. I don't know if i can write anymore about the sound, because you can't complain about it, it's just so good.
Story: Every anime got something that's not so good about it, and the story department is "that" thing in Hyouka. They don't follow a main storyline in Hyouka, they have 3+ small mysteries that they solve. There is no "red line" that they will follow, they are not focusing about a big mystery. And that may be fine but one mystery will drag on to much (festival). One more is that they don't have a goal, the mysteries just come to their club room and they will try to solve them.
Value: There is no real life lesson in Hyouka, you may find that the characters will say that you should not be shy if you are good at something. You may also find that you will try to think diffrently, you will try to think like oreki do when he solves mysteries. For me i will remember this anime for a long time, it's one of the animes where i have no problem remembering everyones name, i might not see it again for a while because it had no real plot, but i almost never see the same serie twice.
Character: I don't know if everyone will agree but i really think that atleast two of the character in Hyouka are really well made and fitting, and the rest are just well made. Oreki is one of the best main characters in any anime that i've seen, it may be because i'm lazy and hates to use my mind as well. Oreki is really smart and can solve mysteries by using logic, and the way how he is acting is really well made. Chitanda is a character that has great dialogues with Oreki, she is very forward and when she has something on her mind she wants to know it NOW. They compliment eachother REALLY well and the best moments in the anime are when Oreki and Chitanda are together. Fukube is Orekis best friend, he also has some great moments when he and Oreki talks to each other. He might not be as smart as Oreki but he has his moments, he adds some quality to the show and you need a character like him, he is not as well made as Chitanda or Orkeki but still quite good. The last one is Ibara, she is just someone who is there, i don't feel that she adds to much to the show, she is the reason why the characters wont have a higher score.
Enjoyment: I can't write to much here, i can either write that i enjoyed the anime to some degree, i may also write that i loved it/hated it, i might also write that i thought that it was average. The closest thing that i get is that i loved it, it may just be that i was in the mood to watch an anime like Hyouka, but it may also be that i love animes with great characters and sound. And Hyouka got just that, great characters, great animation and great sound. I fully recommend this anime to everyone, if you don't like the genre just try some episodes, i know i did and i loved it.
