hyouka 2

Ponytails are mysteriously moe.

I guess this image summarizes Hyouka: Houtarou is more of a jerk than Tomoya at the beginning of Clannad, Chitanda is four stops cuter with a ponytail, Chitanda is cute in a cardigan, Houtarou like to wear his shirts oversized, ruffled, and untucked, Kyoto’s animation prowess is in its own class this season, and Chitanda has a mystery only Houtarou can solve. This will either turn out to be Phi Brain (which I hope not since we have Phi Brain already), Spiral-esque where Houtarou must use his powers to save her life or uncover a dark past, or Encyclopedia Brown meets Haruhi Suzumiya where Chitanda’s request is actually fairly low calorie. I just wonder if Houtarou will ever get any closer to Chitanda… I mean… it would be an excellent turn of events if Houtarou’s solves Chitanda’s initial problem… and then she comes back and helps solves why Houtarou is such a lazy bum. And then they fall in love, adopt pugs, and go to Mars.

This image sums it up nicely too. Chitanda’s persistence and Houtarou’s laziness are a pretty good match. I wonder if Houtarou has mono though… his apathy and laziness are almost Jay and Silent Bob level. Why does he bother with anything if he can’t even fest it up to walk across the school? With a cute girl to boot? Why doesn’t he just go full slacker and ditch the club? Does he know he’s like four more mysteries solved from being able to get into Chitanda’s bra?


Sometimes I forget that Kyoto is the animation studio that brought us Tess’s OVA and Mikuru costume raping. They’ve been quite, uh, un-fanservicy lately with After Story, K-On!, and Nichijou… and I didn’t expect Hyouka to be much different. Until they tossed us random fanservice in the ED. Swiftly approved.

(I feel like Kyoto originally wanted to use this concept for Nichijou‘s Zzz, and they chickened out because it would have been Nano and Yuko. So they decided to go with another sleepy-themed ED and toss in Chitanda and Ibara in jammies while rolling around suggestively.)

Pay attention, Shaft. This is a normal living room. Notice it has walls and stuff.

The complete randomness of the solution to the mystery… which makes a lot of sense if you connect all the random clues… well, Encyclopedia Brown-esque. Man, why didn’t I think of converting beloved 70s and 80s children’s novels into anime featuring moe haremettes? Kicking myself now. Is it too late to propose anime versions of Hardy Boys and Babysitters’ Club? I feel like Babysitters’ Club should be about five haremettes who have to “babysit” a poor high school male student since he’s going to be king of the galaxy or something in a foretold prophecy. Bad guys would try to kill him, and the haremettes would have to protect his scrawny ass.

(Nah. This couldn’t work. Unless I tossed in something about how the girls could combine their powers with yuri. Mmm…)

I’m not a big fan of Ibara yet. Though the whole Satoshi – Ibara – Houtarou – Chitanda dynamic is similar to the one going on in Sakamichi no Apollon, except this romantic Bucky sphere is moving snail slow.

No tea set?! No meido?! Worst. Club room. Ever.

Okay, this scene made up for it. Chitanda in a meido outfit?! Yes, please. Kyoto loves meido almost as much as me. And I liked her, “We recommend this one.” The meido outfit just makes it so much more persuasive. At least for me.

(Goddamn anime for not giving us any decent meido lately. I am in meido withdrawal. The late 00s were a golden age for meido in anime. Is it too much to ask Ufotable to stick Saber or Irisviel in a meido outfit randomly for a scene or two?)

That’s Hayabusa in the poster! Launch in 2003… so the author could have been very intrigued in the launch since the novel was written in 2001. Or Kyoto just randomly tossed the graphic in there. Anyway, I like the touch. Also, speculation everywhere why the previous anthologies do not seem to exist. I am guessing the previous club adviser gave Houtarou’s sister the choice of controlling the club, synthesis with the club, or destroying the club, and she picked destroying the club… and along with the club, all the mass– err– anthologies went poof. Hopefully in different colored explosions.

“Just how limited are your energy supplies?”

He just needs to find more energy tanks. They’re tricky to find sometimes.

13 Responses to “hyouka 2”

  1. Some have been criticizing the show for being too slow, and boring. While I admit that the pace is not the fastest, I’m still excited for it. I feel like it has an enormous amount of potential. .. Potential for quality Meido.. Oh god those eyes, they scream “YOU WILL PICK THE COLORFUL SCHOOL LIFE”

  2. >No tea set?! No meido?! Worst. Club room. Ever.

    But…Cactus-kun! I have a feeling he will become a very important member of the club room

  3. Start sparkling, girlies, and the situation will change. Just wait for a steamy soap service in ep 5.

  4. Best part of the episode for me was http://imgur.com/CiNwu watching Satoshi wondering how he went from being social, popular, and liked by a member of the opposite sex, to being Sunohara’d into watching the library by the laziest kid in school.

  5. All I wanna know is what happened between Ibara and the guys, Satoshi is really heartless even knowing she like him or something……… and Ibara treats Houtarou like a sex offender.

  6. Eru is just too adorable. I love how she keeps invading Houtarou’s personal space and the scene where Hotarou kept finding himself looking at the book. There’s no saying no to those eyes.

  7. I just wonder if Houtarou will ever get any closer to Chitanda…

    He just needs to stop moving away! I bet she smells nice too…

  8. Gosh, I think more EDs should feature girls in jammies rolling around suggestively. Why isn’t this show being streamed?

  9. “Pay attention, Shaft. This is a normal living room. Notice it has walls and stuff.”
    whats wrong with Shaft’s design? If i was a billionaire i would want Shaft to design my house. I mean who wouldn’t want a House that is 6-dimension.

  10. Why no dudes in jammies, yo? Girls in jambes are just too gay.

    I personally like the scenery & just the whole place. Makes you wanna live there. And the mysteries seem very interesting, so do the ways to solve them.

  11. >”I feel like Babysitters’ Club should be about five haremettes who have to “babysit” a poor high school male student since he’s going to be king of the galaxy or something in a foretold prophecy. Bad guys would try to kill him, and the haremettes would have to protect his scrawny ass.”

    That sounds pretty close to To Love-ru, Rito having to be protected from alien assassins all the time so he can eventually get with Lala and become king of the galaxy.

  12. I love Hyouka and I realize something after watching the ending theme of it… Satomi Satou, is really good in singing..

  13. My love for this anime is to over whelming the last Ep made me sob so much i swear tears were coming from my nose as well. Oh god let there be a season 2 (/>3<)/

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