Hyouka 6 (Rewatch)
And so I finally reach the so-called worst episode of Hyouka. Personally, I think episode 2 deserves that title, but this is really one of the weaker entries. Particularly, the decision to have the characters be sitting in the same room for the complete runtime is not really exciting, as it deprives us from one of the best aspects of Hyouka which is its depiction of various ambiances and places with utmost care. Here, we already know the background, lighting and any props well enough, and adding some letter cookies doesn't help it.
Nevertheless, I think the episode is fairly enjoyable up to the point where they start delving on the mystery of the week. The opener scenes at the classroom are well-crafted, they have other students move and comment on what's going on, and they each have a unique design, so it feels very much like Hyouka. The pen lead-changing sakuga is also welcomed, at least by me.
After that, the conversation they have comes as kind of a breath of fresh air. They finally are talking about casual, not-mystery related stuff! It flows well, Chitanda is particularly well-animated for the sequence and the subject matter is functional to characterization, as it should.
I liked this exchange. It's quite realistic, I think, in how we usually check ourselves out against generalizations or claims about people's traits we read on internet, magazines or wherever.
Mayaka was really
mistreating Oreki this time, I guess she was on a bad mood already lol. It's always good if we can see new smug expressions from her.
But yeah, when they start talking about their teacher and stuff the episode kind of goes to shit. I don't have a problem with it being "boring", but the mystery that's supposed to be a vehicle for characterizing Chitanda doesn't fullfill its purpose well, and it ends up being kind of awkward.
She starts asking "Why did I get angry?" which is a retarded question to ask but not a particularly unusual feeling. But after that, this issue gets sidetracked with "Why did the teacher screw up his lesson?"; Mayaka tries to get back into the original subject by questioning Chitanda, but she keeps saying she doesn't know why she got angry at all. Finally, when the mystery is solved, the girl in question lets out a sigh of relief, and this particularly impacts Oreki, who tells us by inner monologue that she probably didn't want to think her anger was justified, and was looking for an understandable reason for what happened. The thing is, Chitanda's unease about her feelings never gets resolved beyond that, and if we accept Oreki's conjecture as the conclusion, it seems silly that she was ever in doubt about "why she got angry" in the first place.
The direction wasn't really anything to speak of; Kazuya Sakamoto can do some good stuff, but I find him to be really inconsistent. The promising Taiichi Ogawa will later handle a similar episode (19) much better and make it more entertaining to watch with good storyboarding alone.
As for the animation, I've never paid much attention to Hiroyuki Takahashi's style, but it doesn't particularly strike me as noteworthy. It's very standard and "boring" to look at, compared to the prominent Kyoani sakkans who have more character in their drawings and expressions. I did like the mini chitandael part a lot though, so props for that.