Hyouka 11 (Rewatch)
This episode was really great on all levels. It seems like most efforts go into the closers for each arc, since so far 5 and 11 have been the two best episodes in my book.
There's so many stuff worth talking about this time.
For starters, the very noticeable change in the color palette. For the whole episode it's grey and washed out, symbolizing Oreki's downfall pretty adequately. There's a lot of shading in the episode too, especially on Oreki's eyes; it gets progressively more intense until the scene where he's walking on the street with a
pitch-black tone clouding his whole upper face. It's interesting that the shading sort of fades away at the end when he is conversing with Chitanda, gives some closure to his arc (and 11.5 will further expand on this).
This episode makes me really appreciate Chitanda. For example, both Satoshi and Mayaka just came in, beat on Oreki and went away (especially Satoshi, damn you!). Later, when Oreki hurries Chitanda to do the honors of crushing him again, she seems to get what was going on with him and instead asks him for a walk. That's a pretty nice detail, and of course her take on the mystery is the most important of all because it addresses the true problem. It's what ticks Oreki off for realizing he had been played, rather than just thinking he went full retarded and got it wrong.
The little faux interplay they had at the end was pretty neat as well. They do have a lot of chemistry together.
The "puppets" part was just wonderful. The decision to use those puppets for depicting how pitiful Oreki was feeling about himself is commendable.
I like the contrast between these two. In his mind, depicted by the typical illusions Hyouka has us accustomed to, Oreki is the master detective, he gets the spotlight and solves the case to the backdrop of everyone's applause. But really, who is that "everyone"? The second shot tells us how Oreki was feeling about the reality of the situation at the time. He didn't give a shit about people liking his solution, because that's what not what he signed up for and he doesn't want the script to be his.
These and some other things (like the stopping of time and ambience just before this part) seem to signal his return to the shell he was in by episode 1, defeated and isolated. It's probably the only truly good thing about this whole arc, seeing him go far down and then back up in 11.5.
As for the second half, it focuses mostly on Oreki and Irisu. There was some really good storyboarding going on too, gotta praise Eisaku Kawanami for directing the episode.
I quite liked their conversation; it was again, framed completely from the outside but this time there was no 180º switch, just build-up for Oreki's disappointment and anger, and the framing built-up in tension accordingly.
This is the shot where Oreki inquires about talent vs hard-work again, obviously speaking about him more than anything else. Considering what the rest of the episode is telling us, I find the low angle and the spotlight deliciously ironic here, and quite similar to the previous scene I mentioned.
The final scene of Irisu was pretty nice as well. We don't see her eyes, and thus we miss the expressions she was making, but the focus on her body (and lower face) convey her feelings perfectly. A stone-cold character like her probably doesn't make very expressive faces at these times, and derailing our attention to more telling tidbits of character was a good call. She probably felt a bit like an asshole after that comment from Hongou and how easily Oreki's sister figured out her true motives (which she probably wasn't comfortable with because he obscured them from her at first).
Last but not least, I can't praise the animation enough this time. Kayo Hikiyama debuted as animation director, and she did a damn great job. She's a promising youngster at Kyoani, this episode was filled with expressive faces, nuanced movement and tension thanks to her and the animators. I really liked the last part between Oreki and Chitanda,
animated by Ryouhei Muta. He did a great job with Chitanda's reactions and body language (swing the hair... lol).
Hyouka seems like a show that pays special attention to the finale of the arcs, and the last episode of the show itself is also insane. Incidentally, this is the post I am most satisfied with since the one for episode 5. Maybe I can judge how much I enjoy each episode by the effort I put into writing these posts after watching?