Hyouka (TV series)

Houtarou Oreki tries to follow his motto of 'If I don't have to do something, I won't, but if I have to, I'll do it quickly and is a believer of the so-called 'energy conservatism.' However, his plan is somewhat disturbed when his sister forces him to join the school's Classical Literature Club, which was at the risk of being disbanded. Oreki joins the Classical Lit. Club along with Eru Chitanda, Satoshi Fukube, and Mayaka Ibara.

To Houtarou's dismay, Eru Chitanda gets in the way of his 'energy conservatism' by asking Oreki to solve problems every time her curiosity arises. One day, Eru asks Houtarou to meet at a local cafe. Chitanda then reveals the reason she joined the Classical Lit. club: her uncle, a former member of the Classical Lit. club, went missing in India and is awaiting a funeral as he will soon be considered legally dead. She then says that she doesn't remember what her uncle said that put her in tears as a child, and asks Houtarou for his help. Houtarou reluctantly agrees. Other Classical Lit. Club members caught wind of this story, and help out in the investigation. Houtarou, with evidence given by the Classical Lit. Club, revelas that Eru's uncle was expelled from the school against his will due to a school protest. He also reveals that the club's traditional anthology "Hyouka," was a pun which when translated in English was "I Scream" (Ice cream) named after this event, which was a warning to the future club members to voice their opinions.

With Eru's uncle's case resolved, the Classical Lit. Club starts preparing their annual anthology, "Hyouka." However, they were interrupted by Eru's senior, Fuyumi Irisu. She asks the Classical Lit. Club, specifically Houtarou, to find the true ending of her class' (Class 2-F) independent film, whose author, Hongou, fell ill before completing the script. The two parties end up coming to an agreement that Class 2-F will come up with possible theories and evidence, and the Classical Lit. Club will make their own interpretation based on the theories given by Class 2-F. Houtarou comes up with the "true" ending of the story, and the movie was played successfully with positive responses. However, other members of the Club pose flaws in his theories, and as Houtarou investigates more, he discovers the true plans of Irisu: Irisu was never looking for the "true" ending of the movie but was just a cover-up to make Houtarou an author of the movie, since she felt that Hongou's script was too boring.

Soon after, the long-anticipated cultural festival, the "Kanya Festival," begins. The Classical Lit. Club prepares to sell the anthology "Hyouka." However, due to a misprint, they end up with 200 copies, instead of 30. Thus, the club members scramble to advertise their club by participating in school events. However, the club members soon realize strange robberies occurring throughout the school. A culprit by the name of "Juumonji" was robbing festival supplies from different clubs, and always leaving behind a note. Houtarou and the club begin to investigate, and realize that the robberies were taking place in alphabetical order, a mock crime of The A.B.C. Murders. Houtarou finds the culprit to be Jiro Tanabe, a member of the school's Executive Comittee. He was trying to send a code to the school's Executive Committee President, Muneyoshi Kugayama, who has quit art and the project they were working on despite being talented, which angered Jiro. Houtarou strikes a deal with Jiro to make the final event of "Juumonji" to advertise "Hyouka" in return of Houtarou keeping this fact a secret. Unfortunately, Kugayama was unable to decrypt this code and the incident is passed off as a funny prank.

Months pass and many events happen to the Classical Lit. Club. In the New Year Festival, Houtarou and Eru end up getting trapped in a wooden hut but successfully escape after sending a message to Satoshi. On Valentine's Day, a chocolate Mayaka made for Satoshi was stolen. Houtarou realizes something about Satoshi and questions him about the incident, in which Satoshi reveals that he has stolen the chocolate as he feared developing strong feelings to Mayaka. Satoshi ends up calling Mayaka on the phone in the end. As spring arrives, Eru asks Houtarou to join the Hinamatsuri, in which is disturbed by a construction happening early on a bridge used in the festival. With the permission of the neighboring shrine, the route was changed and the Hinamatsuri ends successfully. Eru and Houtarou guess that a young man changed the date of the construction to get better pictures of the festival. On the way home, Eru tells Houtarou that she wishes to stay in the quiet town. Houtarou tells her that he would like to help with her dream, but quickly stops and says the weather is cold. Eru replies that spring has already arrived, and a breeze blows through the cherry blossoms.

Hida Senior High School

Kyoto Animation was put in charge of animating Hyouka. Honobu Yonezawa provided the source material. Yonezawa also participated in the process of producing the animation, but as he believed that it was more important for Hyouka to be a good anime than a novel, he entrusted Shoji Gatoh and the studio for most of the work.[12] The key staff included Yasuhiro Takemoto as director, Futoshi Nishiya as the character designer, Naomi Ishida as the color designer, Shuhei Okude as the art director, Ryuuta Nakagami as the cinematographer, Hiroshi Karada for setting, Kengo Shigemura as editor, Tsuruoka Yota as audio director, and Kohei Tanaka as the music composer.[2]

According to an interview with SakuraBlog, Yasuhiro Takemoto has volunteered to be the director for the series. The series' writer, Shoji Gatoh, was invited by Yasuhiro Takemoto to participate.[13]

Hyouka is set in a fictional city called Kamiyama in Gifu Prefecture. This is based on Honobu Yonezawa's actual home city, Takayama.[14] Takayama City was selected as one of the 88 sacred anime pilgrimage sites in Japan by the Anime Tourism Association in 2018.[15]

Hyouka features several real-life locations in Takayama. The Kamiyama Senior High School, which appears in the opening and each episode, is based on Hida Senior High School. The Kajibashi bridge, which goes across the Miyagawa river, is also featured in the opening and Episode 18. The Miyagawa Morning Market Street is also featured in the opening. The Arekusujinja Shirne, featured in Episode 20 and the opening, is based on the Hiejinja shrine. Other sites include the Yaoihashi Bridge shown in the opening and Episodes 11 and 18, the Hirayu Onsen Hot Springs shown in Episode 7, the Takayama City Library (as Kamiyama City Library) in Episode 18, and the Minashi Shrine and Garyu Cherry Trees shown in Episode 22.[15]

Funimation produced the English dubbed edition of Hyouka.[11] In South Korea, Mirage Entertainment produced a Korean dubbed home video edition of the series.[16]

The anime features two openings and endings, each with its own theme music. The first opening theme, used for the first 11 episodes, is "Yasashisa no Riyū" (優しさの理由, Reason of Kindness) by ChouCho.[17] The first ending theme, used for the first 11 episodes, is the song "Madoromi no Yakusoku" (まどろみの約束, Promise of Slumber).[18] The second opening theme used from episode 12 and onwards is "Mikansei Stride" (未完成ストライド, Unfinished Stride) which was sung by Saori Kodama. The second ending theme is "Kimi ni Matsuwaru Mystery" (君にまつわるミステリー, Mystery Surrounding You).[19] Both ending themes were sung by Satomi Satō and Ai Kayano.

Kohei Tanaka took charge of composing the music for Hyouka. Hyouka features a significant amount of classical music in its soundtrack, including Sicilienne by Fauré,[20] and Air on the G String by Johann Sebastian Bach.[21] Tanaka said in an interview that the use of classical music was requested by Honobu Yonezawa.[22]

Hyouka aired 22 episodes from April 22, 2012 to September 15, 2012.[2] An original video animation was streamed on Ustream on July 8, 2012.[27]

It was also ranked highly on a variety of lists. It was ranked 25th place in the "Best Anime 100" in an NHK poll.[28] On BIGLOBE's Animeone, Hyouka was ranked 1st place in the 2012 Spring Anime category.[29] CBR listed Hyouka on the list of "The Best Anime Titles From Kyoto Animation (So Far)."[30] It was also listed in Crunchyroll Editorial's top 100 anime of the decade.[31]

Hyouka's Blu-ray BD box sold 8093 copies making it the 3rd most sold Blu-ray Disc in the week of February 23-March 1, 2015.[32]

Anime News Network's Nick Creamer complimented Hyouka's art and directing. In the Part 1 review, he wrote that "Hyouka has a stake in the competition for most beautiful television anime of all time." However, he criticized the first ending as "the show's only significant black mark," stating that it emphasizes "tasteless fanservice that the rest of the show avoids."[33] In the Part 2 review, he complimented Hyouka and wrote that it is "possibly the most visually impressive arc the studio has pulled off" and that it is an "extremely strong contender" for the best school festival arc in anime. He concluded the review favorably, stating that Hyouka was a "gorgeous, thoughtful, and emotionally resonant journey from start to finish."[34]

Aiden Foote from THEM Anime Reviews gave Hyouka a generally favorable review, and scored it a 4/5. He wrote that Hyouka was "deep, sometimes trivial but always personal," which differentiated it from other mysteries with unrealistic plots. He wrote that the show's plot was about "curiosity," and that it went "richly and deeply throughout" its entirety. Hyouka's art was commended for possibly being Kyoto Animation's "most beautiful series." The characters themselves were also complimented, and were described to "slip past all the standard stereotypes that you could possibly expect." However, he added that Hyouka had a number of "pretty dull and obvious" episodes. The show's continuity was also criticized, due to its lack of unity throughout the show. The ending was also met with criticism, with Aiden writing that Hyouka did not end with a "strong sense of conclusion in either thematic or narrative terms."[35]

Chris Beveridge from "The Fandom Post" gave a negative review of Hyouka, grading it a "C" in content. The back half of Hyouka was criticized for reinforcing his views that the show "didn't click" for him. The characters were also criticized for being "bland and uninteresting" which made them hard to connect to. However, he did compliment the show's art claiming that it was "well put together in a technical sense." As for the show in general, he claimed that the show did not suit him but claimed that it would be a "welcome release" for those who like it.[36]