Hyouka

Watched first episode.

I am in love.

The beautiful Kyo Ani animation

Mysteries reminding me of Umineko

The classical music reminding me of G-Senjou

Sunohara and Okazaki

YESSSSSSS

To be fair, the mysteries aside from the first were a bit lacking without many clues given. But it‘s only the first episode. My must watch series of the season, other than Fate/Zero

To be fair, the second mystery was just something Hotarou made up so Chitanda would get distracted. Though the mysteries are hardly mysteries at all, true.

That's the thing, it's so easy to figure out. Not much of a mystery.

edited 24th Apr '12 7:00:00 AM by fillerdude

I did like the first mystery though. Classic closed room scenario (except the victim's alive). They gave us a shot of the janitor while he was walking down the stairs. After that, the knocking from below should have been enough of a hint.

Sonohara and Okazaki were all that I could hear.

Also, it's very strange but Chitanda's role in the second part of the episode made me think of a weird hybrid between Haruhi and Mikuru with how Hotarou went out of his way to keep her entertained with a ruse to keep her away from the real mystery.

Also... Kyo Ani are totally just showing off. That scene of how Chitanda's bright eyes trapped Hotarou and left him unable to get out of the whole affair was nothing more than showing off. Gods, that was some pretty coloring in those eyes.

Really, really damn visually beautiful first episode. Other than that, the mysteries were a bit too inane, so I hope they'll shift into higher gear soon. Also, standard Manic Pixie Dream Girl set-up.

8thSin (gg's current translator for this series, and UTW's for Accel World) is blogging this series, so you might want to check it out for translation notes and other interesting things.

edited 24th Apr '12 8:28:26 AM by LiberatedLiberater

I think that second kid had nothing like Sunohara, he was less of a comic foil, and more like a straight deuteragonist, just slightly more energetic.

I watched the first episode through for the art, but I really wasn't interested at all. I didn't like any of the characters either.

All the mysteries were stupid and obvious, to the point where they weren't even "mysteries". If that happened in real life I'd probably come up with exactly the same kind of generic throw-away answer off the top of my head as they did. And proceed to not care because seriously those aren't interesting questions to ask. I'm counting "creation of a fake mystery" as one of the mysteries because that was also obvious. So I'm not expecting much on that front.

The characters are annoying. Friend guy talks too much. I appreciate his apparent intelligence compared to his peers in the same role, although he falls far too cleanly into random exposition. Of, again, things that aren't worth thinking about at all. Girl is super-annoying. Overly enthusiastic in all the wrong ways. It makes me want to ignore her with all my might. Unfortunately main character guy feels the opposite. Which is a bit sad because otherwise I can relate to his "low energy" lifestyle and habits.

Animation is... pretty good. Too good. It's distracting to see so much love go into this when the writing is so terrible. I can't fault them for giving it their all, but it annoys me more than anything else.

^^^ He has Sunohara's voice. And the protagonist has Tomoya's voice.

Yeah, because the anime industry has more characters than actors. But he is not the same character, or even similar, here.

Yeah, we know they are not the same characters. We just make the comment for fun since their voices are the same and there is even a slight resemblance in their design.

"Mysteries?"

You mean how a door could be unlocked and then locked without explanation, and then where an unauthorized phantom club notice would be?

I suppose they could be on a small scale. But I'd love to see them solve bigger mysteries.

Fun Fact: the seiyu for the girl also voices Ritsu!

edited 26th Apr '12 10:47:41 AM by kyun

I love how this show's translation has caused so much drama.

Oh god, fansubber drama. Fucking beautiful...

I think the whole drama of this is stupid. However, the article does FINALLY explain why the subs call the club they join the "Classics Club"! That puzzled me.

^^^^ The locked door mystery is a classic closed room mystery that's simplified a bit. No murder, no suspects. Just logic and deduction from previously given subtle hints. The latter mystery was a bit less of a mystery

^^^ He does bring up some important points, but most are pretty silly I think.

If any show deserves the drama, it's a nuance-heavy show like this. I ended up watching the Commie version. I enjoyed it, sure, but I felt like I'd missed a ton.

I ended up watching the Mazui version since I didn't know 8thSin was translating this. I knew there was something off with that "inferiority complex" line; it just didn't sound right in the context. Didn't know the translation was that bad though.

I just watched the first episode and found it fine. I am not interested in mystery genre but the characters were fine and if it focuses more on slice of life elements( like K-On), I would continue to watch it.

Wait, Mazui is doing this? Time to check them/this out since I like their subs.

So the main issue with the first episode (laughable mysteries) wasn't particularly a problem with this one, and it looks like we're about to get some plot. The new girl is entertaining, and the ED is cool, if out of place. Things are looking up

Is episode two better? The first one was a bit boring outside of the male lead's best friend and the little bit of humor her brought to it.

Episode 2 was nice. The characters are still the best part of this show, and I loved the Houtaro-Eru dynamic in this episode. I also liked Houtaro wondering if Eru really is a top student and not just an airhead.

This is worth watching just for the art alone, plot be damned. Thankfully, the plot isn't damned.

I like the idea of this. A guy who's a database (looks like he was borrowed from Durarara) and his mystery solving friend, though they're both not amazing, just high school levelled. I kind of like how that works.

The mysteries aren't much but

I don't really think much of the girl who looks like she was stolen from KON, but I guess lacking a female lead wouldn't work that well either. I also don't think much of the Tired Beyond His Years High Schooler, but I guess it gets a pass for being not impossible. Just a slightly Narmy.

It seems a tiny bit derivative, but it's worthwhile as simple slice of life, so I'll be interested to see how it goes.

edited 30th Apr '12 6:17:39 AM by UltimatelySubjective