Hyouka

Spoiler'ing my thoughts, just in case:

Goddamn, Satoshi is screwed up. Everything's just come to a head in this episode. Though at least he's taken the first step in overcoming them ...

And Houtarou was incredible. Actually saying he'd hit his best friend? No longer Brilliant, but Lazy, indeed...

Magnificent episode overall. But I guess the Houtarou/Eru ship tease the past few episodes has spoiled me; really thought there'd be more. Still, one cute moment between them, and the Satoshi/Mayaka drama made up for it.

Oops... Edited to actually hide the spoilers... Thanks for the tip.

edited 9th Sep '12 6:50:01 PM by Renewal

Paragraphs need their own separate tags.

Like this

edited 9th Sep '12 6:49:03 PM by Mattonymy

Okay so here I am starting the video of Episode 21. ...it's buffering... and I don't expect any shit to hit the fan right in the beginning so here I am lowering my defenses andHOLY SHIT MAYAKA! YOU JUST BASICALLY CONFESSED YOUR FEELINGS FOR SATOSHI WITH VALNENTINES DAY CHOCOLATES AND HE REJECTS THEM AND YOU SPEND THE FIRST SECONDS OF THE EPISODE SHOUTING AND YELLING!!! GOOD GOD, LADY! AND HERE I THOUGHT I WOULD BE ABLE TO RELAX!

Kyo Ani, you never cease to amaze me.

Yeah...Mayaka did seem a lot more yandere in this episode didn't she? I guess all that time of built up frustration finally caught up with her.

Also Tell me the opening scene where Satoshi refused to accept Ibara's "homemade" chocolate wasn't annoyingly tearjerking.

edited 9th Sep '12 9:44:20 PM by Mattonymy

Plus, now a lot of the characters' crushes are out in the open to each other! ...... except Houtarou x Eru, of course. Dammit this episode ran really high on emotions!

The girls have the right idea. I'm getting some ice cream.

edited 9th Sep '12 9:11:28 PM by Shota

I guess I feel like Houtarou about this. I don‘t get Satoshi at all. I would have punched him. As hard as I could.

On the bright side, I pretty much figured out that it was Satoshi who stole it from the start. Was pretty obvious with his expression and the previous year flashback.

The Twist Ending wasn't very much of a surprise until you understand the motivations of why Satoshi chose to steal the chocolate rather than confront Ibara. It wasn't that he doesn't like Ibara's affections, it's that he's emotionally crippled and has no idea how to handle himself. This episode basically highlights the logical extreme of his dealing with Always Someone Better. In the past, his desire to beat Houtarou at sleuthing that he just gave up and tried to make amends. However, he took it too far and refused to ever be obsessed with anything again, which adversely destroyed his relational desires as a result.

So ultimately there's two popular ways people can view Satoshi a complete Jerkass who simply should just please fans and get with Ibara or as a sympathetic character who can never win.

edited 9th Sep '12 11:22:44 PM by Mattonymy

Well, won't you just look at that. First, Hyuoka delivers my favourite School Festival episodes ever, and now it delivers my favourite Valentine's Day episode ever. So much deliciously executed drama! Bravo!

I wonder what Satoshi's answer was? Probably something along the lines of "It's not you, it's me", which will be entirely accurate, of course.

So, final episode next week. I wonder what there is left to do. I doubt that they'd actually act upon all the Houteru shipping, but they can't really finish this series with a run-of-the-mill episode, especially not after this.

.........................

... I hate Satoshi more now.

edited 10th Sep '12 6:59:37 AM by kyun

Why u hate Satoshi in the first place? I mean, I can understand after this episode but I don't think he did anything to deserve hate before.

My opinion is he's a little of both. He probably knows that he's hurting Mayaka's feelings, but he's afraid if he gets with her he'll hurt her feelings anyways. He probably is going to get together with her, but not now. I'm personally voting that he's gonna wait until he can get his act together before he asks her out.

If he does, that is...

That was mean Satoshi.

Aw. I wanted the romance more wrapped up than this.

Can't tell if anything will happen next episode.

I was neutral to Satoshi so I won't be swayed by just one incident in the last ep. My hatred for that idiot Chitanda however continues. LOL

Keep in mind that the anime covers ONE of the novels. There are 4 more. I expect some character development continues in those.

Someone explain to me what Satoshi was rambling about because like Houtarou, I can't make head or tail of it. How does not being obsessed with winning translate to not being obsessed with anything at all? And what does it all have to do with his relationship with Mayaka? Where's the connection? Surely he's not equating striving at life with love...

edited 10th Sep '12 9:38:12 PM by Thrombin

Because as he is now, Satoshi has found a personal comfort zone, and he's afraid that reciprocating Mayaka's feelings, he'll not only be thrown out of it, he'll also revert to how he was in middle school. When you get down to it though, it just shows how he's not at the right place to even start a serious relationship.

If I were him, I'd accept her chocolate and admit my feelings in a heartbeat! Being in your comfort zone for too long is no fun, although I do understand that he doesn't wanna go back to being a whiner all the time.

Satoshi's actions suddenly reminds me of that Facebook status. He gets a virus in his Windows machine, therefore he should now buy a Mac. Or as the guy there said, a girl dumped me, so now he should date guys.

I dunno, Satoshi's mindset might be something more than a few of us (particularly the struggling writers) have experienced many points of our lives. The "I won't ever come close to making something (insert admired person/work here), so why bother trying anymore" part, mind.

This still doesn't excuse what he's been doing to Mayaka, but after this, I think we can also agree that he's not in the right place right now to reciprocate.

The problem is that he thinks he would hurt her and himself if they were in a relationship and he reverts to his old self, so prefers to just hurt Mayaka. Pretty selfish, but practical at the same time.

It's the other way around. The anime has covered 4 of the five novels, and there is only one more left.

That's the problem, paraphrased.

I don't see how reciprocating Mayaka's feelings throws him out of his 'comfort zone'. I don't see what it has to do with him changing back to his old self. Hell, I don't even see why reverting would hurt Mayaka's feelings if she already liked him back then. From what he told Houtarou, he simply got sick of trying to outdo everyone and decided that being carefree was really much better. That's all fine and dandy but it's got nothing to do with Mayaka.

edited 11th Sep '12 4:23:19 AM by Thrombin

Yeah, Satoshi's reason for rejecting Mayaka didn't make much sense, but basically he has crippled self-esteem and he's not sure he'll be okay in a relationship. Yeah, nervousness about a relationship. At least that's how I see it, I consider everything else he said to be rationalizing.

I'm part of the group who expected the Valentines episode to be full of feels, but nooo, drama bomb! Fantastic subversion of expectations right there. The mystery was transparent, and the reason for said mystery isn't interesting, but the drama was good.

It's the last episode next week, and I'm not sure what to expect. The preview tells me jack, and there isn't much you can do with one episode left. I'm hoping it's just character dynamics stuff instead of another one-episode mystery (as those tend to be easy to figure out and not all that interesting).

edited 15th Sep '12 7:47:31 AM by fillerdude

I have a feeling that the mystery was intentionally transparent. We were meant to realize who the culprit was for a good while, only lacking the motive.

As for Satoshi, I can understand him. He basically became obsessed with not obsessing over things, and I don't think he quite understands, or wants to understand that, for as long as he can continue being happy. For being the "Bromantic Foil", he's more well-developed than most.

The final episode is out.

FUCK YOU KYO ANI. FUCK YOU. I AM LEGITIMATELY CRYING RIGHT NOW. REAL TEARS. THIS IS NOT INTERNET HYPERBOLE.

That was the most beautiful ending to an anime I've ever seen. I wasn't expecting any real romantic resolution, so I have absolutely no complaints for how things ended up. HE PRACTICALLY PROPOSED TO HER, EVEN IF IT WAS ONLY IN HIS IMAGINATION! And when they were in the procession, and he realized that he was totally in love with her, it was all so perfect. PERFECT I SAY.

edited 16th Sep '12 5:42:52 PM by Ruthek