Hyouka is the story of a lazy boy who joins a club because his sister asks him to in order to save the club.
Hyouka starts with the main character establishing that he is very lazy. Then we come to find out he will be joining a club because of a threat from his sister. When Houtarou gets to the clubroom he finds a girl in the locked club room with no explanation for how she got in. After Houtarou’s friend Satoshi shows up we find out that Eru is from a rich family. Then they get involved in the mystery of the locked door. Houtarou is reluctant to join in, but Eru convinces him by looking deep into his eyes. Then after finding the mundane cause of the locked door the group all agree to be in the club together. Later Satoshi is trying to convince Houtarou that there is a ghost that lives in the school. In the end Houtarou convinces Eru to go for a different mystery because it is more convenient.
The main character Houtarou is so lazy that he has to go on about it for quite some time. He won’t do anything that he doesn’t feel is worth his while. This kind of goes against the whole premise of joining the club because of his sister. How would that really be worth his while? His sister is in another country so those holds aren’t exactly going to be getting him anytime soon. Also how would she even find out? What kind of school would keep a club open because the club has one participant? I mean there are plenty of shows where the club has to recruit to gain status as a club or keep it. Well mostly the whole idea of him being so lazy makes him a pretty boring main character. Hopefully the supporting characters will be strong enough to carry his lazy butt through this series.
Hyouka is quite beautiful with wonderful production values. The parts with the watercolors are quite striking. Unfortunately beauty isn’t everything and I wish the story was as well made as the visuals that went along with it. I mean really the mystery of the locked door? Also the music coming from the piano and not being able to find the pianist is done to death. That is not really great writing there.
Overall there is nothing bad to say about the art, but the rest of the show is less than impressive.
Status: Not Watching
