

Hyouka’s opening arc is incredibly good, story wise the best of the show in my opinion, although I’ve seen plenty of people pick another arc so don’t worry too much. Not that he wants to solve mysteries, he’d rather sit back and do nothing., but he always gets dragged in by Chitanda’s insatiable curiosity, and Houtarou seems to have a talent for solving mysteries. The follow-up ones are more entertaining ones with as purpose to glorify Houtarou’s intellect. Some of them a bit of a setback, but some of them are more elaborate ones, and one the first mysteries is a rather serious one – at least serious enough to withhold Chitanda’s middle-aged uncle from reminiscing about it as if it was no big deal. Disproving the existence of a ghost who allegedly haunts an inn, or why a match teacher brought the notes for the wrong class with him. Now this is still mainly a slice of life show, so with mystery we’re talking about mostly trivial subjects. Hyouka is the only show I know of that combines slice of life with mystery, and while it may seem a weird combination at first, it works splendidly. This will not be the case from now on, and I'm sorry for the inconvenience. This review was written with the other part in mind, so definitely check out the second part as well if you enjoy this one. The review on its own is a bit shorter, but is followed up with a link to "Tacking Thematics: Hyouka Edition". I very much like this piece though, so I'm not going to alter it to fit my current format. Disclaimer: This was one of the very first pieces I wrote, and I didn't have anything as lined out yet as I have it right now.
