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Genre: Mystery
Studio: Kyoto Animation
Director: Yasuhiro Takemoto (FMP! : The Second Raid, FMP? Fumoffu, Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu)
Original creator: Honobu Yonezawa
Series Composition, script: Shoji Gatoh (creator of FMP! series)
Number of episodes: 21 (According to MAL)

Opening theme: "Yasashisa no Riyuu (優しさの理由)" by Choucho


Plot: Oreki Hotaro is a high school boy, who always acts passively. One day, he enters "Koten Bu (Classic Literature Club)" as recommended by his elder sister.

There he meets Chitanda Eru, Fukube Satoshi, and Ibara Mayaka. Chitanda is a calm beautiful girl but she turns into an embodiment of curiosity once she says, "I'm interested in it (Watashi, Kininarimasu)". Fukube is a smiling boy with a fantastic memory, he never deduces anything on his own. Ibara is a short girl and is strict with others and herself. She loves Fukube, but he always dodges her approaches.

They begin to investigate a case that occurred 33 years ago. Hints of the mystery are buried in an old collection of works of the former members of Koten Club. The collection is titled "Hyouka". (~MAL)

Cast:
Satomi Satou as Eru Chitanda
Yūichi Nakamura as Hōtarō Oreki

Ai Kayano as Mayaka Ibara
Aki Toyosaki as Rie Zenna
Ami Koshimizu as Midori Yamanishi
Aoi Yūki as Kurako Eba
Atsushi Abe as Tomohiro Haba
Daisuke Sakaguchi as Satoshi Fukube
Mami Koyama as Yōko Itoigawa
Mariya Ise as Misaki Sawakiguchi
Masumi Asano as Ayako Kouchi
Miyu Irino as Jirō Sugimura
Ryotaro Okiayu as Masashi Tōgaito
Ryou Hirohashi as Mamiko Senoue
Saori Hayami as Kaho Jūmonji
Satsuki Yukino as Tomoe Oreki
Takumi Yamazaki as Omichi-sensei
Yoshihisa Kawahara as Koreyuki Tani
Yui Ogura as Kayo Zenna
Yukana as Fuyumi Irisu
Yuuki Tai as Takeo Katsuta

Thoughts: It hasn't aired yet, but I am really anticipating this one.... it has a lot of talent backing it up, so it ought to be good.

This post has been edited by julezia on Apr 05 2012, 03:14 PM

KyoAni? -dropped-

To be serious though, I wasn't even planning on picking it up. The "passive high school boy" lead is enough to kill my interest.

I predicted you would have a reaction like that! KyoAni hater

I'm the opposite, if it's by KyoAni I definitely have to check it out... yeah I know, I'm such a sucker for that studio.
As for the male lead, I know what you mean... I'm still going to give it a shot tho.

This post has been edited by julezia on Apr 06 2012, 11:31 AM

I agree with you, Aus-san, but I will check it our regardless and hope that the high school kid's not too passive or he and this one will get passed over by yours truly...first episode just subbed and ready to go for anyone else who plans to watch it.
Here's a preview of sorts...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obnBOjdnO8Q&feature=related
While watching the preview I was reminded of "another" series that was tagged a mystery and where everyone was really pretty but where the story failed and fell into mediocrity in the end...let's see what happens with this one.

Update... Watched, liked the animation but dropped halfway through since none of pretty characters were of any interest to me "pretty boring" is what I came away with.

This post has been edited by ImTakes on Apr 23 2012, 10:42 AM

I must say that i did like the first episode. Oreki may be a guy who doesn't want to do a lot but he can be active. To see him invent a mystery to get away from another one was pretty good. It seems Chitanda is probably going to be influencing him slowly during this series. The mysteries aren't very strong though. Hopefully they will improve in time.
I'll keep on watching.

What I liked most of ep 1 is that it didnt even try to be a real mystery show (since we were proved a lot of times in the last few years that anime prducers cant pull that off) but is more of a slice-of-life-show with some riddles in it.

Characterwise its not bad and it has a good balance. You have the passive boy who gets dragged along by the energetic girl and Fukube brings in a bit of fun, but nothing is too exaggerated. Oreki isnt as passive as other passive animecharacters, Chitande isnt as energetic as other energetic anime characters and Fukube is just funny and not a clown.

Animation is pretty good. I especially liked the parts when they showed how Oreki was captivated by overusing Chitandes hair and eyes which really is something men can get lost into.

Overall a solid first ep.

I agree with everything said this show shows some promise

the first episode to this show was kinda boring but i will say this eru is really cute and the animation was nice so i guess ill watch it lol if for anything to see more of eru lol

anyone know the name of the violin piece playing at the beginning of ep 2?

Episode 2 was better than the first one . At first it felt like Oreki may escape the clutches of Chitanda's curiosity but he is just like Kyon from Haruhi: not a chance he will get away. This episode made me curious as well. Why are there no anthologies to be found? Is there some special hiding place? What is Chitanda's secret? Oreki does seem to get interested in her even if that confession seems to be a bit different then he expects..
It seems that the real mystery is showing itself in the next episode.

Sorry, i can't help you. I have heard it before but can't remember it's name.

The piece is "Cello Suite No. 1" by Bach, and I think it's a cello.

Ep 2 wasnt as good as ep 1. Chitanda was too annoying this time around.

The thing with the anthologys really is mysterious because the librarian acted quite suspicious in my eyes.

Just what was the ED supposed to be? Should it be erotic or something? Sorry but no thanks. Im not into teenagers wearing oversized babyclothes.

I'm curious about all of those things as well. I'm guessing the anthologies will hold a significant part in the story somewhere down the line.... and the librarian was a little suspicious to me. Why didn't she go and check rather than rely on her memory?

I also picked up on the Chitanda/Oreki dynamic being similar to Haruhi/Kyon Chitanda is certainly having her way with him, I enjoyed the illustration of this with her in the maid costume forcing him to choose an option he doesn't want
Hey, at least she gets him using up all that stored energy I had to laugh at Mayaka's questioning of how little energy does he have really?
Seriously dude, was walking to the art classroom really so exhausting?! I bet the two girls' eyes gleaming after the mystery was solved made him feel it was well worth the trip

I'm not going to hold my breath at that cliffhanger because I'd be very surprised if it was a confession. Instead I'm betting that she's confessing about another mystery... of a more personal nature

So Chitanda's secret for joining the club is out. I wasn't too thrilled to learn that it was only for something she forgot. That scrapbook idea for telling Chitanda's story was pretty good. Very nicely done. . However when the anthologies showed up it did get better. It seems that there is more to it than expected. What could it be about her uncle that is so disturbing? . There seems to be something fishy. The librarian should have known where the anthologies hidden...Also the festival seems to be involved...
The "mystery" of the episode which Oreki solved for him was not so strong this time. However he used his knowledge wisely to not waste energy.

I really hope the thing Chitandas uncle told her is no bs but my hopes arent very high. Its probably something completely insignificant and kids cry all the time so Im not really that hyped for the goal, more for the way to the goal.

In the middle of the ep I thought I left one ep out when brownhair said shes a clubmember of the classics club since I never heard anything about it and since Oreki wasnt surprised i mustve happened at some time. But since the ep began where it left of the last time thats pretty much impossible so I guess they just didnt show us. Not that I mind though since brownhair is uninteresting anyway.

You know I wonder what would happen if Oreki said to Chitanda "look theres a mystery in my pants". That would be an easy score wouldnt it?

Watched all the episodes released until now and I must say one thing.... Chitanda really looks like Mio from K-ON O_O Especially in the end of the 2nd episode and the beginning or the 3rd one. Not sure if it was an idea of KyoAni but her face was like Mio !

The story is kinda basic for a slice-of-life anime but kinda entertaining when there is nothing else to watch. Chitanda seems to have a lot of curiosity to satisfy and Oreki-kun has to support her and using his energy for that xD I do hope too that Chitanda's forgotten memory is something important and not a little child trauma over something futile...

LOL, she'd probably react like this:

Likewise I hope it is something important, but I'm not too sure what the result will be. In this show it could go either way, honestly.

I thought it was funny that the senior was hiding the fact that he was smoking as if it was the most scandalous thing ever.... That's one example of a cultural difference between North America and Japan, because smoking isn't the worst thing teenagers could be up to these days... (unfortunately). I do understand that as a member of a prestigious family that he has to keep his habit a secret, but it was still amusing to see him that cautious and stressed out over it. Geez I thought he was snorting cocaine or something from the level of precaution and suspicious behaviour

This post has been edited by julezia on May 11 2012, 09:12 AM

Hmm really? Here in germany its quite a big case too getting caught in school smoking. Even when your on a higher school (like trade school). But well, america has other problems in school like violence, guns, killing sprees and such so I guess smoking is not really an issue there ^^
And seeing as its Japan well its only normal its a really big problem since over there everything is a big problem if animeschools are like real schools. I mean often there is even romance or work forbidden. And Im pretty sure smoking has a really bad reputation there, like tattoos. Dont know for sure but would be a surprise if not.

When I was in highschool underage smoking was frowned upon, but they did have a smoking pit outside the school grounds for smokers.... so it wasn't such a big deal. May be even less of a big deal now with all the other shenanigans teens are up to these days.

This was a bit of a strange episode. It just focused on the possibilities on what could have happened. Oreki's explanation was pretty good. He may have stumbled on the truth but that remark of Chitanda really does hold true. Why would she have cried about it? One thing was a bit weaker than i had hoped in this episode. Chitanda's curiosity seemed a lot weaker than at first. In the first episode you could see her trapping Oreki with her curiosity but now it wasn't present.
Mayaka as an addition to the club also fails a bit. We didn't get to see her join and she is not cynical enough like the second episode. She also needs to act a bit more towards Satoshi if she really likes him.