Recap: Houtarou does a favor for Chitanda by helping with the Doll Festival procession.

Iro’s Thoughts:
As has been the fashion for most of the series, not much actually happens as Hyouka draws to a close. Chitanda asks Houtarou to help in the festival, and help he does, though much of the procession is a dreamlike blur brought upon by his infatuation with her. The requisite mystery comes in the form of figuring out why the procession had to take a different route than normal, and we close on a beautifully animated scene as the pair has a heart-to-heart under the cherry tree.

We get a final look into their mindsets as the series ends. To Chitanda, being part of the land’s old nobility is to be part of a very small world and eschew real purpose in life, but it is also all she knows. Asking Houtarou out on these high-society dates is her way of communicating that to him. Houtarou briefly considers confessing with what is tantamount to a marriage proposal, but stops himself, wondering if this is how Satoshi feels about Mayaka. He likes Chitanda – of that there is no doubt – but he isn’t prepared to give up his way of life, the person who he is at his core, even for her.

“It’s spring now,” Chitanda tells him. They’re still young, still just sprouting up from under winter’s leftover frost. There’s still time to grow.

Marlin’s Thoughts:
Today we bring you special thoughts straight from the GLORIO Chat:

[8:24:51 PM] Iro: AHAHAHAHAHA
[8:25:03 PM] Iro: marlin’s gonna explode
[8:25:13 PM] ItsaTimmy: haha
[8:25:20 PM] Iro: gonna put a fist through his monitor
[8:25:32 PM] Iro: it’ll be fucking hilarious
…later…
[10:54:34 PM] Marlin Clock: YOU PUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSY
[10:54:42 PM] Marlin Clock: GGGAGHAGHAHGAHGHAGHAGHAGHAG
[10:54:44 PM] Marlin Clock: SDFJL;ASDJF;LKASF;LKSDFKJLDS;AKLFJD
[10:54:45 PM] Marlin Clock: SAFDSJKLAFDSAFDSAFEATE
[10:54:46 PM] Marlin Clock: AFCX

Iro, you left out this part.

[8:26:35 PM] Iro: god i’m such a bad person
[8:26:52 PM] ItsaTimmy: yes you are

Jel’s Thoughts:
I’m sure a lot of people will be unhappy with the lack of closure in this episode, and I’ll admit initially I kind of was too. But after taking a day to let it sink in, it really was a beautifully executed finish to an understated gem of a show. The ending may not have been the easiest path for the audience, but it was definitely the correct one.

If you think about it, Hyouka is first and foremost about Houtarou and how he develops as a person. The biggest catalyst for that has been his growing feelings for Chitanda, but romance was never the end game. No matter what happens after that final conversation, whether they get together or not, the point is Houtarou has changed for the better. With his thoughts and feelings confirmed, what else had to be said? The story has been told, mission accomplished.

Iro’s Final Impressions:
When Hyouka first started, I didn’t think much of it: it was pretty, of course, but it didn’t have any real substance to it. “More substance than K-On!, but less than Haruhi” is what I was saying. The mysteries never mattered much in the first half, and they tended to last multiple episodes as well – too long to keep my interest. The movie arc in particular went on far longer than it needed to.

Once Hyouka became more character driven with the start of the Kanya Festival arc, the show really started to come into its own. It wasn’t the mysteries that I cared about, it was the members of the Classics Club – about whether Houtarou would be straight with himself, or about what exactly the hell was up with Satoshi. With their more personal struggles mixed in with the mysteries, everything became more important and more interesting.

I still don’t think the show has too much substance, but it’s a story worth telling at least, and it told itself well – that’s more than a lot of shows can say. Good job, Kyoto Animation.

Marlin’s Final Impressions:
Going into this show, I was all set for well animated fluff. Something I could consume and enjoy without having to think. In the beginning, that really was all there was to it. However, as the show grew, and let us get to know its characters so well, it gave me such an investment that I haven’t felt from a show in a while.

I think this really is the kind of story only KyoAni could tell. Only their resources would allow us to see every emotion these characters possess at every time. Hearing dialogue you may not have understood immediately the resentment Satoshi holds towards Houtarou, but looking at his body movement it really seemed like his words always had an edge, and were always meant to try and rouse a reaction out of the stoic savant.

It was around this time that I started to realize the romance angle between Houtarou and Chi. The ending of the second season, coupled with the bonus episode, really started making me root for this couple. As the show went on, I couldn’t get enough of the pair’s cute interactions. Unfortunately, this is never enough to really sustain me. My greatest pet peeve in anime is the unconcluded romance. To me, romance exists in stories to fulfill the audience’s desire to enjoy the emotion of love through a story. The way KyoAni decided to simply take the last few episodes and basically yank my chain for a while really rubbed me wrong.

Then, I read Iro’s take on things.

There’s no words that I can say about that final scene that wasn’t encapsulated far better by Iro. Perhaps this story really wasn’t meant to end in a romantic happily ever after. In the end, this show was always about its characters growing as people, even if it was simply via the means of solving insignificant mysteries and bonding as friends.

Jel’s Final Impressions:
It’s hard to explain what makes Hyouka special. Part of it may be that subtle KyoAni magic that needs to be experienced to be understood, the little details they craft to tell a story without using a word. It could also be the great writing, which often gets overshadowed by the show’s stunning visuals. The dialogue moves at a comfortable, not too fast or too slow pace, and unravels the series’ greatest mystery: the characters themselves.

For all its strong points though, Hyouka still has to reconcile with the fact that much of the show is inconsequential. The first half in particular drags without much sense of purpose, and I’m afraid many less patient viewers will not survive long enough for the show to pay off. It makes me wonder if the series most unique feature, the mystery aspect, was even necessary at all. On the one hand it helps provide an identity, but on the other I felt like the need to include a mystery every week might have hurt the show in some spots. In the end I think the positives far outweigh the negatives though, and perhaps Hyouka is a show best seen and not described. Definitely worth checking out and seeing for yourself.