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Dated 27 August 2012: The mysterious appeal of Hyouka

Houtarou
I guess this shot is okay considering that David Letterman
used to film part of his show from a monkey-cam.

Hyouka is quite popular even though its mysteries are not profound. However, the mysteries are interesting enough to at least amuse those looking for a hook, although I suspect the show's appeal is mostly due to its characters, not the mysteries themselves. Anyone who claims to like Hyouka strictly for its detective stories is likely new to mysteries in general. So besides the characters, what else is good if the mysteries themselves are mundane? Well, the animation is impeccable from a technical perspective, but even then the direction at times is straight-up terrible the way SHAFT X SHINBO stunt animation is terrible. It sometimes indulges in "creative" framing and different angles that are suppose to be interesting and unconventional. They are, in fact, unconventional in that they break old guidelines of cinematography that I suppose only purists care about these days. Hyouka features wildly framed shots for no purpose other than to be different, and angles that could not belong to any character's point of view are used frequently. (Ironically, Hyouka's own characters attack this very practice during the movie arc.)

Scene from The Godfather
Francis Ford Coppola shot this scene from The Godfather over
his cinematographer's objections. (Get it? Get it? Never mind.)

So despite these flaws, is Hyouka good, as in Good with a capital G? Yes, it is. But is it interesting? Well, not always. Most complaints about Hyouka lament that it is boring or claim that nothing happens; the wacky camera angles that annoy me seem to bother those people a lot less. Maybe that's why Hyouka uses wacky camera angles at times: It expects viewers to find some of its content tedious, and feels a need to goose short attention spans with distractions. But if a long conversation in a cafe needs gimmicks to keep viewers engaged, them perhaps it simply runs too long.

Houtarou
A wall with Houtarou's head in front of it.

Although I can easily see how others might think so, I don't personally find Hyouka dull. After all, I was able to marathon its earlier episodes quickly enough to catch up with the current broadcast without difficulty. So where would I retroactively rank Hyouka now among the spring 2012 shows? Pretty low, actually. I'd say after Lupin III but above Sakamichi no Apollon if I only consider the first 11 episodes of Hyouka. (I'm using the eleventh episode as the cutoff somewhat arbitrarily because the ED changes for the twelfth episode, and because 11 is around half of the show's projected 24 21-ish-episode length.) Admittedly, this low position is mostly because the show uses these early episodes mostly for development and comes across much stronger in its second cour once the character development culminates in a better understanding of the motivations and reservations driving the cast's actions. Perhaps I've been conditioned by the single-cour trend to be less patient with character development.

Satoshi
There's more to Satoshi than genki and purses. There's also envy.

This is not to say that allegations Hyouka develops its characters too slowly are not justified. Yes, we discover Houtarou overlooked a serious flaw in his reasoning because his results-oriented personality prevented him from using a people-oriented approach to solving their problems, but should it take so many episodes to learn this? Maybe it's premature and improper to judge Hyouka at this point, since it seems to be building towards a final payoff, but due to the anime's reliance on external source material, there's a chance no conclusion will be rewarding enough to viewers not already enamored with the show thus far.

Dated 22 April 2010: I am more than 500 episodes behind on Detective Conan

Conan
Conan. Conan never changes.

I am attempting to watch every episode of Detective Conan A.K.A. Case Closed. At the time of this writing it has 570 episodes plus about two dozen movies and OVAs and it is still ongoing. In comparison, watching 161 episodes of Ranma 1/2 or 136 episodes of Naruto is nothing. Even my attempt to watch every single Pretty Cure episode (about 300 and counting plus a new movie every 40 episodes or so) pales in comparison. Detective Conan is an anime juggernaut.

Ran and Conan
She hath borne me on her back a thousand times.

From the looks of it, it also doesn't change much. I've avoided spoilers, but I have confirmed some of the gimmicks from the very first episodes remain staples well into the 500s. As far as I know, characters don't age or change grades in school, leaving Detective Conan with the ability to basically run indefinitely. As a genre, mysteries are always popular, and Detective Conan has carved out a simple but effective formula that works well. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Right?

Ran and Sonoko
Sonoko is a true friend because she doesn't
get jealous of Ran's awesome hair.

Still, five hundred plus episodes is a little excessive. Considering there is a brutal murder nearly every single episode, you have to wonder if people will start to blame Conan and Ran since bodies seem to pile up wherever they go. Likewise I worry if Mouri will suffer ill effects from being knocked unconscious so often. And why doesn't anyone ever wonder how he talks without moving his lips? Don't get me wrong, it's a fun show; some lighthearted nitpicking just helps balance out the endless series of grisly homicides. But it's clear some thing will never change. Shinichi will never return to his real age, and Ran will never find out. Poor kid. Ran is a real sweetheart, but she's dumb as all Hell.