The basic premise of Hyouka is this: the main character is Houtarou Oreki, a high-school freshman who fancies himself an “Energy conversationalist”, which is to say he hates doing anything he sees as “unnecessary”. After a letter from his globe-trotting sister convinces him to join the school’s Classic Lit Club, which would otherwise be empty and fold in all likelihood, he runs into Eru Chitanda, an overwhelmingly cute and overwhelmingly curious girl who will be his first fellow in the Classic Lit Club. Despite his predilection towards sloth, he finds Chitanda impossible to ignore and thus uses his intellect and deductive skill to produce satisfying answers to her baffling questions. The two of them are joined by Oreki’s friend and self-described “database” Satoshi Fukube and Fukube’s tsundere love interest Mayaka Ibara, who provide some help solving whatever mysteries occur to Chitanda and otherwise often introduce more.
This probably sounds like it’s going to be something not unlike Kaguya-sama: Love is War, but Hyouka’s treatment of the mystery genre is much less comedic than you might expect from that. Its characters are complex, its pacing is excellent if deliberate, and its mysteries, while more everyday occurrences and school conundrums rather than the “always murder” fare you get used to in detective fiction, are quite engaging. Those of you who want more spoilers than that, read on, warned of the genre we’re dealing with this week and the fact that I’m going to go into all the solutions.
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