The importance of decentralized ego

In my view the “favorite anime” should address some certain deep-seated issue with genre itself. And for me, it is that it’s story-telling is consequentialist, allow me to explain.

One of the biggest problem of anime story-telling, or perhaps story-telling in general, can be best encapsulated as the follows: Very rarely in anime do you find a story that establishes characterizations first, then allow the story to progress within the boundary of its character definition; on the contrary, what usually happens is, the story progresses with a masked carelessness, heroes succeed, villains defeated, and the story progresses to where the author wants it to, at the cost of character consistency, which is what I call “consequentialist writing”, the idea being literary values are sacrificed for easy attention grab on behalf of an audience, if I don’t mince my words, are not particularly literary. This is more prevalent in anime media story telling because of the fundamental premise of the genre, that it’s not real and to some extent, it exists to offer wish-fulfillment, the very premise of which belies any competent story telling. I challenge anyone to find me a wish-fulfillment, self-insert, power-fantasy anime that’s anywhere close to good story telling.

In some way, the former is difficult to approach, there is no game of throne equivalence in anime, perhaps the closest one is legend of galactic hero. But the point I am trying to make is, a character is a protagonist because he carries most of the narrative weights, not vice versa; therefore for instance a protagonist can never truly be an underdog, must the concept itself is an oxymoron. This is the reason why shows like RE:zero fails for me, because despite all of Subaru’s struggle or despair, we as viewers understand exactly that he carriers the narrative weight, he is the center of media universe, he gets the power to reset time and all female protagonist like him eventually, and we are never in doubt of that. These things happen not because the story progresses to its logical conclusion, based on Subaru’s personality, these things happen simply because he is the protagonist. Not in the least am I saying this makes a show bad, but to me such consequentialist writing can never excel a show beyond that of a solid show. I am saying all these to say that Hyouka breaks that rule to some extent.

The opening of the show begins with a lethargic Oreki looking at his textbook, with the word 薔薇 slowing flying out of window, he becomes smaller and smaller as we get a birds-eye view of the city. Under the obvious romance and other aspects, there is a hideous central theme that caught my attention: That all individuals are small and inconsequential entities with respect to the world, most of the people don’t influence others that much, you might think you are important and unique, but in most cases you are not. This message is delivered multiple times through the realization of Oreki, Ibara of themselves as being “ordinary”, another case is in episode 6 when Oreki tries to read Chidanta, he immediately felt he didn’t know anything about her and thus shouldn’t be too prideful, this fact was later reinforced in episode 22, where Oreki realized he indeed knows little about Chidanta’s life/family. This is pretty much Oreki’s, and perhaps author’s worldview, that no one really matters to anyone else that much, people are constantly overestimating their influences and presence. unlike other typical harem or LN shows that expands the presence of “self” to an insane degree, Hyouka takes an interesting and humble approach that greatly diminish that “ego”, which is what I call a decentralized ego, in the sense that the narrative weights are distributed. At the end of the 22th episode, main characters haven’t done anything remarkable, they don’t get together, there’s no overarching goal that they have achieved. This is in general a very pessimistic view on life, if without the last episode, that is. The structure of the show resembles True Detective, in which Rust, despite being the embodiment of pessimism, in his last monologue, revealed that “there is always light beyond darkness”. Much like that, Hyouka’s last episode really elevated the series to another level, that last conversation was the “light beyond darkness”: most individuals are ordinary and our life doesn’t have much influences on others and are insignificant, but once in a while, may be you can truly find that particular one, either be a person or an interest, that really colors your world from grey to reddish. The “boringness” that many label the show as, to some extent, is not bug, but a feature, because that’s just life for most people. It is for this exact reason, we as audience are able to see them as fully realized characters, not plot devices at author’s disposal.

Now comes the actual anime review, which is a repost of my orignal review on MAL a year ago, I can not attest to the fact that the content holds up today.

Hyouka isn’t a romance show, nor is it something purely about detection. Rather, it’s a poetic and subdued story about society and human interaction. Through the entirety of show’s 23 episodes, Hyouka alludes to various aspects of social justice, talent, how people interact with each other and view on romance. To view Hyouka as ‘boring’ or ‘over animated’ is a huge disservice to the show and amount of effort Kyoto animation put into this series. Admittedly though, I did drop the show at episode 2 for the first time due to my personal hatred for social loner type of protagonist, what surfaces itself as generic quickly transforms into something much deeper and profound.

The story opens up with the apathetic first year high school student Oreki Houtarou’s encounter with lively, curious Chitanda Eru. Kyoani doesn’t waste time on the set up, explaining Houtarou’s energy conservatism right of the bat. It might impress a few as a “generic personality” but for those who are less experienced on the subject matter, the opening easily grabs attention. Then follows one of the more iconic scenes in the show, when Oreki and Chitanda met for the first time. After Oreki opens the door to the club, the sound of footsteps becomes what resembles heartbeats and the scene follows up by shots of Chitanda and Oreki alternatively, the camera angle moves as Oreki proceeds to Chitanda and the scene concludes with close shots of faces of the protagonists. This is honestly the most well-animated and directed scene of “love on first sight” I have ever seen in this media form, and the show is in no shortage of such brilliantly directed scenes. But back to the plot, the show has three major arcs, namely “Kanya Festival”, “Origin of Hyouka” and “Screening event”, with several episodic arcs. Before I go any further, I’ve seen several impatient viewers labeled events in Hyouka as “unexciting” and “boring”. They’ve completely missed the point of show; a common misconception is that detection should be pertaining to death, murder cases. However, Hyouka takes on a different angle and demonstrates how detection can be everywhere in our life, if you pay attention, there are much to be explored under the surface, the spirit most manifested in the series’ second long arc, “Blind Spot to All”. Arguably that’s the worldview that pulls Oreki out of his energy conservatism. What got me into the series was the first arc about the Origin of Hyouka: Hyouka in Japanese stands for Ice cream, which is a similar pronunciation to “I scream”. Chitanda’s Uncle was a member of student protest prevailed in the late middle of last century, and when the protests escalated into something more serious, causing physical damages, the government has to punish a student for the lead. Chitanda’s uncle, under the pressure of other students in power, had to give up his student life and be the scapegoat. This arc speaks to how powerless each individual was during times of social disturbance, and arguably still now and the constant persecution citizens suffered from totalitarianism. Other than this arc, which seems like a stand out arc compared to others, the other two arcs that follow, at the same time setting up a central theme, brings more reality to our four main casts by portraying them even more (I’ll mention later). Apart from that, episodic cases like “committing a cardinal sin” speaks to how pride and other sins unconsciously exhibit in every individual, episode 19 “Does anyone have any idea” pushes the concept of detection from mundane life to the extremity. Hyouka is filled with so many small wisdoms and that along makes it an outstanding high school show compared to the rest.

Oreki Houtarou is one of the few cases when a social loner type of protagonist is done right, there is no dramatic emotional outburst, no sudden character development and he never breaks character for the entirety of the show. Oreki’s character development is extremely subtle, but meaningful nonetheless: he goes from someone who’s nonchalant, indifferent to perhaps anything to someone, who’s still to some extent unexciting, but is willing to peek at mundane life. His motto “I’m not against socialising, as long as it is not tiring” resonates with me on multiple levels, and he remains true to it through the show’s runtime. The last episode contains one of my favorite moment in Hyouka or perhaps in anime: When Chitanda decides to introduce her hometown to Oreki, with the hidden meaning of “please stay here with me”, though seemingly unwilling, Oreki had perhaps rehearsed several times a “yes” by responding to the earlier discussion on business strategy. In the end, however, Oreki simply says “it’s getting cold”, to which Chitanda answers “It is spring now”. The ending honestly caught me off guard, but a second thinking assures me that this is a way better conclusion to the series. The story of Ibara and Fukube’s relationship demonstrates the weight of responsibility, as shown in episode 21. The prerequisite of two people getting together isn’t mutual affection, but rather, if both sides are able or willing to take the responsibility. An easy, less considerate “yes” would be a huge cost to Houtarou’s personality and I am impressed at the show’s conclusion. Furthering the discussion on Houtarou’s character, the show doesn’t explain how Houtarou becomes this way, which is a place deserve some light criticisms, but the show nonetheless hinted at it in the second arc. When Houtarou discovers Irisu had tricked him into solving a case, he becomes angry, which is a rare case to be sure, what it means is that Oreki realized long ago that a helpful, lively personality makes others take advantage of your kind heart easier, the exact reason why he becomes a loner. Social interaction is an endless process of one taking advantage of others, being kind only makes you vulnerable; if others have the malice and guts to bother you, then they aren’t worth helping anyway. It is because that realization had Oreki become reluctant to help others and Chitanda’s purity and kindheartedness is what spells the change for Oreki.

Chitanda Eru’s personality is that of curiosity and purity. What’s worth noting is that Chitanda is the daughter of landlord so her identity resembles that of a “rich girl”. It’s not strange for a rich girl, who’s constant under protection to be curious about mundane life and small, trivial things considering how Kyoani had already used the same personality in K-on. The other shining thing about Hyouka is that character’s personalities aren’t spelled out for you, like that in Oregairu, but you can infer them through animation and plots.

Fukube plays the part of a supportive database; his character oozes energy, as compared to the stoic Oreki. So it’s a deep contrast when he exhibits negative feelings when Oreki solves the cases he isn’t able to comprehend. Both sadly and reasonably, Fukube transformed that envy into expectation. When you expect someone, you are loosing faith in yourself: it’s both helplessness and a relief for Fukube. Throughout our lives, we inevitably meet with someone who’s superior to you in talent, so it’s not hard to emphasize with Fukube on that matter. The same case happened with Ibara in the Kanya Festival, further building a bond between the two supporting casts. The relationship between Fukube and Ibara is characterized by responsibility; it’s a bit redundant to touch on the same subject again so let’s move along.

At this point some audiences might have the notion that these small wisdoms exhibited in Hyouka aren’t that “deep” to begin with. But in defense of Hyouka, or anime in general, “deep” is never an estimation of the show’s quality, it’s rather whether the show is engaging or not (obviously a philosophy book animated into 22 episodes is much deeper but at the same time it looses the charm of being an entertaining media). The level of deepness in Hyouka is just enough to raise thoughts in your mind but not too obscure to be pretentious and tedious. Hyouka is a dialogue heavily show, when a show contains that much conversations, visual techniques like those employed in monogatari series are crucial.

This is the department Kyoto animation deserve great praises, the animation in Hyouka isn’t just beautiful, but artistic. The same visual technique is never utilized twice. Over the top of my head I can name several memorable moments: When Chitanda first says “I’m curious” to Oreki, the background becomes this garden with flowers entangling Oreki, it’s a brilliant metaphor to Chitanda’s persuasiveness and creates an immersive feeling. In later episodes, whenever Chitanda or Oreki is explaining the set up to certain case, a different visual technique is used. For instance, in episode 7, a well-animated house appeared when Oreki is explaining the configuration of the house; in episode 6, crowns with strange masks appeared when Chitanda is retelling what happened during her class earlier: Kyoto animation made what might turn out to be boring, tedious conversation to be visually enjoyable and entertaining. What strikes me more than that is off course Kyoani’s brilliance at handling character movements. Oreki received many close-up shots to demonstrate his supposedly static and nonchalant attitude; Chitanda’s body language speaks to her liveliness and how she’s actively invading Oreki’s territory with her body leaning forward. All the supporting casts took perhaps more time to animate than other studios spent on their main cast, even when some random passengers are passing by, they feel like real human’s movement instead of some moving pixels. The number of great animated scenes are honestly beyond counting and I am at owe at how much efforts need to be put into producing this visual carnival.

Hyouka’s sound track is also a plus to the show. Easily the most distinguishable OST is Bach’s Aria Sul G, which complements extremely well with the show’s theme of literature club and often-placid scenario. Among other OSTs are Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and Sicilienne. Other than the interlude songs, the show provides four catchy ops and eds, both metaphorically meaningful and artistically pleasing. The first op contains many one second shot of Takayama’s nature scenario, the place where the show’s Kamiyama is based on, creating the sense of reality even more. The second op is a metaphor of how Chitanda pulls Oreki out of his dull life. The first ed contains some “needed” fanservice, giving some levity and liveliness to the show; this song is by far the best out of the four, considering how Kayano Ai and Satou Satomi are great singers already. The second ed is a comedic reference to the show’s detection theme. Each of the four songs can be analyzed even further but then the review would be too long to be appreciated.