I remember how I was back in July, my rosy-cheeked, shiny-eyed self untainted by the overwhelming sludge of mediocrity that was the summer season. It was a time when Hyouka was more contemptible and exploitative than Violence Jack, and Jinrui was sitting high on the pantheon of greatest things in all history ever; admittedly, beginning the season in a drunken haze probably didn’t help to ease this strange disconnect.
But then Yuru Yuri Two Eighth-Notes and Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse aired, and I gained some perspective on things. No longer was I a rosy-eyed, shiny-cheeked youth, but a grizzled blogger who had seen it all, man. It was at that point when all hope seemed lost that something weird happened: Hyouka somehow got better, and Jinrui slowly descended in quality from godlike to merely pretty good. What made this strange is these two results were caused by the same change in focus: from plot to character development.
I wrote before on how Hyouka bugged the ever-loving hell out of me by padding mundane excuses for mysteries with obtuse deduction and an unfailing adhesion to detective stereotypes; it almost came across as a horrible self-aware parody with the number of times that Satoshi would say something akin to “I’m the database, I can’t draw conclusions on my own” with a smug, self-satisfied grin on his face. Satoshi’s impish self awareness, to me, was the show’s way of saying that it didn’t have a single original idea in its head, and it somehow relished in that fact like someone would an actual achievement. Also, I often perceived the continuous presence of Chitanda as spite toward my very existence, but that’s another tale for another day.
Jinrui, on the other hand, couldn’t have left a better first impression if it offered jelly doughnuts and a new season of ARIA with each episode. Everything left such a strong, if not too subtle impression, and it found a way to deftly weave sentient skinned chickens into the plot without it coming across as awkward; hell, even the usage of Ave Maria was masterful, entirely appropriate silliness. There’s very little that Jinrui did wrong in the first four episodes or so, and it didn’t even share Hyouka’s tendency to drag itself out.
It was at about the time when Jinrui’s manga arc concluded, which was also when Hyouka’s wonderful school festival arc was well underway, that the two decided to go in a similar direction, but in different ways; Hyouka decided to flesh out the characters that we’d become comfortable with into more identifiable people with interesting quirks and weaknesses, and Jinrui went the shitty route of adding goofy one-note space probes, in a sense blowing its load way too early.
Over time, it shifted focus away from the outrageous events that resulted from the fairies’ involvement, instead opting to shed more light on Watashi and associates, in an effort to breathe more life into everybody’s favorite UN mediator. Naturally, this worked out pretty awfully. When it went on these tangents, which became more of a regular occurrence, the show suffered for it. It still had several great moments after the initial high wore off, but it never achieved the same transcendent level of brilliance that it had in its beginning stages.
Hyouka’s greater success in this regard isn’t because it’s more character-driven, or even because Houtaro and Chitanda are more grounded compared to Jinrui’s eclectic roster. Eventually, it learned to weave character development into the plot, rather than keeping the two separate, something that Jinrui couldn’t do all that well outside of the Time Paradog episode. In particular, Hyouka did a fantastic job developing Satoshi from an ever-grinning dispenser of information to a sympathetic character, insecure enough to be jealous of Houtarou’s superior deductive reasoning, yet distant enough to keep everyone else from getting too close. Even more impressive, it didn’t compromise anything that made him so likable in the first place. Though it can be attributed to being given more of a runtime, Hyouka did what Jinrui couldn’t: It made its characters memorable, and actually feel like they were subjected to some kind of growth. While I still think Jinrui was the better series overall, I’ll happily concede that Hyouka’s characters were leagues above Jinrui.
Eventually, the novelty of a pink-haired moeblob smarming and quipping will wear off, as fun a novelty as it is. Diamonds, and the ambiguously gay Satoshi, are forever.
I don’t think Jinrui was ever trying to develop Watashi just to develop a character. Every episode was a subtle nod to some societal issue and the later episodes were no exception. I won’t argue that they were all equally clever, but I found the time paradox and school arcs to be incredibly heartwarming as opposed to the far more satirical earlier episodes.
I eagerly await a second season of Jinrui, and Hyouka is at the top of my list of shows to watch. I still regret not picking it up as it was airing, but it didn’t catch my eye until it was already halfway through.
I have no clue what happened with my relationship with Hyouka, but at some point I just loved it. The seed was planted around the final moments of the movie arc if I had to take a guess, and started to bloom in the festival arc directly after.
I started to notice how the characters were interracting and growing. It became more engaging. Like magic.
Why is that? When I think back at the first episodes, it never was much different. Maybe Hyouka only needed time to grow? A possible reason is how Hyouka “just started” withour a proper start, which is different from how other series usually start with a bang. Hyouka simply started like nothing mattered.
I mean, take Mayaka. Suddenly she had just joined the club. No big fuss. We didn’t even see it.
… I miss Hyouka.
I’m one of those guys who thought Hyouka was great from the very beginning, so maybe I should just keep my opinions to myself?
I may not sway your opinions about the earlier episodes of the show, but to say Houtarou’s character did not begin to flesh out until the school festival arc is ludicrous. In fact, most of the main characters had a fair amount of development before that, not just the lead character. But I believe Houtarou has been a strong, identifiable, and very well developed character from day one.
No, it’s quite alright! Dissent is welcome here as long as it’s reasonable, which it certainly is in this case.
Houtarou was good throughout, I’ll readily admit, but he was the only character that I really liked, and wasn’t given quite enough attention. It was the school festival arc that gave the other characters a chance to shine, while shedding more light on Houtarou, and that momentum led to some really good episodes up until the end.
I don’t know why the first few mysteries felt token and hollow, but they didn’t have the same sort of oomph as the ones toward the end.
I guess I can agree with that. But that may be where the dissonance of opinions occurs. Yes, the mysteries themselves were rather mundane affairs, especially the earlier ones (hoho haunted club rooms~), but I believe they weren’t really of any import, because they acted as catalysts for good story telling and character development. In other words, the scenes themeselves pivotal towards the show’s later success, as they laid the foundation for further development – as you mentioned – in the school festival arc. Many people brushed the characters off as “typical KyoAni fare,” but I thought these characters were really something special, and enjoyed watching their interactions together in these earlier, trivial pursuits. While at the same time, these episodes were so competently animated. The way in which they were executed was just splendid, not only in terms of raw beauty but also in stylistic flair; you can tell KyoAni has truly mastered their craft. Just take the end of the first “uncle” arc, when the they recount the librarian’s past through the eyes of her younger self? That, for me, will be one of the most memorable scenes of the year.
Haha, sounds like I’m pulling shit out of my ass. I dunno, that’s just my take on all of it. I have an unhealthy admiration for Hyouka.