Hyouka

Hyouka: A Gateway to Anime's Diverse Genres

IMDB - 7.7/10 HMTR - 85/100 Episodes - 22+1(OVA)

In my opinion, Hyouka is the best introductory or transitional anime. It doesn't matter if you're coming from comedy, romance, drama, or if you're looking to branch out from mystery anime, as I did. I first watched Hyouka when I was around 15 years old. As you can probably tell from the website I've created, I am a huge mystery fan, and my reason for watching Hyouka was purely for its mystery elements. At 15, the only thing I cared about was the mystery aspect, and that’s what I thought it was all about until I watched it again last year as a 24-year-old man.

It was then that I realized this masterpiece of media not only has some of the best light-hearted and non-violent mysteries, but is also one of the best human dramas I have ever seen. I won’t delve too much into the details to avoid spoilers, but I will mention that my favorite character is Satoshi, “the database.” This is one of the many reasons why I believe Hyouka is perfect for people who are stuck in one genre and want to explore different types of shows.

Other reasons include a delightful but not overly forced romance plot, engaging slice-of-life activities, light humor, incredible animation as you would expect from Kyoto Animation Studio, and one of the best soundtracks in anime. Even though this anime was released more than a decade ago, it can still make a lot of today's anime, especially mystery anime, look inferior. The characters are fascinating, the mysteries are fun and interesting, and the human drama is very subtle.

This is not a mind-bending or overly complex story like some other anime, but the subtle storytelling of how these characters interact with each other in different situations reveals so much about what they think about each other. You may watch this anime and think "it ain't that deep," and you would be right, but what I am saying is that it is much more than a simple mystery anime. For my money, Hyouka is a complete package and that’s why it’s one of my favorite anime of all time.