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Thinking once again about how Hyouka was a great show because instead of leaning into the over-exaggerated dramatic teen stereotypes, it chose to depict the mundane struggles of the teenage years. And it captured so many different aspects of that experience, and so well.

Being shown that you have potential, feeling proud of your abilities, but being scared that you won't be able to live up to that potential. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, feeling like a complete fraud, feeling like you have everyone fooled into thinking you're this amazing person when you're just empty inside. Feeling afraid that people will find out that everything about you is surface level. Realising that the people you have idealised all your life are not all that great. That your heroes are only human. Playing the role of the perfect child, the perfect student, and being good at it, but feeling suffocated by it nonetheless. Choosing to keep playing that role because you want to make the people you love proud. Feeling like a failure for not being ambitious or driven when people have such great expectations of you. Feeling selfish for not wanting what others want for you.

And of course there's the questioning your sexuality, being afraid of commitment, feeling lonely but at the same time wanting nothing more than to be left alone.

Yes of course the whole thing is romanticised because that is the genre. Everything is romanticised in anime. But the mundane reality, the boredom of the continuous struggle still shines through. That's why it's stuck with me I think. It's a show that is so unapologetically BORING. It doesn't even try particularly hard to be funny. It would have been only natural for a show like Hyouka to take the easy route, it's a mystery show. Teenage drama and angst is almost a given. There's no doubt that the show would have been more entertaining if that had been the case. I'm very glad it didn't though. I'm grateful that I found a show that made me feel seen, with teenage characters whose experience I could actually relate to.

#hyouka #oreki houtarou #fukube satoshi #ibara mayaka #chitanda eru #hyouka meta in the year of our lord 2025?#more likely than you think #kotenbu

hey!

i started a bookreading youtube channel! i’m currently reading the first book of the Hyouka series.

check it out if you’re interested!

byebye <3

#so' speaks #shameless self advertising #:)#hyouka #honobu yonezawa #kotenbu #氷菓 #audiobook #bookreading

Hyouka 1 has been published! Vols 2&3 are on the way!

(I believe that this is the first time it’s officially available in English?)

#hyouka #kotenbu #kadokawa #gempak starz

Hyouka short story anthology

Ever since I got that ask months ago about the Hyouka short story “The Long Vacation” I’ve been searching for it. No one online seems to have scans, so I’ve been looking for the magazine where it was published (Shousetsu Yasei Jidai #120) which came out in 2013, so it’s pretty rare. I got so desperate I even looked for it in a Japanese library... ^^; Needless to say I was unsuccessful.

But! Hyouka fans, rejoice! Just last December they released an anthology with ALL the Kotenbu short stories in one volume! No longer must we wander the fringes of the internet, begging for grainy scans from out-of-print volumes, for this book is available HERE to anyone with an Amazon.jp account! It’s available in both print and Kindle form!

This is huge! Reaction gifs can’t convey how excited I am about this. I’ll update you guys again once I’ve been able to acquire it and actually look at it.

#Hyouka #hyouka short story #kotenbu #the long vacation #honobu yonezawa #いまさら翼といわれても #米澤穂信 #unlimited-japanese-works

I have this headcanon that Oreki is aro-ace or at least on the ace spectrum. Why do I think that? I'm not sure. I may be massively projecting here because I first watched the show at a time I was Going Through Stuff re: my sexuality. But. Even after rewatching it so many years later, it still seems to me that there's something about Oreki's reactions to Chitanda that look like he's more embarassed that anything else. Or, at least, there's a very strong sense of "I shouldn't be feeling like this." Which, given the circumstances, is pretty reasonable. But you combine that with Oreki's not wanting to be in romantic relationships, his feeling constantly conflicted about Chitanda, him constantly referring to himself as different. It's obvious that he's quite ambivalent towards romance and sexuality.

You could make the argument that Oreki is just not used to this kind of stuff. The attention Chitanda gives him is wholly new to him, and he doesn't yet know how to deal with it. And yeah, that could be. However. The ending, to me, indicates otherwise. I know everyone hates that the show was so open ended. Why didn't Oreki confess when he clearly wanted to? When he liked Chitanda so much that he wanted to spend his whole life with her? But if you look at it from this angle, it makes much more sense. The show is about Oreki finding himself, and accepting himself for who he is. And he does. He realises what he really wants, and that is to be with the people who care about him. And he allows himself to care about them too. He also realises that if he said what he was thinking out loud to Chitanda, she would most definitely take it as a confession. But Oreki still doesn't want a romantic relationship. It's just that right now, he doesn't really have any other way of expressing it. So he just. Doesn't say anything. His relationship with Chitanda has been more about actions than words anyway. He thinks that she'll get it, in time. She understands him in a way that even he didn't understand himself. So for now, he's just content to quietly be at her side.