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One of the great things about Hyouka is you really have to watch it twice to appreciate it. There are flags to how important that first arc is early on; when Oreki hears her request, he already has a sense of how important an issue it is to her, but like you said, we don't see until the *end* of the series all the social pressures on Chitanda. Her final recollection of what happened--the smile mixed with tears, and her heartfelt thanks to Oreki, who being Oreki didn't really know how to deal with it--was powerful at the first viewing, but the impact is bigger when you know how the story ends.

The whole arc is also important for Oreki. He starts to question his gray colored lifestyle; he even seems to envy the rose-colored lifestyle, but when he finds out Jun's life wasn't as rose colored as it originally seemed, he finds that his own way of living is reasonable. And when he starts to make serious exceptions to his energy conservation life style at the end, it's not out of envy or self-doubt (or the deception pulled on him during the film arc), but it's because he's fallen for Chitanda.

And I think it's clear that Chitanda starts to fall for Oreki in a serious way after he solves such an important issue to her.

Thank you! Don't feel bad about being a late week on the net, god knows that has been the case with me for years now hahahaha ... >.>

Well, it wasn't much of a defense as much as it was my attempt to put my thoughts about the show in order ... I had been intending to write up a full out review about the show and all of it themes for months now, and only recently did I get into the right mind set to frame my ideas into a coherent body.

I'm actually somewhat glad to know that I didn't sound like a complete nutjob to someone at least. :P

one thing though

On second viewing, especially after viewing the ending and getting to learn more about her circumstances, I realized that the first arc was more relevant to the story than I had originally thought, and the moment where Chitanda cried after recalling what her uncle told her was actually more important than I originally thought.

Long story short, the advice that Chitanda's Uncle had given her was perhaps the most relevant thing she has to use to get through a world where every person around her wants to impose their will on her and simply disregard what she has to say, a world where it is easy to get caught up with the flow and forget to say no and stand up for yourself, and instead allow yourself to be a puppet for others bidding. And her Uncle's story, his advice, that he managed to gain after years of bitterness and taking the fall for a cause he wasn't even behind, was given to her originally by her uncle as a warning and when she cried and was unable to handle it (since she must have been scared of what it meant to her) when she was a little girl. She still sought after it not only because that was the most important thing her Uncle left her (and after his apparent death, she would never be able to reclaim it back) but also because she realized ona subconsciousness level that the closer she gets to becoming an adult, she needs to create a presence for her self, but she couldn't really manage to understand that until Oreki made her remember what she needed to remember and understand to truly out that into work.

Or at least thats where my train of thought goes to ... I need to word it better latter on.

For what it's worth, I just wanted to say I appreciated your defense of Hyouka in the Tamako Market Thread over at Enzo's blog. As usual, I'm about a week late in the internet world, so I thought you might miss it.

Thanks for accepting the friends request