Hyouka - Episode 11.5 Discussion / Poll
 

Welcome to the discussion thread for Hyouka, Episode 11.5.

Thread Guidelines

• Raw requests and offers are not permitted anywhere on this forum.
• Spoilers or hints about future events must not be posted in this thread.
  If you need to reference something that would spoil a future event, reply directly with a private message, or seek out a more appropriate thread.
• Discuss your expectations of the episode if it has not aired yet.
• Be polite to your fellow forum members.
• Please try to keep the discussion on-topic.
• Do not post multiple times in a row. Please edit your existing post if you wish to add additional thoughts.

Episode Thread Spoiler Policy

• Any comment that discloses events, characters, plot or other information before it is revealed in the anime is expressly forbidden whether or not it is behind spoiler tags.
  Spoiler tags should still be used where appropriate.
  Please consult the AnimeSuki Spoiler Policy for more information.
• Adding a Spoiler tag:
• Please use the Report button if you see any inappropriate spoilers:
• Posting inappropriate spoilers may result in a ban.
  Note: Reporting a post does not mean the poster will be banned instantly.
  The Moderators will use bans if warnings are repeatedly ignored.

[MOD Edit:] This episode will be streamed on the official Kotenbu Ustream streaming channel Sunday July 8th at midnight (Saturday July 7th at 11:00 a.m. EDT). Kadokawa Shoten will then include the episode as a Blu-ray extra with the release of the limited edition of the third volume of the Hyouka manga by Taskohna on January 13, 2013.

ANN link

Episode 11.5:

- Lots and lots of Eru fan-service. Truly a feast for the eyes. :heh:

- So I guess by episode 12 Houtarou will be back to his normal self since he had the 20 minutes to mope here and trying to get over what happened with the movies and stuff. The mystery was umm...well it seems like the guys just found any random thing out there for Houtarou to puzzle over, and the public pool is kind of slim pickings for mysteries in the first place.

- And Tomoe finally appears! Again, feast for the eyes.

- Plenty of topless Oreki Houtarou fan-service as well. Even while emo he still has a sex drive, symbolized this episode by ice-creams and the color white in general.

Pretty much a very, very, very normal pool episode. Only thing that could be called progress is Houtarou getting over his post-Irisu gloom. Tomoe seems to suffer from face-conveniently-hidden-syndrome and the mystery itself was episode 1 levels of mundane, perhaps moreso. Seeing Houtarou's harem playing in the pool was kinda fun. There's a little bit of service for everyone.

I've watched the RAW and, though it's all Greek to me, I am liking Houtarou less and less, and the other three members of the Classics Club, more and more, especially Mayaka.

Houtarou's seems to be such a dull, boring, lifeless, self-pitying loser in this episode, I don't know why the others bother with him. They certainly seemed to be having a lot more fun while he was sulking in the corner, so they should have just let him wallow in his own stupidity.

Okay, I might be a little harsh on the forlorn lad, so I will reserve judgment of this episode until after I've seen a subbed version.

But there's one thing that I find particularly annoying, and that's the "face-conveniently-hidden-syndrome" of Houtarou's sister. Is this going to end up being the biggest mystery of the whole anime, what does she look like? Is there really any need to do that?

what chitanda see on this boring tsundere houreki, serious he match much more mayaka than eru, they are a perfect tsundere couple, while eru and satoshi are the cheerup couple, well why that "tsundere" archtype character is so to popular in japan culture(animes, mangas, LN), i'm really starting too hate this type of character, that type of character really means this personality is comun on japan?(many guys and girls acts on this way?) why almost of the shounen/seinen and even some shoujo/josei manga/anime/Ln have that archtype of character, i really starting to hate this, what te problem for ppls being true with selfs or others ppls(at last if u can't be true to others be true with self), i really liked that episode only show how hotaro with this "lie conservation of energy" lost his time in not being with this awesome girl who likes him(and him likes her but too much tsundere and deny this even to himself).

In this episode of Hyouka!

I don't understand anything being said, not being able to speak more than 20 words of Japanese at once. So I'll just make up a plotline and put it here.

... of course I know that's how I usually write reviews! This is gonna be different! At least my reviews usually have something to do with the actual plot. I have no idea what's going on, and my usual source for speedsubs doesn't seem to have done anything with this episode yet!

... Okay, now that I've taken my meds ...

So, Houtarou's hot sister, Chuck NorrisTomoei comes home. I'm not really sure what happens, except that, apparently, she disapproves of him bumming around the house all summer and tells him to "get a job, you bum!" One of which, she seems to have already lined up for him ... lifeguard at the local waterpark.

The rest of the Mystery Gang turn up at the waterpark, and there's fanservice for all. Apparently, there's a game of pool volleyball played to see who gets to go torment the lifeguard. Satoshi totally trolls Chitanda into losing, so she gets to torment Oreki.

Afterwards, there's lunch, where Chitanda plays a game of "get Oreki to speak in words of more than one syllable," which she fails at, miserably.

Later on, Oreki is fired for boozing it up on the job, which leaves him free for the Mystery Gang to go rope him into solving some manner of mystery. Naturally, he doesn't want to do it, so Chitanda goes all HYPNOTOAD THE POWER OF BOOBS COMPELS YOU! on Oreki. So, Oreki goes off and interviews one of his former co-workers (and boy does Mayaka look all dere-dere here.)

This leads to Oreki in swimming trunks. They're looking for something, and Satoshi first tries to get Emo McMopeypants to take charge. When that fails, he orders them all to split up. He then says something that, I assume, is profound to Oreki.

And then, we see Oreki go all badass Navy SEAL on us. He prowls underwater set to music that makes it clear that he personally cut the throats of at least five or six bad guys with the knife he's got hidden in his swim trunks. He finds an earring in the pool. The rest of the Mystery Gang, save Mayaka, ends up looking like idiots.

Makaka has some sort of heart-to-heart with Oreki, and then the Mystery Gang reconvenes. Apparently, they were looking for the earring, but the mystery becomes why did it fall off in the first place. Oreki wants Mayaka and Satoshi to cosplay as a mother and child, but Mayaka gets all hot under the collar and we have Chitanda hefting Mayaka instead (and wow, didn't know Chitanda was so strong.)

Oreki then watches baby Jabba the Hutt and concludes that Jabba must've loosened his mother's earring, so it fell off in the pool. Afterwards, Mayaka drags Satoshi off for some reason, leaving Oreki and Chitanda to have a few awkward moments together before a lifeguard tells Oreki that he's been re-hired, and he should get his lazy ass back to work.

It was all very amusing, and I'm sure the level of entertainment can only grow whenever it is that this episode gets subbed.

Seven badass commando Orekis out of ten.

Yup, that's pretty much, more or less, what I got out of the raw episode, as well.

My only complaint has nothing to do with the episode, rather, the raw I watched was miserable quality, and had a couple lines of Japanese text across the screen the whole time, so I wasn't able to get as good a view as Mr. Grumpy did.

No more complaining about raw.

I found Kyoani quite shameless with the way they turned Chitanda into a a pair of talking moe boobs. They didn't sexualize Mayaka in such way.

Overall Oreki didn't talk much this episode.

Wow, the quality of the episode was crap.

If the dude wants to sulk let him sulk. He got back at them in his own little way by giving them minimum responses besides its not like they invited him out for fun but rather showed up to see him doing something out of character.

It's the most boring episode so far. Utterly. But I guess it goes to prove a point- even normal Oreki is not as dead as that version.

It wasn't all that boring for me honestly, but I wouldn't call it a good episode either, though I never expected much from an episode numbered 11.5.

Well, if the previous arc didn't make it clear, this episode pretty much confirms it. Houtarou's "energy-conservation" policy is just him self-handicapping. As such, it served as a defense mechanism for his fragile self-esteem. I'd say it's pretty normal for a boy of his age.

Is it just me or was Chitanda trying to get Oreki complement her on her swimming suit or notice it? :heh:

Oreki as couch potato was kinda LOL
Never thought I'd see him working at a part time job.
Chitanda thelling him how special he is was nice ^^
His friends just can't leave him alone even for trivial mysteries..
Still, it was a nice at-the-pool episode.

What was he "getting back at them" for? Anyway, I don't think that was his intent. He was just being his dull, boring, usual stick-in-the-mud self.

I was not convinced on Chitanda's moeness.

Until this episode. Especially the splashing water part. :heh:

Well... no. That was the point of the episode actually, that this was not his usual self.

It's pretty much the after-effect of the Irisu case. His previous excitation while solving the movie mystery was out of character for him, and the realisation that he was being manipulated and lied to just made him worst.

The highlight of the episode where the three other members of the club though. They stuck by Oreki no matter which mood he had, and eventually got him out of his slump. Those are some very precious friends he has there.

There is nothing like a pool, beach, or hot springs episode to usually lighten the mood (although another anime proves that wrong). I do understand that the whole point of the episode was detox Mr. Grumpy from the ill-effects of the poisonous Black Widow Spider from the previous arc.

And I can't really argue with much what you say here, particularly about the other three (But does he consider them friends? Would he do the same for them? I think not.), but you didn't answer my question: What was he "getting back at them" for? What had they previously done to him that would deserve the cold-shoulder, monosyllable treatment? Or am I misinterpreting your meaning?

I couldn't really appreciate the fanservice since I saw more artifacts than boobs. The video quality was truly eyecancerous. Japan just can't into streaming. They couldn't have made it worse if they had tried to. Horrible. I would have waited for the BD, but the release is so far away...

I was amused that what convinced Houtarou to help Chitanda this time weren't her hypno-eyes but her boobs. Makes more sense this way.

That was a point prototype_sky made, not I.
Actually I don't even agree with it. He's not getting back at them, or anyone else for that matter. More than anything he is burrowing deep within his own shell.

To be fair there wasn't any occasion when the others really needed him yet. So far it's all been really whimsical. The only exception so far was the case with Chitanda remembering what her uncle said.