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Old 2012-09-10, 02:27   Link #54
GMT
Orthodox Haruhiist
 
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Making metal ... for fish
Age: 44
In this episode of Hyouka . . . well, Chuck Norris gives Batman cooking chocolate for Valentine's Day.

With that aside, this episode, like the last one, is a character piece. The previous episode, and this one, both continue to show Chitanda as something other than otaku moebait. She throws herself into helping Mayaka craft a chocolate for Satoshi. She rages when it's stolen and were it not for the intervention of Batman Oreki, she would've seen those responsible crushed and broken before her, so help her God. It also shows that Oreki has some steel to him, especially when he feels that someone (mostly Chitanda, but Mayaka gets some too,) has been wronged. As for Mayaka ... well, we see just how much it sucks to be Mayaka. I mean, damn, there's a girl who could use a hug.

The focus of this episode is Satoshi. Sure, some might say that this is an episode about Satoshi x Mayaka; and to some extent, that's true . . . but neither Mayaka's character, nor her relationship with Satoshi get any significant development this episode. Yes, there's lots of backfill, but no real progress gets made.

We see him and Batman Oreki play a giant fighting robot game together. Oreki reflects that Satoshi was one of those "RAWR! CRUSH! KILL! DESTROY!" hyper-competitive sorts, back in the day. Only now, he compliments Oreki on his victory. (As an aside, his change in personality improves his performance. When he was in middle school, he gloated over what is a really pathetic victory. When he lost, it was a one-sided ass-kicking. Contrast that to the present, where he still loses, but it was a hard-fought affair on both sides.)

The whole Valentine's Day chocolate theft thing is, in the overall scheme of things, a distraction. Both Mayaka and Oreki knew who stole the chocolates the instant they found out they were stolen. The only one who didn't know was Chitanda, and most of the theft sideplot is Batman Oreki keeping Chitanda from getting medieval on the supposed chocolate thieves. He convinces her that he knows who it is, and he has a plan to deal with them ... but since he is Batman, it'd be best if Chitanda went home and left it to him.

When Oreki confronts Satoshi over the stolen chocolates, revealing that Satoshi was, in fact, the thief: Satoshi reveals the reason behind a great many things we've seen since the start of the series; like his remark about being a shocking pink at the start of the series, the nature of his and Mayaka's relationship, and even his grappling with how he and Oreki compare. He confirms that he used to be a hyper-competitive person ... but came to realize that doing so took all the fun out of it. Crushing his opponents, seeing them driven before him, and hearing the lamentations of their women was boring.

So he stopped trying. He decided that life is great if you just don't give a <GITAH CHORD> to anything beyond fun. This puts his reactions during the Cultural Festival into context. His jealousy of Oreki's deductive skills, and his desire to top him weren't a result of always being "the database" of the Classic's Club ... it was a relapse to the follies of his youth. And relapsing is something he's terrified of.

Which explains his and Mayaka's relationship. Why Mayaka seems to feel so strongly for him, but he keeps making light of her feelings. It's not because he doesn't like her, nay, he describes her in terms like "a dream come true." He's afraid that if he and Mayaka were to get together, somehow that ultra-competitive beast within him would come back. And, given just how close to the surface that aspect of him really is, he believes his fears are well-founded. Which was why he couldn't accept the chocolate, and tried to think up a scenario where he wouldn't have to accept the chocolate, yet spare Mayaka's feelings.

So, here stands Satoshi, a man conflicted. On one hand, he became a much better person for ditching the hyper-competitiveness, and becoming so easy-going. On the other hand, he's deeply insecure, and the cheerful veneer he paints over his inner demon is a very thin one indeed. It's not a bright veneer either. He showed he was perfectly willing to disregard Chitanda's and Mayaka's feelings just to preserve the "new and improved" Satoshi.

9/10

Quote:
Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo
I think people should look beyond simply hating on Satoshi for hurting Mayaka's feelings and Houtarou for hiding the facts, and dig into the deeper psychological issues involved.
Houtarou hiding the facts from Chitanda is an interesting thing to consider. In a way, he's just "keeping it in the family." After all, he was there the last time Satoshi rejected Mayaka's chocolate. Chitanda's the relative newcomer to their social circle. Satoshi even remarks that both he and Mayaka didn't take Chitanda's feelings into account when they ended up dragging her into the middle of their ongoing relationship troubles. What Oreki did was an attempt to get Chitanda out of that situation, and do so in a way that would preserve the peace.
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