[Somnus]

Originally Posted by Mich666

For me that was not closure at all.. (I know it's slice of life but there are simply many other slice-of-life animes that are much much better)

[snip]

As it is, it was very unsatisfying conclusion to Hyouka story for me (if there was any conclusion at all). If you ask me, everything in this ep could be done a ton better.

All in all, it felt like authors of this show really didn't know what to do with it in the first place. There were too many themes, many unnecessary mystery arcs if you ask me. In result, some eps was great, some wasn't at all. If everything was like ep14, 20 or 21 I would give it 9 out of 10 but it was nowhere to it and now I really don't know what I should think of it as whole.

Does anyone know how Hyouka was doing in Japan? I can't see this getting second season at all...

At first when I saw this post I instinctively felt the need to counter it. When I finally hit that "quote" button, I started losing energy realizing what a task it'd be considering it seems like you were blind to absolutely EVERYTHING this show represents, and how it does so. Alas, I will try anyways...

Flaws of final episode:
- for the last episode, there was too much time of nonimportant and uninteresting scenes in preparation of parade part.

Doing this accomplished two things, as already said throughout this thread, it showed the contrast of Oreki being injected into Chitanda's life. Which was later reinforced by Chitanda's beautiful speech and insight about herself. The second being that it sets the details and setting in true Hyouka fashion for a "1-episode Mystery" as it were. That is the overall concept we were introduced to after all.

- main characters other than Oreki are barely seen for almost half episode.
- instead we are presented with dull slowpace talk of first-seen side-characters during parade preparations. No emotions for me - why should I care for them I am seeing them for the first time.
- why do we have to watch babbling of several old men and their unsubstantial dispute about correct route parade should go, why? why introduce red-head boy (or brown hair whatever) in the last episode - that doesn't make sense.

Again, these characters are needed for setting. It should tell you something if quite a few people were actually surprised that Irisu made an appearance at all (read as: we weren't expecting such a nice surprise). Hyouka handled Satoshi and Mayaka the same way it handles everything else. With class and subtlety. They can't spell it out for you, partly because those two didn't work anything out aside from a return to the status quo until Satoshi figures things out (and possibly an apology). Though, quite frankly Mayaka did spell it out as much as possible by saying things were "pretty normal".

- KyoAni trolling again with ugly animation of parade (if that was animation at all - discarding every second, third and fourth frame). It felt very low-budgety comparing to other parts of the series. And no, I am not seeing it as brilliant choice of mood - for that, I have seen it too many times elsewhere...

Trolling? Are you kidding me? It was a CHOICE, and it fit the mood perfectly. Having seen something similar anywhere else should be irrelevant, as that has absolutely no standing if you take in the imagery as you're watching. The general consensus is that this is a spectacular choice for this particular moment, and those are posts based on immediate reaction upon watching the finale. Whether it didn't click with you personally is one thing, but the fact that you're immediately comparing the scene with other anime instead of appreciating the scene as its being presented speaks volumes.

- ending scene was graphically nice and well done, yes, but chitanda's talk about her plans of going to college was sort of branching away from main theme they should talk - her relationship with oreki. this was again, uninteresting to me. Why there wasn't some sort of intimate confession under sakura tree, just why? Wasted potential of the scene, if you ask me. Yes, you could see that as normal life when two of very close boy-girl students have some feelings for each other but have to go away and never see themselfs again due to other circumstances - but is that really the story we want to see in the first place? (if yes, watch masterpieces from makoto shinkai, this one felt very dull)

"The main theme they should talk about"? I'm sorry, but that's entirely your opinion and preference. The very fact you think that the romance between the two is the "main theme" at all tells me you were watching Hyouka for the "wrong" reasons. This show attained a fine balance of character development and story telling through the various details and subtleties that were "shown, but not said".

(EDIT - I am a true to heart romantic/romance buff, and I did not go into this expecting to find any. The fact that there was and it was presented so exceptionally well was a very pleasant surprise and bonus here.)

As said multiple times already, it does what most shows are afraid to do. It counts on the viewers to invest time and interest in watching the characters develop, and to realize their changes without being told.

Perhaps without realizing it, you are being a shining example of the type of viewer that Hyper, relentless, etc. are talking about. Where shows feel they need to be more visually appealing, and have a story that panders to the fans as opposed to weaving a masterful web of story and character development driven by nuance and subtlety. On the surface, this show spelled out for you its very basic of goals, to solve the mystery presented over a given period of time. It showed you everything else, and it was up to the viewer to see it.

The simple explanation here is, you did not (or chose not to).