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.

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.

If you want the ultimate morality meter that will make you care and leave you chilled afterwards, Spec Ops: The Line will do that. Christ...this game will haunt me forever...

Overall, enjoyed it. It's less grindy than Persona 4, which is VERY welcome. The characters, the more adult material, its self-parodying yet somewhat serious look at marriage (wouldn't be an Atlus game if it didn't parody itself), the music (Shoji Meguro ftw). Mainly positives. The difficulty curve is what irks me. If you asked me what nights were the hardest, I'd say 5 and 6 (Quadrangle and Clock Tower). Spiral Corridor supposedly looked harder but its tricks made sense to me. Cathedral is a cakewalk. The Empireo is far more dodging Mutton than finding the right path. It felt like the game just utterly leapfrogged in difficulty halfway through then plateaued.

It's a good figure. Not spectacular, but better than average. As for putting on display, most of my figures are in a cupboard, so nothing to worry about seeing. Besides, around 20 of my other figures are more dangerous than Catherine by far.

You'd be surprised how much simplicity eludes people.

Yeah it was fun. Maybe a bit short though. 8.5/10

It's fine, I get most people are in limo or recuperating lately. Hope it isn't too hot where you are, because it is here. 45 degress yesterday.

Vincent - amusing torment target? Serious mode, the fact he's got a woman with a good career and family prospects but hasn't acted on it for FIVE YEARS astounds me. He earnt his redemption and second chance, so he deserves to be with someone.

Katherine - kind of woman that would help someone become a better person. Somewhat overbearing and maybe should communicate more...but more positives than negatives.

Catherine - The girl's bad news. Self-absorbed and a psycho. Even with looks, she's not my type. Free sex doesn't equate to happiness for me. Nor does a harem.

After months of not playing Catherine since I got horribly stuck on the 3rd floor of the Clock Tower (6th Night), I gave it another shot on New Years Day. 7 hours later (4 hours of that was cut scenes), I finished the game....with Katherine True Ending to boot. Ironically that was a few days after figures of Katherine and Catherine arrived.

Have a good CHristmas. Slay Belle Katarina sends her regards.

Happy Birthday!

Same with me, I originally thought I would stop being busy at Dec, but this end up will probably be long term. I probably won't be back at all unless there are interesting news, so ... I'm not sure when I'll see your PM =) (I don't use twitter sadly). Also, Momo e no Tegami is very, very good as well.

Keep an eye out for that.

Thank you .

I know I've said it before, but I miss you posting more . Though I see you all the time on Enzo's blog for Hunter x Hunter (Well it is an amazing series).

Considering about how many things happened towards the new Cyborg 009 movie, Kick-Heart and the noitaminA fall's double feature (Psycho-Pass and Robotics;Notes), maybe you should create a thread that was dedicated to Production I.G since we didn't have one before.