Hyouka - Character Discussion - Oreki Houtarou
 

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The most interesting thing about his character for me at the beginning of the series is how he genuinely does not believe that his "energy conservation" lifestyle is superior and his constantly "I'm not that smart" remarks.
Usually people live the way they are because, IMO, they think that's the best way to go. The best theory on his behavior I hear is he just does not know what and where he should spend his energy on, since he find nothing to be worth it.
Or maybe the guy read too much about the Universe's heat death and now trying his best to slowdown the increasing entropy :D

Maybe he'll find another solution to that instead of always conserving energy, like...you know... tricking middle school girls into becoming..like...magical girls or something, I dunno.

Oreki's an okay character, but I don't feel like wasting the energy I need to talk about him.

Why am I thinking Kyubey? :P



Seriously, this guy has an awesome lifestyle. Spending energy on energy conservation.

Maybe it's like spending money on maintenance :heh:. You're spending money but it isn't as much as replacing whatever the thing is.

y so mean, Ilya?

Last ep (i.e. ep 4) when Houtarou was in the bathroom trying to come up with a plausible pattern to all the info he pulls a lock of hair hangin over his forehead, frowns and looks focused. When he did that I thought "where have I seen this?" ... and just this morning I realized that I saw it in Toradora. Takasu used to do the same thing in ep 1 and the OP I believe.

That aside, I actually kinda like Houtarou. I get the feeling he really is a good guy down deep, but has simply been unable to find anything to CARE about. I have a feeling the novels and the anime will be a chronicle of him slowly changing because he found something he cares about - i.e. Chitanda - and from her begins to be able to appreciate other things as well.

Houtarou and Holmes
 

I think this should be stated somewhere in this thread, so here goes:

A lot of people compare Houtarou to Sherlock, but as many people in various blogs and boards pointed out, he is more similar to the older sibling, Mycroft Holmes. Here's a quote about him:

Houtarou is one of boy characters I like best, I think

I've liked him since the time he talk himself: don't care anything and do not do anything that wastes energy

Hmm ... Mycroft eh? Would not have thought of that.

He DOES try to prove himself right though, Oreki that is....

More often than not, though, he tells Chitanda to go check out the scene herself and gets dragged there by Chitanda anyway.

He was implicitly saying, "I know I want confirmation, but can't you... as in only you go instead to save myself the effort?" ?

I disagree on this point. Even at that point, if his theory made Chitanda satisfied, he wouldn't care less if it's actually correct. I expect him to change as the story progress, but at the beginning he really is someone who would rather be labeled wrong than spend his energy to prove himself right. To be exact, though, he wouldn't even try to solve it in the first place.

Until he met that purple eyes, that is.

Oreki fangirl squealing here! :p Something about brooding guys just get me.

IMO, this is what happens to people who tend to analyze their surroundings: they don't want to waste energy because they are already spending energy on being over-analytical most of the time.

I noticed that Hotarou always emphasises that he's average, normal and whatever happens is because he got lucky. Maybe he showed great talents at an early age and got alienated because of that.

Hmmm... Oreki strikes me as Kyon minus the internal radio he had and the somewhat funny moments.

Definately smart, but lazy as hell... kinda reminds me of myself, if I may say so.

Observant to everything, and having the brainpower to link everything together, makes a great character.

In a sense he also resembles Tomoya from Clannad, as in there's the hypnotoad to drag him around.

All hail the hypnotoad.

Arturia

Just as a little joke... His saying of "If I don't have to do it, I won't. If I have to do it, I'll make it quick". Kinda sounds like someone going to the bathroom ~_~ Hows that for energy conservation?

Well, that's what you're led to believe. Remember, that whenever we talk about Oreki and Kotenbu (Classics Club), it's Chitanda we're talking about. The poor guy couldn't cut some slack without being "forced" upon by Chitanda Eru to doing her bidding. :heh: It was until Ep 4 - 5 though when we see Oreki starting to make several exceptions to his rule, especially when he tries to unnecessarily tie in the holes in the Jun theory, mostly because he's following up on Chitanda's request to him.

lol! He did!