I moved to another city on the weekend, and there was a lot of things that needed to be done, so I didn’t have time to write this post.
Weekly posts should return to normalcy next week, and I’ll try to finish this season’s fansub reviews too.
”A thing of past” here, which was a term Houtarou said in the previous as well (“only find the facts”), made her react. It almost seems like his words made her realize something, and she realized that she doesn’t want her uncle’s past to become history.
She was reluctant to ask Fukube and Ibara for ask before, but Houtarou’s comment changed her mind.
There”s almost certainly a back story for this picture that we’ll eventually find out.
He’s being very gay and shows up as if he was late for a date.
This line was phrased very ambiguously. I chose the most likely option, that he would call Houtarou “Mr. Colorless” or something if he was actually mocking him.
However, there’s a slight possibility that he meant it as “When/If I actually start mocking you, you’d call me colorless.” It makes less sense, but grammatically still works, so I guess we’ll see what happens in later episodes.
Fukube’s got a serious, dark look on his face when he said this line. It’s possible that he has a back story as well, likely to be one that explains his fascination with Houtarou.
He technically said there isn’t anyone who looks so out of place with tokonoma on his back. This is very similar to the Western seating etiquette with the hosts or the most important people at the ends of the table.
She’s one of those types who are excellent at remembering things and capable of doing very thorough research, but she gets lost whenever something unexpected happens. This scene also shows how she fails to see the big picture, as details such as the order of presentation was neglected while she obsessed over details of the presentation itself.
The kanji 「斗争」 (it would read “tosou” in Japanese) was used in Unity & Triumph.
Those kanji seem to be the Chinese equivalent of 「闘争」(“tousou”, conflict) in Chinese.
This kanji ‘spelling’ is rarely used, and only by activists would ever write this way. This may have been a clue that made Fukube realize the book was written by student protest fanboys, since he’s supposedly a ‘database’ and he would actually know this stuff.
At first, it seems Fukube was overjoyed at getting handmade cooking by Eru. Then he goes on to pretend(?) that he forgot to interrupt her with a piece of information that could’ve disprove her theory.
It almost seems like he’s interested in Eru, but at the same time, he doesn’t want to hurt Ibara’s feelings.
She’s jealous about Fukube liking Eru’s cooking.
Their relationship is pretty confusing and it’s hard to tell what Fukube’s thinking, but a lot of girls in Japan like mysterious guys, so I guess that may be one of the reasons she likes him.
I’m starting to think this guy’s not thinking on purpose to give Houtarou to shine, and not just for scriptwriting convenience.
Judging from this scene and his dark expression in the “colorless line”, it’s possible that there’s a reason he’s hanging around Houtarou and functioning only as a database.
So Oreki basically brought a document that had “nothing of significance” to the meeting.
He’s a lazy bastard who didn’t even do any research and just brought something that might actually be useful lol
There was some miscommunication with the editor in the final line. It should’ve been something like “Time to find a way out.”
Houtarou was cornered by high expectations from his peers, and decided to change the topic or just run (to the bathroom etc). I find it interesting that the gray sky was shown in this scene, symbolizing his gray attitude taking over.
Random keywords from the four documents passing by, as he digs up the past, symbolized by the watches.
The only high-motion scene of this episode. As I predicted, there’s going to be one every episode.
The Five W plus How approach was used for his investigation in order to sort out the information for logical reasoning.
Houtarou’s solution is almost certainly wrong, and I’m sure they’ll revisit this case again.
This episode’s case can be considered to be the first real mystery in this show, and I like what I see. The direction is excellent, and we’re given a lot of subtle clues not only about the case, but character motivations as well.
Hyouka sure is a dialog-driven show, and I’m enjoy every minute of it.
Episode rating: 9/10
You know, I don’t think he’s particularly interested in Eru. It seemed more like he saw it as “food hand-made by a girl” rather than “food hand-made by Eru”, as in he’d probably be excited regardless of who exactly the girl was that made the food.
Posted by thewizardninja | May 18, 2012, 4:58 amI might be reading too much into this ^^;
Posted by 8thSin | May 19, 2012, 12:08 amIt almost seems like he’s interested in Eru, but at the same time, he doesn’t want to hurt Ibara’s feelings
I don’t think he’s interested in Eru either (if nothing else, because he thinks/knows Houtarou is/will be or that Eru is interested in Houtarou), but he does enjoy ticking Ibara off with stuff like that. Her expression makes me think we’re to assume this has been going on since she confessed (or whatever she did in middle school as previously mentioned) and she’s losing patience with him about it. I’m hoping for an ep or two dealing with them and resolving the situation.
He was teasing Houtarou about getting handmade food from a girl generally, but I’d say there’s also a good chance he’s picked up on how Houtarou feels or might feel about Eru, even if Houtarou himself doesn’t get it yet.
Not to say he desires any sort of relationship at this point, but he might come to like her, even just as a person, for pulling him into a “rose-colored” life.
Posted by A.Crush | May 21, 2012, 3:20 amNice post, I love this show!
I think Houtarou’s solution is pretty much right on though. ^^
Posted by Alarisia | May 18, 2012, 6:43 amFeels kinda suspicious that Fukube made the four of them to move around the house, from the living room to garden and finally kitchen. Does he wanted to buy Hotaru some time for him to finish his hypothesis or does he have other reasons? ww
Posted by potte | May 18, 2012, 11:36 amOh, that’s entirely possible. He does seem to understand Houtarou very well.
Posted by 8thSin | May 19, 2012, 12:08 amI’m not sure if there’s something more to Satoshi’s thinking capacity other than his “database” role for the club. It was mentioned in the light novel that he’s quite bad at midterms exams since he tends to slack off at studying and prefers to read instead whatever interests him at that moment.
Interestingly, you translated Mayaka’s source as “Unity and Triumph”. The light novel translation I read translated it as “Unity and Salutations” – but meh, whatever, whoever translated it more proper doesn’t matter that much.
Again, this is from how the fan translation I read was translated — The line where Satoshi said that Mayaka’s source might be fake — The translations said that it’s because the article sounded as if it was written by someone who was simply a spectator or someone who witnessed, and not someone who was involved in the protest itself, thus the “exaggeration(?)”. Not sure if the anime edited that part to cause a different interpretation.
Thought I’d share what the light novel translation mentioned.
Posted by foomafoo | May 18, 2012, 5:08 pm“Unity and Salutations” is a dictionary translation that I really didn’t like.
「祝砲」 means “gun salute”, and in context, I thought “triumph” would be more appropriate as a title. I should’ve added a note for that one ^^;
I haven’t had the time to check the novel yet, but Satoshi explicitly said “I don’t doubt its authenticity” in anime, though what he’s says later (it sounds like the book was written by someone who “admired students protests”, which implies the exaggeration) contradicts that. I think the anime’s trying to show how he’s trying to not hurt her feelings?
Posted by 8thSin | May 19, 2012, 12:19 amI wouldn’t call Houtarou’s solution “wrong”; I think it’s more likely that they’re just missing something.
Will you still be doing Accel World?
Posted by liberatedliberator | May 18, 2012, 8:23 pmThat’s very possible. There could be some details added that would change the whole story.
I still plan to do Accel World posts. Probably cover both episodes tomorrow.
Posted by 8thSin | May 19, 2012, 12:21 am>However, there’s a slight possibility that he meant it as “When/If I actually start mocking you, you’d call me colorless.” It makes less sense, but grammatically still works, so I guess we’ll see what happens in later episodes.
Waaait…. this actually makes MORE sense.
Ok, I can’t be bothered to check again, but: you don’t usually just say with a serious look on your face how you would be mocking your friend. After all, he can actually take offense like that. Or, at least, if he hears something like that, he would reply jokingly; which was not present in the situation. Now, on the other hand, if he says “colorless” as something about himself, it would be okay, since we are free to mock ourselves. Besides, “colorless” could be a hint that he is ready to take the “color” that is expected from him in the given circle, or something like that; which, I should say, is pretty probable for the moment.
Posted by erejnion | May 19, 2012, 9:59 pmI’m curious!
Was Satoshi supposed to come off as gay in this show? I don’t mind a homosexual character, I’m pretty secure in my heterosexual nature (I was a teen in the eighties…you think the word fag is a bitch these days….). But it just seems he is flaming his heart out as much as he can. Would explain why Mayaka can’t get his attention.
Posted by skylion | May 19, 2012, 11:40 pmWhen he’s meeting Houtarou, it’s just an act, or it looks like it. He laughs about it even while it pisses Houtarou off. There may be more on him later, but for now there’s nothing about him that makes me think he’s actually gay. There would have to be some incredibly compelling reason for him to keep silent about that to both Houtarou and Ibara, too.
Posted by A.Crush | May 21, 2012, 3:26 amIndeed, if he really was gay, Ibara would know soon enough.
Posted by erejnion | May 21, 2012, 1:19 pmdoes “Hyouka” really translate from Japanese as “ice cream” or the connection is more complex?
Posted by j4c06 | May 21, 2012, 6:15 pmThe literal translation is “ice cream”. The “meaning” behind using it as the title of the anthology is revealed in the next episode.
It’s use as the title of the anime itself might be as simple as it being the title of the anthology, or there might be deeper meaning for Houtarou or the classics club, depending on what happens.
Posted by A.Crush | May 29, 2012, 5:52 amI have a question! I’ve watched all the releases (commie, Maui, gg) and it seems like Commie plays up his homosexual-ness? What’s your take on it, 8th?
Posted by kariyan | May 22, 2012, 12:33 pmThere’s a possibility of that, especially from occasional dark looks on his face, but I think the meet-up line was just supposed to be a joke.
Posted by 8thSin | May 24, 2012, 11:35 pmWe only played it up for that one line, since he was obviously saying it in a very camp way and Houtarou reacted accordingly.
It was “Sorry, honey! Did you wait long?” for reference
Posted by Xythar | May 25, 2012, 8:23 pmAh, all right, that’s cool. I found that amped-upness easier to understand how Houtarou reacted, so cool.
Posted by kariyan | May 26, 2012, 12:10 amWhile it’s a possibility, I don’t think Satoshi is going to suddenly reveal himself as being homosexual.
The show might be able to pull it off, even something as yaoi as him liking Houtarou and that being the reason he has avoided Ibara’s feelings, but it would have to be done in a very sad and sincere manner.
I don’t see this going that direction at all, though. It would be coming out of nowhere, which is an excellent way to throw your audience for a loop, but it throws off the focus from the plot and turns it into a melodrama about homosexuality and society.
I’m guessing there will be an ep or two where Ibara has finally had it with Satoshi, and there is some kind of resolution to their relationship, good or bad, before the end. One can hope, anyway.
Posted by A.Crush | May 29, 2012, 6:00 amI was wondering if you had any context for the ED? It’s all ~~yuri undertones~~ and ~~Utena references like woah~~ in a way that’s jarring given how little that would seem to have to do with the series? Mayaka/Eru doesn’t seem like a particularly viable ‘ship, and the only thing I can think of to connect Utena to Hyouka are the rose themes. (or is Houtarou Himemiya, to be saved from his listless apathy by Eru, turned by her into a subject in his own right? But that *still* doesn’t fit the Utena references in the ED, which are all Mayaka/Eru.)
Posted by Mayhem | June 4, 2012, 10:46 pmSo uh… anybody know where 8thsin went?
Posted by DarkFireBlade25 | June 6, 2012, 2:56 pmhttp://www.ggkthx.org/2012/05/aqualion-22/
http://www.ggkthx.org/2012/05/hyouka-ep-5-v2/
Maybe he’s lost in the world of Diablo 3.
Posted by MotsuCQ | June 7, 2012, 11:02 pm