Hyouka - Episode 10

Having shot down everyone else's ideas in some shape or form, Houtarou now finds himself at the centre of Irisu's attention as she seeks to ensure that the culture festival movie production under her management is completed successfully.  Indeed, you could go as far as to say that Houtarou has always been the centre of Irisu's attention in this regard.

Such are her stirring words that we soon find Houtarou heading into school of his own volition, buoyed by her impassioned thoughts that solving this "murder" is something that only he can do.  Even Satoshi seems to be a little jealous of the way Houtarou's mind works as they head to school together before sitting down to rewatch the incomplete movie together with Ibara.  Before he knows it however, both of these individuals have been dragged away (quite literally in one case) to other important tasks, leaving Houtarou to ponder the answer to this mystery alone.

Aided by some interesting notes made by Satoshi and left in his care, Houtarou ponders all of the possibilities before ultimately presenting what proves to be a compelling solution to an initially sceptical Irisu - in short, there was a seventh character within this production, and that seventh character had to be placed in the one position that could pull off every aspect of this locked room murder mystery with easy... the cameraman.  Ultimately, everything seems to add up with his idea, and Irisu not only accepts it but allows Houtarou to choose a final name for the production - something he duly does, before getting to enjoy a positive reaction from the film's culture festival screening.  Thus comes to the end another job well done for our lazy and decidedly amateur sleuth... but in his fervour, has even he overlooked one very important point involving this production?  Mayaka certainly seems to think so.

Although we can't quite call this the end of the current story arc thanks to its cliff-hanger ending, this week's instalment of Hyouka still made for a staid but satisfying conclusion to the mystery which has been pondered over previous weeks.  You can only be fair to the story and its presentation in saying that all of the clues were left in place for viewers to figure things out for themselves, which goes a long way to making its final reveal enjoyable surprising (for those of us who aren't super-sleuths already, anyhow) when backed up by the consistently gorgeous and occasionally striking visuals of the series.  It still isn't the kind of thing which is ever likely to be a memorable classic, and you could argue that Kyoto Animation are being a little ponderous in the show's treatment, but it continues to hold a mild yet undoubted grip over my interest as it goes about its business, for which it should be commended.