Hyouka - Episode 13

Awkward...

This Kanya Festival arc sure is being dragged out. I mean, two episodes in and they're only finished the first day? By the time the arc finishes, who knows if there will be any episodes left for the next arc? Now, although I'd prefer if they went a bit faster with this arc, I do admit there were some amusing scenes in this episode as well. Almost everything that the Classics Club members were involved in was entertaining to some extent. Highlights of the episode were Satoshi's advertising while wearing the Saturn hat, that obnoxious Manga Society girl being put on the spot by Mayaka, and Eru realizing that Hōtarō had gone through the pictures of her photo shoot. The last one was especially amusing—to the point where it put this big smile on my face that I couldn't get rid of—due to the awkward moment that ensued.

But aside from all the fun and games, the core of Hyouka is still about mysteries, two (possibly three) of which were introduced in this episode, albeit minor ones. While they were first presented to Eru and Satoshi, there's no doubt that the two will call upon Hōtarō to solve them sooner or later. This should be more interesting for him than sitting around the Hyouka booth, but knowing the guy, I doubt this will be the case. Nonetheless, it'll be interesting to see how trivial he makes the disappearances of the tarot card and Go pieces seem.

Looking ahead, it looks like Hōtarō will amass a collection of items soon thanks to the helpfulness he displays in front of his customers. Right now, he's got access to the backstage of the fashion show and a Glock 17 water gun. It's a pretty good start but I expect this item list to grow larger by the end of the next episode. Who knows, maybe he'll have enough to create a costume for the fashion show itself and participate in it? Now that would definitely be interesting to see.

Last week was the new ED. This week is the new OP.
OP2: Graphically, the new OP depicted a better story than the old OP. But in terms of song quality, I felt both were more or less equal. Either I'm more used to listening to ChouCho's voice (Kami-sama no Memo-chou OP, Mashiro Iro Symphony OP) or have grown attached to the old OP, so the new one ranked just slightly below it. Nonetheless, it's a good song.