Hyouka 1 (rewatch):
When I first saw Hyouka I wasn't really into the whole sakuga thing. I appreciated it on a general level but didn't understand the intricacies of production. I won't pretend to understand them any better now, yet I'm increasingly able to appreciate a well animated scene and craving more out of my animays.
With that said, I found myself rewinding the tracking shot of Chitanda over and over again to note all the little details. I remember initial reactions for this scene were mixed, with someone people praising it and some people deriding the CG'd room or motion-sickness. I don't remember what I thought of it back then, but all I can do now is marvel at how many man hours were spent on this one scene because rotating objects slowly in 2D is just about the hardest thing you can possibly do. You can't use motion blur to mask dodgy movement, or squash and stretch, or just going full twitchy like Imaishi's stuff. It's a commitment to drawing each and every single line as it slowly transforms from one curve to another. That's dedication right there, and it's probably why I continue to watch KyoAni despite their reliance on shit source materials in recent years.
Knowing how all the plotlines resolve also adds an extra dimension to the interaction scenes. I can now see how every bit of dialogue falls in line with each character's story arc. Oreki's capitulation to Chitanda's advances strongly resembles the actions of a man trying to impress a lady friend. Satoshi voluntarily plays the part of wing man, but you can see underneath the surface that being in Oreki's shadows rankles, leading to that outburst later on down the line. Even worse, for all of Oreki's insight, he's unable to see the impact his own put-downs have on Satoshi's inferiority complex. Chitanda has the barest hints of the put-upon heiress who isn't enthusiastic about being a legacy, but is accustomed to hiding it from others and probably even does it reflexively. Her obsession with mundane mysteries may very well be a sad attempt to inject a sense of adventure into her life without betraying what she thinks is expected of her.
I think their relationship has always been kind of one way, with Chitanda seeing Oreki as a friend, and Oreki being too tsundere to admit his feelings for her. FUCKING OREKI GROW SOME BALLS.
(I always liked how every character is always moving, or making some little motions. I understand it's a hard thing for most anime to accomplish given their typical budgetary constraints, but even with large scale productions, I notice a lot of static standing around and talking heads. None of that here, at least, not in episode 1. Every character feels alive, even when they're at rest.)
