Hyouka 8-11 (rewatch):
Hey Shinbo, take notes.
http://a.pomf.se/uyzhbo.webm
Look! Quick cuts that actually do something. WOW.
The movie mystery is definitely one of the highlights of Hyouka if not
the strongest arc. It touches on the development of all the main characters and introduces a new one, Irisu, who was a fan favorite. It was also the first time we saw that Oreki wasn't infallible and that there are even greater minds than his at Kamiyama High School and outside of it.
After the movie screening, each of the main characters, aside from Oreki tell him their misgivings on his conclusion. Mayaka played it straight, and simply told Oreki he forgot a detail. Satoshi went digging into Sherlock esoterica to come up with an inconsistency. At Chitanda took the humanistic side. She revealed that she was never curious about the movie itself, but the feelings of the script writer. This perspective would prove crucial for Oreki's deduction of Irisu's manipulation.
What's important to note here is that every one of their contributions to his new theory is perfectly in line with their characters, there was no overlap or blending of character traits. Oreki is still the genius of the group, but he's not omniscient. He also has areas in which he's deficient, which were compensated for by his friends. The tarot discussion in 10 hammered this point home, and provided a new perspective on Oreki's life. He's been oblivious to the role of women in his life, not realizing that he has a kind of submissive streak when it comes to forceful women.
We also see more glimpses of Satoshi's inferiority complex, Mayaka's own capacity for detail and logic (which explains her outbursts whenever Oreki outdoes her in detective work), and Chitanda's sympathetic personality. Irisu, for a new character, was also exceptionally strong. I think her arc is very plausible. We have all, at some point had a friend or colleague who turned out a lackluster product in their academic or professional careers, but elected not to criticize for fear of causing friction. But also as a woman of action, she took the most roundabout way to reject and amend Hongou's script. Her actions remind us that in our fervor to be a "good person", we might be taking the morally low road and wind up hurting more people in our endeavors than if we were simply honest and forthright. This is echoed in her story about the prodigal athlete who attributes their success to "luck", and the impact this false humility has on those around them. And it is no doubt a false humility, how else to explain Oreki's indignation at being used for once, rather than being in the dominant position?
While all this was going on, the author, Yonezawa, and by extension KyoAni, were having a meta-discussion on the mystery genre, educating the audience about Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, and explaining the progression of the genre from the 19th century to the 20th. Not only was it informative, but I realized that this arc deftly combines elements from both Doyle's
Holmes and Christie's stories. The mystery, as presented, is solvable to an extent, as a proper post-Christie mystery is supposed to be. We have all the clues, most of the data, and the story is set up to be solveable without inhuman intellect. We also have Oreki, the Sherlock analogue, someone who's thought processes are far beyond the other characters, but not everyone. Oreki has his Mycroft (older sister) and his Irene (Irisu, I wonder if the names are intentional), and Watson (the rest of Hyouka), although Moriarty is missing for now. In the end, not only was Yonezawa calling out fans of those stories on their experience with mystery, but showing how the two eras of mystery writing can be combined in a single story.
Finally, we get another teaser for Oreki's sister, who has assumed the role of puppeteer by the end of the first season. If this was a shounen anime, Oreki's sister would be like the final boss, done up all in chiaroscuro while the heroes run around innocently, unaware that they're merely playing pieces in a larger game. You could say that the main cast of Hyouka are like the Fantastic Four, while Oreki's sister plays the role of Dr. Doom.