Hyouka 03
It was really work finishing this episode. This show is nearly unwatchable. So lifeless, so boring. It is without character or identity, and the grossly misused classical music doesn't help. More egregious is the cinematography. At best it comes across as pedantic, at worse you wind up with obnoxious repetition that simply beats the mundane nature of the show in to your face.
As much as I understand why many people find this show boring, due to its content and characterization, I don't think you're being fair to the quality of its direction. Let's look at the first 35 seconds of this episode to see it in action.
It begins by establishing the location.
We see some sort of shop on a street corner, with a single car passing by to show that this is a visited but not busy part of town.
Focusing in on the shop, we can guess by its name and the chalkboard next to the door that it is a cafe.
Moving inside, yet retaining a connection to the outside through the window taking up a large part of the shot, our suspicions are confirmed via the menu and the two drinks. We also see a tuft of hair, which transitions us from the where to the who.
Oreki, with a puzzled look on his face, staring straight ahead.
Chitanda, nervous and concerned, looking down and to the side.
As the ticking of a clock fades in, we see the clock itself, establishing the presence of time, which seems to slow to a crawl as Oreki waits for Chitanda to gather up her nerve to ask her question.
After each of these elements has been introduced separately, it moves to a distance shot which encompasses all three and shows their physical relationships to each other.
It quickly goes through a sequence of shots, first focusing on Chitanda's mouth as she attempts to speak, then on Oreki bracing himself for what will come out of her mouth, then back to the distance shot as Chitanda fails to get the words out. Suddenly the ticking stops, and the motion of the clock pendulum itself stops, and Bach's Air on the G String begins. This theme has been established as symbolizing the irresistible fascination Chitanda holds for Oreki back in the first episode, where it appeared when Oreki found himself handing over his club application to her. Its appearance now indicates that Oreki would like to tear himself away from the table and refuse to listen to Chitanda, but cannot bring himself to do so.
Instead, to break the silence he turns away and asks the Master for another cup of coffee, as we cut to a shot showing the physical space between those two.
Again, a quick sequence of cuts to illustrate Chitanda gathering courage to speak and Oreki gathering courage to listen. This time, as Chitanda actually manages to get a few words out, we have a tight closeup on her mouth. Her hands are shown for the first time, clenched into fists, the sign of resolve.
We move being increasingly tighter closeups of Oreki's eye and the clock pendulum, as the tension he feels, enhanced by the inexorable ticking, grows ever more. (As a side note, the heart shape of the pendulum could be a sly reference to budding love.)
Finally, Chitanda's hands, which have been kept in her lap this whole time, raise up. Her head also lifts up, as the camera follows. She has made her decision.
Note that up to now, everything has been seen through a slightly washed-out, pastel shade, which establishes a unique atmosphere. Now, as Chitanda finally asks Oreki for her favor, the coloration returns to the ordinary look of the show. The "spell" has been broken; we are back to the real world. The camera pulls back from Chitanda to where Oreki is sitting across the table from her, as he now comes out from being caught up in staring at her to needing to figure out how he is going to respond to her request.
I could continue analyzing the rest of the scene, but I've put enough pictures in this post already. And I could pick apart most of the scenes in the show in a similar manner. You can make the argument that Hyouka's direction is too unsubtle in what it wants to convey, but not that it is incompetent or artistically bankrupt.
I had to attend a monthly safety meeting and then came home and went directly to sleep. Now its time for work again.
