Hyouka Episode 6
This pretty much sums it up. The show is really a total waste of time for everyone involved. The production values are really good, but the material isn't just boring - it's actually bad. This episode made me realize how poor the material actually is. After 5 episodes developing and resolving the first mystery, it seems to make sense to expand the characters and make the general setting more interesting. Instead of doing that, the show reinforces the weakest point of the show by spending 2/3 of the episode putting the main characters in a tiny room sitting at a table just talking about nonsense instead. It's not funny, it's not exciting, it's just stupid.
The larger problem with the show is how unlikable the characters are getting. Instead of being developed as actual people who have hobbies and interests, who do things which engage the viewer into feeling invested in their lives, they are instead totally lifeless puppets for the purpose of putting up this facade of "slice of life" presentation. They lack real personalities and there is an extremely unnatural manner in which the story was directed this week. It felt like they were put in the room and told to act in a certain way just to drive the running time up, instead of anything actually feeling rational.
No one talks like the characters in this show. Most people do not act like that. People don't tend to interact in the way they do here. And even though high school kids are indeed time wasters who like to speculate about silly shit, they usually do this while engaging in other activities. It is never the main thing you hang out after school to do. If they were actually engaging in a club activity like preparing materials for the anthology, or doing homework, etc, and talking about stuff as a secondary activity, it would make more sense.
Another thing which really bothers me is how psychotic Chitanda is being presented as. She's not just asking people about mundane oddities, but she seems to get curious and confused about all sorts of personal stuff like not being able to remember something she heard, or not knowing why she did something she did, or whatever. It's not cute anymore, just creepy.
If this is a faithful adaptation of the novels, I think the original author must have a really poor understanding of human relations and high school life. Or maybe the author just sucks.
