Hyouka episode 4: Mystery solved. Time to go home.

It is amazing how special people can be. Every single delivery today told me how sorry they were for having me out in the rain. Like Oh We are so sorry that you had to drive in such terrible weather. Well if all of these people felt bad for me….WHY DID THEY ORDER PIZZAS DURING A FLOOD?! Not that they ordered the pizzas and it started raining later. No no it was pouring down rain out their windows and they told me it was too nasty for THEM to drive out in. So what makes you think I want to drive out in it?! MORONS!!! Just hand me the money next time and look down in shame, I need no excuses.

SHOCKING PINK!

So while I dry off…it is time for Tenchi to blog some anime. And now watch this creepy version of Peter Pan. What is up now….Hyouka episode 4! Spoilers for rice balls and dried mushrooms.

At first I was doubting the 1st volume would have any clues. Now I think it is going to play a huge part later down the line.

Episode Summary: While walking home Houtarou wonders how they are going to solve the mystery without the first volume and with just the two of them. He fears that if they don’t enlist the help of Satoshi and Mayaka the mystery might become too old to solve. This makes Eru panic and she changes her stance on telling those two her private past. Both students agree to help Eru out as this mystery sounds AMAZING. On their next Sunday off Satoshi and Houtarou meet up (in dramatic fashion) to go to Eru’s house. As they travel they talk about how Satoshi is a “flashy” color while Houtarou is a dull one. But Satoshi is okay with Houtarou being boring. Houtarou pretends to not care but puts up with the pinkness that is Satoshi. They travel for a while, up some fields and what not. They stop at a HUGE estate that is apparently Eru’s house. Very old fashion. Eru greets them and not servants which makes Satoshi sad. Eru takes them to a huge room and gives them the rundown of how the meeting will go. Everyone was given something to research and they will explain their findings. That person will present their theories and the others will give their take on said theory. Eru starts first.

For some reason Eru gave herself the easiest assignment of really going over the 2nd anthology. She brings up the point on how he left, was a hero, and how it was implied he did something awesome. Eru’s conclusion is at the cultural festival some…hooligans came and try to take the profits from the cultural club’s table. Uncle fought back and was expelled. While the theory is nice both Satoshi and Houtarou both point out that the school usually doesn’t allow booths and that the political climate at the time would not allow for student on student violence. Satoshi gets bored and they change to the porch to look at the pond. Mayaka then explains her theory. During the 1960’s there was a lot of tension between the people in power verses the students. Mayaka thinks that Uncle used some sort of violence and was expelled from school. Again both boys point out that the theory is wrong as no violence was used given previous evidence and why would there be a 4 month gap between the act and the expulsion? Satoshi decides he is hungry so Eru takes them to the kitchen so she can make rice balls. Satoshi explains his information, which is basically the same as Mayaka’s but uses the word movement instead. Satoshi says he is a data base and can’t come up with any theories. Mayaka thinks that the movement must be talking about something Uncle did. They eat rice balls and Houtarou panics (as much as he can) because he didn’t come up with any theories and his paper is just a list of topics discussed between teachers and students.

Someone is VERY serious X__X

Eru has to run off to rescue mushrooms so Houtarou makes an excuse that he needs to use the bathroom. He accidentally walks into Eru’s room and he sees how much Eru has been researching. So Houtarou uses much of his brain power to come up with his theory. He explains he hasn’t prepared his own theory but will take pieces of everyone else’s. He concludes that the teachers were threatening to cut the cultural fair short and Uncle lead a protest (probably a walk out) to keep the cultural fair to 5 days. The teachers had to relent after all the students left and punished the Uncle after things had calmed down. Everyone is amazed at this theory and Eru calls the meeting to a close after saying this protest will be the center of their anthology. She thanks Houtarou who declares it no big deal. As the boys travel home Eru wonders if this is the truth why did she cry? The end!

Thank you for your hard work now and in all future silly projects.

Long summary was still long. And I was trying so hard to be brief! I really was in case it wasn’t obvious. But on the up side I did find this episode more enjoyable than the first 3. But if this is the conclusion of the grand mystery I might revert back to eye rolling. We shall see 21 episode series.

A few more months and this 45 year long mystery will be unsolvable!

First off…I don’t know if Houtarou was trying to be hilarious but I laughed super hard at his manipulations with Eru. If they were manipulations. But yes please involve Satoshi and Mayaka before this case gets too old to solve indeed. I laughed. I’m sorry. I am only human. XD

How did he know they were going to be this interested in the mystery?

It worked though. It is hard to tell what Houtarou what he is thinking. We assume he likes Eru but he has been living a very lazy life…I mean an energy conservative life for a while now. Is love enough to conquer his mindset? So maybe he was trying to stop Eru because he knew she wouldn’t tell anyone else, thus killing the investigation. Or maybe he thought if other people were involved there would be less work for him to do yet he would still come out looking like the hero. Which worked by the way.

Watch out pedestrians! We got a mystery to solve!!!

Seeing how cool Japanese streets are ALMOST makes me want to ride a bike. But then I start remembering all the bikers when we were in Kyoto. They sorta rode like the boys except lots of people were in the way. Well not LOTS. Just everyone has to pay attention and it is better to NOT move out of the way or it will cause confusion. And that was my trip down memory lane! While I like looking at all the tall buildings in Tokyo and the temples in Kyoto I love streets like this too. Made me smile. XD Even if pedestrians need to beware.

Well...your scarf sucks! So there!!

I think I appreciated the conversation the boys were having on the way to Mansion de Eru. WE NEVER SAW MUGI’S HOUSE! Unless it was in the movie. I WANT TO SEE THE MOVIE! Anyway…..yes. I think being called a dull person might be hurtful….but if Houtarou agrees and Satoshi says that being mean would say Houtarou has NO personality…well we will chalk this up to guyness. XD I was highly amused at the translations in this episode though. I HEARD them saying something in English and it got translated into something else. Pink indeed.

Where does Mugi live!?!?!

Eru is NOT Mugi. I will not accept it. Where is my Mugi nendoroid? I need to see her cuteness. WHERE IS THE MOVIE?! Putting that aside Eru has a pretty big house. I guess I was wondering how farmers could be so rich. Looks more like they own the land and farms and people work for them. Do rich people dry their own mushrooms. I am not sure if I would want to live in that house though. Looked too exposed to the elements (like a lot of older Japanese homes) and it would involve way too much walking. Speaking of walking how do Eru get to school? Maybe it looked further than it was…

X__X But...shouldn't there be cookies and tea first? Silly ideas shouted out? Nothing happening at all?! I am so confused!

This meeting was super organized. Like scary organized. I didn’t think there would be much to organize of that everyone would take this mystery so seriously but they did! Like bam this is the format any questions? Clubs are serious business folks!

And you're wrong. Sorry.

I feel a bit bad for Eru. It looks like she did the most research and in the end her theory was discounted as being incorrect. It is her Uncle and she has the most vested in the outcome. But three other people came up with similar theories and hers was way too off in left field. Although it concerns me this school can’t set up booths. Did I understand that right? What does it matter if they make money from booths or from in the classrooms? More fun please! It can’t be all haunted mansions gosh!

Crazy kids and their silly imaginations making things interesting.

Mayaka and Satoshi came to the same conclusion. It just got down to what caused Uncle to get kicked out of school. Mayaka thought it was something violent while Satoshi thought it was more of a peaceful thing. Poor Mayaka getting picked out. I would assume if someone got kicked out of school their senior (or was in junior) year it would have to be something more on the serious side. But Satoshi is good at figuring things out too. Why does Houtarou get all the credit? Also why did Satoshi apologize when basically he said the same thing?

Look at me putting all your information together.

And credit he does get. He wasn’t prepared for the meeting which was surprised. He was able to put together all the pieces of information in record time and repeat it back to the others. But I think the others did a lot of work for him. Or rather if you take out Eru’s input things just fell together. Houtarou actually had the weakest or least important piece of information, that the cultural festival was only mentioned once. But….maybe that is Houtarou’s gift? Putting things together rather than digging around himself. I just don’t think he was AS amazing in terms of solving something given a lot of it was given to him.

Drugs? Hippies? When was Kennedy shot?

I tried to find some information about Japanese schools during the 1960’s but I kept finding student papers that were 9432743 pages long and were scary to read. From what I gather there were protests and it might be something similar to what was going on in Battle Royale, in terms of why students were punished. I wish to know more about this subject without breaking my brain. But again this shows how we nonJapanese people can’t solve these mysteries so far. How dare they not think of us!

My brain feels like that sometimes.

So I am not going to lie. I like how everything fit together and that they were so super serious…but I was disappointed that this is all it took! One whole week (at the most) of investigating and they figured out the mystery that Eru couldn’t crack in years? That’s it?! There is no more?! What the heck is the show going to be about now?! But then Eru wishes the boys goodbye and talked about how she wouldn’t cry about her Uncle getting kicked out of school to help the festival. Also since Uncle is still missing (and I am assuming not dead) and I assume his disappearance has something to do with the mystery…this can’t be the end!

The great mystery solver might have to rethink his theory!

Which is also bitter sweet in itself. That means Houtarou is wrong despite the information being correct. Or making sense. So while I want the mystery to be bigger I think it will be sad to see Houtarou to be wrong.

What about my tears?!

But wrong he must be. Or at least there must be another reason. Because there are tons of episodes left. These kids are pretty serious though. Nancy Drew indeed! See ya next week.