Hyouka episode 22

Hello there my lovely readers! As you can see…not much blogging happened today. I tell you folks I do have grand plans of getting tons of stuff done on all my days off but then…the internets take over and grocery trips take longer than planned and new reality shows come on. :( At least I will be caught up by next week because…all my shows are ending except one. GO ME!

That is Houtarou's hat being curious.

So here is my one sad little post of the day. Woe is me. The end of Hyouka is upon us! Spoilers for episode 22? Houtarou being curious MOG!

Other side of town, completely different world.

Episode Summary: Houtarou is busy spending another vacation sleeping and being a cute little crab. Cue Eru calling Houtarou asking for a favor in an obscure way. Carry an umbrella she says. He finally drags it out of her a temple near her house is having a Doll Festival and she is the Empress Doll and she needs an umbrella holder person. Houtarou agrees to this and makes the long trek to the temple. On the way he passes a bridge that is minutes from being under construction but they let Houtarou pass. Houtarou makes his way to the temple and is greeted by unfriendly old people and one younger looking individual. He sits in the corner of the room warming up while the men talk and fret about things. After a while they talk about the bridge and how they are happy they put off the construction for their parade of dolls. Houtarou is like…um they are doing the construction now. Chaos takes place and someone drives out to confirm that is what is going on. The old men are upset and are scrambling how to make the path relatively the same length without missing any important parts of town. The younger man in the room suggests crossing at a nearby bridge that is just slightly longer. Everyone gets quiet and Houtarou is like why so serious?

Holding an umbrella is serious business.

A female temple worker appears and says that Eru is summoning him. Everyone is like X__X but he goes. Eru is getting changed behind a curtain but talks to Houtarou is such a serious manner. He explains the situation and how everyone freaked out about the second bridge option. Eru says that she will talk to so and so on behalf of her family and not to worry. Houtarou returns to the room and repeats what Eru says. Everyone looks calmer…but then it is crunch time. Houtarou is dressed by the younger man (who is still older than Houtarou but not 23928 years old). He talks about how he couldn’t be in the parade but that is okay because he gets to watch something special. The parade starts and Houtarou starts to get fuzzy vision. He sees Irisu dressed at the Emperor and the other dolls…and then he sorta sees Eru all dolled up. He walks behind her as the fan holder and starts thinking about his energy conservation theory going out the door and how he is curious about what Eru looks like. They walk along the longer path and they pass some sakura trees. Eru looks so sparkly and Houtarou almost loses his mind…when Satoshi and Mayaka cheer Houtarou on. After the parade they tell Houtarou that he looked terrible in his outfit and he ruined the parade. Satoshi runs off to get more snacks and Mayaka thanks Houtarou for his part in Valentine’s Day. She doesn’t state how things went but implies things are okay.

Aw we belong together. XD

Houtarou runs into Irisu later who mumbles something about how she was only the Emperor for the day. Houtarou waits outside and Eru finds him. She talks about how hard it was today as she was curious about the bridge. She wants to know who called and said construction could start. Houtarou and Eru both state they think it was the younger man in the room. They explain their reasons and it is clear that the man wanted to take pictures of the dolls passing the out of season sakura blossoms. Eru and Houtarou walk to the bridge Houtarou has to use to get home. Eru explains why asking to use this bridge was a big deal but the versions of the video I found didn’t sub this part. I assume that one side of town doesn’t get along with the other and Eru’s family is the gap that bonds them. Eru gets a little sad. Saying that even if she leaves town to go to college she will have to come back for family obligations. That this town isn’t much but it is her home and she has grown up with that idea in her head. Houtarou imagines telling Eru that he will help Eru run her father’s business. He gets nervous though and just blushes instead. He thinks about how Satoshi had a hard time with Mayaka and wonders what he should do. Houtarou mumbles something about it being cold but Eru says it is spring. Anime magic occurs and the sakura blossoms start to fall around Eru all beautiful like. Houtarou gets all blushy and the two stand there taking in the beauty. THE END!

Lets end the show on sparkles!

And NOW the show is over. For some reason I thought there were 21 episodes. I knew it was an odd little number but 22 is a weird one too right? But yes. Hyouka is now over. Woe is us.

Like the other tiny mysteries of this series? XD

As this series has progressed I realize that most of the mysteries are much adu about nothing. Knowing that makes the show much enjoyable to watch. So when things like OH NO missing chocolate or oh snap bridge closure happen it makes sense. Almost like your real life. Surely you do not have something interesting happen to you all the time. And some of the things that do happen to you that you find are a big deal are really small and no one else cares but you. That is what Hyouka is all about. XD And as long as you realize that well it is more enjoyable. Most of the time. And then you can go around making mysteries in your own life.

Maybe you should stop answering the phone...

Houtarou can’t catch a break can he? Every time a vacation rolls around Eru blows up his phone asking for favors. Such a one sided relationship. Let the man sleep or be his little crab person. He needs a break. He has been using a lot of his energy lately so he needs time to recharge his batteries.

Oh that Eru.....

Eru is 239823 kinds of special too. She can never come out and say what her favors entail. Instead it is a game of lets confuse everyone. HOLD MY UMBRELLA! Clearly that means Houtarou is going to dress up and be a part of the parade holding the umbrella over the dressed up Eru. DUH FOLKS! What is so hard about that? It was clear as mud.

MOG! End of the world time!

As I am a seasoned Hyouka watcher now I realized that the bridge Houtarou was on was going to be serious business. He had to travel such a distance to get to this temple didn’t he? Eru lives so far away from school. X__X But anyway yes the bridge. Houtarou just barely crossed this bridge? A parade is going to happen later in the day NEAR this bridge. Time to hand over that detective badge.

Um....I am here to help you?

Houtarou did not get a warm welcome at the temple did he? They were like WHAT?! Grumpy old men indeed. Why wasn’t Houtarou with the other people in the parade? Surely there were more men in the parade than were in the room. That and it is hard to run a parade if you are in directly in it. It was just….special as Houtarou was in with all the action yet everyone was treating him as an outsider. All so he could hear the drama.

How could this happen to our doll parade?!?!?!

The mystery of the week is the temple called and asked the construction workers to hold off working on the bridge for their parade. Someone called the morning of said parade and said HAHA never mind you can start work…right now! Because that is what construction workers do, come out the second some says to. So what reason would someone have to make the bridge go under construction during what is the most important event ever in this tiny little town?

Most important line of the episode!!!

Once again this mystery required some extra information not given to the viewers at the time. How were we the viewers supposed to know the sakura blossoms were up early down the road and that they usually don’t happen this time of year? How we were supposed to know that younger dude was in college and wanted to be a photographer? It is all these tiny little details that creep up that make it almost impossible to solve the mystery. Unless you are characters in the show itself.

Clearly this was the real mystery, finding out how Eru found out so fast about the drama.

I really thought that Houtarou was going to be the one to solve the mystery. But I guess he did. He just didn’t come up with a solution to the parade route. Also how did Eru know to summon Houtarou to ask about the drama? Did someone rush in when she was getting dressed and was like DRAMA WITH THE MENZ?! Maybe she just heard the crazy voices in the hallway but I thought that was all a little magic. Also the way the men were freaking out was sorta humorous to me.

Houtarou can't fully comprehend all the sparkles.

The version of the episode I watched sorta cut in and out when the scenes got a bit fuzzy. But it cooperated enough for me to see the acid trip Houtarou was on. I really thought he was going to ruin the parade with his passing out. But he got a little overwhelmed about how magical and beautiful Eru looked. Houtarou is a boy after all. The parade was quite pretty and I can see how he got caught up in the moment.

Clearly Mayaka just said something super important.

After Mayaka and Satoshi were rude about the whole thing Mayaka and Houtarou talked for a minute. Clearly she hasn’t had time to talk to Houtarou alone in the past 45 days to talk about Valentine’s Day. So today is the day folks. She didn’t really give much information to Houtarou but I think he picked up on the fact that they might be a couple. The hint being Satoshi telling Mayaka that Houtarou yelled at him. Why would he be yelling? So Satoshi told Mayaka the whole story and they are now a couple.

WTF are you talking about?!

It was a bit sad that Houtarou didn’t get to see Eru in her full garb but he did get to see Irisu and her weird self. What was she talking about, Emperor for the day? Did she imply that Houtarou should be Eru’s Emperor for life? That would imply that Houtarou was jealous of Irisu? I don’t know that whole thing was weird. Eru being curious about the bridge was cute. She had to be good ALL DAY folks. XD It was just cute of her to talk to Houtarou like that and to write their guesses on their hands. Just the two of them sharing one last mystery together.

Yes, the long walk home we know.

The walk home from the parade was kinda sad. Even though I didn’t understand all the dialogue it was easy to understand that Eru’s family is what keeps things together in town and that west side/east side would be lost without them. Gangs would break out and drive by shootings would happen nightly. Sad indeed.

Well I would be sad if I was Eru.

Just kidding. Eru was talking about her family responsibilities and despite saying she was okay with it…she sounded a bit sad. Like this town isn’t that pretty, it is small, and basically I am their Queen. Who would want to stay here? Basically it was her way of saying that Houtarou should run away fast from her because she was stuck here but was okay with that.

Seems like a place where Houtarou could be low energy!

Only Houtarou and his inner self is completely okay staying in town. In fact his energy conserving self is ready to run the family business! X__X Surprising yes? But Houtarou and his blushing self couldn’t actually say those words out loud. No no folks he will just think this in his head and look at how pretty Eru looks in the sakura blossoms. I am sure Eru wanted more of an answer but she knows Houtarou. She was being forward enough explaining what her future was going to entail and that she might want Houtarou to join her in that future…but only if he understood what it was going to be about.

And now they are a couple yes?

So that is what Hyouka was all about. The mystery on how two people come together as a couple when they start the year off basically as strangers. Love is a mysterious thing. Yes there were some special moments with this show and nothing was set in stone with either couple. But watching Houtarou and Eru change…well mainly just Houtarou..over the course of the show, watching him become more opened with people and regain something he was missing in his life…it was fun to watch. This episode really did end the series well. Houtarou being the curious one, curious on what would happen if he let someone in his heart and stopped living life conserving energy. Maybe they didn’t need to say any words, Eru and Houtarou just know this town will be their home in the future and they will be together. Everyone say AWWWWW!