Whoa…this was definitely a spiritual reboot of Hyouka. Just some rather disorganised thoughts that occurred to me during the episode:

• Definitely not as much as a fan of Kobato and Osanai as I was of Houtarou and Eru, but they’re good enough to keep me watching.
• Backgrounds seem to have more animation than Hyouka, but maybe that’s just a byproduct of 13 years since Hyouka originally aired in 2011.
• The ED is…one of the EDs of summer, for sure. Love the shoutout to Hyouka with the shot of the staircase (pictured below). But the song is just jarring in a way that I’m not sure will ever grow on me. We shall see, however.
• Would love to see the source material for this become available in the west. While the series is a tad old, having started on 24 December 2004, the same link reveals the most recent entry in the series as having been published on 30 April…of this year! Holy shit…

ED screenshot, as aforementioned:

So this was the first thread I asked rikka to create. I’ll be waiting now on the episode to show up on nyaa.

What a difference a studio makes.

Also, capital punishment for bike thiefs sounds like a great idea right about now.

A beautiful episode, but I’m left not even knowing what kind of show this wants to be. Something felt off very early and I was waiting for the twist, but it seems it is still yet to come. Some scenes felt like they could be literal or metaphorical or somehow both, depending on what exactly is going on. Overall, I don’t know. If it keeps its secrets too hidden for too long, I could see this getting dull pretty quickly, but I’m eager to see if we get a crumb of understanding next episode. Either way Lapin Track is being added to my list of studios to keep an eye on (between this, Undead Murder Farce, and Sarazanmai).

4/5