#[**”The Return of the Time-Honored Classic Lit Club”**](https://imgur.com/a/DQVoa8s)
##**Episode Summary and Some Notes**
Welcome to the Classic Literature Club!
We Open this Episode with an opening Monologue that for many modern anime fans and Light Novel readers will be very familiar, and perhaps fill a few of you with dread in what has now become a cliche.
The Loner Protagonist amidst happy blissful classmates filled with Youthful Zeal and Passion has a Dark Cloud Hanging over him. You can see it in how the colors he’s saturated in are in stark contrast to the bright and sickeningly warm and pink tones the envelope the rest of the scene.
He cares not to excel in Academics, Not join a Sports Team, or Pursue Romance.
I’d like to point out as he names off each thing, the Studies thing is self-explanatory he does not want to apply himself in Academics showing a lack of ambition in sharpening his mind, the Sports teams are not necessarily meant to be sports or athletic activity per se, but as we will see later a more general metaphor for developing an interest based on talent, the final one Romance has a double meaning in not just romance in our more modern sense per se, about Love, Dating, and Intimacy but a more classical sense of romanticism, the clubs he is passing are as he states this monologue during this segment are about frivolous and some would say pointless and nonsensical activities with very little practice purpose (Such as Fortune Telling), as opposed the Academics or Athletics. Which represent Diligent Study and Honed Talent respectively.
With that we have three pillars of what our Protagonist calls “A Rose Colored Life” he has directly rejected, re-enforced visually thought animation, coloring, and camera cuts.
As the series goes these three pillars, often in tandem with one another, will directly challenge the worldview of our protagonist.
As Oreki lays all this out, which is revealed as him chatting with his best friend (and only friend) Satoshi Fukube, he admits that such a life he seems to want to live (A Grey Life) does seem sad and lonely.
Of which his friend playfully chides him for it being self-destructive behavior. At this we are prompted for our main boys self proclaimed “motto”
> “If I don’t have to, I won’t, If I have to, make it quick”
Choosing a life of so-called “energy conservation.”
We also learn that the School Oreki attends is famous for their large selection of clubs despite how small and rural the region seems to be, he then defies his friends expectation by deciding to join the Classic Literature Club, strictly as a favor to his Elder Sister to keep her old club from closing down to lack of members.
Of course this still works out since as long as he basically squats in the Club Room it can serve as a personal space to laze about and not having to deal with others. As he is explaining to the audience he has nothing against people that expend energy but that it just “isn’t for him” we see him go out of his way to wait outside until the teacher and a student leave the room to get the key as if too avoid a possible confrontation of needless interaction.
Then as we pass by a Janitor and we see he has to use his Key to unlock the room, we come across as what can only be described as the Quintessential Boy Meets Girl as a Young Wide-Eyed Raven Haired Beauty and Our Boy Look eyes for the first time.
With that two things happen.
One the OP by ChouCho, [Yasashisano Riyuu](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hJiMN4Csjw) plays.
Second, Hotaro’s Energy Conservation Life is Now Doomed to come to an end.
Sadly this is not in the Crunchyroll Sub but Satoshi after making his (Not completely insincere) Joke about Oreki having a rendezvous with our Raven Haired Beauty, states his own motto
> “A joke last a minute, if it continues longer it becomes a lie.”
Keep that quote in mind.
From there Oreki despite his will, is utterly enchanted by his young girl, Eru Chitanda. Despite her being pushy, a little childish, and seemingly airheaded despite her excellent academic achievements, sharp senses, and impressive memory he can’t help but expend his precious energy and show his talent, and what is going to be an established set-up in the series, His Deductive Reasoning.
Oreki ends up joining (Almost against his Will) and Satoshi apparently joins, with a knowing smile, to see how far the ship with go.
The Second Half Oreki basically invents a M\mystery to distract Chitanda from a true mystery. Claiming this way would require less energy expending due to the physical distance traveled, but Satoshi rightly points out that is complete bullshit, he could have just told Eru No. (Or as the Crunchyroll subs states claim “He Doesn’t Know.”)
And interesting way to translate that, one way to read it, is despite what he claims, he wanted to also show off for Eru even if he didn’t want to put in the work to do so. Especially given Oreki’s quote to Chi about the so-called “Spider Society” Freshmen.
> “The inexperience can’t help but want to show off”
which Satoshi throws back at him.
As a final note before the discussion questions. I love the visual of Oreki being visibly overwhelmed by the activity on the Bulletin Board, even before the letters consume him there is a de saturation and grainy effect on the visuals in the shots, before we are called back to the more crisp and neutral colored “real world.”
##**Questions of the Day**
To Clarify there will be three sets of Questions, One for First Timers, one for Rewatchers, and one for our few Source Readers, the latter two sets will be more often than not spoiler tagged, and be sure to spoiler tag your answers. Even some first timer questions being answered by our rewatches might need some tags. So bear that in mind.
***QOTD***
**First Timers:**
1. Its become a stable for loner snarky protagonist to give a similar speech. Such as Hachiman’s “Youth is a Lie” or Tomozaki’s “Life is an unfair game.” I’ve often stated that such protagonists and set-ups took heavy inspiration from Hotaro Oreki and *Hyouka* and this show is responsible for popularizing the tropes and concepts. HOWEVER much like how *Minecraft* might had caused an explosion in building sandbox games and elements but it was itself borrowing elements from *Dwarf Fotress* and *Infiniminer.* What works do you think Hyouka is borrowing from?
2. Even Before Satoshi tells Eru that Oreki has a knack for solving things as opposed to he himself being a Database, Eru seems very determined to get Oreki to help her solve what happened with the locked door. Why do you think that is?
3. What exactly is Oreki “putting off” when he tricked Chitanda with the fake mystery? And what does it mean that he seems to realize that he is doing so, almost like an epitome.
4. What do you think of the OP? (We will talk about the ED tomorrow.)
5. Last Question for newcomers, in the ED and the next episode preview we are going to be introduced to a new girl, what do you think she is going to be like and what is her relationship to our other three cast members?
**Rewatchers**:
1. How does Satoshi’s Line about Jokes and Misunderstands up above foreshadow what is going to happen later in the series?
2. Is there anything in the OP that you think has reference to what happens later in the series?
3. How well does this episode do in setting up [Spoilers]>!The Solution to the Mystery of the First Volume of the Anthology and the fate of Eru’s Uncle!< ?
**Source Readers**:
1. In the Source Material there was [Spoilers]>!Less explicit romance between Oreki and Chitanda with various direction choices, visual imagery, and the fact that Oreki had already handed in his application rather than being under Eru’s spell in handing it over personally in the anime!< Why do you think they changed that?
2. In General the Novels [Spoiler]>!Are much less explicit with the romance between Chitanda and Oreki, where one could argue its not even present in the first Novel and was only added in later Novels, do you agree? If Not why do you think there was a change? Was it planned from the start or did the author change their mind? In Either case why choose to do it this way or why the change of heart? Why did the anime make said romance more explicit?!<
3. This is the only episode where [Spoilers]>!They have content from both the first proper Novel and the Fourth Novel as a Collection of Side Stories due to the anime choosing to go Chronological!< If you watched this as an anime only once could you tell? How does it stand out from the rest of the series?
4. What other changes have been made in this first episode as opposed from the Novels, do you approve or disapprove of these changes? Why so?
See you on the Next Meeting of the Classic Lit Club!
[**Index**](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/11eoitz/hyouka_rewatch_announcement_thread/)|[**Next**](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/12992kf/hyouka_rewatch_episode_2/?)
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