Hyouka Blu-ray singles review

Hyouka was a work of love by Yasuhiro Takemoto. While he honed his directorial talent on works with comedy like Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu and Lucky Star, Takemoto had also worked on more serious titles like Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid and The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. He had read the “Classics Club” novel series by Honobu Yonezawa and found them fascinating. As Kyoto Animation was beginning to move away from relying on Kadokawa Shoten and TBS to provide them material to adapt, Takemoto pushed for one final adaptation of this Kadokawa Shoten novel series.  With how it could fit in Kadokawa Producer Ito’s schedule following Future Diary, it was a good choice since the first four novels only allowed 22 episodes worth of content. As with most Kadokawa titles (Future Diary being the weird exception), they released the show in 2-episode home video volumes for a total of 11 volumes. This is a review of all 11 Hyouka Blu-ray Limited Edition volumes.

Photography and resolution of anime

A couple years ago, I wrote a piece talking about the Anibin blog and how the author measured resolution of anime by using the television broadcast. Later on, I noticed that the methods used to judge the productions from Kyoto Animation was a bit suspect. Simultaneously, I started to notice the photography of shows a lot more, especially on the Blu-ray versions of the show. I’ve seen many people quote that KyoAni produces at 955.5p for main feature and full HD for openings and endings. I accepted it initially as I trusted Anibin as a source, but later I started to question that as the logic behind producing something like that didn’t add up. The following is a brief overview of the photography of anime and how that affects Anibin’s resolution guesses.

KyoAni CTFK 2013 Directors’ Dialogue Event Translated

This is a translation of the “Directors’ Dialogue” stage event held at CTFK 2013 in Kyoto, Japan. The attendees on this panel were Director Tatsuya Ishihara, (AIR, Kanon, Clannad, Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai!), Director Yasuhiro Takemoto (Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu, Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid, Lucky Star (episodes 5-24), Hyouka, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya), and Director Naoko Yamada (K-On! K-On! The Movie!, Tamako Market). The MC for this panel was Maiko Nishioka (Literature production and scriptwriter for Kyoto Animation). The transcript for this panel was provided by this blogger. Editing support comes from irrevilent.

2011 Japan Cultural Affairs Department Kyoto Art Festival – KyoAni roundtable

Forgive the long title, but that pretty much sums up what this translation is covering. In 2011, the Japanese Cultural Affairs Department held an art festival in Kyoto from October 29 to November 23. On November 3rd, the local animation studio, Kyoto Animation, had three of its employees come to talk and give input about the company. I found a blog that gave a good transcript of the roundtable and thought people would be interested in a translation of it. (images used w/o permission from the owners)

Hyouka episode 21-22 KyoAni comments

This is the final week of Gifu Broadcasting’s re-airing of KyoAni’s Spring 2012 series, Hyouka. For the past ten weeks, I’ve been translating the staff comments with each week’s episodes. Today finishes the final two episodes!

Hyouka episode 19-20 KyoAni comments

The KyoAni show Hyouka is currently being broadcast again in Gifu by Gifu Broadcasting this season. In order to celebrate the re-airing, I’m translating the staff comments for each week. This week’s episodes involves two Classics Club members creating their own mysteries.

Hyouka episode 17-18 KyoAni comments

As mentioned before, currently Hyouka is being re-broadcast this season by Gifu Broadcasting. This gives me the opportunity to look back and translate the staff comments for the two episodes broadcast each week. This week, we delve into the third big mystery of the show: the Jyuumonji event!

Hyouka episode 15-16 KyoAni comments

As mentioned before, currently Hyouka is being re-broadcast this season by Gifu Broadcasting. This gives me the opportunity to look back and translate the staff comments for the two episodes broadcast each week. This week, we delve into the third big mystery of the show: the Jyuumonji event!

Hyouka episode 13-14 KyoAni comments

Welcome back to another week of Hyouka comments. The series is currently re-airing on Gifu Broadcasting, so I’ve taken the opportunity to translate the staff comments of the two episodes that aired today. Well, as you’ll see, I had to get a little creative this week. Now, shall we venture back into Kanya Fest?

Hyouka episode 11-12 KyoAni comments

Today, we see why Houtarou ends up being a “fool,” what it takes to recover from being one, and just why the students at Kamiyama High School wanted to keep their festival to 5 days back in the 1960s. It’s the end of one arc, an anime original episode, and the start of a new arc! Let’s see what this week’s Hyouka comments say!