Hyouka Episode 11 is just plain good entertaining, and thought-provoking. Even with more bishoujo-themed anime from the Spring season deluging, it has enough ammo to still be a favourite among all of the currently-airing crop. It even pours more fuel into my desire to see a femdom doujin featuring Houtarou. Wait, scratch that, I’m yearning for one as I’m currently entertaining myself with finding ALL of the mystery references, puzzles, etc.

At last, my hunch from the last episode was proven correct — that Houtarou’s conclusion was lacking and he was entirely wrong about the entire story. When he was worked-up in trying solve the mystery, Houtarou examined most of the tarot motifs Satoshi proposed, and they actually made sense. To his annoyance, his symbol, Strength, was described as “symbolised by a lion controlled by a kindly woman.” and pictures of Irisu-senpai, his sister’s letters, and Chitanda came into his mind. An angsty confrontation between Houtarou and Irisu Fuyumi happened, and ended with the latter still appearing stoic to the former, but on the chat with Houtarou’s older sister she seemed to be moved by Houtarou’s words. In the end, Chitanda and Houtarou was able to speculate an alternate ending where there had been a different killer.

Episode Entertainment Factor Rating (EEFR): 80/100

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