So Shoushimin Series turns out to be a split cour. Interesting – I guess that helps explain why it was only ten episodes, though it strikes me as the sort of series that could pretty much stop at any random point in the narrative and not have it feel out of place. I don’t know whether I’ll cover the second cour. One way or the other it won’t be in the poll a second time, it’s a decision I’ll make for myself. I give it credit for being different from pretty much everything else in anime, but I don’t know if that in itself is enough to keep me bought in.

Far be it for me to compare Shoushimin to Shakespeare, but I have have a much ado about nothing feeling when I look at these ten episodes. I do enjoy a good show about nothing, anime and otherwise – when done right, they can be masterpieces. But there really wasn’t enough of any one element to make this one genuinely interesting. It wasn’t funny enough to succeed based on humor, and the mysteries weren’t accomplished enough to carry the weight. The characters were neither interesting nor likeable enough to be the main attraction. It was just sort of a bunch of stuff.

Would this have worked if it had been the sort of KyoAni visual feast Hyouka was? Well, no show isn’t going to be better for being visually spectacular. Even if Hyouka had been as hollow as Shoushimin, it was so gorgeous that it would have been worth watching just for that. As is, the visuals here were just another of those middling elements that failed to make much of an impression. Ironically given the series’ title and theoretically its central theme, it suffered from nothing about it really being extraordinary.

I do like the fact that Jougarou actually told Yuki straight-out that she’s seriously screwed up. Call what she did to the girl gang what you like – I would say “entrapment” comes the closest to the mark – it was as Jougarou said a lie, and pretty twisted. And her trying to justify it by saying it was a pre-emptive act of self-preservation just cements the impression that Osanai is an incredibly self-absorbed and selfish person. She’s really doing him a favor by “breaking up” with him, though I have no doubt they’ll wind up back together soon enough. Though it would be more interesting if they became arch-enemies (but that wouldn’t work, as Yuki would have Kobato for lunch and make him pay the check).

As it stands, the setup for S2 seems to find both Jougarou and Osanai headed into actual relationships. With her it’s the redhead from the newspaper club (he does have a name, Takahiko). He has intel that the kidnapped girl the real newspapers are talking about goes to their school, but I don’t think he has any idea who it is. Kenken Watergates the idea of exposing the truth, leaving Takahiko pissed off. With Jougarou it’s Nakamaru Tokiko, who probably appeared earlier but in what context I’ve forgotten. She tries to call him “Jo” but Jo nips that one right in the bud.

More than anything, I think Kobato and Osanai wind up back together because they enable each other, and no one else could deal with being with them. That’s a matter for the second cour I suppose, along with whatever Yuki whispered to Kengo and that van blowing up in the final frames (was that the kidnap van?). Again, I’m unsure of where I stand going into all that. I’ll check the first episode or two out and see if anything is clicking with me and go from there. All the while hoping KyoAni and Yonezawa get over themselves and we get a second season of Hyouka someday.