Hyouka is a self-declared true-to-life school story that chooses to rest its involvement on a pacific plain, far from intending to break the ground with whimsical stories, incomprehensible mysteries, or inventive personalities.

In fact, one notices that Hyouka is not a series that intends to hitch itself to a bigger plan, like a redemption arc or a monomyth. For many, Hyouka is a peaceful, comfort series, made to seek entertainment in the routine situations and details of an everyday life. The series communicates in the small mysteries that don't put lives on the rails, and in the small conversations that don't put relationships at risk.

A series as detached from fantasy as Hyouka usually does not have such a large budget to produce its sensory minutiae, however, this is not the case here. Hyouka has a gigantic production value. Oreki and Chitanda are absolutely beautiful characters with stunning designs. The landscapes, the movements, the music, and the details: all were made with great love and care. Simply LOOKING at Hyouka is an above-average artistic experience. So, for me, it was easy to consume the series. In most episodes, it mattered little whether I was understanding the mystery at stake. I was looking at something beautiful, and that was enough for me. For many others, however, that is not a compelling strategy.

In fact, what bothers me about Hyouka is exactly the shallow formula that surrounds its 22 episodes. There is no insurgent communication, no scripted rebellion. There is no suspense or entertainment value in its empty drama. There is no risk. There is no conflict. All the media categories that define Hyouka are shallow and mediocre.

Hyouka is boring.

Nothing will make you jump in excitement or make you cry. In fact, the series won't even TRY either of those things. The little mysteries are mostly trivial and insignificant, shrouded in purely explanatory and toneless dialogue. Although the large sum of budget available to the series sometimes enable the thought of making the plots more interesting with fantastical settings and surreal animations, the end of each arc resides in the status quo; each mystery resulting in another meaningless victory.

While each mystery stretches itself over and over, the development and relationships between the characters take a back seat. Small advances do not result in tangible differences, and the major climaxes of the series are portrayed in an untethered and tasteless manner. There is no depth to the characters beyond their initial facets, and the way the minor dramas are resolved is flat and inconvincing. Romance? There is no romance.
To mask the lack of substance, Hyouka needed to be one of the most visually brilliant series of the last decade. Much love has been given to a series that refuses to step out of its comfort zone and away from the generic facets of the slice-of-life genre.

Hyouka dwells in mediocrity. But it just looks way too good.