No, unlike these generic shows, Hikaru no Ou is atmospheric, and slow-paced, with an amazing art style and storyline. All on a low budget.
Hikaru no Ou is an atmospheric show that lets the audience take in the world with stride. While it may seem slow-paced, there's purpose and meaning to every action. When people walk through the forest, the viewer gets to see through the creepy atmosphere and the fear of the unknown as to what lurks in its depths. Whether it be people talking, the simple act of moving around, scene cuts, or the simple task of eating food, the show is either worldbuilding or letting you know each character with its deliberate framing. Hikaru no Ou is filled with mystery, and the worldbuilding slowly lets the characters know the nature of everything. Even when there are times when characters explain what's going on, the show teases you with only small bits of information. There's no true info dump: the show exposes enough to understand the world, yet also lets you wonder about what's going on. Compare this to something like Haibane Renmei, where the show is just slow for the sake of lowering the budget. In this show, the slowness only accentuates the show and its environment.
The story is just a perfect execution of how converging storylines should be played out. Both characters don't know each other and are left to their own devices. There's a vague connection between them, but for the first half of the story, you get to experience them in their own environments and because of their largely different circumstances, you get to know the world through two lenses. Not only does this allow you to understand the world better, but it's also that much more satisfying when the characters meet up. It's not some Odd Taxi gimmick where a guy just "randomly picks" the MC's taxi car and bam, converging storyline. This show puts the characters in isolation, and it's only when you get to know each character do they start interacting with each other. There wouldn't be nearly as much impact if you were only introduced to one of the characters. You'd be watching characters that you just were introduced to that start influencing the plot. Instead, you have indescribable weight and empathy when Touko and Koushi bond over their common connections.
This links up to the faster-paced developments where everything that you've learned about the story converges. Tree people, the enma, fire hunters, sky-fire, Gods, deities, and the Flickering Flame. The slow-paced development in the beginning slowly starts to snowball into something big, and yet, it's not too fast. You're not given cheap plot twists to get some dopamine thrill, but rather, the clues that the show gives finally start to click together. You start to realize that certain things that were brought up start to make sense when Touko and Koushi interact with each other's circle of people.
And the pacing and art style only accentuate this atmospheric show. The art direction is phenomenal. The backgrounds are gorgeous, and the characters are realistically proportioned. The eyes, face, hair, and clothes of each character try to be realistic and less moe cringe. I'm sorry you don't have wide-eyed, pink-haired protagonists, but instead, some more true-to-real characters that are struggling to survive and find out the world's mysteries. The color tones are more muted and suited for the dark world that Touko and Koushi live in. There's no high-pitched girl that over-exaggeratingly cries out at cute dogs, nor is there some soppy romance. There's no shitty comedic manzai interjection that tries to lighten the mood of the plot when there is no need to. Even the main characters aren't any "chosen ones" with special powers, rather, they are at the whim of the greater powers. They can only try to influence and do what they can when they can.
It's just a shame that the show got screwed over by budget. The animation, when it counts, is super jank. I do admit that. There is not crappy CGI when it comes to characters, and the CGI on vehicles looks pretty good. The problem is the animation when people start doing a lot of movement. The choreography of the fights sucks. The animation looks weird, and even when people are running around, it looks weird sometimes. There are times when one-frame detailed storyboards are freeze-framed in place of actual animation. The fights when fire hunters fight enma don't look good. Of course, with how the OP looks and sounds, you can't tell me that this studio can't animate. Yet, even with these flaws, the art style, soundtrack, pacing, scene cuts, framing, and color tones combine to become something gorgeous. Yes, the show also suffers from certain pacing issues. Kun is barely characterized, and it does feel like the latter half of the show is rushed. I'm sure this comes with the 10-episode limit and having to cut down on the source material.
Even with these potentially devastating flaws, the intriguing converging storyline, art-style, and potent characters create one hell of a show.
