Horimiya

(TLDR at the bottom, as always, thanks for reading)

*Obligatory I have read the manga statement*

Good lord, I don't understand the love for Horimiya.

Let's say we have a cookie jar. Each cookie represents an anime in the romance genre, and for anyone who loves loopholes, I mean anime with romance as the main genre as opposed to sub-genre. You could probably fit about a good 10, 15 or so anime in there. Of course, with Horimiya now in the mix, if I managed to take out the cookie representing Horimiya, it would neither look nor taste like a distinction.

In other words, Horimiya is #42897 of the ... countless romance anime with zero backbone or just a plain old cookie in this case. Not bad, but nothing memorable or spectacular either.

The plot is so basic that it can literally be simplified to a checklist which is similar to 90% of every romance anime. Otherwise, any deep explanation would be patronising, I am not here to belittle people, simply here to give my thoughts in the most necessary way. So we have:

- Popular girl is a tsundere (I will give props that she isn't stupid though)
- Gloomy dude is dense
- It is really hard to remember things I can't remember
- Gloomy dude fits in like everything is hallelujah despite his background
- Unnecessary scolding/arguments for the sake of drama, looks like Jun Maeda was working on Horimiya
- Not sure why I am doing this to myself, I really don't remember half things that go down in the anime
- Rejection of the truth from both MCs, because there needs to be some kind of story to last.
- Other things

Audiovisuals are alright, CloverWorks really not disappointing us with fluid animation. Audio, however, the anime depends on voice most of the time. I am almost certain that OST is nonexistent aside from the odd one or two moments. OP and ED are pretty good though.

Enjoyment-wise, I enjoy a lot of things, I would be a liar if I said I didn't like Horimiya. Sometimes I do find myself laughing here and there with what has been given, but most of the time my face is blank. I will watch the whole thing, but I don't have high hopes. The comedy is what keeps it standing, not that it is always good though.

TLDR:
Horimiya is very basic, so much so it camouflages with the rest of the genre, that isn't a problem, but don't expect too much from it either.


Horimiya is that one overrated anime of the season. Not sure why, but it is. I don't really want to say anything about this anime anymore, the reaction to this is very incomprehensible. Let's just say 5/10 and peace be with you. For anyone wondering, the next season isn't going to be any better.

By the way, Kimi ni Todoke is the distinction. Tastes like $100,000 golden ice cream. Would wholeheartedly recommend it.

[Overall Score: 8.5]
Horimiya is one of the most anticipated adaption ever. After years, when everyone gave up on an adaption, there was an announcement. It might not be an exaggeration to say that Horimiya is Winter 2021 most anticipated anime right after SnK final season. After reading the manga for so many years, I was also happy to hear the news. Did it live up to my expectations? Yes.

Horimiya feels like it’s about to cross that line between a light-hearted rom-com and an over the top romance drama, but it never does, which is a good thing (A reference from the Oscar winning film, Parasite). ... On one hand, we have stuff like overwhelming drama like White Album, on the other hand, we have Horimiya, which balances between drama and simplicity so elegantly. The simplicity of Horimiya is what makes it stand out from other rom-coms, and is part of the reason why the manga was crazy popular, long before the adaption.

Horimiya (Full title: Hori-san to Miyamura-kun) at first glance, might seem like the typical “Popular girl dates unpopular guy” story, but it isn’t. Kyoko Hori is a popular girl at her school, almost like an idol for students. Everyone looks up to her, this pushes a burden onto her, she always has to maintain her perfect-girl attitude in front of everyone else. After all, its the people around us who decide our social standing, not us. She has a side she doesn’t want to show to others. In one scene, a bunch of girls saw Hori near the supermarket, one of them exclaimed how she resembles Hori, but then they say that she was too ‘simple’ to be Hori. You can see the burden that is pushed onto her. It’s not easy being popular and act perfect when you are not. Hori only shows her simple and imperfect side to those she cares about a lot—like her family, her close friends like Yuki.
Miyamura on the other hand, is a gloomy student who barely converses with others. He can definitely pass off as a side character because he’s that unremarkable among students. In his flashbacks, we see Miyamura get bullied and ignored by his classmates, we also get to see him do his piercings by himself with a safety pin, side-by-side to those events. In this way, the act of piercing his ears comes as a response to the bullying. He also has tattoos on his body. So to hide all these features of him, he has grown shoulder length hair and wears a jacket, even in the hottest of days. He stands out among the other students in his school, but not in a good way.
One day, both Hori and Miyamura just happen to meet, but not under normal circumstances. Both of them show their hidden sides to each other. Miyamura happily accepts the real Hori, just like she accepts Miyamura. Thanks to Sota, their wingman, they spend a lot of time together and slowly starts developing feelings for each other.

The story is hardly remarkable at this point, so what is it that’s so good about Horimiya? The characters. I have to admit, the characters in this anime feel so much more genuine than I’ve seen in hundreds other rom-com. Horimiya is by far the most genuine feeling rom-com I’ve ever seen. The character interactions elevates this anime to another level. First off, the interaction between the quartet—Hori, Miyamura, Yoshikawa, Ishikawa, they feel so calming. There is a certain warm feeling in this anime, and it’s all thanks to the characters. It’s almost surprising how they can develop the side characters so well in an anime that focuses on two characters.

Yoshikawa is a character that hides her true feelings. She won’t tell people what she truly desires. As said by Hori, “The less she wants you to know she’s upset, the bigger she smiles”. True feelings can not always been shown, there are many circumstances to people. Ishikawa is a long time friend of Hori and Yuki, he is also becomes good friends with Miyamura. Though he’s one of the more simple characters, he cares about others a lot. When Yoshikawa tried to make cupcakes but it didn’t turn out well, Toru was poking fun at her, he happened to glance at her fingers and notice some bandages, which is proof how hard she tried to make those cupcakes. He immediately starts eating those, even though it looks inedible, he eats all of it, with a big smile on his face. There’s the student council president, Sengoku and Remi who have their own unique dynamic. He is with her because he thinks she’s weak and he likes the feeling like he can protect her. But actually, she isn’t weak at all. Remi lets him feel that way on purpose because she likes him so much. Kouno is also very insecure because she’s always with Remi, who’s like an idol at her school, similar to Hori. They are together so much, that some students call them “Beauty and the Beast” beauty referring to Remi, beast referring to Kouno. Similar to how Miyamura felt that he brought down Hori’s image by being with her so much, Kouno also feels the same.

Of course, not all the characters are good. There is Sawada, who’s the damsel in distress and cockblocks Miyamura for a few episodes. She’s annoying and doesn’t know the idea of personal space. She desperately forces herself into the cast and takes away screen time. There’s Yanagi, everyone pretends that he’s so hot and beautiful that in front of him, their own ugliness wants to make them puke. This whole bit with Yanagi is just not working at all and taking away the screen time.

The characters are definitely what makes Horimiya so great, but is that the only aspect of what makes this anime great? Definitely no.

CloverWorks is gaining a reputation because of their well directed anime. The Horimiya anime (much like Kimetsu no Yaiba) is a lesson in how to properly adapt a manga series. The anime’s direction, pacing and the excellent voice cast elevates every scene to the next levels. Ishisama is a great director who knows what he’s doing. The opening of Horimiya is possibly the most well-directed opening of Winter 2021. CloverWorks is quickly becoming one of my favourite studios. The camera work in this anime has been pleasant. Especially the moments of vulnerabilities, I was wondering how will they handle that, but it was handled amazingly. When the background goes white and vibrant watercolors shift their silhouettes, you know that they’ve given extra care to the more dramatic scenes of Horimiya. Horimiya is a treat, beautifully animated by CloverWorks.

The beautifully animated scenes, combined with the OSTs, especially during the dramatic scenes, the sound is yet another aspect Horimiya thrives at. Starting from the mesmerizing opening sequence, which perfectly fits Horimiya’s theme, to the unique ending sequence.
One other thing that I must separately mention is the dialogue delivery. This is one of the most important factors to me when I watch an anime. The dialogue delivery feels WAY TOO genuine. The casts are so talented because it is music to my ears. There is no girl who talks in a high pitched voice which is borderline annoying, even Remi talks in a normal way, I expected her to sound annoying. Dialogue delivery is definitely one of the thing I expect the anime to do well, since it doesn’t exist in manga. And Horimiya absolutely nailed it, starting from the conversations to how they were executed, all of it.


In summary, Horimiya is a satisfying adaption. Many people will find plenty of reasons to hate it, since even I admit that this isn't a perfect anime or something. For example, people might not like Hori's masochistic side or how he often hits Miyamura. Honestly, it doesn't matter to me. I am well aware of the fact that Hori is a bit violent in nature, but it is explained why, and it's not like she's the Tsundere from Zero no Tsukaima (An actual bitch), she admits her mistakes and admits how she knows she was wrong but she blames it on Miyamura anyways, she can't help it. Miyamura chose to accept that side of her, so who am I to judge what's good for him? Besides, S&M is getting more popular day by day among people, I'm here to watch anime, not to kinkshame anime characters.
After waiting for so long, I am nothing but happy to receive such a quality adaption. This definitely lives up to the manga. The manga ended weeks ago, and I was looking forward to the anime every week. This Winter season has been a pleasant ride, with a mix of almost everything, Horimiya takes the spot of the best rom-com. It adapts the starting few chapters, which is the glorious chapters of Horimiya, even in the manga, so naturally I enjoyed it to the fullest. This is as best as it gets, so if you didn’t like this, don’t go into another season or into the manga.

As for me, Horimiya is all I could ask from an adaption. Through ups and downs, the anime has proven itself with the stellar direction, well written and likeable characters, and an acceptable story. It definitely became one of my all time favourites. Since I have no Horimiya chapters to look forward to every month now, I’m gladly waiting for a second season :)

Anime touting a gimmick always worry me. They throw in these attention grabbers in an attempt to say "Hey look! I boast something different than those other shows of the same genre and concept as me, come and watch!" But they often end up being entirely one dimensional because they solely revovolve around that one singular idea. Then the author realizes that they actually need more than a unique shtick to write a story and fail to craft an engaging narrative filled with expressive characters to support it. Whoops!

I'm worried because Horimiya so far feels like yet another example of this for the RomCom genre. ... It reels us in with the premise. Two characters who hide their true selves from everyone but each other? How exciting! Though my first issue is that their super special awesome secrets are...that one has piercings and the other does a lot of housework? Hmm...doesn't even sound that creative to be honest. And also, their "secrets" aren't even much of a big deal. I mean the main dude Izumi shows a purple haired guy his tattoos early on and nothing really becomes of it. But I get it. An author needs to have something about their work that draws people in. Though in the end, the premise doesn't seem to have much of a point besides getting the main characters to kick off their relationship. So I guess it ultimately served an adequate purpose. Just don't come into this anime thinking that the protagonists are going to have a lot of exciting drama or the like surrounding their, as the anime calls it, "hidden selves." Though maybe they will later on. It just doesn't feel like the show will go in that direction at all based on what's been released thus far.

Now we just gotta see if the RomCom elements are able to hold up. As of now, it's fine. But I wish it was more than that. It's primarily about the school and home lives of Hori and Miyamura...get it? HORI MIYAmura? Their names are the title!...I'm embarrassed that it took me so long to figure this out...

Well anyway, I hate to throw this term out, but generic is definitely the word I'd use to describe Hori so far. She's a nice girl who has a violent, more tsundere side, but it isn't nearly as endearing or entertaining as say someone like Taiga from Toradora. And besides the bit of intrigue surrounding why Izumi did his body up to look like a level 1 hoodlum when he takes off his Clark Kent glasses, he's just been a shy, stuttering nice guy who doesn't know how to make friends. I enjoy watching wholesome friendship making as much as the next guy, but seeing Izumi take an episode to learn that not every student in existence is a bully who says mean things wasn't really that interesting. The pair are definitely not bad characters, I just hope I'll get to see further development for both of them down the line.

The supporting cast seems interesting enough. I mean, they have a pretty exotic assortment of hair colors...Let's just hope there winds up being more to them than just fun hair colors. Speaking of coloring, I like the visual direction of the anime. While nothing spectacular, the art is pretty solid, and despite some basic backgrounds, I'm happy with how vibrant the show looks. CloverWorks has done a great job with the animation, especially considering that they're handling the production of three anime this season. The voices fit the characters, though the soundtrack has been pretty unmemorable for me...yeah, I didn't really pay much attention to the audio to warrant any time discussing it, so moving on!

What else can I say, this anime has been pretty average so far. I can watch RomComs like Clannad and Chuunibyou in one sitting and be completely entranced by them. What's especially important is that good RomComs really grasp my attention and intrigue within the first few episodes. Horimiya so far has not had that effect on me whatsoever. I hope it's able to evolve into something much more as the show progresses.

Or it can just be a funny and cute casual show. That would work too.

A great take on Rom-Coms… y'all need to chill on the hate

Romcoms usually take a misstep and follow a formula of cliche tropes and becomes something that becomes hard to watch, this does the exact opposite. As a person who loves romcoms and romance type anime, this anime hits all the points for a great and original romance.

The characters are a major factor in this anime that creates a more entertaining anime. Our two main characters complement each other and create moments of awe that we will never have.

Izumi Miyamura is a different type of MC. He isn’t the braindead MC, but a realistic ... one. He creates moments of awe and possesses a new type of creativity in his looks, from otaku to badass real quick. His lovable character adds depth to Horimiya which I for one enjoy.

Our tsundere waifu, Kyouko Hori, is the definition of the love you are missing. As a person that has read the source material, I can appreciate the adaptation towards the romance they cross with each other. Kyouko herself is a wonder, and although she might be a tsundere she doesn’t feel like that generic tsundere, no she gives off vibes of a real person in love.

The animation and art are a great asset to this anime. CloverWorks adapted the anime nicely and on top of that, the show has amazing animation, always reminding myself of the love I will never have every time I watch an episode. The art is unique, to say the least, it provides us with a special take on the romcom generic art style we are used to seeing. Both animation and art are a different take on a unique romcom.

As we all know this is a romcom so let’s talk about enjoyment. As a person who is biased for romcoms, I can tell you without a doubt this anime is an enjoyable and entertaining anime that will make you see the love that is nonexistent for all of us. If I were to be unbiased I can say without a doubt this anime is an enjoyable and entertaining anime that will make you see the love that is nonexistent for all of us. Watch it and don’t mind the hate that came from who knows
where.

The sound is great, but not too special. It brings sounds that will entrance you into the romance. The OP and ED are a nice addition to the rom-com, bringing unique sounds. The soundtrack follows the same as the usual romance anime of this sort, almost generic, but overall great.

Overall, this anime brings unique assets that the rom-com genre desperately needed.

Animation: 8
Characters:8
Story:6
Sound: 6
Enjoyment:8
Overall: 8

"You are worth more than you know, capable of more than you think, and loved more than you can imagine."

Undoubtedly the rom-com of the season, Horimiya has the potential to be great in every aspect of the genre, but the elephant in the room is obviously CloverWorks and the production team behind this show: the classic case of quantity over quality. I'd like to think that we're playing a baseball match with CloverWorks for Winter 2021: Strike 1 for the horrible adaptation of The Promised Neverland (Season 2), Strike 2 for the abominable business practices of hampering Wonder Egg Priority's Behind-the-Scenes tragedy of director Shin ... Wakabayashi and his production team, and finally Strike 3 for what is a total-misfire repeat of Strike 1 of going for a loose and inconsistent adaptation of the original source material (since it's basically marketing for the already completed manga). And you're out!

"You say "There's more to this than meets the eye" when you think a situation is not as simple as it seems to be."

The main star of the show is the central couple: Hori Kyouko and Izumi Miyamura, two very distinct people, and so different-yet-alike each other. The former is a perfect social butterfly but the truth that she’s a brash homebody; the latter hiding a gentle heart, along with piercings and tattoos while under a gloomy façade. Both have things that don't want people to know that are best kept in secret, and a chance meeting proves to break the mirrors of their perceptions and in the perchance, solidify their relationship altogether within that short span of time. As time grows, both Hori and Miyamura learn of each other's quirks and what makes them tick that helps make their relationship grow stronger by the day. Kinda cute in spots, and to the people whom are having a relationship with their significant other will definitely feel those puppy-love moments that are relatable...well, except for some cringe S&M moments (unless the girls are like bad-ass Hori that secretly adores boys like bad-ass Miyamura, and vice versa) and the eccentric familial conditions.

"If I look at the one thorn that is in my side of all my life, it is my weight. I fret about it, I'm anxious about it, being an actor on TV - it drives me insane. It just seems to be something that plays a central part in waking up in the morning and thinking: "How am I with myself today?" - Deborah Mailman

You would think that for such a self-titled show that all you're gonna see is how these two central characters would blossom, right? But instead of the rose that we got with Hori and Miyamura's relationship, there are more thorns on the stem of the side characters, as significant or insignificant as they may be (that's to your POV that I won't judge). By themselves, the side characters can be taken as a side story altogether, but since they're connected to the main bubbly girl, I'd guess that this works primarily to advance their circumstances, rather than being tied onto the main couple, and for a rom-com that deems to be a romantic "drama" altogether, I'm not sure if mixing in too much of slice-of-life moments is a good choice. Pretty much like Tomozaki-kun, the best way to infer is through the clique method:
- Toru Ishikawa, Yuki Yoshikawa, Akane Yanagi and Hori herself.Toru being avid about his prospects of getting together with Hori only diminishes when he sees that the central couple are getting closer, quicker than it looks on the outside. Instead, he tries his best to steer clear of that direction, leading him to Yuki...but not quite the "closeness" as of yet. It's with the fickle-minded Yanagi that consciously brings Toru and Yuki close together, despite both playing the friendship treatment of going so far as to notice the affinities they have for each other. A potential couple, but played off as one of friend-zoning.
- Kakeru Sengoku, Remi Ayasaki and Sakura Kono (with a wild Toru on the side): the Student Council trio. For the most part, both Sengoku and Remi has had quite the relationship with each other: a weak but capable guy and a bubbly, playful girl whose differences match one another, and they're as close to being realistic and vulnerable towards each other in their moments of time alone. Sakura is quite the character that most people will feel quite frustrated about, but for those who've gone though the love ennui moments of noticing your crush from afar, you'll definitely find yourself in Sakura's shoes. She's an introvert through and through, but someone who's an extrovert when trying to reciprocate between the give-and-take of feelings, as such when she develops a crush on Toru, only to find that his kindness is returned, but not in the way she expected it to be. And it hurts real bad.
- Miyamura, Koichi Shindo and Makio Tanihara (with a wild Hori on the side): the middle-school "Happy Three Friends" of a convoluted past. The reason why Miyamura is surfaced as a lonesome otaku geek at the beginning is because of Tanihara and his clique of friends who used to bully Miyamura for his ostracized looks, to the breaking point where what Miyamura once confided in was taken away from him, leading to the gloomy aspect. It's only through Shindo that Tanihara would come to start accepting Miyamura for who he is, with the heart talks between both cementing the reconciliation years later. Other than that, Shindo is the casual butt of a joker, and with Hori adding into the equation only makes the S&M aesthetic look more prominent.
- The others who have significantly less screentime: Shu Iura is the objectively loud airhead of a character whom is exactly like Shindo, Honoka Sawada whom is seen as the detractor of the Horimiya relationship, and the Hori family of a beautiful, yet somehow kinda "broken" family (in particular to Best Dad Kyosuke).

Ideally I would want to paint this picture as someone whom has been in a relationship, but for the general audience, whether you're in one or not, Horimiya is as bare-bones as it can be, trading the romance aspect for its comedy of the Pareto Principle: 80% comedic slice-of-life, 20% romance.

“We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness — and call it love — true love.” – Robert Fulghum

I find it quite the fascination of not just the OST that Horimiya has, but more of less its visuals and the intended picture of how people are supposed to perceive both the small and big moments, and this is something that I have to give the animators credit for. Starting off with the OP, it's interesting that there's 2 variations of Miyamura's theme: the 1st half where Miyamura is just like his old self, from reaching for the cube alone to most characters feeling dejected and frustrated, to the 2nd half where Hori's hand reached out for Miyamura with the cube, to the director's credit roll of him slicing the monochrome feel to showcase the colours of life with happiness overflowing. Capping off with the ED, it's using the twixt of a mix of animation in a dress-up model style between the central couple. Even with scenes that are depicted in the style of the OP of the potential couple-like feels, it's these Easter Eggs that not everyone will notice, but I thought it's worth mentioning. As for both OP and ED, it sounds great, no faults there.

If I can sum Horimiya up in a quote, it'd be this one by the famous Jamaican singer-songwriter Bob Marley:
“You open your heart knowing that there’s a chance it may be broken one day and in opening your heart, you experience a love and joy that you never dreamed possible. You find that being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure that’s so real it scares you. You find strength in knowing you have a true friend and possibly a soul mate who will remain loyal to the end. Life seems completely different, exciting and worthwhile. Your only hope and security is in knowing that they are a part of your life.”

As mentioned in the beginning, it's a loose adaptation of HERO and Hagiwara Daisuke's manga of the same name, but if I'd reckon something that the anime lacked over the manga, it's good progression. The anime felt mostly like the typical slice-of-life situations of characters gone awry, and though the allegory of what got lost as the series progressed, so to did the anime that had to relinquish some good character development moments for simpler ones, and that to me, is a shame of how much Horimiya could've been on par with the manga, but it wasn't meant to be...

...or so could be best said: "The source material is so much better."

On the surface, Horimiya is a finely polished anime—Glistening character art, bright lighting, realistic backgrounds, glittery visual effects. Every voice actor's suited their character, and their performances are convincing. Both the opening and ending credits are slickly animated with the utmost care and talent. The original soundtrack is average, but it fits every scene. Though I was immediately drawn to this anime for its impressive technical qualities, they weren’t good enough to overlook the subpar writing.

Beneath the superficial presentation, Horimiya is a computer-generated romantic comedy story that thinks in cliches: It merges tropes from the mediocre rom-com anime with the worst parts of sappy shoujo ... dramas. I should start by saying, I have never read the manga and this subpar anime didn't convince me I should.

Chances are you've heard this premise before: A male high school student with no friends meets a girl through a chance encounter. She's popular at school; still, she works hard to take care of her family, and she doesn't have time to socialize: The pair bond over their secretive lives. Despite his edgy appearance, the girl does not judge the boy. She encourages him to come out of his shell and find friends. In return, he does everything within his capability to make her happy. While it is a bog-standard plot, Horimiya was my kind of show. It had a simplistic trajectory: Make progress on Hori and Miyamura’s first love, tackle sexual awakenings, develop the side characters, and develop the themes of self-acceptance. That’s not quite how it went. Instead, they rushed through the story at a breakneck pace while repeating identical jokes and throwing in endless cliches. Fake dating scenarios, love triangles, perpetually pissed off heroines, and a tidal wave of misunderstandings.

Even though the premise was simple, I liked seeing Hori and Miyamura together. Their relationship felt genuine; beginning as playful friends who got along despite their differences. Miyamura was a cipher at first—Quiet and introverted, he does not like school, cliques, and social requirements. He spoke very little about his personal life and he stood out from every other generic character design. Simply looking at him raises questions: Why does he have tattoos, nine piercings, and such long hair? All of these questions are answered in a very cut and dry manner. About two minutes of each episode is saved for flashbacks to his dark past. His backstories are presented with washed-out colors, quiet background sound, and darkened backgrounds to highlight his depressed state of mind. The solid presentation makes his melodramatic past seem more interesting than it is. With Hori's help, he overcomes his trauma, depression, and isolation (rather quickly). Miyamura's most significant obstacle was his inability to say how he truly felt. Characters joke about it because they reference how stereotypical his behavior is. If your story makes fun of a genre cliche, then repeatedly uses it, you are not subverting anything. The story is aware it is annoying and it does not care.

Miyamura is a respectful guy; he's not possessive of Hori. He does everything she asks, and then some. When his friend Toru asked him for permission to date Hori, he said 'it's her choice' because he's a decent person. Most importantly, he had plausible reasons for falling in love with her. His first reason was, "She doesn't judge people based on looks." She embraced him even though society frowns up students with long hair, piercings, and tattoos. In reality, kids would be lining up to be friends with someone like him—but we need anime high school drama logic! So let's say being Cool makes him Uncool. Hori's classmates made fun of her for dating Miyamura since he's so uncool. Though she never let their words bother her. She accepted him, which made his high school experience better. He's the perfect guy for her. Yet in love stories, there's a problem if one of the partners is a little too perfect.

Miyamura does anything he can to make Hori happy, even at his own expense. Though the story frames his selflessness as something good, his dedication strips him of individuality and all intriguing aspects. Such as to prevent Hori from getting teased, he cut his hair and stopped wearing his piercings because people looked down on him for them. However, Hori never needed help. I hate how the show frames his edgy appearance as a problem he must fix to have a good relationship. Part of what made this show so appealing was Miyamura's distinct appearance from generic high-school anime protagonists. As we found out, that amounted to little more than a marketing gimmick. In the first few episodes, it pitched itself as an emotional portrayal of bullying and depression, but those themes were bait. When it comes down to it, this show doesn’t give a rat’s ass about “Not judging people by their appearance.” When Miyamura tells his friends about people talking behind his back, they tell him to man up—in a show about bullying that we’re meant to take seriously.

The only problems in their relationship that weren't Hori's fault were caused by contrivances. Miyamura's phone dies for five days, so Hori goes into panic mode and assumes the worst. The grand reunion is played up with dramatic slow motion, loud, emotional music, but it rings hollow. It's meant to feel like they've been apart for a long time, but to us, it was only five minutes. What should've been a significant turning point for their relationship felt inconsequential. Alone, this one contrived moment isn't a big deal; however, it is a persistent problem with the anime. The pacing issues are more noticeable the longer the show drags on. However, no amount of adaptation magic could've saved Hori from being an awful person. She treats Miyamura like sewage water—yet no one ever meaningfully criticizes her, so she is never redeemed! No matter what Miyamura does, she’ll yell at him, whack him, or get silently pissed off.

Girls compliment him? WHACK!
She's feeling nervous? WHACK!
He compliments her? WHACK!

There's no winning with her. She's like every bad shoujo author's idea of a strong female character. Making your heroine hit and berate her boyfriend totally makes her a girl boss. These 'issues' only got worse the longer they dated. First, she became possessive, then jealous, angry, and creepy. Mind you, Hori's short temper is not a character flaw. No, it's merely a sign of her love! Because this is how sane people act when they're in love, right? Hori could work on solving her anxiety and jealousy by communicating with her boyfriend. Or better yet, she could confide in her parents, who occupy background space for no reason. Her little brother acts as a bridge between the two when they're having one of their misunderstandings. When Hori finally expresses why she is upset about Miyamura getting attention from other girls, it is revealed to be all in her imagination! If they were able, to be honest, then these misunderstandings would stop. But we can't have that. We need Hori to be jealous because that's one of her three jokes! If I remember this show three months from now, it will be for those God damn misunderstandings.

Relationships are about compromise. Loving someone requires giving and taking. Hori takes, Miyamura gives. Some relationships are acceptable this way, but this one is toxic. Miyamura is the glue that keeps them together because he's always patient and submissive. When Hori asks him to act dominant by berating and hitting her, he tries. Expectedly it didn't work, but it's not just played off as a joke. Hori asked him to be dominant, and she always gets what she wants. This is the level of humor in the second half of the show. She constantly asks Miyamura to hit her and insult her. He says no, and that he's not into that—yet she continues to pester him! I would've ghosted her at this point, but he is perfect; therefore, he mustn't reject his queen. He even tries S&M it for her sake, but it makes him uncomfortable. Even stranger, they do their S&M shit in public. Their classmates just watch it happen and say "Wow Miyamura is so cool..." for calling his girlfriend a bitch. What kind of bizarre alternate reality is this writer living in? Still, Hori keeps asking him. If you're a masochist, and your partner isn't a sadist, don't force them to be one! To make her happy, he ignores his discomfort to berate and slap her. The writer must've assumed S&M just meant consensually abusing your partner in broad daylight. No, that is not how it works, nor is it good humor.

Miyamura confides in Hori's father, saying he feels uncomfortable with the S&M dynamic and asks for help. Finally, he spoke his mind! Hori's father tells her how Miyamura feels and to be considerate of her boyfriend's feelings. I felt blessed; finally, the show listened to my cries: Please stop being boring! You'd assume this would be enough to get through to her… but no, she responds with, "Stop blabbing about stupid crap and help me out with the chores." This could've been a problem they resolved to strengthen their relationship, but no, it is played off for humor. I knew for certain Hori wouldn't get any worse than this. Right?

Wrong. It's time to address the worst joke. Miyamura expresses attraction and considers dating other guys; it's apparent he's bisexual. That's cool! Bisexual people are great partners... though Hori would disagree. At the slightest implication that Miyamura is bisexual, Hori says, "Gross," with a nauseated expression. A little bromance? "Gross." To get the joke, we have to understand it from the way she does, and that is to believe it's gross. Very cool, girl boss.

Toru's entire character encapsulates this joke. He was in love with Hori, but he got turned down in the first episode. Afterward, he stuck around to support Miyamura. The thing is, he's into guys too! He'll call a guy attractive, then everyone will go, "Whaaaaat?" How quirky! I swear some of his dialogue was ripped straight out of a BL manga. This isn't just a Hori thing. Random extras act disgusted when they see Toru being friendly with Miyamura. They tease romance with full intention of never making it happen because it's bait. So what's the point of the joke? There is none—the show tries to have its bisexual cake and eat it too.

Every supporting character can be placed in at least one of three categories: 1. Nice on the outside, mean on the inside. 2. Constantly acts happy to avoid burdening others. 3. Too dumb to understand what's happening. Although some of them get a few seconds of characterization, it is skipped for the sake of dramatic romance. Ultimately none of their side plots mattered. They're simply a diversion from the primary couple, who could use more screen time because the anime skims through dozens in the blink of an eye. You probably won't remember all of their names, but thankfully their candy-colored hair makes it easy to tell them apart.

Hori's friend, Yoshikawa, falls into all three. Her character flaw is that she has trouble communicating. She acts sweet to make everyone around her happy, but she actually does it because she's a spiteful person underneath. Like most of the cast, she narrates her thoughts and puts herself down because she lacks self-worth for unknown reasons. She hides her emotions for the sake of others to not be a bother. Aside from Very Original character writing, this doesn't make her unique. Everyone in the show is terrible at communicating—not because this is true to actual high school students, but because it's repetitive writing. It's never a mystery what a character is thinking, and if you can't tell, the directing makes it even simpler.

When they don't know how to communicate the characters' thoughts, they just put a text box on-screen. Adapting a manga involves more than copying and pasting panels—you creatively develop ways to show emotions through body language, music, camera angles, and editing. The extent of Horimiya's visual storytelling is by focusing on a character, slow motion, changing the backdrop to a white wall, and adding a colorful shadow. The first time, it was unique. It conveyed Hori and Miyamura's thoughts. Even though they were evident without the sudden art style change. Then they kept doing it. Eventually, it would happen five times per episode for each side character. It lost its effect right away and became forced. There are numerous more ways to convey the character's thoughts without recycling this mindless visual effect. It just made me roll my eyes. Before it felt personal like I intimately knew who these people were. But then it happened again. Then again. And before I knew it, every irrelevant character had their little introspective moment and I realized I didn't know these people at all. By the end I still had big questions, even about the main characters, for one—why does Miyamura continue to date Hori even though she's a toxic asshole?

Nearly everyone has said Horimiya is a masterclass romance, that it is the anime of the season. All I saw was a subpar, run-of-the-mill anime weighed down by superfluous characters, annoying misunderstandings, rushed pacing, and a viscerally unlikable heroine. After sprinting past over a hundred chapters, the story screeches to a halt at the thirteenth episode with a tearjerker ending. I enjoy watching shamelessly corny love stories that make me tear up with joy. But I don't like anime that are so cliche that they do the tearing up for me. If you're new to anime, a lover of romcoms, and have a high tolerance for cliches, you'll get a kick out of this. To everyone else, there are much better choices than Horimiya.

KareKano is a 1995 shoujo manga with a 1998 anime adaptation directed by Hideaki Anno.
Here are some quotes from its synopsis:
“Yukino Miyazawa is the female representative for her class and the most popular girl among the freshmen at her high school... However, in reality, she is an incredibly vain person... She wants nothing more than to be the center of attention and praise—which is why she cannot stand Soichiro Arima, the male representative for her class and the only person more perfect than her...
...Soichiro visits Yukino house to bring her a CD and sees her uninhibited self in action; now equipped with the truth, he ... blackmails her into completing his student council duties. Coerced into spending time with Soichiro, Yukino learns that she is not the only one hiding secrets.”

That should sound familiar if you watch the first episode or at least read the synopsis of Horimiya. That’s because Horimiya is nothing but a bottom-of-the-barrel generic shoujo. And I’m not implying that Horimiya copied the “guy and girl discover each other’s secrets” premise from KareKano specifically - when KareKano did it, it already was a dead horse trope of the shoujo genre, similar to how Evangelion was satirizing accidental boob-grabs and running with toast in your mouth during the same time frame.

What is unique about this generic shoujo is that it got published in a shounen magazine - and this is the reason behind all the hype the anime got from the source material readers. When a typical newbie shounen fan whose reference pool consists of 5-10 WSJ titles encounters their first-ever popular non-shounen, their mind explodes and they assume this must be some work of creative genius and originality, oblivious to how primitive and cliched it actually is. And those works always ARE primitive and cliched by definition - they wouldn’t come into a lowest common denominator’s field of vision without having the lowest common denominator appeal. It’s a well-known phenomenon with examples in every major genre. E.g. K-On is a baby’s first CGDCT, High School DxD is a baby’s first ecchi, Oregairu is a baby’s first harem romcom, Monster is a baby’s first psychological drama, etc, etc, etc.

Well, being generic isn’t in itself a problem - being low-quality is. Let’s get back to the “secrets” premise. In KareKano the female lead poses as an honor student, but secretly is a vain bitch, and the male lead poses as a nice guy, but secretly is a rapey brooding bad boy (note: every male lead in shoujo is rapey, it’s a shoujo law). Okay, makes sense. Meanwhile in Horimiya, the female lead poses as a popular girl, but secretly is... a good elder sister swamped with chores? Wow, what a secret. And the male lead looks like a nerd, but secretly has tattoos and piercings... but is still a gentle and nice guy? It’s almost like the writer is a hack and just mindlessly copy-pasted the premise other shoujo series do without even understanding how it’s supposed to work.
The series is crawling with all the usual suspects of shit writing, such as inconsistent tone (the show treats a male teacher making perverted comments about a student’s small boobs like a gag, thinks that it has any right to pretend to be grounded or dramatic after) - but by this point, I’m wasting my time arguing that water is wet. Those who have seen water should know it themselves, those who haven’t and aren’t familiar with the concept of “wet” won’t get it anyway.

Tl;dr: another mainstream series hyped by manga readers as best thing ever turns out to be entry-level trash, who could’ve seen that coming.

A show containing the typical elements you would find in most Shoujo: the bishounen tropes where guys are drawn prettier than girls, colorful sparkling backgrounds for short scenes that are supposed to be cute and a school romance atmosphere intended to make the heart of teen girls go dokidoki depicting the usual (unrealistic) fantasies girls have around that age:

- A boy that is a nice guy but at the same time has a "rebel side": MC looks like a regular guy at school but wears piercings outside of school. How rebel is that, uh? Oh, his beauty level is also supposed to be increased dramatically ... just by removing his glasses.

- A boy that is calm but at the same time has a "wild manly" side: MC resorts to unnecessary violence and the whole thing is simply shrugged off with a puppy face saying "I got a bit angry" (you can imagine the girly screaming audience "aww he can protecc")

And generally speaking, an environment with multiple pretty boys where teen girls can choose their best husbando. There's almost no drama in this show, most issues being resolved quickly with maybe an occasional cat-fight between boys. The focus is mostly in "cute" moments while severely lacking in the comedy department.

By the way, the deep secret or hidden identities of the main couple that you read in most synopsis texts for this anime is exactly as it's written, and nothing more: the boy has tattoos and piercings, and the girl does housework... and that's it. Why doing chores at your own house is worth mentioning as a secret identity? it's beyond me, but in case you were waiting for a deeper meaning, you will be disappointed.

So what to do if you want to sell an average girly story in a competitive market? How about you put a label to it saying "this is for young boys", maybe also throw in a creepy pervert teacher character to show up occasionally harassing his underage female students (because that's what young boys like to see, right?). Result: pure marketing genius.

If you're already a fan from the manga, please enjoy the anime adaptation and have fun choosing which one of the boys has the prettiest tongue. If you're new to this anime, please be aware that you may be mislead by the "genre" labels, the synopsis and the initial hype from manga fans.

Overall, I cannot recommend this show.

Normally don't watch a lot of romance animes, or don't have a major interest in them. But this show is far different for me. To the point I'm for sure am gonna read the manga afterwards because of how great I find it. It's one of the best of the season, and let me explain why.

Story and characters
The story follows a case of misjudging another, which leads to surprise interactions, which develops into a wonderful friendship. As we meet the actual Izumi, and not the one thought of by his classmates for years on end, believed to be an otaku, when really he's an average ... guy with piecing and tattoos. Nothing dangerous, just a much more chill guy then imagined before, as he ends up looking after Hori's little brother and meeting Hori, who is beyond surprised by Izumi's appearance and who he truly is, and it's cute to see. It follows from there, as more within Hori's circle of friends end up knowing Izumi more, and it really feels like a Clannad style vibe of watching close friends together, really good stuff.

The characters are interesting, and their interactions within the show are top notch. The 2nd episode in particular, with how Hori was acting, it was goofy, funny, and silly all in one. Highly entertaining. As for how they are in general, Hori is sweet and kind, very hardworking, but can have a little temper at times, but that's more down to being surprised and unsure on a few occasions. Izumi is super relatable in terms of who he is, the average guy, who just kept to himself, and has very real feelings when dealing with all this new friendships placed upon him. While their friends are very supportive in their own way. Really lovely stuff.

Art and sound
The art style is really great to look at, the colours are vibrant, where it be the backgrounds, or the characters themselves. It really does look lovely. Much like the sound is fit for purpose, and can't go wrong there. It's dark when it wants to be, and very bright when it wants to be. It's heartwarming stuff.

Horimiya is a standout of the season, and always look forward to it on a Saturday. Something you can put your feet up, with a cup of tea, and relax and enjoy some top quality entertainment. So go watch it now!

I’ve been hearing about Horimiya manga for a while, yet it hasn’t caught my attention at all, then the anime aired, so I watched a couple of episodes out of pure curiosity, and it managed to totally and completely catch my attention.

This show has provided me with everything you can expect from a GREAT romcom anime, it has top tier characters (Hori san + Miyamura), comedy, narrative, relationships, drama, romance, and more.

The artwork is outstanding, as expected from CloverWorks, and the voice actors and actresses did a fantastic job as well.

I'm loving it, you would most likely love it, and I plan on continuing to ... love it.

Highly recommended to all fans of romance, comedy, and drama.

10/10

"Hori is toxic" "Hori is a -phobe" "This anime deserves a 1 because of that ONE THING"
Those are the words you hear often if you live past the year of 2020 mostly thanks to Twitter. This take is typically comes from western 'audiences'. Don't listen to those kind of takes for this anime/manga. Those come from close minded individuals who lack the understanding of context and most importantly, understanding that HUMANS ARE COMPLEX AND IMPERFECT PEOPLE. Especially in high school.
If you are of High School age and STILL don't understand that people have different opinions, then you are going to fail in the real ... world. Name one perfect human that has no flaws. I bet you $1 million you can't find one. Especially in anime.

And that's the beauty of Anime. Subtlety and context are what create a rich and varying story/character. In order for any slice of life anime to sustain itself it has to invest highly in their characters to create a compelling story.

The story revolves around two main characters Hori and Izumi. One is perfect, headstrong, and independent and the other has pretty much given up on the world and just going through the motions. Two extremes personalities of the spectrum "unexpectedly" cross paths and there is your foundation of this High School Slice of Life. The 6 supporting characters all fill in that personality spectrum in a good manner in my opinion. Like any HS Teen, they all have their strengths weaknesses and conflicts. It's so well rounded, you will most likely relate to 1 or 2 of the characters.

For me, I had my Izumi phase during high school (bullied into depression) But I also had my Yuki phase (being SO considerate of others that you're willing to sacrifice your own happiness). I had felt the most connection with these two and actually experienced some of these experiences during High School and college. Being my age, I could write a 1000 page book of the highs and lows of my High School and College life. That's for another time of course.

After being out of the Anime game for about 8 years, I wanted a soft hearted Slice of Life to ease me back in to the game. The website that i go to (not MAL) recommended this as apparently this is the most watched on their site. My all time favorite SoL is Toradora, and it completely has Toradora vibes.

The formula set forth from Toradora is a great template if you are into this kind of anime. I don't know if its the nostalgia factor or my desire to do-over my high school life and not be that depressed guy that never had a true friend-for-life in school, but it kept me up all night wanting to finish the whole series in one sitting.

That being said, the production value of the anime is pretty high and you can tell some serious money was invested in this series. I don't spoil myself by reading the manga first. Feel free to read the manga first if that is your thing, but as usual the anime not as fleshed out as the manga.

If you are open-minded person that is smart enough to understand context, intent, and A JOKE, I highly recommend this anime if you appreciate the Slice of Life RomCom genre. It's very light hearted and invokes that typical "I wish my high school life was like this anime" vibe.

If you are a closed-minded person that looks for reasons to be offended, don't come here. It's not for you. Read the 1 star "this is toxic" review for why. Its obvious they have never been in a relationship or ever had a human friend in real life. Don't be like this, it will make you a bitter and old. Learn forgiveness and find the good in everyone you meet.

Its the first anime I've seen in 8 years and it definitely did not disappoint. If you are looking for a date night anime or an anime to introduce to your normie friend that enjoys RomComs. I HIGHLY SUGGEST HORIMIYA



TL;DR - Not everything is perfect, and success comes through hard work. Relationships are not one sided and require support and compromise from both sides. Before quickly judging someone based on your emotions, understand the context and intent. Humans are complex animals.

I have mixed feelings toward Horimiya, mainly due to its inconsistency. One day the comedies fine, the characters are likeable, and the extremely generic story doesn’t feel problematic; while the next day the comedies gone stale, the characters feel as basic as the storyline, and I’m dying at the contrived drama. Majority of the time, it’s the latter. It feels like they blatantly don’t know what they’re doing. But there’s still something in Horimiya that managed to keep me invested, despite the aforementioned complaints. I’ll try to break down both sides of the spectrum throughout this review, since I’m split down the middle.

Horimiya started off ... super strong. At first glance, I was intrigued by the characters. The whole concept of “not judging people off their appearances” was interesting, and I wanted to see where they went with it. When we first see Miyamura, we’re made to see him as a gloomy shut-in without any social life. But it turns out he’s the complete opposite. I really liked this idea, because I think this is an important moral that can be used in the real world. But as each episode progressed, this unique concept turned bland and generic, to the point where it was hardly bearable. It’s an emulation of every rom-com in existence, and it fails to add anything distinctive to separate it from the countless contemporaries in its genre. A tsundere main heroine and a slightly dense MC fall in love. Sounds like most of the other rom-com anime I’ve seen. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it failed to engage me any further, and it had nothing memorable about it. The pacing was extremely irregular, adapting 15 volumes in 13 episodes. Along with that, rather than feeling intense or emotional, most of the drama added in felt forced and cringey. I feel like the story completely fell flat, and that’s where Horimiya gets the most criticism.

On the plus side, there were infrequent times where I did enjoy the characters, regardless of how basic they are. I always love watching relationships blossom, whether it be romantically or not. In Horimiya, we see Miyamura build tons of relationships. Not only with Hori, but he builds friendships with people he never expected he would have. He fights back the previous hardships he had with his social life, and learns to overcome it. It’s hard to not like Miyamura, and I feel like Horimiya did a great job in making us feel connected to him. His interactions with others are fun, and sometimes super wholesome. We also get to witness things through some supporting characters’ point of view. Though I felt that the supporting characters were forgettable and uninteresting (besides Tooru and Yuki, I love them!), it was still great to see them develop. With better pacing, the character department could have improved to greater heights.

One thing that I have no complaints about is the art. The art felt crisp, and it looked gorgeous. The character designs aren’t anything outstanding, but they’re still appealing in their own way. Each character stands out with their own, unique hair color/style. One of the reasons I felt any enjoyment to this show was due to the artsyle. As for the sound, I also have no complaints. Nothing in that department stood out, but it was passable enough to avoid any issues.

Horimiya isn’t anything special, but sometimes a basic story isn’t a fault. But there were definitely times where the comedy ran dry and some arbitrary drama forced its way into the story. The pacing was also extremely bad, but compared to the massacre which was TPN S2 (which also aired during this winter season, also made by CloverWorks), this was a little less bad. But all that aside, by no means do I think Horimiya was terrible, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy some episodes. That’s where this inconsistency factor takes play. In short, if you’re planning to watch Horimiya, don’t expect anything too special.

This show is the definition of mid.

The main premise of the show is that the main characters act differently outside of school.

If that sounds interesting to you then go ahead, watch it.

Episode 1 was bearable and had some potential but by the second episode, it was very clear what type of show this would be. It's another self-insert rom-com show; The quiet outcast boy who meets an attractive/popular girl who would in other circumstances, never interact with each other. The comedy in the first two episodes has no intelligence and consists of slapstick and yelling. While other romcoms that occupy the same slice of life ... genre have quirks that garner interest such as Kaguya-sama or Aobuta, Horimiya does not. I would even go as far as saying this show has the most uninteresting premise and story of any slice of life anime I have watched.

As I do with all shows I drop, I read the summary of the source material and found that the premise does not stray too far from the small dramas between characters that we saw in the first two episodes.

Conclusion: I am not sure who the target audience of this show is but it definitely is not for me. The boring premise is outshined by many other anime that share the same tropes.

I don't get how this anime ended up on anyone's favorites list. Is it the animation, art style, or voice actors? Because it definitely can't be the plot—it's nothing special. No climax, just a regular couple with a plain story about a quiet boy and loud girl. Usually, I'm so in love with those kinds of plots but this anime somehow managed to ruin it. I found myself more interested in the side characters' romantic stories, which says a lot. It feels like those who love this anime haven't watched many other romance anime before. It's more slice of life than romance—something you can casually ... watch, but it doesn't grab you. Somehow, it managed to keep me bored throughout all 13 episodes. I only finished it because I wanted to know what the hype was about, but honestly, I still don't see why people talk about it.

This will be my second review, also on a show I don’t like. After watching the latest episode (10) I simply couldn’t wait any longer. Although if the ending is beyond a masterpiece, the show is just that bad. This show is literally an inside joke among my friend group because of how bad it is.

I won’t go on too long since I don’t like long reviews

Story 2/10 they have some kind of idea of what they’re doing in the first 4 episodes but the rest is just introducing new characters with filler like content. They focus on character to character with no apparent changes ... after. Except for Miyamura cutting his hair and overcoming his anxiety of course. Then they just make up bad scenarios an troubles to get to 13 episodes. This anime is truly carried by the art. I really don’t understand why it has such high budget or rating.

Art 9/10 exactly as Sao this anime’s art is top notch. Probably the only thing that makes this show watchable

Sound 7/10 good sounds not really much more to say about it

Characters 2/10 as I said in the story section characters just exist, we barely don’t know anything about Miyamura yet which makes the impact that much worse when I don’t even care about him. There is not a minute in the entire show where a character doesn’t do anything stupid or illogical. I have found myself having to scream irl because their logic is so dumb.

Enjoyment 4/10 as I said earlier, this anime is an inside joke in my friend group so am kinda enjoying clowning on it and the animation makes it watchable but man sometimes I just want to drop the show.

Overall 3/10 please don’t write hate manga readers, I just think the anime is dog poo!

Have you identified yourself with any characters? Visual, psychological, habits and customs are aspects that we develop since our birth and we constantly relearn. Some are more notable, even those who are not friends can see that you wore a different outfit or cut your hair. But there are other identities that are not easily understood, from the emotional side, to the introspective, something that many hide, whether through fear, trauma or insecurity. Horimiya is not just a famous novel that adapted a popular manga ... Not really ... It is about how jovial aspects are put into conflict and changes, where interpersonal relationships are ... fundamental to mature and reform what we call life.

On one side of this show, we have Hori-san (or Kyouko). Hori is the outgoing girl in her class. With an enviable beauty and high scores on exams, she appears to be a peaceful and happy person with her life. In fact, even her closest friends find this, especially Yoshikawa, her best friend. Hori does not present a weakness and, in fact, it is even more than that. She cares for her brother more than her own mother and this prospect of family relationships is what bothers Hori. It is not because she feels forgotten by her family, but it is because she does not provide for her affections with her own relatives. It is a relatively easy difficulty, but for Hori, even a fever can remind her of the lack of empathy her parents gave her. Hori lives his life happily and tries to make up for it by making his friends and colleagues happy, in addition to his brother, of course (the charm of the anime).

On the other side is Miyamura. He is the protagonist who has the most qualities to be presented throughout the series. Miyamura is very reserved at school and is considered the smart boy and otaku of the class. However, he doesn't even fit that social etiquette. In fact, Miyamura hides a complex that ranges from acceptance among his friends to rebellion due to personal problems and impulsiveness. Miyamura is an embodiment that spans many people. How many times, at school, have we had a friend with some kind of difficulty in meeting, either in a social group, or even in relating to do a school activity? Miyamura is not much different from someone who has been conditioned since childhood to become a "stranger". He finds his freedom from the moment he puts on his piercings and fixes his hair, becoming a very attractive young man and possibly would be one of the most popular in the school if he kept that stripped-down look in the study areas. Miyamura has not been in years and Hori is the girl who helps him to reverse this discomfort.

"But ... What about the rest of the show? The anime just centers Hori and Miya and forms" Horimiya "at the end and is everything okay?" ~ No, my friend. Horimiya is not just that. Of course, much of the show is focused only on the duo, whether with conflicts between other people or not. Still, many characters are fun to keep up with. Yoshikawa and Ishikawa are the other most influential duo in the franchise. Both have a temperament that balance and at the same time unbalance the series. His coexistence with the protagonists forms a fruitful and friendly circle of friendship in Horimiya. Of course, the four characters together are not the best example of a "perfect romcom group" that exists, there are better ones (as in Toradora, one of the anime that hit the most in this regard), but the show manages to use the secondary characters very well , with the objective of producing a good environment and security for the most intimate interaction of the protagonists, after all, there is no way to have confidence in a love relationship without a witness. It is necessary to talk and vent about your indifference and difficulties with someone. This show has a good reception in that factor. Of course, the student council group and the other friends are also very presentable, but in general, it is not very necessary to define the real importance of everyone. What can be said is that the influences of Hori and Miya's friends move them constantly, even if this is a vicious and uninteresting cycle. Still, it is a sign of maturity. The couple, even if formed throughout the series, does not present a completely real relationship. It is necessary to go further into mutual feelings, which come from a reaffirmation of their love, to the smallest gestures. Horimiya went on a lot to be a show with this kind of general accomplishment, just like a baby crawls to be able to find a new toy. And the show got it right this time.

And this is how a romcom appears ...

In fact, Horimiya is not a very easy show to please everyone. In fact, the subjects of anime are not intended and function to be a complete beautiful and cute story about love between teenagers. It is often noticeable that the anime is much more about the relationships of the group itself that involves Hori, Miya and their friends. Things like romance, passion and sentimentality are timidly explored until they reach their peak. Horimiya does this with mastery. Referring me to Horimiya (manga), I questioned the reliability of the quality of the story, and it is understandable to understand who does not like the show. The romance genre is one of the most subjective there is. Even more so when it involves comedy or drama. Horimiya compiles the three callsigns in a single show and adapts an extensive list of approximately 130 chapters with prowess. Honestly, CloverWorks has suffered a lot in the past three months. His confidence was in bringing the sequel to The Promissed Neverland, which was overshadowed by a pathetic adaptation of his original material. In fact, Neverland has become a joke, a disappointment more than unanimous. Wonder Egg Priority arrived as a surprise, no one imagined that a show with interesting themes would be presented these days. However, its outcome is still a mystery. It does not bring a certainty of the complete quality of the show (although it really did positively, anyway). Horimiya was the only one of the three who really delivered a rewarded expectation. It was a surprise to see that 13 episodes would form a whole history of the franchise. Those who remember the OVA's and the first manga would not imagine that this adaptation would be questioned. However, it is undeniable that the studio and the direction of the show delivered the best they could. It is not really normal to adapt so much history in a small plot. But we already know many shows that have become very problematic due to their comparisons with serialization in magazines. Domestic na Kanojo and Nisekoi are great examples of this.

I must admit that I did not expect this show to have enough qualities to be one of the best of 2021, after all, it is still the beginning of the year, but it was definitely a sure strategy to adapt the show early on. The show already has a significant importance in its popularity and general tastes. In addition to being a visually great anime, it's really great to admire the qualities that the adaptation dared to do. Not just any movie, series or anime can do that, especially in a world full of entertainment content. Many shows are lost in not delivering something of the highest possible quality. Horimiya surely achieved this feat. It is a show that I take to my heart forever. I want to consume and absorb more of this work! If you are too, the manga can be a great continuity to venture further into the franchise, after all, a spontaneous school romcom is always welcome !!

When watching Horimiya one question constantly grazes through my head; if only. If only they had given ANY time for character development and backstory before making the relationship progress rapidly in minutes, maybe then I could actually care about the characters. It's laughable that the premise is *oh my god this girl and boy who look a certain way at school actually have completely different personalities!* - why is it laughable? The premise is done and explored within the first 4 minutes of episode one. It doesn't even give the viewer time to fully grasp the preconceived self of the mc's, no it does not. ... Instead it serves as nothing better than the synopsis so when not explored, IT MEANS NOTHING! Everything in Horimiya is meaningless fluff. It's a speed run of a romance story, which is why I can't engage or connect with any of the characters nor plot points. I need time to care, to understand why this relationship is so important. There's nothing to grasp onto in Horimiya. Nothing to make me remember the anime for years to come, nothing that will make it remain a relevant classic for years to come, nothing that makes it more than another mid romance anime. It's as 4/10 a show as you can find. If you want nothing more than meaningless fluff, which due to the massive hype it's evident most of the community do, then great, here's your meaningless fluff. I must say that I actually was really excited for Horimiya, I've heard from countless people it's fantastic, one of the greats. I can't speak for the manga, though I'm told it's much the same but even when taking Horimiya with a grain of salt, I can't help but feel more disappointed than I have for a while. It's rare for a romance anime to take the spotlight these days, and with only a bit of effort, it could have meant stuff, it could have been MEANINGFUL fluff, but instead I'm stuck here saying if only, whilst I watch yet another mediocre show.

Horimiya is a good anime to watch if you're feeling bored, very lighthearted and enjoyable. So far no complaints, but my issue is... why is it ranked so high?

While it isn't a bad anime and the first episodes hooked me and made me wait for more, the story as a whole is nowhere near memorable. The characters are generic, the development is incredibly fast paced and after 7 episodes it feels like there's nothing more to tell to the story. It feels like any basic romcom, except the comedy is almost nonexistent. There isn't really any flow to it and at this point the story ... was told. Done. I can't really imagine what more can happen in another 5 episodes.

The reason why it's ranked #77 is beyond my understanding, considering i wouldn't give it more than a 6, maybe 7. The art and sound are, again, nothing special. But each to their own I guess.

Do I recommend it? If you got nothing else to do and you want something light to watch, then you should give it a try. It's forgettable, but at least you can enjoy it for a short amount of time before you move to another anime.

I was really looking forward to this anime, especially since it was so positively received by the anime community on TikTok, but unfortunately it falls short in critical areas, namely: pacing, storytelling, and the overall anime direction.

I'm a big fan of the manga. That being said, I'm not usually one to tout the source material to say it's always better than the adaptation. In many cases, I actually prefer the anime over the manga because there are certain scenes that are just better animated, like fight scenes which can get pretty confusing in black and white panels. Animes also have the unique opportunity to fix ... issues that existed in the manga, such as pacing and transitions, or improve certain aspects to make scenes more impactful such as as adding character development or subtle visual elements. All of that to say--I came into this anime excited to see it translated into the anime medium.

Unfortunately, I think the director and storyboard staff misinterpreted Horimiya. The manga is a rom-com, with unique and funny characters, that occasionally have deep and moving interactions and backstories. Those serious moments are very much interspersed throughout the lighter, funnier, happier, and slice of life moments so it never felt too serious or dramatic. It made sure that you saw a lot of these fun, daily interactions not only to keep a lighter feel to the story, but to also better acquaint the reader with the characters, show in depth character development, and make readers feel a deeper connection to the characters. All of this groundwork and thoughtful pacing led to the serious climaxes being very impactful. If Hori was crying, I was crying, if Miyamura was in pain, I felt my stomach sinking.

From the opening to the very last episode, the anime skips all of this important groundwork, making Horimiya into an edgy drama that occasionally has funny moments instead of the mature rom-com it was written to be. The vibes are completely off. The opening song and animations are way too serious and depressing. The first episode cuts what feels like an entire volume of Hori and Miyamura getting to slowly know each other, and exposition about the characters, and jumps straight into internal conflict and deep relationship emotions. There's just no way I'm going to be connected enough to characters in the first episode to care about them crying, especially if it's pieced together in a way that makes it seem like they've only known each other for like a week.

This is a reoccurring issue throughout the anime, where they cut exposition and minor character development to quickly get to climatic moments. I guess the director didn't realize how important those small moments were, and how cutting them would lead to anticlimactic, confusing, and quite frankly jarring dramatic moments. The anime is faithful to the manga in that all of the content of the anime was technically in the manga. But the way they pieced it together and the elements they added to certain parts turns it into a very different story. It looks like they tried to make this into an edgy, we're-not-like-other-shoujo's anime by their sound choice, animation choices, and story choices, and then failed at even doing that.

Another side of the pacing issue aside from the selection and emphasis of certain scenes, is the transition between them. Some scenes lingered on screen for way too long, to the point we thought our TV was frozen, while others were cut so abruptly short I just couldn't help but wonder if they were having problems making it within the time allotment for the episode. It felt and looked clunky.

The order of the story clips did not aid in this. The manga is a collection of short stories, with longer ones requiring more exposition interspersed into the shorter stories. Which stories are where and the order of them in the manga is very international. I always thought that every story, no matter how small or seemingly inconsequential, was absolutely necessary, and I had thought at the time that if you got rid of even one of them, the story overall just wouldn't be as good. And I was right. Whether for time purposes or drama purposes, the anime cut out almost EVERY single one of these smaller stories. Outside of ruining the exposition, connection to characters, and character development like I mentioned before, it makes the transition between stories so jarring. The smaller stories in the exact order they were in were necessary as buffers, as transitions, and as pieces of information for character development and for the bigger, more climatic stories to flow naturally, make sense, and be more impactful. Every single climatic scene (of which there were many crammed into each episode) in Horimiya felt anticlimactic at best and downright jarring and confusing at worst. So these scenes that are supposed to have high emotional impact just completely miss.

And then after one of these high tension scenes, without any warning, it cuts to a comedic moment. In the manga, it was clear when we were switching from one story to another. It's a lot clearer and easier to understand due to panel and page structure. In anime, if you want to keep this same structure, you have to do something similar to indicate to the viewer that we're switching to something else now or else it looks like you're just randomly cutting between seemingly unrelated scenes. A title/break card is sometimes used for that and I think would have worked well in this case. But no. One moment a character would be plagued by their past, and the next there would be a joke about Hori's kink, and the next would be a different scene of the same character being plagued by their past. If they didn't want to use title cards, they should have reordered the scenes so it made more sense as a comprehensive story. It makes more sense to have larger sections that tell a full story rather than trying to maintain chronological order when you've cut so many little pieces out.

That being said, there are some positives. The voice actors are great and so is the general animation. Unfortunately, even with good individual elements like voice acting, animation, and source material, the directing really fumbled this one. The director and storyboarding team misinterpreted the essence of this story, which turned it into an overdramatic mess.

With all of the great shoujos coming out now and getting anime adaptations, I would recommend skipping over this anime. If you'd like to see a proper adaptation where you can tell the director and studio not only loved the story, but really understood it, I'd recommend Skip to Loafer. It really does seem like a love letter to the Manga from the Studio. If you read and watch Horimiya and Skip to Loafer in a short time frame, you'll really see the difference a good director who understands the story and the mangakas intention makes.

I don't like romcom anime very much, but the art style and popularity of this one convinced me to give it a try. At first, it was pretty wholesome and cute, and the characters felt like real people, not just cardboard-cutouts. Chemistry between the main leads was also pretty good.

And then they gave the girl, Hori, a submission fetish. So she's forcing the male lead, Miyamura, (whose main personality trait is that he's shy/introverted) to slap her, talk down to her, and yell at her for random things in front of other people for her own kink. That's not funny, it's really really messed up. ... It's not about kinkshaming, but forcing your boyfriend whom you supposedly really like to behave opposite of his personality in public is ridiculous, and it's not like that helps Miyamura's poor reputation.