Horimiya

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Hori-san and Miyamura-kun

Japanese: ホリミヤ

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Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 13

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jan 10, 2021 to Apr 4, 2021

Premiered: Winter 2021

Broadcast: Sundays at 00:30 (JST)

Producers: Aniplex, Square Enix, Mainichi Broadcasting System, Movic, Kanetsu Investment, My Theater D.D., Global Solutions, Mirai-Kojo

Licensors: Funimation

Studios: CloverWorks

Source: Manga

Genre: Romance

Theme: School

Demographic: Shounen

Duration: 23 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 8.20¹ (scored by 715,053 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #350²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #99

Members: 1,197,321

Favorites: 30,748

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8.20

Ranked #350Popularity #99Members 1,197,321

Winter 2021TVCloverWorks

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Episodes: /13

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Synopsis

On the surface, the thought of Kyouko Hori and Izumi Miyamura getting along would be the last thing in people's minds. After all, Hori has a perfect combination of beauty and brains, while Miyamura appears meek and distant to his fellow classmates. However, a fateful meeting between the two lays both of their hidden selves bare. Even though she is popular at school, Hori has little time to socialize with her friends due to housework. On the other hand, Miyamura lives under the noses of his peers, his body bearing secret tattoos and piercings that make him look like a gentle delinquent.

Having opposite personalities yet sharing odd similarities, the two quickly become friends and often spend time together in Hori's home. As they both emerge from their shells, they share with each other a side of themselves concealed from the outside world.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Adaptation:	Horimiya
Alternative version:	Hori-san to Miyamura-kun

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Characters & Voice Actors

Miyamura, Izumi

Main

Uchiyama, Kouki
Japanese

Hori, Kyouko

Main

Tomatsu, Haruka
Japanese

Yoshikawa, Yuki

Supporting

Kozakai, Yurie
Japanese

Hori, Kyousuke

Supporting

Ono, Daisuke
Japanese

Sawada, Honoka

Supporting

Asakura, Momo
Japanese

Yanagi, Akane

Supporting

Fukuyama, Jun
Japanese

Ishikawa, Tooru

Supporting

Yamashita, Seiichirou
Japanese

Ayasaki, Remi

Supporting

Ichimichi, Mao
Japanese

Iura, Shuu

Supporting

Yamashita, Daiki
Japanese

Kouno, Sakura

Supporting

Kondou, Reina
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Kananiwa, Kozue

Producer

Maesaka, Eiji

Producer

Maeda, Toshihiro

Producer

Fujimura, Tomoko

Producer

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Opening Theme

"Iro Kousui (色香水)" by You Kamiyama

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Ending Theme

"Yakusoku (約束)" by Friends (フレンズ)

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Reviews

Apr 3, 2021

Twumi

Recommended

[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 :)

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Apr 3, 2021

KANLen09

Mixed Feelings

"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 ...

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Apr 3, 2021

Ryuseishun

Not Recommended

Horimiya had the potential to be a truly great series, but it immensely squandered it.

I genuinely wanted to like everything about it from the story to its characters to its gorgeous aesthetics and visual directing. I truly desired to see this show as something deep, dynamic, wholesome, and metaphorical. I wanted to believe this was a series that can boast and fulfill its unique takes and subversions of the typical romcom genre. But as both an adaptation and an anime in general, Horimiya just simply failed to take care of the basic fundamentals.

The story initally starts out fairly strong with the hooking premise of a ... guy and a girl seemingly on opposite ends of the social spectrum. Kyouko Hori is the apex popular girl, the idol of the classroom, and a magnet for rumors and hearsay; energetic, outgoing, hardworking, and sometimes bad-tempered, she is the established tsundere female protagonist. Izumi Miyamura is the antisocial guy, the mellow and gloomy individual who’s hard to approach and have a proper conversation with. By chance, the two main protagonists discover each other’s secrets and soon develop a very close relationship as a result of them promising to keep those secrets to each other. This sort of setup isn’t that unusual, when you consider Toradora and KareKano’s existence. Except that in this case, Hori and Izumi’s secrets aren’t exactly something intriguing or anything worth hiding; Hori is just essentially like a mom figure within her household and is usually calm and non-abusive, while Izumi, when not in school, is practically a kind and very sociable bishounen figure who casually wear ear piercings and displays tattoos like it’s the most normal thing in the world. These are not things I can see worth covering up, as it doesn’t really make the two characters or their relationship particularly interesting and innovative as they could’ve been. Rather, these facets feels more like easy baiting and a dull excuse as a catalyst to start their romantic development. Nothing interesting story-wise really develops that encompasses those “secrets” of theirs, and their close friends and associates would eventually find out naturally, anyways, as the two’s relationship become more apparent and noticeable to others.

Now here’s the most problematic part of Horimiya: the pacing. The god damn awful and discombobulated pacing. At first, the series would seem alright in terms of getting the audience intrigued by the bright-looking cast and how they interact; at around the halfway point, unfortunately, the narrative format quickly becomes repetitive and tiresome. Nearly every episode feels like a mashup of separate segments without a coherent overlying narrative, and only every now and then detours back to the primary storyline regarding the main couple. As a result, we get copious amounts of awkward jump cuts and really jarring siegeways between segments and episodes. The tone becomes inconsistent due to too many shifts and swings, to the point where the overall story can feel tone-deaf, especially with the long pauses between character dialogue. Without any orderly fashion, the development in the series actually feels both rushed and dragged, and any drama segments or silly comedic gags feels so contrived, redundant, and stale, failing to even contributing to building anything for the cast, either. Chunks of the narrative are compressed and/or cut in an attempt to shove an entire 100-140 chapters worth of storytelling from the source material into a mere 12-13 episodes. The main couple’s progression is cut down and feels inorganic, while the supporting cast’s own sidestories are almost completely ignored and reduced down to practically mere confetti that amounts of almost nothing significant other than letting us know that Hori and Miya aren’t the only god damn humans in the series. It’s so dumbfounding how the major points were placed as well. A third of the way in, we already have immense romantic feelings and a confession. Three episodes later, the two have intercourse. Yes, indeed, barely just over halfway through, the two have already taken their relationship that far, with nothing substantial or heavy enough developed prior. By the end of the series, only 1 cour long, we already have a marriage proposal and high school graduation. The anime just simply skipped all the way to the endgame, which isn’t surprising at all considering the reputation of CloverWorks, a studio well known for the wrong reasons when it comes to source material adaptation and story-pacing direction. I also think the writer may have just ran out of ideas at some point and just tossed in random run-of-the-mill gags you’d see in literally hundreds or thousands of other romantic comedy series.

In terms of the characters, Horimiya’s cast of characters aren’t very impressive overall. While they may be initially come off as endearing, loveable characters, not much is truly fleshed out enough to really make a statement. Kyouko and Izumi’s characteristics, as mentioned before, turn out to be something not particularly fascinating or subversive. One thing I want to note: I found Kyouko’s masochist side rather perplexing and unnecessary. While I can understand it’s due to her being tired of being treated nicely due to her non-abusive nature, this dumb fetish often places her romantic relationship with Izumi in a really bad light, making it come off as toxic and abusive. While it’s funny initially, there’s obviously no point to it in terms of achieving the story’s initial objective, and it doesn’t add any positive element to the romance, either; in short, it’s akin to pointless fanservice. On top of that, Izumi’s own background (especially regarding him constantly seeing an image of his past other self) and established connections with other characters don’t seem to amount to enough, due to the story’s compression. As a result, Izumi’s backstory felt like something too conveniently placed to make him seem more compelling as someone who was almost completely antisocial due to some conveniently implemented backstory. In a multi-cour season, this would be better handled and developed to make Izumi more genuinely endearing as a main character, even if his background setup is too typical.

The rest of the cast genuinely seemed far more interesting in comparison, though not exactly anything groundbreaking or innovative, either. For one example, Yuki Yoshikawa is that “happy-go-lucky” girl who is almost always bubbly and easy to get along with, yet hides a more melancholy side of her that tries to hide negative emotions and feelings as much as possible. Such a character like that could’ve gotten much more expansion upon, as her characteristics make her interesting when it comes to her addressing her own romantic affections. Another example is Sakura Kouno; she is a hardworking and responsible student council member but struggles with her own self-confidence and self-worth. The two aforementioned supporting characters seem to genuinely have something more substantial and deep than the main couple in terms of “secrets” and a reason to have their own facades, as well as their own relationships with other members of the cast. Unfortunately, the anime merely glosses over their respective stories, finishing them within half an episode, leaving them and other non-main characters underdeveloped as mere abstractions in the background, often never showing up even once for a good amount of episodes, as the narrative exclusively caters to the main protagonist duo. Due to the anime’s inability to allow the story to explore all the recurring characters as much as possible, the latter all come off as archetypal caricatures.

If there’s one thing I can’t really complain about regarding Horimiya, it’s the visual aesthetics. The animation implements a lot of visual metaphors quite nicely, especially in terms of characterizing Izumi’s mental transition in the opening theme visuals, from being initially dark, gloomy, and lonely, to being bright, lively, and blissful. Lots of colored shifting shadows and camera angle shots were able to accurately portray the mood and the inner emotions of the characters. The character designs are also very nice and look almost exactly like how they do in the manga. Aside from the occasional derpy deformed looks during the comedic segments and awkward standstills and pauses due to bad jump cuts, the visual department is quite fine. As for the sound department, it’s pretty typical. The OST isn’t exactly something to love, but at the very least it tries to properly convey and encompass the tone or emotions, even if the segments themselves don’t have enough weight to them at all. The voice-acting is also above-average; the voice actors put in notable effort though perhaps not enough in certain scenes (which is understandable due to how awkward it can feel with cutting corners); sadly though, that’s doesn’t amount to quite enough.

As much as I initially enjoyed the show and actually defended its rapid disorientated pacing at one point early on, my experience with Horimiya went awry real quick. While I found much entertainment and amusement when the show is on its comedic segments despite the latter being essentially noncontributory, I often find myself really confused and taken back when trying to follow the romantic and dramatic developments in the series. When a show like this clearly doesn’t know if it wants to be more like a 4-koma episodic format or a more straightforward shounen romcom narrative, I can’t help but felt like I’ve been constantly misled, especially by moments, like Yuki and Sakura’s side stories, that were supposed to be far, far more evocative than how they were handled in anime form. In some of the more cringe moments, especially regarding Hori’s masochist side, while I may laugh a little bit, at the same time, I can’t help but wonder: what the actual f--- was the point of putting that? I don’t even want to start with the pacing Horimiya chose. The excruciating amount of jump cuts get irritating and obstructive, and don’t allow me to thoroughly take in the preceding segments, forcing me to adjust to each following one rightaway. I essentially was unable to get into a proper mood every time due to the random tone shifts, leaving me frustrated and disappointed each time an episode ends. By the time the series finally ended, I was left feeling like I was cheated out of what would’ve been a wholesome and fulfilling experience.

In the end, Horimiya immensely faltered as both an anime and an adaptation due to the series’ inability to maintain something coherent and consistent with its story and cast. Considering the notable effort poured into its production, especially with the audiovisuals, it feels like yet another wasted effort by CloverWorks. As someone who has admittedly read the manga of this series, I can’t really suggest reading the latter, either, but I will say that it obviously at least handles the in-between stuff much better than whatever this tragic display of an adaptation did.

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Horimiya

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Miyamura, Izumi

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Sawada, Honoka

Yanagi, Akane

Ishikawa, Tooru

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