#REVIEW: Horimiya Provides Perfect Sweetness

Season aired: Winter 2021

Number of episodes: 13

Genres: Romance, Slice of Life, Comedy

Thoughts: Horimiya started off as one of the most hyped shows for the Winter season. Riding off the coattails of a critically-acclaimed manga that also just concluded, the anime released gorgeously-animated PVs to much excitement. As someone who doesn’t read manga, even I have heard of Horimiya — namely praises from even the harshest critics, so I could not wait to dive into the exciting story.

Horimiya is an anime about identity and the sides you show to specific people. Hori is one of the most popular girls in the school. She’s charming, hardworking, and nice to everyone she meets. However, at home, she reveals a different side to herself that no one else is aware of — snarky, a nag towards her younger brother and father, and a lover of horror movies. By pure chance, she ends up running into Miyamura, the class’s social outcast, and discovers his true self — a boy who is rebellious, incessantly sweet, and loves interacting and talking to other people. Through their chance meeting with each other’s true selves, both of their worlds open up to not only within themselves but the people around them as well.

I know that many people had lamented the skipped material in the manga from what I’ve read online. While I feel that specific episodes felt rushed, I still think the vast majority of the series paced itself well. Horimiya is an incredibly honest and healthy look at the relationship Hori and Miyamura develop, and for once, we have an anime that doesn’t beat around the bush. Their attraction towards each other is made fairly clear early on with both sides acknowledging it, and Hori is the one who solidifies their relationship by loudly proclaiming Miyamura is her boyfriend rather than the other way around.

I appreciated the gender reversals greatly in this story, and I think that was what made the couple so appealing to so many people in the first place. Hori likes to take the lead in the relationship, and she often says lines that are reserved for the male characters without any shame or awkwardness. Miyamura, on the other hand, loves her for that. When Miyamura thinks to himself about the reasons why he loves Hori, the reasons he picks are actually quite mundane: the way she sleeps, the way she eats, and the way she laughs. However, that is precisely what makes their relationship so real to me. Anime love to set up relationships between extraordinary people with unique traits that are just meant to be together. Instead, Horimiya explores a genuine relationship of how Miyamura’s love for Hori extends to simply who she is as a person, which is why her ordinary traits are what he finds the most endearing.

Considering that the entire anime is named after the portmanteau of these two characters’ names, it is imperative that the anime makes me feel the same love that the characters feel towards each other. The anime overwhelmingly succeeds at that fact. However, because the anime focuses more on the relationship rather than a slow burn of a growing potential relationship, its contents shift from a romantic comedy atmosphere to a calmer, more slice-of-life feel as we follow their day-to-day activities and interactions. While I know that many viewers find that disappointing as they enjoy the thrill of watching a relationship become canon, I personally like the shift. We get to see how dating couples actually interact once they’ve accomplished becoming a couple, and the story doesn’t get distracted by otherworldly plotlines like many other series do when they do establish a couple fairly early, like Rascal Never Dreams of Bunny Girl-Senpai. Horimiya stands out in that regard.

My one critique of the storyline is its treatment of the supporting characters. The arcs that follow them often feel incomplete and squeezed at the same time. Tanihara, for example, is introduced fairly late in the story and is a callback to the traumatic middle school years Miyamura experienced as the social outcast. However, his tension with Miyamura gets resolved within only a single episode, and then he quickly disappears afterwards. Yet, the anime paints him as an important new character, which only leaves me befuddled as to his actual presence within the story.

This is similarly experienced with Yanagi, a love rival to a budding romance between Hori and Miyamura’s friends. He comes in, seems to jumpstart the plot of the second couple, and then hangs around but also isn’t really quite there. He shows up and has conversations with other characters, but his place never feels permanent in my mind. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the skipped materials lie with the supporting characters’ arcs as the anime’s strange treatment of them does stand out in a negative way rather than positive.

Despite their wavering storylines, the supporting characters’ designs do pop out. Horimiya has pleasing aesthetics, and its bright colors just bring the entire screen to life. Its more relaxed storytelling did not keep the animation team from pulling out all stops. They paid special attention to small things such as hair meticulously flying in the wind and shirt ends flapping when the characters run.

When such beautiful visuals pair with pitch-perfect voice acting, the anime becomes so incredibly more enjoyable. There are no passionate pleas of love in this anime, but the subtle intonations within the voice acting for each character blend in perfectly with the atmosphere that the anime aims for. Koki Uchiyama, however, takes the ultimate star for his performance of Miyamura. The character’s emotional moments happen in times of peace, and, rather than the usual emotional cries and monologues, Uchiyama shines by lowering Miyamura’s voice and inserting emotions through softness.

At the end of the series, I felt satisfied. I supported the relationship, and I saw how the theme of identity fit the two of them. However, I also instantly knew that this series wasn’t going to be for everyone. For those who watch romance anime for the adrenaline of “will they, won’t they,” they won’t find that in this series. For those who watch anime for mundane activities with very little thematic plot, they won’t find that here. However, as someone who thinks that romance can fit in perfectly with the exploration of thematic and mundane activities, this anime fit snugly with me.

Rating

Plot: 7.5 (Multiplier 3.5)

Characters: 8 (Multiplier 3.5)

Voice acting: 8

Art/Animation: 8

Soundtrack: 6.5

FINAL SCORE: 77