Review of Horimiya

Horimiya continues the trend of anime studio CloverWorks (except for TPN season 2) knocking it out of the park. Cloverworks is slowly but surely proving themselves to be one of the best studios in the modern era and I can't wait to see where they go after this. That being said, let's actually start reviewing Horimiya for what it is, A rom-com that while sticking to a lot of tried and true tropes of its contemporaries, manages to stick out with just how well it uses them. Horimiya doesn't do anything game-changing in terms of its plot. A "people are not who they seem" storyis a bit overdone but oftentimes these tropes feel more like a love letter to the genre than a lack of ideas from the author.

Regardless, there are many emotional scenes that are expertly composed in Horimiya. Anyone who has had to deal with ostracism from their peers and trouble with love can easily relate to the problems that the characters face. Although I have seen many of these tropes before, Horimiya uses them with such sincerity that I think it works well.

Horimiya's story may not be all too special but its cast is. Performances by actors such as Kouki Uchiyama (Miyamura) and Haruka Tomatsu (Hori) are really well performed. They do a great job in making each character feel like they've known and been classmates for a very long time. There is a sense of familiarity between each of them that shines brighter with the expert writing by Takao Yoshioka.

The animation in Horimiya is godlike, but that is to be expected of Cloverworks as animation is clearly their strongest suit. I would say they are getting awfully close to Kyoto levels in terms of their pure animation prowess. Horimiya doesn't just have great animation but the director does some interesting things when it comes to color. Oftentimes, in the show, he will use silhouettes of characters using interesting color choices to symbolize the connection between characters and I think that is lovely. Not to mention the chalkboard aesthetic that reminds me of many other young adult novels.

Overall, I recommend this show. It is pretty great. The only thing holding Horimiya back is its fairly standard story. But even then the art and performances are so good, you almost can forgive it...almost.

8.4/10