Review of Horimiya
Horimiya is a very enjoyable and sweet shoujo romance anime. What makes it so great is that it avoids the main negative pitfalls of these kinds of stories while doing the standards very well. The place where Horimiya shines most is the characters, which are all very nuanced and relateable, with many different facets. Even characters that might at first glance seem unlikeable or even antagonistic tend to have a well-developed background and reasons for why they behave the way they do. Side characters get just as much room to grow and shine as the main pair. Relationships between characters also feel pleasant and realisticin a way few anime manage to do, especially the romance between the main pair feels natural and almost entirely free of typical shoujo clichés. The main characters actually communicate, there are no contrived misunderstandings, forced love triangles for extra drama, unrealistic girls that never have any sexual desires, and so on. It feels like a breath of fresh air to anyone who has been reading and watching shoujo manga/anime for many years.
The healthy female - female and male - male friendships are a big plus too, once again avoiding the usual envy and bullying clichés.
Horimiya's biggest weakness is that it struggles to find the time to actually DO much with this big cast of characters. The story randomly jumps around without clear focus. The opening hook is dropped almost immediately, when I'd argue that people who started the anime based on the synopsis would actually like to SEE a story about what they were told the story would be about. Yet Hori immediately is relieved of her housework duties and Miyamura immediately loses the piercings and we never see his tattoos again either. Every episode the story wildly jumps around between characters and points in time, sometimes without even bothering to resolve the pevious conflict or issue first. Sometimes the plot dips straight into psychological territory, which can be jarring with the otherwise comedic and cute tone of the show.
Due to the big jumps, some major relationship milestones also feel like they come out of nowhere because there's no lead-up to them.
I saw manga readers say that a LOT was skipped, sometimes up to 40 chapters between anime scenes, so that might be part of why the anime feels so disjointed sometimes.
Visually, this anime is beautiful, from the character designs to the animation, colors and effects. The music works fine with it as well.
In the end, what's best about Horimiya are the things it DOESN'T do compared to standard shoujo stories. Nevertheless, it is still very much a part of the genre. If you don't like a sweet dreamy high-school romance for girls, it won't be for you. I'm saying this mainly because many of the low-rating reviews complain that it has bishounen character designs or pretty visual effects for romantic scenes, and that it panders to the female fantasy of having a boyfriend who will do anything for you. Yes OF COURSE it does. It's a shoujo romance. It just happens to be a better one than most, but if the genre in general isn't your cup of tea, Horimiya won't be enjoyable either.