Review of Horimiya

Back with another rom-com here I am. Horimiya fans swear by the show and you will hear them rate it very high, often among the top romance anime. Having finished the show, the initial verdict is that the show holds elements of brilliance and does some things quite well, but I hated many parts of the show as well. I'm not gonna go too much into the initial premise of the show as you can probably figure that out through reading the top reviews or MAL description. I think that the pacing of the show is a major flaw and killed it's vibe a ton.I don't want to spoil things but there is a real lack of conflict in the show. The plot is all over the place and different things are happening in every episode and as a result, the show simply wasn't as captivating. The comedy in the show is ok but not really great. There are also more emotional and heavy scenes mixed in but because it gravitates from funny moment to serious, certain aspects of the drama/mini conflicts throughout the show aren't as developed. I sympathize with the fact that studios have to cram all sorts of material into a 13 episode series but at least dedicate more time to important moments, because a lot of them didn't make sense in the show with implied meanings and whatnot. I would rather they cut down on the slice of life/comedy and focus more on developing a plot but it didn't happen sadly. A positive on the other note is the side-characters. I think that they are more enjoyable than the main-characters honestly and I enjoyed the sub-romances more than the main one. The dialogue in the show is nice at times and is somewhat poetic in key moments. The last thing I'll say is that the MC's(main characters for the noobies) didn't really develop that much to be honest. A major theme of the show is that Hori and Miyamura don't know each other well and want to get to know each other over the course of their relationship but even still, we deadass know nothing about either of them minus a few things. The show is fixated on dialogues and characters interactions so much to the point that the MCs lack development. The final episode kind of clarifies this but it was far too little, far too late for me. I think that character progression is key and I really didn't see it here, there wasn't really a plot, point of conflict, or a whole lot of character development after the first 5-7 episodes. It might be more enjoyable for you however and parts of the show were well done, there were moments, segments, and tidbits that I thought were actually done quite well and for that, I'll give it a 7/10