Review of Horimiya

One aspect in which Horimiya is unique is that it does not follow the traditional structure of a typical rom-com anime. Its plot is centred around the already established relationship between Hori and Miyamura, rather than the development of the relationship. But that is where the uniqueness of this show ends. Many parts of this series fail to impress me. I found the general art style to be plain-looking. For all the praise the art style and animation quality got, this seemed pretty underwhelming. Many characters look too much like each other, with their only major differences being hair colour. The character’s faces weregood at staying on model during mid/close shots, but lost a lot of detail in some wider shots. Overall, the art style, despite not being terrible, just felt uninspired.

The OST and opening themes in this show are definitely acceptable, but not ground-breaking. There is not much to praise or complain about when it comes to the music. It all just seems perfectly average.

The comedy in this show felt overused in some parts. I do not understand why in the first episode, a scene that was set up as serious and tense suddenly made a U-turn into a cheap gag. I understand the subjectivity of this, but for me, scenes like that make the overall comedy of Horimiya out-of-place and difficult to understand.

Despite this, for the most part, the show is quite good at conveying these more serious and intimate moments. It is easy to see the connection between Hori and Miyamura strengthen as the series progresses. The only problem is, it tries to replicate this with too many other characters, making the plot seem convoluted.

To summarise, Horimiya is a somewhat unique rom-com between Hori and Miyamura that definitely has its strong moments, but gets too caught up in the matters of its side characters and falls flat when it comes to art style and comedic timing. I would only recommend this to those who are big into rom-coms, because as someone who is indifferent about the genre, this felt a bit lacklustre.