Review of Horimiya

This show.. I frankly don't know what to say.. I have so much conflicting thoughts about it. It's kinda good but not quite nails it for some reason. It's like it pushes the right keys but the melody comes out of tune. There are also alot of cliches and the show felt artifical at points. Like the first name, last name stuff. I am tired of this being a problem in about every romcom. Some things are suspiciously convenient like the parents being almost completely absent from home because "work", so they can hang out. Some things pop up at random and feel forced, likethey are ticking the checkboxes from a romcom checklist. One minute I was engaged and happy but the next minute was "oh, we're doing this trope now".
It was refreshing and pleasant at times but there was often a feeling that the show is lost and doesn't know where it's going or what it wants to be.
There were not much tension and cliffhangers. Somehow they didn't end episodes in that way.

MC relationship is very mature. It's the refreshing part, the best part of the show. Sorry if I'll write this too many times.
It's how it could be with real people. Gosh I so like this part of the show.. They process their feelings externally instead of obsessing in lenghty internal monologues and then being misunderstood/silent/offended/angry/sulking/running away/whatever. THEY JUST TALK!! Just get to middle of ep3 to know what I mean (plus the tea brand Ripton LOL).
There's no friends conspiring on how to hook the x and y MC, because they dont know! MCs just handle their shit on their own. I love how they just accept thigs and move on and not bring it back dozen times over.
There's no AAAAAA I TOUCHED HER SHOULDER OMG HE LOOKED AT ME SUCH AN EVENT CAN'T SLEEP FOR A WEEK. Nope. I WANNA GIVE HIM A CHOCOLATE ON VALENTINES DAY BUT I'M TOO EMBARASSED AND I WILL RUN AWAY AND BITCH ABOUT IT FOR 3 EPISODES. Nope. AAAA HE DIDN'T PICK UP MY CALL I'M GONNA FLIP OUT AND STOP TALKING TO HIM AND LOSE MY MARBLES OVER THAT INSTEAD OF JUST ASKING. Nope. I FINALLY CONFESSED BUT LET'S RETCON THIS AND PRETEND IT DIDN'T HAPPENED. Nope.
May be even too perfect for some.. For me - fking awesome.
There is some weird stuff that may set some people off (ep 8-9, you'll know..). For others it can be just a sign trust and dedication. Quite a personal judgment. For me, eh, you guessed, mixed feeligs. But not something I'd ditch the show over.
It feels like they rushed some things too fast (breakneck pace in fact..) and didn't know what else to do with the runtime left.
Overall I liked the main relationship, it worked for me. Though I admit I'd like there have been more time devoted to MCs relationship(*). Some shows center too much on main characters and leave supporting ones underdeveloped. And here I feel the opposite is happening. Almost like MCs are not entirely MCs, they're pushed to background. Supporting characters got alot of time and, surprisingly, more emotional dillemas than MCs. And in hindsight, the distribution of events for main ship through the whole show is just bonkers. It races waaaaaay too fast forward for first half. Wait I said that already..
Honorable mention goes to Kyousuke, the most irritating, out of place, misfitting, ham-fisted, interrupting, arrogant, stupid, unneeded, useless, random, moron, asshole, unexplained, no background piece of sh..acharacter in the show. Yes I don't like him. Yes I know he's canon. Still don't like him.
Silver medal for the pedo teacher in the very first scenes of the 1st ep - what a way to start a show, congrats.

English dubbing. I don't know.. acceptable ? Hori's voice actress is like.. it's like the whole show, I can't quite feel it. It's not bad, she does a decent job and is unique, but something's off with her voice. Her sentences feel rushed and not containing enough emotions, like the priority was to fit something long into too short timespan. See around 21 min of ep7 to know what I mean.. it should be emotional and spoken from heart but comes off as a dry statement like a fucking voice mail. I just saw an interview with the voice actress and.. she just is like that. I'd expect a bit more from a pro voice actor than to just play herself.

I liked the music. Mostly just typical romcom tunes (no complaints here, good quality). Some pieces catching my ear (Spring is Miles Away, Hottest 36.5 Degrees - good stuff). Soundtrack seem pretty diverse - dozens of tracks. No complains.

Animation was nice. Can't really say much, decent work, enough frames, nice backgrounds. Well, maybe Kyoko's eyes looking like a fireplace - kinda strange.

Ending was eh.. overdone. They should put a period at 12th ep and it would be better. Lord of the rings ending vibes.

To sum up. I really loved some parts of the show (I think it's obvious which) but other not. Very, very mixed feelings. Feeling of a missed opportunity. I tried to watch Missing Pieces but I mostly skipped through it, it was all over the place with chronology. There are multiple ways to view the show to be more coherent. People even made edits to combine the main season with missing pieces in chronological order. That shows peoples dedication but also how messed and confusing it is.

**The show is worth watching for the MC relationship alone.**
If I am to judge by my "rewatch factor" (the desire to watch again, be it full or just fragments) - I'd rewatch that part alone and pretty much skip everything else. I think OVA did a better job here, with main focus on MCs. Sadly, no eng dub and completely different caliber of the production.