Review of Horimiya

Average. It's almost like this word was invented exactly for Horimiya. Now depending on how you view things, an average anime might be even worse than a bad anime. A bad anime can at least give you the solace and satisfaction of judging it for all its flaws, but an anime that is average can't have you praise it for any of its good parts, nor judge it for its bad parts, and that in turn, makes it even worse than a bad anime, and this not only stands for anime, but for any entertainment medium, from games to movies, and to manga, and so forth.Moving on to the actual review of Horimiya, there is so much that could be said about it, so I'll try to keep it as short as possible, both for my, and the sake of anyone who reads this; I'll start by mentioning that this review will be split into six different elements (as they are displayed when writing a review), Story, Art, Sound, Characters, Enjoyment, and finally, Overall.

Story:

Horimiya presents an interesting concept which slowly becomes irrelevant and overshadowed by the goofy day-to-day life shown to us in each episode. It desperately tries to bring it back and tie it around certain moments in the "plot" as to not make us forget its inconsequential premise, yet it never really sticks or has the same effect on the story as the first time. Putting that aside, one thing that I have not understood throughout the duration of the anime is why it tries to keep an overarching story and theme while at the same time presenting individual, completely disconnected, almost anecdotal-like moments, it only creates dubious continuation problems and rids the story of any depth or understanding regarding its timeline, a problem it already has; from start to finish, with the exception of a few events "clearing up" the timeline, it never adds any gravity or weight to this established timeframe, which, before you know it, leads to the end of the cast's school life, unexpectedly and in a hurried manner. Yet that isn't even the biggest of its problems. Going back to the formula it has established, due to the story's inability to stick with either a linear or "issue of the week" route, as it airs, those issues only strengthen, and are never really addressed. Take for example late introductions for characters with little to no exposure which get their one or two anecdotes and are then meant to play an important role in the bigger picture? Also, to add, while at the same time the anime prepares to reach the conclusion in the following few episodes, but I'll talk more about this, as well as the supporting cast's involvement in the story when I reach the "Characters" segment. Moving onto the final bulk of this part, the ACTUAL, overarching story, which I'll ask YOU a question about: What actually is it? Yes, we are painted a picture at the start, which kind of fades and, as mentioned, becomes unimportant. But why does it? Well, simply because, get this: The story IS not important. We are not meant to be shown a fantastic romantic piece with twists and turns beyond our wildest dreams which will stun us for ages to come and will go down as one of the best stories ever written, we're simply meant to watch individual bubbled stories within a shared universe, that hold no actual weight or importance in the telling of the "plot", which just so happens to be one of the points WHICH makes Horimiya average. Now, hardcore Horimiya fans will defend this hill and die on it, saying that "it DOESN'T need an overarching plot" and "it DOESN'T need conflicts or elements which have weight IN the overarching plot", and I would have agreed with them-had it not been for the fact that, Horimiya DOES have an overarching plot, like it or not. "Well, what is this so-called overarching plot" you ask?, I'll tell you-the premise of, a girl (Hori), finding out her male classmate's (Miyamura) secret. Despite the fact it is brought up at least two other times (possibly many more) in separate instances, it is never mentioned or plays any relevant role. But just that simple little incident/detail is enough to CREATE an overarching plot (I'm genuinely tired of writing these two words) or idea, which is chosen to be ignored, and becomes, as I said before, completely irrelevant. Hori and Miyamura could have met in any other cliche way and it would not have mattered in the least, in fact, it would have kept the formula way clearer, there was no genuine need for that introduction. However the reason it was put in, is because every story needs a 'hook'. Yet what the writer completely forgets, is that once the bait is laid out and taken, keeping the fish (viewers) on the hook takes additional fight and effort (plot development, advancements, etc.), not just THE hook; some will chose to fight it, some will accept their fate (in this case, the latter being Horimiya fans). Ironically, Horimiya's interesting premise was also its downfall in the long run. Oh, also to end this part, just because it does a few things differently to its counterparts, it does not make it special or unique, especially if it doesn't use certain clichés and tropes, that is simply what should be expected of any good story: to not conform to certain characterizations.

Art:

WARNING - My main focus in this review is to talk about the Story and Characters, therefore, seeing as how I am not an expert artist, art director, sound director or anything of the sort, I cannot give you the most comprehensive review on those aspects, though I'm sure you can find reviews with better explaining of them. With that, I'll keep them as short, while as insightful as possible.

The art is not pretty, but it does not fall into the ugly territory, yet another average element (just like everything else, really). However, putting aside the "floaty, puffy and kind of pastel" aesthetic it holds like every other contemporary anime with a school setting, its choice of grounded character designs with seemingly natural unnatural (does that make sense?) hair colors seems incredibly odd. You have characters like the main two with believable hair colors, and then you get supporting characters with unnatural hair colors, which creates a disparity which is never really talked about or even referenced, and this in turn, I don't believe fits the anime. In terms of art direction, I don't have many complaints with the exception of a few techniques and shots which are never really used again. This could be due to different directors for each episode, but nonetheless certain unique aesthetics are abandoned which lower the overall distinctive factors. Oh also as an ending note, personally, I am not a fan of the sharp features and big eyes, it makes the characters look ugly, unremarkable, and easily comparable to many other slice of life/romance anime (especially early ones) character designs, which suffer from the same issues.

Sound:

Voice acting is rarely and issue in anime, and Horimiya is exactly the same. There isn't however, any prodigious voice acting, which yet again loops back to the story factor that, it does not have any conflicts (or rather, any important ones), which in turn doesn't allow the voice actors to perform to the best of their ability. We are not given any moments memorable enough which warrant voice acting expertise and/or a show of talent from the cast. Regarding sound design, I know almost nothing, all I can say is that superlative sound design is easily distinguishable, and Horimiya has nothing of the sort, it's not bad, it's not good-so average. As for the opening, it isn't catchy or outstanding enough for me to play it for more than the first time.

Characters:

Seeing as how I spent plenty of time rambling about the Story, I'll try to keep this segment more concise, although there is a lot to be said about this too. I'll start off by saying: there is too much focus on side-characters, and it's never chronological enough due to the story's formula. For a show called after the two main characters, man they need to dial it down with the supporting cast character development. For a majority of the anime past the first few episodes, the focus on side characters becomes easily filling. While cast development is definitely praiseworthy, Horimiya suffers from an issue One Punch Man (yes, I know, weird comparison) does, there is not enough focus on the protagonist(s). Granted, Horimiya does not suffer from that problem to the same degree, but it's evident enough to create issues. To go even further with that, this development is almost always between two supporting characters, therefore there is never a proper display of the relationship between one of the two main characters, and a supporting character, with the exception of possibly two, and even then, incredibly limited towards the second half of the anime. Moving forth from this point, and going back to complaining about the formula of the anime, yet again, due to its anecdotal nature, certain issues between characters and their relationships get brought up, and they fall into either of two categories: They are either minimal enough that there was no need to write them in the story, or if they are "important" (with VERY heavy quotations on "important"), chances are, they'll be split in multiple parts, usually in-between having other, completely unrelated anecdotes, destroying the pacing and urgency of those "conflicts". And speaking of conflicts, memorability? Almost zero. I will not deny that some of those topics are issues in many people's lives, but exactly BECAUSE of that, they are not memorable, as they can be encountered anywhere and at any time in real life. Correct me if I'm wrong, but usually one of the jobs of a story is to remain in the audience's head, and it does so by being MEMORABLE; granted, different people look for different things in stories, but everyone would like to enjoy a story that sticks with them, and the easiest way to do that is to be UNIQUE. Presenting day-to-day issues is the furthest thing away from achieving that goal. Now my final point about the characters in this anime is: the (little) involvement of so many of them regarding the main characters, and how a few notable ones barely make an appearance past a certain point. Take Miyamura's friend, Shindo. A character which SHOULD have gotten development, and he seemed to have his own issues, which are never resolved or brought up due to the anime's length of 13 episodes. Another one would be Miyamura's middle school bully, which he seems to make up with, but except for a little moment during Christmas Eve, he never gets involved again. Why exactly are this in the story? By the fact that Miyamura constantly gets "visions" of his past self, it makes their appearances worthless. There is no moment where he remembers Shindo and is grateful for being his only friend, and there is no moment where he denounces Tanihara or remembers his bullying, and this in turn is yet another attempt at connectivity in a completely disconnected anime storywise. There are many other issues I'd like to tackle regarding the other "supporting", if they can be called that, characters, and how little their existance really matters in the grand scheme of things, such as Yanagi and his one-time involvement with Yoshikawa's sister or any other interaction with any other supporting cast member, or Sawada's three appearances and no real resolution to her familial problems, or even the lack of appearances from Miyamura's parents (especially his dad), but that would drag the review on even longer, consequently, I'll move on to the final two segments of the review. But before that, one final remark: Why the hell do Hori and Miyamura call each other by their last names after months of dating and even having sex?

Enjoyment:

I'll keep this short (yeah I said that before and look where we are). Look at my score, and my review. My enjoyment of this anime is average, just like it is. It is what I like to call "background anime", an anime which is most likely to be put in the background due to the fact that it doesn't require enough brain power to concentrate on it. Basically, it's better than nothing, but I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it if I didn't have to.

Overall:

I'd like to say that a majority of this review is not biased and objective, but I'm sure there's some personal things in there other than the ones mentioned. Nonetheless, as I said multiple times throughout this review, and as I said at the start too, in my opinion, it's almost like the word "average" was invented exactly for Horimiya; because that's what it is, not bad, not good, but simply, bang on in the middle. You could call it a "mid anime".