Review of Horimiya

First of all, this is my first time writing a review, so if I mess anything up, fault on me. I got this reccomendation from online before the show started airing. At the time, I just finished BGS and was craving something new and interesting. I watched the first episode and I loved it. After 6 re-watches a year later, and the anime getting me back into this community recently, I felt it was time for a review. Most of this review will be based on the first episode as I don't want to spoil this amazing show. Characters: Characters make or break a show, even ifa show has top tier plot but lacking characters, it's a 5-6/10, simple as that. Although I expected this romcom to have normal, boring, one-dimensional characters. The characters stand out as having real personalities and probably have mental counterparts in real life. I also enjoyed that they all had different tropes that made for hilarious and intriguing character interactions, which always kept me enjoyed. For Miyamura, I love how he had a bad past, and that he could overcome it, all in fate. For Hori, I love her interaction with Miyamura and her kin that shows later in the show as it was very enjoyable. For the side characters, (except for Sawada, and the nanny for Toru,) they all had emotional arcs with different situations hurting them. With Sakura, her arc was the best as she felt very real, when (spoiler) breaking down for her and Toru. Yuki felt like an actual person with something that hurts her, and for the less developed side characters, they are still enjoyable with their tropes and personalities as I mentioned earlier.

Art: Although this can sound a bit weird to people, I really enjoy an anime if it has a different art style, even if it was worse. Horimiya's on the other hand has one of my favourite art and animation in all of the anime I have watched. When striking and sharp, it delivered perfectly, when cartoony and childish, it delivered in an extremely amusing way, and when smooth, it looked incredible. In the first episode, it has all of these elements. In the first scene, it had a great smooth pencil flip and all the characters moved well, it turned fluffy and cartoony with the talk between Toru and Miyamura, which was one of my favourite scenes in the manga and anime, and it was sharp during many different scenes. The opening was striking, having great camera angles and fit perfectly from Miyamura's heart. The ending had a interesting and unique theme which I enjoyed. In the end, I adore this art style and I would love for it to be flushed into another anime.

Sound: My least favourite element, although still great. The opening is top tier and as a avid piano player, learning this piece was a blast. The lyrics are great, and the vocals fight the melody perfectly. The sound also fits the art well and it ends on a strong note. On the opposite side, the ending. The ending sounded bland in my opinion, and I disliked it. For the scenes in the anime, the sound fit well, when it was fluffy, it fit, when it was drama-filled, it fit, and when it was emotionally filled, it fit.

Story: Just incredible. In the first episode, the story latches onto me as I loved the fit in different scenes with Miyamura and Hori, they were in scenes that were funny and in the end, emotionally filled. The story makes great sections with the side characters that would not be in the normal romcom. The best part of the story however was the fast pacing. Normal romcoms have horrible, one piece anime type pacing (imo), such as Toradora which could not keep me interested for a while. But for Horimiya, it always went fast, and they didn't stay on a subject for too long, which is a god descent on romcom.

Thanks for whoever read this, I wanted to do this for a while, especially to improve my writing.