Review of Horimiya

*I have not read the manga* I don't usually write reviews, but I was so disappointed with Horimiya that I feel compelled to. Man, I really wanted to like this show. Aesthetically, it has everything: gorgeous character designs, beautiful lighting, great voice acting. The OP is very charming and stylistically interesting. However, the plot and the characters are genuinely just lacking. First off, the pacing in these episodes is abysmal. I wasn't sure if there was supposed to be one, cohesive storyline or a series of short stories crammed into one episode. Obviously, being an adaptation of a manga/4koma, I can understand the latter, but the editing andepisode titles really try to push for the former. There was apparently no effort put into making these stories flow together and it really shows. Later on, they separate out the short stories with this random snowflake shot, but even that is vague and doesn't happen until the last third of the season.

For example, there's this one storyline where Miyamura is gone for five days and his phone dies. Hori is suffering impatiently while waiting for him to get back, and once they're together again, the music swells and it's supposed to be this heart-wearming scene. However, the pacing completely kills this. Not only is the episode not focused on this storyline, the amount of time that Miyamura is gone is only to their reunion is FOUR MINUTES. How are we supposed to feel relief at the two of them being together when the episode doesn't even make this the main focus? In the other stories of the episode, they could have had them take place while Miyamura was gone, but he's there taking part. It makes no sense and the reunion scene just falls flat as a result.

It's also really difficult to know how much time is passing; in the first episode, Hori and Miyamura meet and start hanging out, but all of the "getting to know one another" is just sort of crammed into a quick, two minute voice over By the end of the episode, Hori expresses how much time they've spent together, which we've... never seen. There is an easy fix for this: rather that starting with the two of them meeting each other, why not start in media res, where they already are shown hanging out and then flashback with Hori's voice over explaining their origin. It wouldn't fix everything, but then it would clear up the timeline a bit.

Miyamura is definitely the standout character here, but even then, he's not perfect. His characterization early on is that he gets very violent when he's pissed, which was never something established nor was it really justified in the situations where he does get pissed. Why does he beat his friend up who accidentally slapped in a moment of rage and then immediately snapped out of it and apologized? It makes him seem like he has a hair-trigger personality, but that's not supported by the other aspects of his personality. Many others have said that out of the two leads, he's the one who is forced to change himself for Hori's sake, which is completely true. The story really likes to show Hori as a "complete" character while Miyamura needs to constantly change himself, even when the characters themselves tell him it's not necessary.

Hori herself is an annoying character. Her violent and angry tendencies don't change nor are they ever treated as a problem. In one episode, Hori's little brother sees Miyamura walking with a girl, and once Hori hears this, she expects the worst. I saw one comment that said something along the lines of, "It was so refreshing that, instead of just assuming Miyamura has a girlfriend, she just straight up asks him. They just talk." However, what they're forgetting is that, in their "talk," Hori gets so jealous that she doesn't listen to a single word Miyamura says, she yells at him, and then she assaults him by throwing her books in his face (this isn't even mentioning that she avoided him up until this point, assuming the worst). That's not talking, that's not communication. There is no refreshing change of pace here, it's the same thing that we've seen a million times. It feels like she develops the least in the whole cast, and the show sees no problem with this.

As for the other characters, most of them make the show much more enjoyable. The student council crew's friendships and relationships seem genuine; I'm not the largest fan of Reimi but her origin story with her boyfriend was very cute. Sakura is the stereotypical "shy girl with a crush" but she does make an effort to let her crush know how she feels, and I rooted for her every time she was on screen. Miyamura's middle school bully, Tanihara, and Miyamura have a complicated history, and I would have liked to see more of their friendship develop, instead of it being the subject of Hori's (slightly homophobic) jealousy. I think in general the boy characters have a lot more chemistry as friends, and it's really enjoyable watching scenes with them just messing around.

The show is at its best when it's not focused on the main two characters, but even then, it doesn't bother trying to put much development in the other characters until there are only a few episodes left. I spent most of this anime feeling like I was wasting my time; I was bored, and I really didn't care about the main characters at all. I didn't feel any sort of satisfaction at how their relationship developed, and it was more satisfying watching the side characters change and grow.

If nothing else, I guess this could just be considered a good ad for the manga, which I can only hope is better than this.