Review of Horimiya

Horimiya elevates the standard for all Slice of Life anime with its pristine visuals and stunning sound production. While its overall story could be improved, characters were relatable and inspiring, often making me ache for more. Overall, I was entranced with this beauty of an anime and fell in love with its creative nature. Overall Score: 8.4 Art (8.5) - Horimiya's overall art style wasn't uber impressive. How it managed to capture and contextualize the emotions of characters was what impressed me the most. Characters were oft seen in moments of struggle, anguish, or even playful fear. Horimiya brilliantly showcased these emotions via its art,making most scenes stand out that wouldn't have otherwise. Cinematically, Horimiya does a very good job at showcasing what it wants to. Lack of critical detail in major scenes in the anime is why I can't rate Horimiya's art anything higher than an 8.5.

Characters (9.5) - From the very beginning, every character seemed unique and polished out. Many of the characters were relatable and had deep problems that honestly hit home really hard. At times, it seemed I was witnessing the life and mature transformation of another person; not just some fictitious anime character. My only complaint from the series is the wide variety of characters. There seemed to be so many characters that it was often difficult to pinpoint exactly who was who. Remembering every single character and their deeply woven backstories posed to be a challenge as each episode progressed.

Sound (9) - Sound carried this anime quite a bit. Many songs were impactful, gave energy and rhythm to what was being displayed, and made the anime more interesting overall. The music and sound production set the stage for bigger moments that the audience could really grasp and savor. Despite these big, heavy moments, however, there were still times I was longing for better tracks to play at certain moments, especially those masked with silence. It seemed unnatural for some scenes not to have music playing since most of Horimiya's hardest-hitting and most memorable scenes occur with very exciting and very moving background music.

Story (6) - At Horimiya's grand climax, I was left wanting more. I desperately wanted to spend more time with the characters that I had come to know and love, and I believe some of them were treated unfairly with their inclusions in the main story. While almost all characters had their backgrounds roughly explained through memories of their past selves, Horimiya's plot development and character analysis could've really used some touchups. The anime did impressively add characters and tried earnestly to explain every character equally, but some characters were left in the dust, quickly to become side characters or dreaded cameo characters.

Shockingly, the worst thing about Horimiya's story isn't the actual characters and how they are woven into the plotline--it's the plotline itself. There's no coherent plot, just a period of time that passes between episodes. Characters are introduced at seemingly random points, not when the plot expands--just conveniently enough for the plot to include and accept them. This unsteady plot structure made it significantly easy to remember events in the anime's timeline, even if they had just occurred in the episode(s) prior. The anime left me entranced, and had me aching for more, but that's it--I just wanted more.

Enjoyment (9) - Horimiya plays with heartstrings and tugs honest emotions from its cast in order to deliver one of the most satisfying messages about life to its audience: the beauty of human nature... and friendship. As corny as it sounds, I enjoyed watching it thoroughly, but its ending had me begging for more. Even so, Horimiya fulfilled its time on screen and delivered its message beautifully. It was whimsical and meaningful along the way, but it was enjoyable at its core and a fantastic experience.