Review of Horimiya
This is a good show, absolutely. Incredibly generic and should probably be one of the shows that defines the base content of the high school romance genre, but though it's not very unique it's executed well enough for you to care for most of the characters it tries to get you to care about. My biggest problem with the show is that it forgets about its main selling point and unique factor about half way through. The whole "oh, they're different people outside of school" thing falls apart when the two main characters start acting the exact same in or outside of the school. Themale protagonist, Miyamura, even cuts his hair and stops wearing earrings and his lip piercing all together. After the first half Hori and Miyamura fall into the pit of being boring and general, with both of them acting the same whether they are at home or in school.
The side characters almost all get their own side romance stories with other side characters, but for some reason the side romances or stories all feel rather unsatisfying once you come to the end of the show, with *SPOILERS, SORTA, WON'T RUIN THE SHOW OR ANYTHING* one girl getting rejected while another girl (kinda) getting with the man she liked, as they describe it in the show as both of them liking each other, but being in a state of limbo, not dating. Not to forget the other girl who ends up with the guy the first girl likes, gets confessed to by someone who becomes a pretty unused character, but a part of the friend group nonetheless, later on. An older brother trying to help his younger sister who appears to have some sort of learning disorder and doesn't have the grades to get into the school she wants despite working harder than anyone else in her class. A person who used to bully and mock Miyamura in middle school reappearing in his life, and after an unfortunate first meeting he tries to reconcile with Miyamura for treating him badly in middle school. *SPOILERS END*
The characters all losing their interesting aspects as the show goes on becomes irritating quickly. Each character starts out relatively unique, and if not unique then at least satisfactory in character design, but as the story progresses each character slips further and further into generalization. With side characters that get side stories or romances you never feel satisfied with the end of, and are obviously filler because they rushed the story too much and not only had Hori and Miyamura become a couple too early on, but got rid of their interesting elements. Because of this rushing of the story, they filled in the last half of the season with no character development on behalf of Hori and Miyamura, and tried to develop the rest of the characters. They should have had Hori and Miyamura's relationship develop slower, because we then end with a bizarre case of thirteen episodes being both too long and too short for this show. They could have avoided all of the unsatisfying finished side stories if the show was even shorter, but honestly the preferred case would have been to increase the number of episodes to not only give more time to Hori and Miyamura's relationship in terms of development, but also the side stories could and should have been mixed in to the development of their relationship, rather than being a case of the first half of the series being about development for Hori and Miyamura, and the second half being a series of unfinished-feeling side character plots. *SLIGHT SPOILER* To give you an idea of the pacing, it basically goes like this, episode 1 - main characters become friends, episode 2 & 3 - main characters are friends, episode 4 & 5 - main characters are maybe more than friends, episode 6 - yep, there's no doubt they're a couple, episode 7 & onward - uh, what do we do now, guess it's time for some goofy side character development? *SPOILERS END* The show shouldn't have ever been split up into such clear cut sections, with the first half being rushed main character development and nearly no side character development, and the second half being rushed side character development, and nearly no main character development.
It's a great show, sorry to get so hung up on the details of its composition, but it's one of those things you can see so clearly by just taking a step back and reviewing the show. There's no need for it to so mechanically cut that it feels unnatural, not to mention paced unevenly.
This show feels like it has so much potential bottled up, but suffers from its purpose being forgotten, and from the show only being thirteen episodes long. The show feels sad when you finish it, not just because it's an enjoyable show, but because you feel a lack of finality with all the characters, and you know, despite wanting to, you're probably never getting the finality you want from the show.
Other than the unique aspect of the show being siphoned off the top part way through, this is a well executed generic high school romcom show, and I recommend to people looking for a relaxing or laid back watch.