Review of Horimiya

Romcom is a tricky genre. It's hard to tell exactly what you are getting just by looking at the synopsis. Most of the times, you get your generic romcom with intolerable characters, and at other times, you find something like Horimiya. For quite a long time, Horimiya has been a pretty massive name in the manga community, but it wasn't until recently that it started garnering attention from the anime viewers. Despite what some people may believe, the 2021 adaptation of Horimiya isn't actually its first anime adaptation. Before this, an OVA based on the much less popular web comic was released 8 years ago, whichdidn't gain much attention. But after a new anime adaptation based on the more popular manga began airing, it pretty much immediately received widespread popularity among anime fans. Since then, Horimiya has also become somewhat of a divisive series—with people falling in love with the anime and others finding it very mediocre. As for me, I'm kinda in the first group.

Now, before I talk about why I like Horimiya, it's necessary to point out the show's most notable flaw: the premise.

Kyouko Hori is a smart and beautiful girl who is loved by all her friends. On the other hand, Izumi Miyamura is a rather gloomy guy who always stays isolated from others. When these two meet each other by chance, they discover each other's secrets or, as they call it, "hidden selves". Hori and Miyamura decide to hide each and grow closer as they interact.

What are these secrets, exactly? Miyamura's secret actually needs to be kept a secret—dude's got piercings and stuff, you know? But Hori's secret is.... She is a normal girl who loves to do housework and takes care of her little brother.

Yeah, I don't know what about it is unusual either.

The premise here is an obvious gimmick, and it solely exists to get things rolling. It's not necessarily a bad thing in of itself, but Horimiya makes this painfully obvious. After the first few episodes, the premise is pretty much entirely forgotten. Aside from initiating Hori and Miyamura's relationship, it doesn purpose and doesn't affect the story in any way. As pointless (and stupid) as the premise is, though, Horimiya itself isn't actually a bad show.

The narrative of Horimiya is mostly character-driven, so it mainly depends on its characters to move the story forward. This causes some obvious downsides, perhaps the notable one being how mundane the show can become at times. But fortunately, there is a cast of lively characters that compensate for the lacklustre story. The content is pretty light-hearted in nature, and while there's a fair amount of drama from time to time (which honestly need some work), the anime mostly maintains a wholesome and "feel-good" atmosphere that works very well for it.

It should be obvious by reading the title (Horimiya = Kyouko "Hori" & Izumi "Miya"mura), but the main focus of Horimiya are the two titular characters: Hori and Miyamura. Hori and Miyamura initially started out as close friends, and they became lovers after they confirmed their feelings for each other. However, unlike many other romcoms, the series doesn't take an unnecessarily long time to bring them together, which gives it more than enough time to effectively delve into their romantic relationship and strengthen their bond through simple yet entertaining interactions.

Hori and Miyamura's romantic relationship starts off as slightly toxic with Hori being overly possessive of Miyamura, but it becomes much, much less prevalent in the later episodes. Both Hori and Miyamura have genuine feelings for each other, and they reflect that through their heartfelt conversations. Their interactions are mostly bubbly and light-hearted, being proof their healthy relationship. They do engage in sexual intercourse in one episode, but it's only implied rather than being explicitly shown.

Hori's first impressions may not be very promising. She is seemingly a typical tsundere character who is good at everything she does, but she soon develops into a more complex character. Like any normal girl, Hori has her own insecurities (her so called secret isn't one of them), and through Miyamura, she can expose her insecurities and be nonchalant about them. Miyamura is a very significant part of Hori's life and vice-versa; both of them complement to each other just by being themselves.

Miyamura is almost the polar opposite of Hori. He doesn't stand out much (or stands out in a negative regard), he is pretty much always gloomy, and he barely has any "real" friends. He always stays isolated from others, trying to avert any sort of attention towards him. However, Hori's arrival in his life has changed him in more ways than one. Because of her, Miyamura has finally started to make friends and open up to them, and he is very, very grateful to her for that. His gloominess isn't all there is to him, though. He is genuinely a nice and funny guy who you would love to be friends with. (By the way, I really like his "gangsta" or "yakuza" type of attitude.)

While strong in romance and comedy, Horimiya falls short in the more serious side of things. As I said earlier, there is a fair amount of dramatic content in the series, and more often than not, it comes out a bit sappy (to me, at least). For instance, Miyamura's past is one of the most prominent themes of Horimiya. Every now and then, flashbacks of his past school life are shown where we see him all dispirited, but any proper reason for him to behave like that is never given. We know Miyamura used to be a hella depressed kid, but we don't know why and how he became so depressed, which makes it difficult to find him relatable. However, Miyamura does confront his past later on in the anime, and how he comes to terms with it is wholesome and encouraging, and presented greatly.

Horimiya's supporting cast is pretty memorable, predominantly consisting of Hori and Miyamura's friends, most of whom are quite likeable. From time to time, however, the focus of the story changes to the side characters from the main duo, from which a couple of issues stem. The shift of the focus mostly works well, but sometimes, they are rather abrupt and completely take the spotlight from Hori and Miyamura, especially apparent in the last half. At times, the dramatic content concentrating on the side characters can be very redundant. Like, what was the point of the love triangle between Yuki, Tooru and Sakura? Not much. Horimiya also has a tendency to suddenly introduce new characters (Sawada and Motoko for example) and focus on them right away, which does it more harm than good.

The animation of Horimiya is fairly good. It isn't particularly breathtaking or the like, but it's more than satisfactory for the most part. The backgrounds are fine, but the artstyle and character designs are certainly noteworthy; they are simple but the clever use of vivid and flashy colors makes them stand out a lot (especially the hair colors). Though, the anime likes to use certain effects while showing specific character reactions (like overly saturated and shady backgrounds), which is aesthetically cool and all, but I couldn't find much meaning behind them. They came off as kinda tacky to me.

In terms of soundtrack, Horimiya does a quite satisfactory job. While nothing too remarkable, the music overall complements to the experience of the show. The opening theme "Iro Kousui" is one of the catchiest songs of the season, paired with a gloomy sequence focusing on Miyamura. In the last half, the sequence changes a bit after Miyamura and Hori get together, highlighting the happy moments of his new life. On the other hand, the ending theme "Yakusoku" is fairly inferior to the opening song, but it is paired with rather unique and creative visuals. The voice acting is very good as well.

Horimiya doesn't really bring anything new to the table per se, but it's good at what it does to say the least. Even with its flaws, it's mostly a humorous and heartwarming romcom that manages to be better than most of its peers. While I can't really recommend the show to everyone due to its rather mundane nature, romcom fans like me are likely to find something special in it and appreciate it for what it is. After all, a genuinely good romcom is hard to find these days.