Review of Horimiya

I would really like to give this anime a solid 8, but there were just quite a few loose ends that I felt could be tied together better. Disclaimer: I did marathon this series, so I'd really like to watch it again to see if I missed anything which could affect its overall score. I also have not read the manga yet, so that's probably why I mention loose ends in this review. The thing that I really liked was how this was a rom-com+slice of life. Love is still the main component of this show, but the spoken lines don't make it the only thingthere is to talk about. School life and other complicated feelings of budding friendships are included, and really do highlight the many complicated emotions one may feel during high school. There were many moments that were very subtle and well-written, and there were also casual confessions of love that were naturally thrown in, yet not overwritten. These were primarily the main points that I really liked and really enjoyed, because unlike other shoujo anime, where if a character confesses, everyone gets fluttered and a large part of an episode focuses just on that. But with Horimiya, it's portrayed in a way that kind of brushes it past, as if it happens just about everywhere, but at the same time, the subtle emotions of the characters for those short few moments are just enough to convey the full intention.

Another part of this show that I really liked was the subplot with the side characters. Everyone has those complicated emotions, and I feel that the subplot with Ishikawa truly managed to showcase such emotions with incredible delicacy. At that point in the anime, I was rooting for this part of the story more than the main couples'.

The loose ends, I felt, were where Miyamura faces his past and his previous schoolmates. Not much about his family and parents are shown either, even though it is somewhat understood that his parents are very much involved in his life, and a lot of his coming to terms with his past is shown from only his point of view (which I guess makes sense, but I'd like to see more from the POV of his previous schoolmates, as in extended scenes). A lot of his flashbacks are in somewhat disjointed shards, and so are his ex-schoolmates', which can be a little confusing as it jumps a little quickly. This is similar to that brushing-past-manner as mentioned before, and I suppose it just wasn't as effective when it came to these scenes instead, hence the feeling of the loose ends untied.

It isn't that they were completely untied, but it just felt like they could've tied it up a bit better.

Apart from all that, the art was really light and refreshing, and the OP and ED sequences were really cute! The accompanying music at certain scenes was really well paired and seriously pulled at the heartstrings. As for those parts, I thoroughly enjoyed them. Especially the opening track!