Review of Horimiya

Well... Geez. That’s how I would summarise Horimiya in one word. After giving myself some thought to this anime- some breathing space and watchama-call-it, time, Horimiya really, really isn’t, this sort of, romantic masterpiece. This show only got 2 things right, but I’ll cover that later. By the way, I haven’t read the manga. Now, sit tight, this is long. I don’t know what it is about story and how somehow people can get sucked into something and think it’s glorious and the next Sword Art Online of romance series. My biggest complication with this show is the story. I hate it. That’s baby talk- butI hate it. It’s simplicity kills me- and the matter of effect from everything that happens feels dumb.
Horimiya BEGINS to revolve around the lives of 2 people, Hori and Miyamura. In regular ‘clichè’ romance anime, you’d have a continually dragged show where someone’s love is unrequited while a group of friends have the time of their lives playing boing boing ball at the beach till the last episode or something. No no no, we don’t do that here. This is HORIMIYA. A place- or a show- or simply an anime where 2 people are made- destined even, to be together. Instead, we get a very subtlety clear confession within the first 2 episodes. Great. Now it’s over, right?
Wait.... hold on... Oh? What’s this? Side characters have depth only a few episodes later? Whaaaaaat? Oh wait- forget about that, they don’t really matter. Since now we’re just having a mess of miscommunications and complications between the main couple and brushing the dust under the rug for the others.
Several episodes- are entirely a mess. They’re sloppily made and they only get worse because of a certain character that likes to complicate them every so often.
One of my biggest issues with the events that transpired throughout all this is when Hori attempts to force Miyamura into verbally and physically abusing her- more or so in public? In school?! What? I... What is this? What the hell is going on now? Did the author go mad? In what realistic world of anime- let alone anime, Horimiya is supposed to be framed as if it’s attuned the living world, right? Then how come- are random kids in school calling Miyamura a ‘cool guy’ or ‘hot’ if he’s abusing his girlfriend in public and he doesn’t even apologise or anything for it even if it was a misunderstanding. This is incredibly surprising, how was there not a complication with this- why did it get swept away like it never happened? S&M, BDSM, you name it, it’s perfectly fine and all- but if this is trying to be an accurate portrayal of real life in some way. Holy shit, it’s failing bad.
It’s shown vividly multiple times that Miyamura clearly did not want to do this S&M act between the two of them- and my god, did Hori not listen.
Miyamura expresses his frustration, for once in his goddamn life, about this to Hori’s dad during a scene where they sit in a bathtub. Hallelujah. My god, he talked, about his anxieties. Oh wait... whoopsie. Guess that doesn’t matter anyways since seconds later when Hori’s father tries to tell her about Miyamura’s anxieties, she decides to say, “Stop blabbing about stupid crap and help me out with the chores.”
WHAT? ARE YOU SERIOUS? It’s clear, that the goal of this show is to primarily make everything centred on humor. They could’ve actually made something like this into an issue in order to build on their relationship here. But that comes with pacing issues of course- and who wants to see a show where it primarily focuses on only 2 people and instead sift through the paper thin issues of other characters that don’t entirely matter? Bah! No one of course! Instead- let’s rush everything at once and disregard the toxicity and problems within the main couples own issues so no one notices! Yay!
It does all this- and yet- it completely complicates some of the smallest issues for no reason when there are much larger issues instead being made fun of for the sake of humor, a waste of time, when they’re clearly could’ve been story developed or- relationships strengthened. But no. Oh my, I did not enjoy the story.

Finally, to a part where something can be appreciated. What is it here? The uniqueness? The polish? The cleanliness? I don’t know. But it’s bloody fantastic. Every minor second of this show was eye candy. From the snow, to the walls, to the details entranced in hair, it was smooth cut, beautiful. And that’s without mentioning the glittery explosion that was the OP, every time I see this treasure, I can’t pain myself to skip it. The fluidity, the constructiveness. Is this where all the effort for the show went? Did everyone decide to get a pay rise only in the art department?
Every episode for me, I was in awe, In patience waiting to see the colours, the subtle changes and design of every character and background. Sure, it looks like every other polished anime now and then. But when they decide to get detailed and enthrall some emotion within the faces, the water works come on.

The sound- well, being the casual plebeian in sound archetypes and voicing ability, everything sounded fairly high quality. That is to say it didn’t get compressed beyond repair. Well, it didn’t get close to that. The emotion in voices, the panic, the fears, the expressions, that was all very much there and- well, I unfortunately didn’t get the second-hand feel of it. I honestly don’t have much to say for the sound, so we’ll leave that good boy out in the pen for it’s food.
Gotta give props to the OP and OST sounding absolutely fantastic though, the OP I hear everywhere nowadays. Great sound.

The characters. The characters, oh god, the characters. This is what happens when you shove an anime filled with a bunch of high schoolers riddled with issues- only to belittle their issues and make it a comedy fest, or putting it under a guise of something else.
Miyamura reminds a lot of people that watched this what a recluse they might’ve been, makes ya feel lonely, envious, but most of all, it’s wholesome. Surely, a lot of people didn’t resonate with Miyamura, but some could’ve, wether they made mistakes or decisions similar to him, and that makes him one of the good characters here. Now that sounds incredibly and biased and dumb, well, yeah, it is. But it’s not like we’ve got anything better to sift from other than a small handful like Toru and Yukki. Two of Hori’s friends that have their own issues. Yukki, being a vindictive person who hides their personality and puts up a guise for the sake of others, and Toru. Well, Toru’s just a lad. He’s weird, but he’s a lad.
There’s tons of characters here that have their own depth, their colour (that means their hair...), their own lives behind the time they spend at school- but there is by far a character that is one of the worst people here, yet most essential.
Hori Kyouko. Hori isn’t a good character- or a good person based in this realistic world of anime. Frankly, there’s not a lot to like here. It sort of feels like she’s the personification or dream version of a certain person that makes this manga, but honestly I have no clue. This may be because she’s the most highlighted character in the anime, and even if she is, based on what’s been given alone, she’s still really bad. And the characters around her don’t exactly stop her from doing the horrible things she’s doing, call her out or anything at all. No! It’s all for love. At least, in this world, issues & anxiety = love. And back to mentioning the things she does- yes, she has anxiety, but the world around her does nothing to stop it, or aid it, it encourages it even. She’ll even physically hit Miyamura now and then just because he talked about one thing- that suddenly now makes her jealous, upset, anything at all- like what? Why is she doing this? Why is Miyamura the most patient godsend of a man there is? How he is able to take this?
Miyamura doesn’t stand up for himself several times throughout many episodes where he was having communication issues with Hori- because he was feeling pressured by Hori to do things he didn’t want- and he got immediately shut down about them. This, this really did not feel- okay at all.
A lot of side characters backstories are unexplained and thrown into the mix just for progressions sake. It feels largely rushed and at times uncomfortable in many scenes because of the rushed progressiveness with both Hori and Miyamura.
The amount of characters here were enjoyable. Some like Toru, or Yukki, they actually felt like they had a reason to exist in the story- if at all. But, if you closed your eyes, and forgot that pink hairs, red hairs and green hairs that weren’t mentioned and didn’t exist, maybe everything would be better. Then there would’ve finally been time for DEVELOPMENT. But ahhhh, who cares about that? No one!

Horimiya. It had its good moments- and the art style, OST and OP were glorious- but the story feels utterly rushed and empty. If you cut at least 4 characters from this whole series- I’m not even sure if it could be as mediocre as it is, it’d probably be better. One of my only criticisms are that it feels like it belittles and dumbs down a lot of things while giving the illusion that it’s something much more. It baits you, pulls you in and makes you feel things only to flip it on its head and treat the underlying issues as if they never existed or don’t really matter- by solving them in a completely arbitrary way. But hey, I still enjoyed the show quite a bit. Even if I did occasionally feel sad or disappointed from a couple lack of details noticed, or the complete disregard of realistic issues despite trying to pin that as one of its baits for feeling and liking certain characters. It was good, fun, and a enjoyable amount of time spent.

If I wanted to really describe this show, well, try to see it this way or- well-
Look at it this way, imagine a cake, you with me? Imagine a cake, a cheesecake, you’ve got the base, you’ve got the cream filling and you’ve got the toppings or flavouring. Now just taaaaaake that whole cream filling out, crack the base a bit and you’ve got a pretty looking platter of cake on your hands. That’s Horimiya.
It’s hollow, empty but it still looks nice.
To put it as I would say, not my cup of tea- necessarily- But it was okay... Okay for suckers. Give my cake back. I got duped. >: [