Review of Horimiya

"You are worth more than you know, capable of more than you think, and loved more than you can imagine." Undoubtedly the rom-com of the season, Horimiya has the potential to be great in every aspect of the genre, but the elephant in the room is obviously CloverWorks and the production team behind this show: the classic case of quantity over quality. I'd like to think that we're playing a baseball match with CloverWorks for Winter 2021: Strike 1 for the horrible adaptation of The Promised Neverland (Season 2), Strike 2 for the abominable business practices of hampering Wonder Egg Priority's Behind-the-Scenes tragedy of director ShinWakabayashi and his production team, and finally Strike 3 for what is a total-misfire repeat of Strike 1 of going for a loose and inconsistent adaptation of the original source material (since it's basically marketing for the already completed manga). And you're out!

"You say "There's more to this than meets the eye" when you think a situation is not as simple as it seems to be."

The main star of the show is the central couple: Hori Kyouko and Izumi Miyamura, two very distinct people, and so different-yet-alike each other. The former is a perfect social butterfly but the truth that she’s a brash homebody; the latter hiding a gentle heart, along with piercings and tattoos while under a gloomy façade. Both have things that don't want people to know that are best kept in secret, and a chance meeting proves to break the mirrors of their perceptions and in the perchance, solidify their relationship altogether within that short span of time. As time grows, both Hori and Miyamura learn of each other's quirks and what makes them tick that helps make their relationship grow stronger by the day. Kinda cute in spots, and to the people whom are having a relationship with their significant other will definitely feel those puppy-love moments that are relatable...well, except for some cringe S&M moments (unless the girls are like bad-ass Hori that secretly adores boys like bad-ass Miyamura, and vice versa) and the eccentric familial conditions.

"If I look at the one thorn that is in my side of all my life, it is my weight. I fret about it, I'm anxious about it, being an actor on TV - it drives me insane. It just seems to be something that plays a central part in waking up in the morning and thinking: "How am I with myself today?" - Deborah Mailman

You would think that for such a self-titled show that all you're gonna see is how these two central characters would blossom, right? But instead of the rose that we got with Hori and Miyamura's relationship, there are more thorns on the stem of the side characters, as significant or insignificant as they may be (that's to your POV that I won't judge). By themselves, the side characters can be taken as a side story altogether, but since they're connected to the main bubbly girl, I'd guess that this works primarily to advance their circumstances, rather than being tied onto the main couple, and for a rom-com that deems to be a romantic "drama" altogether, I'm not sure if mixing in too much of slice-of-life moments is a good choice. Pretty much like Tomozaki-kun, the best way to infer is through the clique method:
- Toru Ishikawa, Yuki Yoshikawa, Akane Yanagi and Hori herself.Toru being avid about his prospects of getting together with Hori only diminishes when he sees that the central couple are getting closer, quicker than it looks on the outside. Instead, he tries his best to steer clear of that direction, leading him to Yuki...but not quite the "closeness" as of yet. It's with the fickle-minded Yanagi that consciously brings Toru and Yuki close together, despite both playing the friendship treatment of going so far as to notice the affinities they have for each other. A potential couple, but played off as one of friend-zoning.
- Kakeru Sengoku, Remi Ayasaki and Sakura Kono (with a wild Toru on the side): the Student Council trio. For the most part, both Sengoku and Remi has had quite the relationship with each other: a weak but capable guy and a bubbly, playful girl whose differences match one another, and they're as close to being realistic and vulnerable towards each other in their moments of time alone. Sakura is quite the character that most people will feel quite frustrated about, but for those who've gone though the love ennui moments of noticing your crush from afar, you'll definitely find yourself in Sakura's shoes. She's an introvert through and through, but someone who's an extrovert when trying to reciprocate between the give-and-take of feelings, as such when she develops a crush on Toru, only to find that his kindness is returned, but not in the way she expected it to be. And it hurts real bad.
- Miyamura, Koichi Shindo and Makio Tanihara (with a wild Hori on the side): the middle-school "Happy Three Friends" of a convoluted past. The reason why Miyamura is surfaced as a lonesome otaku geek at the beginning is because of Tanihara and his clique of friends who used to bully Miyamura for his ostracized looks, to the breaking point where what Miyamura once confided in was taken away from him, leading to the gloomy aspect. It's only through Shindo that Tanihara would come to start accepting Miyamura for who he is, with the heart talks between both cementing the reconciliation years later. Other than that, Shindo is the casual butt of a joker, and with Hori adding into the equation only makes the S&M aesthetic look more prominent.
- The others who have significantly less screentime: Shu Iura is the objectively loud airhead of a character whom is exactly like Shindo, Honoka Sawada whom is seen as the detractor of the Horimiya relationship, and the Hori family of a beautiful, yet somehow kinda "broken" family (in particular to Best Dad Kyosuke).

Ideally I would want to paint this picture as someone whom has been in a relationship, but for the general audience, whether you're in one or not, Horimiya is as bare-bones as it can be, trading the romance aspect for its comedy of the Pareto Principle: 80% comedic slice-of-life, 20% romance.

“We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness — and call it love — true love.” – Robert Fulghum

I find it quite the fascination of not just the OST that Horimiya has, but more of less its visuals and the intended picture of how people are supposed to perceive both the small and big moments, and this is something that I have to give the animators credit for. Starting off with the OP, it's interesting that there's 2 variations of Miyamura's theme: the 1st half where Miyamura is just like his old self, from reaching for the cube alone to most characters feeling dejected and frustrated, to the 2nd half where Hori's hand reached out for Miyamura with the cube, to the director's credit roll of him slicing the monochrome feel to showcase the colours of life with happiness overflowing. Capping off with the ED, it's using the twixt of a mix of animation in a dress-up model style between the central couple. Even with scenes that are depicted in the style of the OP of the potential couple-like feels, it's these Easter Eggs that not everyone will notice, but I thought it's worth mentioning. As for both OP and ED, it sounds great, no faults there.

If I can sum Horimiya up in a quote, it'd be this one by the famous Jamaican singer-songwriter Bob Marley:
“You open your heart knowing that there’s a chance it may be broken one day and in opening your heart, you experience a love and joy that you never dreamed possible. You find that being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure that’s so real it scares you. You find strength in knowing you have a true friend and possibly a soul mate who will remain loyal to the end. Life seems completely different, exciting and worthwhile. Your only hope and security is in knowing that they are a part of your life.”

As mentioned in the beginning, it's a loose adaptation of HERO and Hagiwara Daisuke's manga of the same name, but if I'd reckon something that the anime lacked over the manga, it's good progression. The anime felt mostly like the typical slice-of-life situations of characters gone awry, and though the allegory of what got lost as the series progressed, so to did the anime that had to relinquish some good character development moments for simpler ones, and that to me, is a shame of how much Horimiya could've been on par with the manga, but it wasn't meant to be...

...or so could be best said: "The source material is so much better."