Review of Horimiya

Lacking in Energy but not Quite Melancholic - Lethargy(LR); -That's how'd I'd somewhat pretentiously describe Horimiya, a light hearted highschool romcom loosely based on a collection of web comics which have since been adapted in a few ways. As a production the show is well built, above average animation and Ost tracks along with decent direction however it's tone, characters and story are all sorely lacking, verging on abysmal and seemingly that's by design. As per usual let's go trough the spoiler free segment first; Characters and Story - Horimiya is not a plot driven story, a fact which I thankfully knew going in and onewhich I think is essential to your enjoyment of the show. If you enter expecting a standard romcom framework (Something which the opening song tries quite hard to convince you of) you will be exceedingly disappointed, however as mentioned, aside from the opening song the show never hides the fact that it's a light hearted and wholesome romp. It has no intentions of following classic tropes or being particularly drama driven and as such it's only fair and my normal go to, to judge this based on the fact that it doesn't pretend to be a traditional story. With that somewhat confusingly in mind, Horimiya borderline has no real plot. It's instead a collection of small events loosely tied together by the day to day lives and romance of our main Deuteragonists. It's a story far better suited to the five or ten minute short form of anime and in fact I think this is a show I'd absolutely love if presented as 25 - 50 short lighthearted episodes of fun filled anime, alternatively it could of gone the route of 'Tsuredure Children' which is, in my opinion just a better version of Horimiya's format.

As should be clear by now, I found these short dislocated stories being stapled together made for a fairly dissonant experience, furthermore the story just stops after episode 7 before picking back up again in the closing 3 episodes, making it exceedingly rocky in it's pacing. Being more specific on the characters will have to wait until the post spoiler tag segment but it should suffice to say they suffer heavily from the story's chronic structuring issues. With all that said this is not a bad story, it is enjoyable and indeed if you watch this in small doses or on a weekly basis I think you will find this to be something really special but from an objective standpoint this is an incredibly weak showing in the story and character departments. Again if you enjoyed it that's great, I did too but beware of this lack of depth before you go in as to avoid possible disappointment, if you don't like it by episode 2 or episode 7 then do not expect it to blow your mind in its second and third acts.

Music and Animation - The music for Horimiya is actually a mixed bag, listening to the soundtrack out of context it seems really solid however many of the tracks on it aren't present in the anime / stroke only small extracts of them are used, what we do get is still above average but overall forgettable. Their are some tracks that standout but overall in reminds me of 'Just Because' from a couple years ago, enjoyable, above average and certainly serviceable but ultimately unmemorable. The outro song is my favourite of the bunch standing out as the best vocal song involved in the production however the intro song acts as a perfect allegory for the series. Like my title suggest it's low in energy but not quite some sort of sombre ballad, instead it's a pop song with no fizz - Whenever it gears up to a chorus, said chorus comes in and saps the piece of it's pace, falling flat on it's face. It's low-fi stylings might be up your alley but not mine. However from a less subjective point of view it doesn't service the story all that well, it's docile tones implies a very methodical drama sort of anime and it complete fails to hype you up for a romcom, being instead far more fitting for something of a more grounded series.

The animation follows the same trend. At times there's some really great compositions and the character designs are all good, furthermore I can really appreciate the effort put into trying to make the style imitate the original web comic, however at other times it's tediously bland. Entire conversations go by with barely any movement or a transition into a chibi style which is cute but lingers for wholly too long. All this is further hampered by the backgrounds, because the anime deals with the quiet moments of highschool life, we spend an inordinate amount of time in Hori's living room, the classroom and to a lesser extend the student council room and rooftop. These four locations are used for most of the shows integral moments, with a sprinkling of other hallways and lanes in-between. This focus means we spend a-lot of time with these backgrounds and while there definitely clean, there really isn't much to them, they aren't exciting. The three school locations in particular are mind numbingly generic, the classrooms only distinguishing feature is a balcony which I have to admit isn't overly common but that aside these backgrounds only go to add to the complete lack of motion this series has which can be a really big issue in shows with a heavy dialogue orientation.

Then there's the ending animation, it's terrible. It ain't cute, informative or endearing, despite the song being good I only dragged myself through the outro 3 out of 12 of its appearances, I would of much preferred a standard running animations then this Roblox simulator. The intro animation as I've already alluded to, I draw issue with. It's like it was made for a entirely different show, it isn't helped by the minor changes that occur to it later on, that show the characters in montage fashion, experiencing far more interesting events then we're getting to see. With all that said the actually animation and direction of the intro are quite good, just completely unfitting. To finish this segment, I would presume the animation is this way in order to emulate the original comic and subsequent adaptions however the original has such bare backgrounds as it was done as short form comic strips. Trying to directly adapt it into animation has happened to disappointing effect, the dull backgrounds and scattered moments of animations lead this to be quite the pretty but boring property to look at.

Now before I finish the spoiler free area, for once were going to dedicate some proper time to weather you should watch this dub or sub. Usually I just throw this in as a one liner somewhere but on this one occasion the answer is very different. Watch this show subbed. Allow me to clarify, the voice acting for Horimiya is good, there ain't much content for them to work with here but what there is, is handled well, the issue comes in the scripting. Now if you've read any of my stuff you know I love dubs and not just the good one. I love dubs like 'Slayers' where it was recorded in two blocks causing Zelgadis's (One of the characters with the most lines) voice to change half way through and 'Rezo the Red Priest' sounds like he's socially distancing from the microphone. I love the 'Those who Hunt Elves' dub where their clearly just having a lot of fun or even the Higarushi dub where I think they do a good job and wish they'd adapted the rest. I love how old fashioned dubs could have a less then stellar side cast or the odd weird bit of adaptive translation but were filled with heart. The same passion that I love anime for would often seep it's way into the most poorly translated dub making them ooze with charm even at their worst.

No the problem is that of the dialogue, scripted by two relative new comers to the world of adaption, the script suffers heavily to the point of incompetency at times. There are sentences where the same word will be used upwards of 4 times, strange translations that are just to accurate or literal to sound right in English and others that are way to American. There was controversy recently over the inclusion of the word 'sus' in the Nagitaro sub, well whatever you think of that, 'sus', 'Hella' and a raft of other fun bits of slang make it in here. It's a dub that tries to be both overly acute and trendy all at once and the end result is something that further maars and already shaky experience. If you prefer dubs or don't like extensive reading (Which is totally valid my own brother is of that disposition) then this dub is of quality, it is after all a complete myth that dubs are bad a majority of the time, on the contrary they are usually good and again the voice acting here is fine, good even but the script further hampers this weak narrative so my vote is on sub for this occasion.

To conclude, Horimiya is not a bad anime, in fact it's down right charming at times (episodes 8 and 11 are actually quite good in places) however it's narrative has been disastrously mangled into the mold of a 20 minute, 13 episode format with an agenda I would guess to most likely copy Snafu's recent success. It's music is strong but forgettable, it's character incredibly shallow, it's artwork pretty but hollow. To reiterate this is not the right format for this story and it puts down in cruel fashion what could of been an excellent excursion into the slow lane and yet Horimiya is still endearing. It's simple honesty and heart shine through from it's drawn origins and its plain story of everyday life is a welcome one. If your looking for a lax, wholesome and light hearted way to spend time with a bunch of under-developed but fun characters in a low intensity setting, then after the year we've all been having this could well be for you. In fact I feel many will come to really love this show as indicated by how the fandom received it with an abundance of hype. Enjoy this show for the good time you can get from it but if your expecting a romcom that dispenses with the usual tropes or a grounded drama story then your best off to pass this one. Overall a score of 6.5 verging on a 7.

Spoilers Ahoy - What Characters?;
After its poor structure, possibly Horimiya's biggest issue is it's characters or lack there of. I've heard many praise them for supposedly being more realistic grounded depiction that are accurate to life and if you relate to them that's great but I really ain't seeing it - at all. I called them deuteragonists earlier but really the show centres on Izumi Miyamura for the most part and there-in lies a big issue. Izumi is bland and only becomes even more so the more the story progresses. initially the show seems to shed itself of the classic 'he's an emo otaku, lonely kid' as the aforementioned Snafu is popular for falling into, instead going for a more interesting take with Izumi living a double life of ear piecings and tattoos while still being a more reserved, introverted induvial. However the whole school soon learns of the piercings and before long Izumi cuts his hair. This in itself isn't a problem and could be a sign of his growth, yet the issue is, why does he have tattoos and piecings? The piercings seem due to a sort of self harm mentality while in primary school but the tattoos? The closest we get to an explanation is that they were an impulse decision. I don't have a problem with trying not to dwell on drama past or present in order to maintain a certain tone but what we get instead is nothing. His tattoos are just a plot device, we never learn how he feels about them or if actually regrets them, furthermore is his backstory, it's lame. Not in the sense that a simplistic, quiet story about an isolated kid can't work but it doesn't here. For one thing the writers make the baffling choice to give Izumi a middle school friend in Shindou, with him in place we now have a situation where he was what? Sad in primary school and then bullied but had a best friend who stuck up for him in middle school? That's what drove him to isolate from people, drove him to pierce himself in 7(?) places, made him get tattoos? That's it? Maybe it's more then that, his Dad seems to be absent, yet in ep13 he does mention parents plural. He spends a ridiculous amount of time at someone else's house but that's probably because his own parent's are busy with the bakery, something which he doesn't seem to fussed by. What is this kids problem exactly? It's not that his experiences are not relatable in their simplicity, it's that their too damn simple to make me care.

Let's put his past self aside though. Present day Izumi is the bigger issue, after the first few episodes he seizes his punk-rocker style of dressing, no longer donning his piercing's even outside of school and eventually gets his hair cut. This further adds to the feelings that said tattoos and piercings really were nothing more then a shallow plot device with no greater nuanced meaning. What do we know about Izumi by the shows ending? Does he like music? Maybe, he does have that aesthetic early on and I guess he borrows CDs from Shou a couple times. He might be good at baking, again it's mentioned early, though when Yuki asks him for help he doesn't actually give her any other then a platitude in the nature of 'practice makes perfect'. That's kind of it, he can be violent and short tempered or exceedingly kind and considered. He's capable of being brash and loud yet embarrassed easily at other times. After a bit I realized that Izumi comes off like any other harem or isekai anime protagonist, his defining traits are he's relatively nice and reliable. In that sense he is endearing, in fact I don't dislike a single member of the cast of characters but he is about as self-insert as it gets, so vague with only some minor otaku-detailing, that almost anyone in the audience can relate to him in some boring way.

Maybe the weirdest part is the day-dream sequence in episode 13. After it I found myself far more baffled then before. Izumi's internal image of a world where he never brought Souta home to Hori is a world where Hori and Yuki are in an isolated group with a third unnamed girl. Where the student council president has broken up with Remi, while being on shaky terms with Kouno both for unclear reasons and where Yangi Akane is a stranger. This dream was completely bizarre to me, both from the perspective of what the writer is thinking and on what this says about Izumi. For one Yuki, Hori, Shou and Tooru were already a friend group prior to the onset of the show so why would that of changed? What exactly did Izumi do to prevent a break up between Remi and Sengoku? Why would Kouno not of confessed or for that matter why would Akane not asked Yuki out? The warped view of the world this presents makes absolutely no logical or even fantisiful sense what-so-ever and the worst part is how this should obviously form some, albeit light-hearted, drama for the series climax. Simply have the same set up be Izumi realizes how irrelevant he was to the whole thing. Have him be depressed for a few minutes and then finally he has a realization of just how important Hori has been not just in his life but in all of their life's and in doing so comes to better apricate her, at which point you could have the Hori revelations that's she's nearly finished school occur and then resolve both arcs with the pre-existing proposal scene.

Sure I can relate to Izumi being lonely but I want to know why, want to see how that effects his life but all we get are scenes of him confronting his younger selves, which is fine but I don't really understand them either. It's just dull. To take my author's armchair once more, another simple route would of been to have Izumi worry he'll always return to his old ways, have him explain how after making a friend in middle school, he initially failed to in highschool and now he's afraid he'll fall into his old ways upon entering collage. Now something like that could of made for interesting viewing or storytelling but instead it's forgotten about for most of the series run until it isn't to anti-climatic effect in the final act.

These exact same issue stretch to Hori, who begins life as an interesting person, who tends to her brother in her busy mother's stead, has an absent father and abandonment issues but by the series close all that's gone away,- in some way quite literally. Her mother seemingly quits her job to be a stay home housewife, her dad returns from buying a packet of cigarettes' and her abandonment issues are sorted with a good cry. Its just so lame, for all we know her Dad was only gone a couple weeks, I mean her and the Mother act upset but not devastated by his return and to me it looks as though the mom actually only worked a few late nights that happened to coincide with the series opener, meaning Hori doesn't actually have to look after her brother that often. Now I'm sure in reality its more complicated then I just made it out to be but then again how would I know? Is Hori a Tsundere as a strong front for having to be a support to her mother and brother in her father absents or is she just quick to temper? Why did she bully the student council president(A fact he never brings up past its first and only mention during Hori's monologue on the matter)? Why should I care about her?
If Izumi is a standard romcom self-insert protagonist, then Hori is a fairly normal, even sub-par excuse for a Tsundere by all accounts. Again to reiterate, like with Miyamura I do like Hori but her traits are woefully under-utilized and she is disappointingly bland.

Next we have Yuki and Tooru. Again same issue, they gradually become more and more ill-defined. Tooru is both a dense harem protagonist and an understanding, up-standing gentlemen at the same time. He takes ten episode to admit his feelings for Yuki while at a McDonalds but instead of having him finally ask her out be the stories finally, it once more goes no where, with the climax of their story being a repeat of that famous scene from the disappearance of Haruhi Susamia, where Kyon and a better Yuki of house Nagato, discuss how her name means snow and then it snows. Yuki has something going in the idea that she maybe has self-worth issues (Something which I think can make for great story telling) however one good talking too from her older sister seems to instantly fix this.

There all just so mehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Rounding this 'grouping' is Shou who barely appears early on. We never actually see Shou become friends with Izumi nor do we know how he feels about being in a different class (I actually thought he was younger then the rest or something until the final episode). He does rise in prominence near the end, getting a small story with his sister but even this is flimsy as all hel*. We never get to learn why he's antagonistic during his home life but has an overly peppy attitude for his entire three years at school. I could guess but that's not my job nor is it very interesting. Furthermore in both the pretend Izumi timeline and the actual series events his sister fails to get in to her first school of choice, this fascinates me. On the surface it could make for a great little mini story about how so many of us, no matter how hard we study, just aren't geared right for the rigid school exam system or it could of even addressed an actually learning disability. Instead she studies some and just Kinda fails anyway? It is possible to infer she actually choose Shou's school in the end out of respect for Hori but it's really unclear if that is the case and while Shou asking Hori to tutor his sister is a nice touch(Considering they'd already set up that Hori's a good study), that serves as a good way to show he cares, it still goes no where and we end up learning very little. Is Shou a big music head? Does he have a father or is he living with his mother and grandfather? He reads a newspaper in one scene which seems to be a cover in order to talk to his sister but I guess it could also imply he's into current affairs or the sports pages?

There is something we can learn from it however, it brings us back to my core argument against this show, its format. Shou's arc would make complete sense in a different set-up, where-in a five minute episode or the first half of an episode of a show like "Seitokai Yakuindomo" where-in we'd see a slightly fourth wall breaking joke about how under-developed Shou is, then cut to his home, insert the tutoring stuff and end with him reconciling with his sister about her going to his school by choice and not because of her crap grades, end episode. Unfortunately with how it is, it feels really awkward having it be dragged out and disconnected across a whole episode.

An issue of design;
I had intended to continue with my character analysis but it strikes me that I may be nearing a point of incoherent rambling, additionally this has become much longer then i had expected to boot. The side cast fairs little better, Remi is considerate, a good friend and loyal girlfriend yet she also goes out of her way to stir up trouble with Hori, is careless, clearly using her friends to avoid doing any proper student council work and speaks in the third person, all of which contradicts itself. Sengoku gets some good gags but why exactly he forms a friend group is little more then a lazy plot excuse to merge all the players into one easy to manipulate grouping. Akane begins as a good one off character for Yuki's personnel growth but then somehow ends up in the group and even worms his way on to the anime's primary poster artwork? Hori's loli admirer Kouhi seems to have an interesting story with her maybe coming to view Izumi as a surget big brother after the death of her own but after that fact is mentioned it never comes up again. Then there's poor Kouno, who we are repeatedly told has been picked on or at-least had people talk behind her back all due to her being 'ugly'. Now I've no issue with that as a plot point but this isn't a case of her talking off her glasses to reveal she's actually a knock-out, no she is literally the girl with the best assets in the whole setting, her hair is neat and pretty, she's relatively tall and the glasses she wears suit her without being intrusive. What part of her do people (at-least those in this world) find Ugly? I know it's anime but they could of made some effort here to maybe use the old cliché of her beauty being hidden by her hairstyle and glasses(Something which Remi and Sengoku could of given her the confidence to flaunt but alas). It's just a weird detail, that again goes nowhere as she reconciles that Remi (Who's supposedly up their with Hori for the school's no.1 female idol) can be beautiful for both of them. Does this school have some sort of Mass lolicon epidemic or do all the men except the homeroom teacher who appears just two times, just love flat chested girls? I'm at a loss on this one.

The point is, if I were to judge this show on solely it's character and story it would not fair well. Even if your able to watch this with-out over thinking it to much, the cracks show frequently and the story meanders its way to no where in the worst way possible. All of this I believe is because of the format. I haven't fully read much of the original or its adaptions but it's clear from what I have that these were intended to be light-hearted slices of life to brighten your day, a noble goal but why in heavens name would you want to adapt that the way it has been? I feel genuinely sorry for fans of the web comic because this isn't the right way to do it justice. The way this show has been done forms it into something that isn't quite a romcom but also isn't a drama. It specializes in neither and therefore can both please no one and everyone simultaneously. You can definitely still enjoy this a whole-bunch but I can only despair over the fact it's been adapted in such a rudimentary manor/way.

The appeal of the original Hori-to-Miya was the cheerful daily life of a bunch of kids drawn for free by someone drawing from personnel experience, however with the format where given here the idea of only seeing the small moments is far less appeal. In full length story's what makes the small moments great is their contrast to the big. My favourite scene in Full Metal Panic is Kaname and Sousake fishing, while it has subtext, in reality it's short and arbitrary following on from a great climatic battle sequence but I love it because I understand these two characters, what they've been through on screen and in their pasts and why being here fishing is so simple yet integral to them as characters. In Horimiya I know non of these characters, with only their charm carrying them. Yes it's true Horimiya gets through a confession and to an implied sex scene in the after credits of episode 7 (Which incidentally is a really strange place to put that scene) but this speed, that it insists on moving at, the tropes everyone's so happy it disperse of, are, in reality what makes romcom's great. By all means get rid of the boob groping harem jokes or speed up the process of the main duo getting together but you've got to then do something with that new found scenery. You take away the beach fireworks, the school trip and even (I can't believe I'm saying this) the blasted 107th 1000th school festival arc and what are you left with? Apparently nothing, the show gets rid of so many of the tropes that made us fall in love with this genre, that it guts the very thing it wants to be, leaving only a shell of a better situation behind itself.

Do yourself a favour, especially if you did find yourself in love with this show and go watch 'Tsundere Children', 'Seitokai Yakuindomo' or 'Danna ga Nani wo Itteiru ka Wakaranai Ken/I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying' and experience for yourself shows that knew how to do this the right way with a properly fitting tone, anime that are wilfully more enjoyable, funnier and even greater in the wholesome factor.

To conclude;
Is Horimiya worthy of the hype? God no, an often times boring production combined with a gaping hole where the plot should be, characters that all go no-where interesting and a format that actively hurts the show make this an example of over ambition and over-recognition, however there is always a reason behind the hype and in Horimiya's case that, to me at least, is down to it's endearing charm. What's here is sweet, it is relatable and it is for the most part fun. If you enjoy,- heck if it's your new favorite anime I can totally understand that and more power to you but for me I can only lament the missed opportunity that might of been 10 mins of weekly wholesomeness, a version of this show where its fast pacing, quiet moments and simple stories made far more sense then they do in the format of a semi-somber 20 minute drama. As I said in my spoiler free conclusion, Horimiya is a good watch, well worth your time if your looking for something fluffy but it is by no means the savoir of romcom or any kind of "Best hits, with all the filler removed" scenario. It's a somewhat troubled middle ground, it's - well - Lethargic.

I hope you enjoyed,
Thanks for reading.