Short Review : Horimiya
HORIMIYA, this is a rather special romcom anime in my opinion. I think the best way to describe this anime would be direct and realistic. For the direct part, the tempo of the first episode amazed me on the how fast they couple up the two main protagonists. I think this is the right approach, instead of being a “normal” show in which it takes ages for the main couple to finally confess their feelings towards each other. However, even though the whole flow is going pretty smooth for the first 9 episodes, you can clearly felt the director cut out tons of content which I hope to they included as the main story instead of being shown in the credits of the last credits roll. Speaking of last credits, I loved how the lines of the last episode gave me heavy Shigatsu vibes (the 'because of you my world became colorful' line).
As for the realistic part I mentioned
earlier, the characters in this show are highly relatable due to them being
actual felt like normal high-school students, the show depicted realistic high-school
romance in which one side will lose but not necessarily act as a rival but still
is in good terms with the couple. We felt sorry for those who got rejected because
they felt genuine and also partially reminded us of ourselves, as their relation
isn’t over exaggerated like those others who are in this particular genre (yes,
I’m talking about you Kanojo Okarishimasu). The comedic scenes are genuinely hilarious
even though some of which are cliched. The plot twists in this anime aren’t much
but they did have some of them which I adore especially Honoka’s sexuality and Hori’s
fetish (and let's not forget about the sex scene, totally didn't expected that).
Moving onto the characters, the development
is executed nicely even though it’s a mere 13 episodes show, you can see some
of the character grows and some backstory of each individual character. I
particularly like how they presented Miyamura’s what-if scene during the last episode,
and his relationship with Shindou. All characters are lovable, especially Hori’s
father with him being ludicrous towards Miyamura and how the rest of his family
having a love-hate relationship with him. I also really like the side cast
especially Iura because I can see myself in him, with his split attitude towards
his sister (minus the beating up teacher part). Ishikawa, Sakura, and
Yuki’s line are simply emotional IMO, I didn’t want either of the girls to
lose but life’s life. Sengoku & Remi’s line is pretty anime
like but it’s not depreciating this show by any means, instead it tied this
anime back to what it should’ve been.
Art, I loved the choice of colors and aesthetics
of this anime. The characters all looked well except Sakura, which her hair IMO
should’ve been pink as her name suggested, but I’m just nit picking at this
point. The character designs are not especially memorable though, but hey it’s
a romcom you can’t ask for too much of a distinct design as their main approach
was to keep it real. The scenes in the opening song changed around half of the
season, I think it’s a cool touch as the first one had more depressing scenes,
and those are replaced with scenes that didn’t get adapted, which again I dislike
about as it easily could’ve been 2 or 3 episodes longer. The animation was
fluid, I got no complains about it, loved the shots when Miyamura “proposed”
and the final episode.
Music in this anime is quite amazing, the
OP (Iro Kousui) is kinda average at first, but once you start listening it the third
time, the chorus somehow sucked you in. The ED is not a bad one but it’s
nothing entirely special, the visuals of it is new to me though, never seen this
style of ending scene like this in an anime. OST is simply amazing, some of them
are composed by one of my all-time favorite composer Masaru Yokoyama, which is
simply beautiful. It saddens me that not all of the soundtracks are available
to us currently in YouTube but the notable ones are Route Sentimental,
Proposal/Please Don’t Go, and the one played in Episode 7 (when Sakura asks
Sengoku about Remi) also many, many others which are unnamed. However, I dislike
the director’s choice of using a sad BGM during the proposal scene.
Conclusion : (9.6/Very Good)
Overall, I really like this anime and would
highly recommend this anime to those who are just into romcom and don’t know
where to start, also those who watched average/terrible romcom that are easily forgettable
and doesn’t deserve any acknowledgement of any kind. This anime gave me an
enjoyable watching experience and I can see people coming back to this show for
years to come.
Watch it Here! : https://gogoanime.app/anime/horimiya-m0o8