(WARNING! This is kind of a long review/rant, so if you don't wanna read it all, I don't blame you. Real real reeeaall short summary: I started loving it and ended up not hating it, but feeling like I was robbed of something "more". The high rating despite all that is thanks to Miyamura.)

Horimiya starts GREAT. So great, in fact, that I gave it a 10/10 straightaway, within the first few chapters (or: the first volume). Hori is interesting, Miyamura is charming, Souta is cute... what could go wrong?

And really, up until they got together, it was still a solid 10 to me. We were getting to know the characters and I quickly fell in love with Miyamura (well, how couldn't I?). Hori... still seemed interesting. You see, both of them had a side to hide from their classmates: for Miyamura, it was his ~~emoness~~ tattoos and piercings. For Hori, it was............... uuuuhhhhh... [looks at smudged writing in hand] housework?

Y'see, I barely understood it myself. Is the author implying that popular girls aren't able to do housework? that they don't do it all? One of the things that makes Hori terrified of people finding out her 'secret' is that she doesn't wear makeup while at home... as opposed to the rest of us girls, who wear makeup from the moment we're born until the moment we die!

What's funny and kinda sad is that at some points, she does go out and pass by her friends without wearing any makeup, but NO ONE RECOGNIZES HER. As if she becomes a whole different person (physically) and therefore impossible to spot lol

Regardless... I started my Hori ranting too soon. Back to when they finally got together, I still shipped them, and I was ecstatic to see what else we'd be getting considering that the manga is a little over 120 chapters and by then we were still in the 30-ish. I thought: this is a romance manga, I'm gonna get TONS of romantic fluff!

PROBLEM #1: ROMANCE, PLS?

As soon as they get together, the romantic moments kinda... fizzle out. They still happen, but at more sporadic chapters and with less focus. As if... that wasn't the WHOLE POINT of the story.

Instead, the focus shifts on the slice of life moments of... their classmates. Well, them too, but them with their classmates. Yay friendship!! But uh... that's not why I came here. I'm here for Hori and Miyamura, not Hori, Miyamura and Crew.

If you're not really interested in the romance and want a funny manga with a big cast, have at it. You'll probably enjoy it a lot. But if you ARE looking for romance first and foremost... hmmm... you could give it a try and end up as frustrated as I am.

It gets to the point when the story focuses on even other characters romances instead of Hori and Miyamura. As if, you know, "they're already together, what more could you want?"

Or maybe even Daisuke didn't know what to do with the rest of the story, so she resorted to focus on the side characters. Sigh.

PROBLEM #2: HORI

As seen by my intro, I'm kind of not of a Hori fan. But it didn't start like that! I wasn't particularly fond of her, but I liked her brother and her dynamic with Miyamura. There was a lot of room for growth, and while Miyamura DID GROW (going from an excellent character to an even more excellent character 100/10 precious little cinnamon roll too good for this world too pure), Hori did THE OPPOSITE.

Ladies and Gents, she did not grow. She did not stagger. She got worse.

Violent. Mean. Not "playfully mean" but legit mean mean. Whereas in the beginning there was no sign whatsoever of a mean bone in her, suddenly, she became the most tsundere character you can think of!

She physically abuses Miyamura CONSTANTLY. She's jealous to a sick point where she doesn't let Miyamura have male friends (or female, for that matter). If she sees him being nice to someone, she snaps. If she sees someone being nice to him, she snaps. And he just smiles and puts up with this bullshit, as if it's not the most abusive behaviour ever.

If she were a male character, this would've been considered hella problematic. But she's female, so the whole situation is played for laughs. Well, I'm not laughing.

Miyamura, throughout the entire story, does his best. He starts to open up more, talk more, he even CUTS HIS HAIR because some teenagers were talking smack about Hori dating a weirdo. But what they didn't know is that the weirdo WAS HER.

They get into fights because she freaks out for no reason. He gets physically hurt because she freaks out for no reason and lashes out on him. And yet he is patient, and often times is the one who apologizes first even though HE DID NOTHING WRONG!!

And everybody in Horimiya's universe think that's okay. sigh

PROBLEM #3: ...ENDING?

So. We got very little romance after they got together. Hori became a bitch. Could I expect a satisfying ending?

Of course not.

Remember when I said Daisuke didn't know what else to do? Well, she didn't know how to end it either. We got......... meh. I read all the chapters and the bonuses, looking into every corner to see if there was something I was forgetting, but nope. The ending is just... that.

And I'm being as vague as possible here so as not to spoil it for those of you who are still interested in this story.

To summarize my thoughts about the ending: there was no ending lmao

But I suppose I should've seen this coming the moment this manga went south. It's SUCH A SHAME though. Horimiya has 2 things that many manga would die to have: cute art and Izumi Miyamura.

Without exaggeration, he's THE BEST THING in the entire manga. One of the very best characters I ever met and with one of the best character arcs. Too bad they wasted 80% of his greatness here. He's the only reason why I'm giving it a good rating lol

You're free to read this manga if you want to. But if I could have given myself a heads up before I picked it up, I would've.