Horimiya is a 2021 anime following the budding relationship between Kyoko Hori and Izumi Miyamura. They are both high school students who have a bit more to them than meets the eye. Falling into the genres of comedy, romance, school, and slice of life, Horimiya may not sound immediately interesting or special. It wasn’t anywhere on my radar for the Winter ’21 anime I planned to watch. But a commenter on my blog told me the first episode of Horimiya was possibly the best pilot episode of the season. Now that I’ve seen it, I agree. So what’s so special about Horimiya?

Well, there are three answers. Firstly, the charming, amusing, and calming atmosphere and attitude of the series make it special. Secondly, the characters are all quite relatable and well-written. Last, of all, Horimiya has a completely different structure from most school romance anime. The common trope is for the entire series to focus on the lead-up to the love confession, which is the climax. After that, there might be an episode or two where the two main characters are actually a couple. But with Horimiya, the characters begin dating pretty early on, and the focus of the series is their relationship during the final year of high school. I much prefer the style of anime like Horimiya.

In the vein of His and Her Circumstances, this romantic comedy centers on a couple of teens with home lives they keep secret from school friends. Hori is beautiful, smart, and popular. She has an easy life. Miyamura is a feeble guy who keeps to himself. At home, however, Hori is the mother of the household, taking care of her brother and doing the chores, as her parents are always busy with work. Meanwhile, Miyamura is nothing like his school persona. Outside, he has several prominent piercings, tattoos, and is much more energetic than you’d guess. You wouldn’t recognize him if you passed on the street.

These two opposites attract and make for a great couple. When I discovered his bad boy secret identity, I expected him to be that clichéd shoujo romantic interest. You know the type – a troubled guy that’s just misunderstood and the main girl can “fix.” Pleasant surprise to find Miyamura to be otherwise. She’s a more typical character, though a well-executed one. They are the lynchpins of the story amid a rather large cast. On the side, we have Hori’s brother and parents, a dozen prominent classmates, many of them coupling up later, and more.

Horimiya, at its core, is a feel-good rom-com to a fault. So set is it on making you feel good that at the first sign of drama, everything will speed up to get you back to the happy times. I’m not kidding. For instance, there is an early confrontation between Hori and the student council (a frankly forced scene to begin with). They accuse her of having forgotten some files. People crowd around, tensions rise, and then…it dissipates and we move on as if nothing happened. Another example is a point of jealousy later, setting up that “I’m not talking to you until I realize my mistake and look like an idiot before I come back to apologize” scenario. But no, it lasts, what, 30 seconds?

I’m not sure if this is a consequence of truncating the manga or if it’s meant to be this way. The rush to get to the ending in the final episode does make me think it’s the former. I would have to read the manga to be sure.

The side characters exacerbate the truncation. Some episodes, notably in the latter half, cut away to dedicate a significant amount of screen time to pairing up several of the schoolmates. Because there are so many for a 13-episode series, the time given feels both too long – we should spend more time with fewer characters – and too short to really feel invested in them. You might care about some, but all, unlikely. I’m sure this isn’t a manga problem.

Now, as a feel-good anime, Horimiya works quite well. If you want to get away from those dangerous spirits in Jujutsu Kaisen, if Wonder Egg Priority is too depressing with all that suicide, or if Ex-Arm is making want to commit suicide, then Horimiya is the antidote. In fact, the rushing past drama discussed earlier might be a positive aspect to those wanting pure goodness.

I’m on the positive side of the scale overall with Horimiya. However, I didn’t come from the manga. Fans are divided.

This is one of the few times where I went online to read opinions on a series shortly after finishing it. The manga is 16 volumes long. There are more volumes than episodes, yet both have the same end, with the final chapter released less than three weeks before the last episode. There is a significant time skip in the anime to make this happen. Of course, a lot was cut and manga readers aren’t happy. This wasn’t much of an issue for me, but I can relate, having experienced what they’re feeling in other anime. On the other side, anime-only viewers are quite positive.

Seems to be that if you read the manga, the adaptation was disappointing and rushed. If you hadn’t read the manga, this was great and now you will go read the manga. I’m somewhere in the middle. I don’t have the urge to consume the manga and I thought the anime was just fairly good.