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To start off, I'm a fan of romances or Slice of Life in general, so obviously I'm bias when it comes to some very good shows on those genres, even tho I've seen a lot of them and can be hard on judging them. Those are the anime that make feel the best when I'm watching a show I don't want to be on war steroids all the time.
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Also worth to mention this is my first complete ever review on anilist and in english (I'm French, don't mind the english mistakes here) so be nice with me I'm talking with my heart don't take it too seriously <3
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That being said time to talk about why I love Horimiya, why I loved this season.__

Art & Character Design

When it comes to Horimiya one of the first things that come in my mind is how beautiful it looks. Daisuke Hagi created those aboslutly stunning characters, they are just recognizable even if not especially unique. It just fits the characters and their personality, and I just love the different colors of each characters they make them unique in their own way. On the character design part, obviously Horimiya is still one of the best at it. In every episodes you will have different versions of every character, they love to put chibi versions or other to everyone, it just makes those situations funnier and funnier.

I want to talk about the "pausing shadows" iconic moments that just looks absolutly beautiful and that makes the romantic scenes so impactful even in Horimiya Pieces. Those scenes are just putting a stop to let us focus on the relations of the characters, when you have those energetic moments of comedy those moments of calm are so precious to let us understand the relations.

Story

Since you've watched the original series (I assume you did before reading this) you know the plot of Horimiya. You know it's simple, but Horimiya is the evidence that you don't need a complicated story to be good. That said it would probably something more impactful to say about the original series, but even Pieces still has some of main components from Horimiya, it still has this romance, yes it has less romance but we still see this realistic portrait of Highschool romance, with their doubts, high and lows. This realism in the romance departement is what makes Horimiya so special to me, it feels so nostalgic, when you those emotions in your own life. As for a focus on what Horimiya Pieces added, the comedy (it had some before I know). Again the comedy just hits, and it hits hard everytime. You can't have a bad time watching it, not gonna say every jokes are going to work on you, but the chemestry between those friends makes it just so good. If you add the exceptional art and the character design with all those faces, chibi heads etc ... everything together makes a stunning comedy. You're not overload with jokes like a NIchijou and yet you have little to no rest between the jokes. This is probably why I liked more Horimiya Pieces than Horimiya.

Characters

What was missing from Horimiya ? The focus on the different characters, and that's what we got. The main characters that have been developped a lot in the main series were not as much seen there (main couple, Yuki and Tooru), but that's for the good. We nearly got an entire episode on every supporting characters. With it we learned much more on their personalities, and this completes Horimiya, a story about the different faces you have,the one you have at school with your friends, classmates, and the one with your familly. It was really cool to see them have their own moment. Without spoiling I was never a fan of Sawada after watching the original series, but then the episode focused on her came out and it just made me rethink my toughts about this specific character, this shows how this season made the difference about how we perceive and think about them. With those characters you have such a variety of people it feels so real, of course it has the "anime manga" vibe, but the realism of them, of their way of acting (outside hard comedy moments), or their way of thinking is one of the most realistic in a romance.
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Opening / Endings / Production

Can't not talk a bit of this opening, at first I was worried since I was attached to the original one, but god I was wrong. Like the anime itself, it just look so damn gorgeous, creative ways to show the characters and settings of the anime. I always loved how Horimiya was directed (OP, ED, and anime) you can clearly see how much work has been put into it.

I'm not going to spoil what is happening in this scene, but it's those kind of scenes that makes this Horimiya a such good directed anime, again what I said in art section, the time stops, then camera slows down and you can be focused on the emotions of the characters wich again makes all those moments so impactful to me.

Conclusion

Horimiya in general, and even more Horimiya pieces, is a realistic romantic comedy that I can't stop from loving even tho I know it's not perfect, even tho I prefer Kaguya Sama, or Fruits Basket. Yet I still adore this. I watched the original series a year ago, liked it, but not that much, but as time goes on, it kept growing on me, that I bought the artbook and the manga. Then I made a prediction "Imagine they announce a new season to adapt what was not adapted" then it happend. You can't imagine how happy I was, fast forward to now with the show complete, my love for the series has never been higher, thanks to Horimiya Pieces, I loved every bit of this show every Saturday was the best day of the week.

So thank you Horimiya, thank you Daisuke Hagiwara, thank you HERO.