I have never written a published review on an anime until now. Horimiya is the biggest nothing burger I have watched in years, and I have seen some truly awful anime. Before watching this anime, I kept seeing review after review about how amazing it was. Genius writing, amazing characters, realistic development. I don't think any of that is true, and the writing is close to non-existent and genuinely painful to sit through at times. Almost every romcom is identical, same cliches, same tropes, same exact confessions, which leads to all of them trying to have some dumb gimmick that makes them unique. This show's gimmick is what if the MC's had a hidden side they didn't show anyone else?

Horimiya follows Hori, the female MC who is smart and very popular, and has a hidden side which is... she's a good sister and is responsible and busy? And Miyamura, the male MC who is an antisocial loner loser, but he's actually... hot and has piercings? This isn't some unbelievable hidden side. This is an incredibly basic secret for each of them. At least the tattoos and piercings are a little out of the "norm", but what does Hori's secret actually have to do with anything? She doesn't really act any different outside of school, and Miyamura basically becomes chummy with everyone within about 2-3 episodes, defeating the point of him apparently overcoming his social anxiety.

[[SPOILERS FOR EVERYTHING FROM HERE ON]]

You would think the two biggest developments would be Miyamura learning to express himself and overcome his social anxiety, and Hori learning to allow herself to depend on others, ask for help, and do things outside her usual routine, but nothing actually leads up to that. Nothing really develops at all. In fact, it all happens within seconds. The "confession" was horrendous, popping up out of the blue, and then bam, they're dating. It's not like we need the classic firework confession slop, but it could've absolutely been more than "I like you." -> forced drama -> "We're dating now." Then there's this whole thing where they're like, "I don't really know anything about you, I want to learn more about you!" and then they never do. Do we ever learn why Hori and her mom have disdain for their father? No. Do we ever see anything about Miyamura's family? No. Do we ever see them do anything outside of their usual bits? No.

Well, that last part I lied about because after the confession, this anime goes off the deep end and decides that Hori needs to be a pervert and that this is integral to the story. For some reason, she wants Miyamura to degrade her and be a bad boy? So she'll get super turned on when he slaps her and yells at her. Why is this even happening? It's so pointless, random, and incredibly uncomfortable. Then, for whatever reason, the last 7 episodes are spent developing side characters who don't matter or don't actually contribute anything to the story. Was the underclassman yuri girl a necessary addition to the story? Don't think so. Or what about the goofy love triangle between filler green hair girl, filler yellow hair girl, and filler pink hair dude? I forgot all of their names because they don't matter. In fact... none of the characters matter. There is no development. Just because Miyamura says he made a bunch of friends and isn't anxious and a social outcast anymore doesn't mean he actually developed. When did he actually develop? Off-screen? He doesn't change little by little; he just decides one day to get a haircut, and now everyone loves him, he can talk to everyone no problem, and it's water under the bridge, cause it's not like everyone was purposefully avoiding him before, right?

Last thing to mention is that the pacing might be one of the worst I've seen. I finished episode 6, losing track of time, and went, "Oh, it must be over soon, they just confessed, so there's probably three episodes left?" Then it auto-played, and I saw episode 7 at the top of the screen and lost it. The exact opposite should've happened. I thought I had watched more than I did. How can so much happen and yet nothing happen at all? What's even more baffling is that there was apparently supposed to be even more that couldn't be fit in. How is that even possible? They literally run out of content past episode 6 and just start forcing fake drama through misunderstandings and stupid bits that are more annoying than entertaining.

100% avoid this anime; there is so much better out there for romance, slice-of-life, development, and literally anything else. 'Oregairu' is better, 'The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity' is almost like a 1to1 and is much better, literally just watch anything else. That being said, if you liked it, cool. I didn't. 2-2.5/10.