DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

MANGA ComedyHori-san to Miyamura-kun
ANIME ComedyHorimiya
ONE SHOT RomanceHorimiya Bangai-hen
ANIME ComedyHorimiya: piece

REVIEWS

• 

  Random17

  65/100
  A pleasant and fun story ruined by its inconsistencies and lack of direction

  Note: At the time of this writing, there have been 114 chapters of Horimiya, so this review is only on those chapters.

  Preface

  I know very little about relationships in real life, but I have consumed a large amount of anime and manga that deal with romance (maybe some causality here?). Over time, I've developed a sense as to how these stories progress, a sort of Hero's Journey of animanga. Many typical romance stories in this field cover a subset of these three fundamental steps: the encounter, the chasm of uncertainty, and finally the climb. Bear with me, I promise this will be relevant to the manga.

  1. The encounter: the two main characters first meet and really get to know each other. It's often the premise of the story, and there's a lot of creative variations of this. Maybe they were childhood friends who lived next door, or maybe they both joined the same club at school, or maybe they randomly switch bodies every few days, or maybe they accidentally find out each other's secret life. No matter what, it eventually leads to the characters spending lots of time with each other, often alone.

  2. The chasm of uncertainty: as the characters spend more time with each other and get to know one another, they inevitably find themselves catching feelings. They may deny it at first, and/or recognize it and claim that they're content with what they already have. It may feel like a wide chasm between friendship and romance, and they don't know if the other person will catch them on the other end or if they'll fall and lose it all. The characters may go for a running jump over the chasm, but then stop at the last moment, unable to confess their feelings. Eventually though, they do, and it's often one of the most satisfying parts of the story.

  3. The climb: now that the characters have finally confessed their feelings and are dating, the way they interact fundamentally changes. They enjoy greater intimacy together, but they also get into fights and face challenges. The characters need to work together to scale this metaphorical mountain, and significant plot and character development occurs as their relationship matures.

  Pre-Romance

  It is a common theme in the animanga world that the story ends soon after the characters cross the chasm of uncertainty, leaving the rest to fan speculation if the story was not conclusive. That's why, when I realized I wasn't even a quarter of the way through the manga when Hori and Miyamura became boyfriend and girlfriend, I was stoked! Those earlier chapters were excellent, with unique characters, a delightful vibe, and a plot full of emotion. The story wasn't altogether that original or profound, with many scenes that paralleled parts of other anime and manga I had consumed, but it was well executed, so I didn't mind. Many of the best romance stories are simple and seem plain on the outside. The mark of a great romance story is its ability to make me feel sad about my lack of romantic experience, and this one for sure did. If this was merely the exposition and it was already that good, I had high hopes for the remaining chapters, for "the climb".

  During Romance

  What I got instead was a mediocre directionless story that undid much of what was built up earlier. It was far from terrible, and there were definitely aspects that were enjoyable, but I was simply astounded by how inconsistent the rest of the manga was. At some parts, I felt like the author had actually forgot about what had transpired chapters before. Miyamura, a formerly interesting and unique character both in personality and in design, got both his hair and his intrigue trimmed. Hori's parents, who were previously so absent from their children's lives that Hori had worried that Souta, her younger brother, would forget the words mother and father, had become two of the most prominent side characters just chapters later.

  Hori

  But those were all negligible compared to the biggest violation of character development of all: Hori. Once a person who loved Miyamura for who he was, she became his biggest critic of his tattoos, his piercings, his personality. Once someone who preferred to do housework than hang out with others, she suddenly became part of the popular crowd and is always seen with them. One moment she's jealous of anyone with a girlish name who texts Miyamura, the next moment she says she's not worried about other girls taking him. She gets violent at anything people do, yet she does things to intentionally infuriate others. There are many places where she contradicts herself, and it's extremely jarring to see her do out-of-character things like grope other girls to compare bust sizes. She is, as far as I remember, the most inconsistent fictional character I have ever seen. Hori seems to fill any mold she needs to in order for a plot to work out. When she needs to be loving, she's loving. When she needs to be a tsundere, well heck she's a tsundere now. There seems to be little to no rhyme or reason to this. The real shame is that individually, the scenes and chapters are executed quite well. The author should have maybe made some of those ideas into one-shots instead of trying to fit them into the Horimiya world.

  An argument that can be made is that the inconsistency is really just character development, or that Hori's personality changes simply due to her nature. The author certainly takes these stances, as there are portions of the manga where they make weak attempts to explain why Hori's bizarre actions actually make sense. However, lets dig deeper to to analyze what the real fundamental flaw in the story is. Remember earlier, when I talked about what happens in "the climb" arc of a romance story? Specifically what's missing is the "significant plot and character development" that I was talking about. The primary plot stays pretty much dormant during the entire course of the manga after the two main characters start dating, and the character changes can hardly be considered "development". There's for sure slice of life stories where nothing really happens for long periods of time, where the enjoyment comes merely from the characters going about their daily lives, but those stories rely on the charm and consistency of the characters as they interact with each other through various situations. That's simply not present here. Moreover, the characters get into big character defining conflicts and there were places where the plot could be meaningfully furthered, but somehow, nothing really ends up happening. The manga is stuck in a strange dichotomy where it is neither a pure slice of life story nor a dramatic romance, but rather a poorly combined version of both.

  Conclusion

  That was a pretty major complaint but really that was my only one. The art is cute and high quality, the side characters are unique and fun, and disregarding the story as a whole, the individual chapters are actually quite enjoyable to read. It's a pretty typical, but good, school-life romance manga, and if you're willing to overlook Hori's massive inconsistencies, I would recommend it as a great slow burn slice of life romance manga, but I can't ignore them.

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• 

  sushiisawesome

  100/100
  One of the best romance manga ever, with a phenomenal cast, web of interesting dynamics and themes. Must read.

  If someone were to strictly define Horimiya by the conventions it follows, there's very little to mention that hasn't been tackled in other romance series; the series is a romantic comedy with increasing emphasis on comedy over the romance as the series goes on. There are various typical themes revolving around the characters and their ability (or lack thereof) to connect, resulting in miscommunications as they struggle to empathize with one another, usually resulting in various shades of drama that take up portions of the manga. What sets Horimiya apart from its competition - and is the main reason for its massive success and popularity - is the casualness through which the series manages to tackle these themes, consistently develop a gigantic cast of characters - including a noteworthy and memorable side cast - and somehow consistently improve from start to finish, without ever missing a beat or sliding into stagnation.

  Horimiya's story beats generally follow Hori, an upbeat, somewhat crude jerk with a heart of gold whose core character flaws revolve around her possessiveness and desire to mean something substantial in someone's life beyond being materially beneficial to her family and selflessly being the caretaker of their house. This changes when Miyamura - someone she assumed to be nothing other than a generic geek - drops by her door, laden in piercings and tattoos, starting a pattern of both characters meeting at Hori's house, where their acquaintanceship turns to friendship before blossoming into a romance. The series follows this general structure for much of its first half, with the focus being largely focused on Hori and Miyamura, loosely but not entirely following its webcomic equivalent before deviating from it entirely in the second half.

  The heart of Horimiya as a story is showing the uniformity of everyone having some level of distance between one another, and that much of what people ascribe involving friendships and romance as destiny are often just, well, coincidences and nothing more than that. This helps emphasize the humanity of these characters instead of portraying their meetings in a rose colored manner, with love at first sight being something that's interestingly not ever the subject of essentially any of the various romantic pairings.

  There is one noteworthy exception to this rule in Miyamura, a former social outcast who has gone out of his way to change his image to break away from his former self as hard as possible - Hori's unconditional acceptance of his character flaws, ranging from everything from his lack of understanding of social norms, awkwardness and often misreading people's intentions as overly negative. The narrative's main focus on Hori is to emphasize that as possessive she is, she is a person who does all she could to bring the best out of people, her missteps and failings aside, and that despite it all there is an earnest, well-meaning and kindhearted person who goes out of her way to help others. There are countless times when Hori does things that are questionable, ranging from her questioning if Miyamura's male friends are a danger to her relationship with him to often letting her pride get in the way when fighting with others - Miyamura and Yuki being standout examples - yet there's no possible way to misinterpret her intent as either malicious or harmful due to her behavior being incredibly convincing in swaying the audience to liking her even when she's being comically stupid.

  Back to Miyamura, his role as a former social outcast has deeply scarred him, yet his character arc is about overcoming said scars, inch by inch, while accepting that the person he once was still had positive traits worth loving, as Hori emphasizes to him numerous times over the course of the story. Much of the narrative involving various characters is introspective, and this is especially true with Miyamura, who spends the entire story wondering if he even deserves such happiness at all. The answer to this is obvious; people should be loved for who they are, and past scars may or may not fade, but that is irrelevant to how much a given person even deserves happiness, as if something like that is even in the hands of the person in question. Miyamura's character arc is beyond a shadow of doubt the most important one in the series, and the emphasis placed on how much Hori broke him out of his shell is beyond heartwarming.

  Horimiya's standout accomplishment is that much of its side characters are every bit as well-developed as the two central leads; Yuki and Ishikawa are noteworthy examples of this, being my favorite pair in the whole series. Yuki's apathy to the world around her coincides with her being similar to Hori insofar as she sacrifices her day to day life to please others and allow them to take anything she wants; where she differs is that in her case, this leads to a cycle of inward hatred both towards herself and others. Her character arc is about becoming a more cheerful person and letting herself become more selfish about what she wants while turning her otherwise well-intentioned feelings towards others into empathy as opposed to an excuse for self-hatred. Ishikawa is key to this character arc himself, being someone who gets rejected by Hori early into the story before moving on and becoming the heart of his social group; his empathy acts as a positive influence on various characters, Yuki and Miyamura included, and despite the immaturity and straightforwardness of his feelings towards others - a character flaw he slowly grows out of as the series progresses - his acceptance of Yuki's flaws help morph her increasingly into a better person. And while their relationship is intentionally left inconclusive, it is not a question of if but when, due to Ishikawa's own understanding of Yuki's hesitation in how to approach him. Yuki's closeness to Ishikawa as opposed to Hori is emphasized in two scenes - one early into the manga, and one during the Christmas date later on in the series - when she asks who Hori was, with the second time coming off as less ignorance and more an intentional self-reflection on how far she has come in understanding her friends compared to the beginning of the series.

  There's other noteworthy character arcs and dynamics at play, and what I've said about Hori and Miyamura as well as Yuki and Ishikawa can be said for every pairing and character in the series. Remi and Sengoku are both tryhards who desperately struggle in fitting into a given social role - Remi's over her supposed flirtatiousness and Sengoku as being the rigid student council president. Yet both are masks betraying something more substantial to one another - Remi legitimately is unfairly labeled due to her often speaking casually to men in a society where conservative values reign dominant, and Sengoku has a fear of insects and based on his interactions with Hori and other characters is a legitimate goofball who struggles with his own self-confidence. Yet both characters play these personae up, while at the same time their attractions to one another are initially based on the weaknesses within those personae. This increasingly materializes into a genuinely sweet relationship between the two, where both relax considerably around both their classmates and each other.

  Sakura and Yanagi have characters arcs about both of them getting rejected, yet their arcs are a positive look into how such a negative matter can be seen as a tool for self-betterment and empathy. Sawada's arc is about her breaking out of her loneliness while ironically benefiting from her unrequited love's boyfriend Miyamura, whose kindness and compassion towards her as two people who struggle greatly in interacting with the world around them due to a history of isolation that has brought both of them trauma. Shuu, Shindou and Motoko all have well-developed arcs involving their connections to people who are dear to them, with Shuu and Shindou being clowns who otherwise take their interpersonal relationships seriously, and Motoko's arc being more about her being defined by her scores instead of her effort in an overly grade obsessed society.

  All of these characters are worthy of - and can be - analyzed for hours and hours on end, and it's a testament to how amazing Horimiya is as a story that this is done seamlessly and with no real pacing issues.

  By no means does this mean that Horimiya is devoid of flaws; certain jokes - like Shin, who definitely shouldn't be a teacher in normal society - can come off as culturally dissonant if not straight up tasteless. People into the series strictly for Hori and Miyamura's dynamic and who don't care for the side cast often dislike the manga's second half for feeling - although they are wrong - like it is padding up time, instead of approaching it as being characterization-rich in a more interwoven way, where characters and dynamics often spring up everywhere, many being unexpected. A legitimate web can be made of all these characters and their relationships with one another, emphasizing this connection; one point the series makes is by making sure that every chapter in some way surrounds high school students, and while this can be easy to dismiss due to the proliferation of high school animanga everywhere, here it's an intentional thematic point emphasizing that regardless of who you are, it's not too late to form connections with others. And, come the ending, this point wraps up in a manner I can only describe as poetic, with one phase of life ending and another beginning.

  There's even more to praise about Horimiya; the artwork courtesy of Daisuke Hagiwara is gorgeous, with evenly spaced pages that make reading dialogue heavy scenes easy, complimented by simplistic yet increasingly beautifully drawn distinct and memorable character designs. The fact that the artwork only continues improving over the course of Horimiya's run is insanely impressive, and worthy of serious praise; it goes without saying that I wish both HERO and Hagiwara the best of luck in their future endeavors.

  Horimiya is a proud, new classic of the romance genre in manga, and one whose marks will be felt for years to come. The story and characters crafted here is a memorable one, one that audiences can easily remember long after they're done with this journey. The series is a must read for any and all romance fans, with plenty of appeal regardless of taste.

  I cannot recommend this highly enough.

  Thank you for reading my review, any and all feedback is welcome.

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• 

  isahbellah

  80/100
  Great beginning, lackluster middle and ending. Such a shame.

  (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.

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