When the original season of Horimiya aired, I wasn’t convinced. I enjoyed the show a lot, but it is rated incredibly high and hailed as an absolutely amazing manga in the romance genre. To me it felt much more like a solid romance anime that had a good beginning, middle and end. So why is it rated so highly? That’s what I was trying to figure out when Horimiya Piece started airing. Horimiya Piece is to Horimiya what Treasure Chest of courage is to Ranking of Kings. It fills in all of the blanks in the story and explains why the original season felt fast. So let’s talk about it now that it’s all over.
Horimiya is a romance story about two young teenagers, Hori-san and Miyamura-kun. They both seem like very different people and each of them have a secret. Miyamura secretly has tattoos and piercings which is not allowed at all in their high school. On the other hand, Hori’s secret is that she… does chores around the house? I never understood why this was being mentioned as a secret or something to hide, but let’s just run with it.
The story follows these two as they slowly become friends and then start dating. We also learn about all the people around them, their friends and family and their relationships. Both Hori and Miyamura are very likable characters. They don’t get stuck in silly misunderstandings for episodes at a time, things get resolved. I do kind of dislike that Miyamura changes out his more unique hairstyle for a generic one as the story goes on. It was kind of part of his charm that he looked a little bit different. #notliketheotherboys I suppose.
In Horimiya Piece we go back in time and cover stories that didn’t get told during the first season. 13 episodes covered 17 volumes of manga, after all. Looking at it this way, I’m sure there’s more content left even after two seasons. But for the season there was more than enough content. We see the kids spend time outside of school, we learn more about the student council and we get a lot more windows into everyone’s interpersonal relationships. It’s got a very relaxed and comfy feel to it throughout the entire season and I found myself enjoying the episodes more and more as the season went on to the point that I finally decided to get the manga. Well, my mom gave me the first volume for my birthday this weekend (thanks mom) so now I have to buy the rest as well, right?
There’s not a lot more to say about Horimiya. Even without the added season it’s already a good romance show and with these extra episodes to fill in the gaps it becomes much better. I would have liked a longer season (maybe like 39 episodes) that covers the entire thing at a slower pace to make it run better and I will report back here once I’ve read the manga to see if the thoughts I have about the pacing are true. For now, if you haven’t seen Horimiya yet, treat yourself right and give it a watch. If you like romance and slice of life you will not be disappointed. Thanks for reading!
Opal Kaharis 