Horimiya is refreshingly nice | Anime Reviews

Horimiya: 13 Episodes

Duration: 23 min/ep

Genre: Comedy, Romance, Shounen, Slice of Life

Theme: School

Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

“You can have the bad days so you can love the good days even more.” – Miyamura Izumi

Pilot episode thoughts

The initial episode is nice, the animation is crisp for a romance anime. It's lovely, the characters are easy-to-relate to. It's funny, it's interesting so far. I don't know the goal of this anime but so far, I enjoyed it. The 23-minute episode passed in an instant. I never get bored throughout. 

“Everyone starts from zero. If you mess up, just try it. Figure out why, and try again.” – Miyamura Izumi

Full review

I like the animation especially when they need to emphasize a specific feeling. they're changing the background into this oblivious plane that highlights the specific emotion in the scene. The effect and the music behind really impact the exact emotions that they want you to feel.

It tackles loneliness in a school setting, this kinda happens in almost all school-setting anime. It speaks the emotion, it hits hard if you encountered and experienced such a thing. You feel the agony and the loneliness, even the feeling when getting out of the specific situation.

A specific aspect of the show is how they focused on a specific person's emotion despite what's happening outside. For example, while all the people around are laughing, someone is really sad inside. It's about conveying one feeling towards another. 

Well, we really don't know what's happening inside someone's mind. We can't really tell what they are feeling. 

Aside from loneliness, the anime speaks of love, school, rivalry, bullying, and reconciliation. I enjoyed the anime, it's not that distinct from other anime of the same theme but you'll enjoy every moment of it, including the laughter and sadness. You'll definitely feel empty and the ending will leave you hanging for sure while asking for more. 

“Everyone has a side of themselves that they don’t want other people to see.” – Kyouko Hori

My takeaway

I've watched several animes since the pandemic, what I liked about them is how they discuss topics that actually happen in the real world. They do not need to make it well-produced or unique, they just need to address it, this is even in the simplest form. 

Just like in hiding your true self, sometimes it may be hard to show the real you for fear of judgment. We pretend to be someone else, we pretend to like things that are not usually us. We hang out with people that we think are cool and stay away from the weird ones. 

But sometimes, we do not belong to the right group. There will be circles that where we truly belong, the right set of friends and right set of interests. Somewhere, you can truly say that you belong. That you can be your true self. 

Are you in the right circle? 

// Horimiya

//sebajisoka