Anime Impressions: Horimiya

<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;anime-and-manga-news-this-week-9-13-9-20&sol;">After the long wait<&sol;a> the anime adaptation of the hit slice of life high school romance manga Hori-san to Miyamura-kun or now commonly known as Horimiya&comma; has finally began airing&period; The series has quite a bit of history too&period; It was first written and illustrated by HERO as a web manga series and was then compiled into ten volumes by Square Enix&&num;8217&semi;s Gangan Comics between October 2008&comma; and December 2011&period; Afterward&comma; Daisuke Hagiwara adapted it into the manga named Horimiya&comma; with an all-new art style from 2011 to date&period; The original series was also adapted into four OVA episodes that aired from 2012 to 2018&comma; with two more to come&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i0&period;wp&period;com&sol;www&period;otaquest&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;01&sol;maxresdefault&period;jpg&quest;fit&equals;1280&percnt;2C720&amp&semi;ssl&equals;1" alt&equals;"Horimiya Episode 1 " width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">An Honest Introduction<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Horimiya follows Kyoko Hori and Izumi Miyamura&comma; two high school students with seemingly polar opposite personalities&comma; one popular&comma; friendly and intelligent&comma; the other gloomy&comma; lonesome and dull&period; These two usually have no reason to relate with one another until one day Hori&&num;8217&semi;s younger brother is escorted back home by an oddly dressed stranger&period; After having a conversation with said stranger&comma; Hori finds out he is the very same Miyamura&period; Contrary to how she&&num;8217&semi;s seen in school&comma; Hori is a simple girl who prefers spending her time taking care of her home and younger sibling&period; And contrary to how he&&num;8217&semi;s seen in school&comma; Miyamura prefers the punk aesthetic and enjoys having various piercings and tattoos&period; After finding out about each other&&num;8217&semi;s alternate lives and consequently sharing something in common&comma; the two then slowly begin to form a bond&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As I&&num;8217&semi;ve mentioned in<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;anime-impressions-adachi-to-shimamura&sol;"> one of my previous articles<&sol;a>&comma; I really enjoy romance anime that doesn&&num;8217&semi;t stick to played-out gimmicks and tropes to be popular&comma; and Horimiya is one of the said titles&period; Even after being adapted multiple times&comma; the series is more or less the same throughout as a calm&comma; simple&comma; and straightforward anime about two characters and their experiences together&period; There are no exaggerated plot lines&comma; nonsensical drama&comma; or unnecessary fan service here&period; The anime simply portrays the love between teenagers in the most straightforward and realistic way possible&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i2&period;wp&period;com&sol;www&period;animefeminist&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;01&sol;Horimiya-00&period;jpg&quest;fit&equals;1920&percnt;2C1080&amp&semi;ssl&equals;1" alt&equals;"Horimiya" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">A Gradual Bond<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>That being said&comma; not much happens during the first episode&period; It quickly introduces viewers to the two main leads&comma; and their personalities then shifts to their daily lives together and their efforts to hide their secrets from the rest of the school&period; The episode also shows Hori and Miyamura&&num;8217&semi;s relationship gradually develop&period; Though it admittedly skips a bit of fluff here and there from the earlier chapters of the manga&comma; that hints that both of them have spent at least a reasonable amount of time as friends&comma; contrary to what the anime shows&comma; whose pacing may or may not confuse some viewers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>After exploring the series&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;ve come to realize each adaptation of Hori and Miyamura&&num;8217&semi;s story has its own unique structure&comma; so it&&num;8217&semi;s not much of a surprise the anime follows suit&period; Other than that&comma; I must say that Horimiya&&num;8217&semi;s animation from Clover Works is rather impressive&period; The character designs are faithful to the manga and are highly expressive&comma; especially when each character&&num;8217&semi;s faces transition from one emotion to the other flawlessly&period; The characters&&num;8217&semi; hair&comma; eyes&comma; and environment are also brightly colored&comma; further adding to its already warm and sunny aesthetic&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i1&period;wp&period;com&sol;www&period;animefeminist&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;01&sol;Horimiya-03&period;jpg&quest;resize&equals;810&percnt;2C456&amp&semi;ssl&equals;1" alt&equals;"Horimiya" width&equals;"810" height&equals;"456" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Final Thoughts<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The anime&&num;8217&semi;s opening song &&num;8220&semi;Iro Kousui&&num;8221&semi; by Yoh Kamiyama&comma; also noticeably captures this aesthetic quite well and leaves a great first impression on viewers&period; All in all&comma; the first episode of Horimiya was a great introduction to a great romance series&comma; and hopefully&comma; the anime will continue to do justice to its stellar source material&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you haven’t seen Horimiya&comma; its available to stream right now on <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;funimation&period;com&sol;shows&sol;horimiya&sol;a-tiny-happenstance&sol;&quest;qid&equals;"><b>Funimation&period;<&sol;b><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Have you seen the first episode of Horimiya&quest; What do you think of my impressions&quest; Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;