Horimiya | Episode 1 Review

Episode 1 Thoughts

The first episode was an interesting one. For starters, I’d like to say that I enjoyed the OP “”Iro Kousui (色香水)” by You Kamiyama”” it was really pleasing to the ears not to mention the animation that accompanied the OP was also really nice and extremely well done.

Secondly, I really like the animation style Horimiya has. It’s something different and I always like something that stands out. Often times throughout the episode, the characters primarily the two protagonists, Hori and Izumi we see them outlined in either in an assortment of colours whenever it’s just themselves as individuals within a single frame. I really liked that and I do not know why.

Thirdly, our two protagonists are very interesting individuals, as they both have alternative personalities. At school Hori is your typical popular figure, someone who gets all the good grades, is friends with everyone and is generally considered as attractive. While Izumi is the complete opposite (as you’d expect). When outside of school, Hori acts more like a parent. She takes care of her little brother, cooks for her family, and does all the house chores because her parents are always working (parents working is an assumption on my part). While Izumi is someone with multiple piercings’ and tattoos and doesn’t wear glasses (while in school he does).

Immediately the two hit it off. When you have two individuals with opposite personalities, the dynamic between them will always be interesting. Since the two (Hori and Izumi) are the only ones to see each other as they are normally, the two characters made that odd statement of “I do not want anyone else to see this you”, which makes me think that they’ll become a couple later on (I spoiled this for myself, :sad:). Furthermore, I found it extremely weird that our two protagonists who didn’t know anything about each other to begin with are now just casually friends. With Izumi going over to Hori’s house (which is also weird), but we later find out he goes there to play with Hori’s little brother. Who is also someone Izumi had helped home because Hori’s little brother had gotten startled by a barking dog which caused him to fall flat on his face.

Also! Another thing I thought was worth mentioning, as the anime is based around Hori and Izumi. The title in question is a combination of their names Hori and Izumi’s last name Miyamura. Which I thought was very clever, maybe this is hinting that they’ll possibly get married later on in the manga of course. Only time will tell!

To me, this rush to create a friendship between our two protagonists concerned me. It calls to question the pacing this anime will have. As Horimiya is adapted from the manga that has over 16 volumes and over 100+ chapters. I am not too sure how much of the manga will be covered and if it’ll gloss over parts that would have added to the overall story. Often times with anime that are adapted from manga (especially larger duration manga) there will always be a problems with pacing because you’re trying to fit a chapter which could be very long at times into 12 to 13 episodes each, roughly 23 minutes long. So expectations for me (as I have yet to read the manga) are low but hopeful.