Horimiya | Episode 12 and 13 Review

Episode Twelve and Thirteen Thoughts

What I love about the Hori Family, is how much they love Izumi. They literally love him more than Izumi’s actual family and I find to be hilarious. That’s something I think anyone would absolutely love, to be fully accepted by your partner’s family. To the point where your partner’s family likes you (Izumi) more than their own child (Kyouko).

Overall I thought the episode was nice, since the setting took place around the holidays, a lot of the episode was about spending time with one another, friends and family alike. We had Tooru finally realizing his feelings for Yuki but opting to keep things as is because he’s happy with how things are. We had other slices of other people’s lives (see what I did there), ranging from Remi and Kakeru, to Shuu and his younger sister, to Makio fighting it out with his older brother and Kouichi and Chika. On top of that, throw in the Hori family and their displeasure when they find out that Izumi wouldn’t be spending Christmas with them.

The Hori Family, was probably one of the highlights of the episode for me, because of how loveable each one of them are and because of how much they love Izumi over Kyouko. Another highlight of the episode, is as you’ve probably guessed Kyouko and Izumi committing to each other beyond high school. Looking back on their commitment to each other, I thought it was quite odd that they immediately jumped to being unofficial ‘fiancé and fiancée’. I would assume that when they go to post-secondary that they’d still be dating. The scene itself seemed like their relationship was limited to the confines of high school and once they graduated their relationship would become null and void. But hey, I won’t complain too much, I got what I wanted everyone’s favourite couple committing to themselves. A+.

What’s weird about episode twelve to me is that it felt sort of like a final episode simply because of how the ending of the episode went. Where Kyouko asks if they’ll be together forever, for which Izumi replies “Yup, together forever. Forever”. If CloverWorks had left the anime like that then I would have been satisfied with the ending.

All that being said, we know by now that episode thirteen is the final episode. What were my thoughts on the episode? Overall, I thought it was a good episode, in large part because it focused on Izumi. I really liked how it animated all of Izumi’s thoughts as he reflected on his past and where he is now. I enjoyed watching him telling his younger self that everything got better, that he had friends, a girlfriend and people who care about him now. The older Izumi telling his younger version that everything was going to be okay and that he would no longer run away from his past self and experiences was also nice.

The whole aspect of Izumi coming to terms with himself was a great touch and I think was a wonderful way to end of the anime. In my anime review that I’ll be writing over the next day or two, I’ll take a deep dive into what I thought about the anime overall (as there is a lot I would like to talk about), but that aside episode thirteen was definitely one of the better conclusions to an anime.

Horimiya is definitely one of the better high school romance anime, that’s for sure.