Otaku Central

What I love already about the first episode of “Horimiya: Piece” is that it kept the original ending of the ‘first season’. I love that it didn’t go back in time, I love that it kept the graduation scene but merely expanded on it. I thought it was a perfect transition. We had Kyouko recalling all the memories she and all of her friends had experienced throughout high school.

Unlike the original series, “Horimiya: Piece” definitely feels like an anime where they’re just filling in the gaps left in the original series. As such, “Horimiya: Piece” is definitely an anime with an episodic vibe; which has its pros and cons.

If you’re someone who enjoyed the storytelling of Horimiya, then you probably will be upset with the fact that the storytelling aspect is not there. But if you’re like everyone else who has enjoyed Horimiya then you won’t mind the fact that it’s episodic, you’re more so appreciative that their covering all the things the should have been covered but for one reason or another the studio chose not to.

If you were to ask me, I do not mind the fact that its episodic because I’m appreciative that they decided to animate all the bits that I thought should have been included in the first place. Obviously, will there be things that they leave out? Sure, I assume that will be the case. It’s subjective because the studio decides what needs to be animated; whether or not we agree to them as viewers all depends on our own thoughts.

I’m sure that there will be agreements on what we think should be there and what shouldn’t be there. But not all ‘wants’ are the same. So in that respect it’s always hit or miss, you can never win.

I really have been enjoying the vibes “Horimiya: Piece” has given me. Most of the scenes I’ve watched has been of the group we’ve come to know. As such, it gives off a very inclusive and overall a very welcoming vibe to the anime and it’s something I can get behind. Like there is a closeness you can feel amongst the members, although, the lack of Sakura, which so happens to be one of my favourite side characters of the anime remains to be scene because I really relate to her.

In that aspect of things, I am a little disappointed because I think that the original series did not do Sakura enough justice because I thought her character as a whole is very complicated but at the same time is very relatable. Despite being an anime, I think that Sakura is the most realistic character of the whole anime and manga. So I hope that we see her later on.

My favourite part of the anime so far was the most recent episode, episode five. I say this because it was the episode where we saw most of the characters interacting with one another all at once; all pertaining to one person, Shuu and his sexuality. I also loved that they animated that moment where Shuu, Izumi, Yuki and Tooru running to school because they thought they were late.

The fact that each one of them were carrying a varying amounts of ‘breakfast’ as they all ran towards school only to bump into each other asking the question “why are you walking to school we’re going to be late”; was very funny to me. Especially when they all decided to walk to school together, accepting their fate instead of running as they originally intended.

When I saw Shuu running with the toast in his mouth, I lowkey thought the dude was going to get isekai’ed into another world. I don’t know why I thought that but I did and I fully expected it to happen.

I’m looking forward to seeing what pieces of Horimiya the studio chose to animate (see what I did there?). I’d like to see more personable encounters or scenes that hold emotional value because there are those types of scenes in the manga that I thrilly enjoyed but only time will tell. I’m definitely having fun with “Horimiya: Piece“.