Horimiya

This is an adorable and funny manga that I just happened upon on a manga site one day and decided to start. Its nothing to rave about since its chapters are pretty short and the story is nothing too out of the ordinary, but somehow its still something special.

Story-9: I like the storyline and the plot, even though its been done before and its simple, it fits well with the style of the author, and it flows. Hori is pretty popular, and Miyamura, well, isn't. But they cross paths when both of their secrets are out in the open, and slowly their lives begin to change. There's romance, comedy, drama, and they all make for a great read.

Art-8: The manga is well drawn, there really isnt much to it to be honest, but for a simple manga, its just right. No complicated looking characters, no weird backgrounds, just simple.

Character-9: I actually really like the characters in Horimiya, I think they make the manga. Theyre a little quirky, a little awkward, and a little funny. They have different backgrounds but they are just normal school kids.

Enjoyment-9: I actually really enjoyed this manga. no matter how simple the story may be, I was still hoping to read more. It was very interesting, and im still currently waiting for updates!

Overall-8: I guess it seems like I didnt say much good about this manga, but im still telling you it was a good read :) if your bored pick it up! Its not so typical shoujo after all, I think its pretty great!

(TLDR Review at the bottom, as always, thanks for reading)

I never understood the love for Horimiya.

I am not one to go trash on anything with popularity for the sake of "I'm not like the other girls", well, not now anyway, but Horimiya has genuinely confused me. It has this absurdly large amount of acclamation which has led me to believe that Horimiya is worth my while, or at least when I first came across it. After getting into manga like Horimiya and Horimiya itself, I have come to the conclusion that well, this is more or less, well, "like the other girls" in the medium.

I have to give props to Horimiya, in more ways than one though, it does a lot of things that not a lot of manga will attempt to do, and when those manga do attempt such techniques, it never usually works. I say this now because I am going to do quite a bit of pointing out flaws for this manga. I don't want anyone reading this to think that I hate Horimiya or something, I quite literally everything I have watched/read is good one way or another. Not even a joke. I can point out good things any day of the week. I do enjoy a lot of things. However, Horimiya just didn't fit the bill.

Narrative:
Horimiya first starts with quite an average start-up, we have two individuals who retain a hidden side to them from the rest of their classmates, only to be united by the power of plot no jutsu or something, I am not too sure. Also, side note, it suddenly occurred to me that how is Miyamura just allowed to hang out with Hori's brother like that at the start, and not get exiled from Japan or some divine punishment, the dude literally looks a shoujo protagonist came out of a yakuza makeover and no one is going to do anything about it. I thought Japan was very serious with people like him going as far as to not offer jobs and have parents that hate you for having such designs. But I mean, if that is going to be skipped over with no questions about it, so be it. In any case, with the union of Hori and Miyamura coming together, comes the strange part of the story, strange because it confuses me as to what Horimiya is trying to be.

Straight to the point, Horimiya's first problem is that it is pseudo-deep.

This far into the story and that statement doesn't mean much, only when you go further in is that you begin to understand that there wasn't much meaning to what went down in the beginning. Horimiya has quite a bit of drama prior to later changes with characters. People are arguing and at one point, things get a little physical. But after these events have elapsed, they don't mean much anymore, what I mean by that is we have all this setting of secrets being hidden, people having an unfortunate past, the crowds negative opinion. But they all go by like it means little. To be fair, Horimiya isn't a drama like a typical drama would be, one of the points in the story is to overlook superficial qualities, I think it does quite well in that category. But then, what was the point of the setup still? I will admit that it is smart to make the setup is some kind of personification of the people you don't need to think about in life, those who try to bring you down, but right after this everything changes for the sake of the new plot. Why wasn't it consistent? Or why hadn't it just gone another way around with telling such a tale? Was it because the characters were emotional hence needing the proportionally scaled responses from others in order to get somewhere convenient? Because if it did contain drama as such, why didn't it go the whole way, the later chapters of Horimiya do not check out with this category. The start is simply just there to drag you into a story where well over 50% of it isn't even remotely similar to the start. Everything that isn't the start is just high school students vibing, none of that of which was given before. Swift changes in the genre are hard to handle. Horimiya does this but it leaves you asking why. I am not one to say "oh because this was given, you have to stay like this" if the incredible change in the story is a good one, who am I to complain, I have seen this happen before with manga, an example is Watamote (I highly recommend it btw). But if Horimiya is going to forget its starting ground, then logically speaking, it had no value, to begin with.

Before I get onto the second problem I do have to talk about a good point of the manga. And that is progression. I won't lie, the character development and the progress of the story is loveable, it doesn't take a good while for Horimiya to develop, which does call for some pacing issues as well as characters speedrunning personality changes for the sake of "story go forward" but as the nice man I am, I actually looked over this, more truthfully, I didn't really care, maybe you won't too. But it is still a flaw regardless I would just point out for those who would like to know how the pacing runs. In any case, the progression of Horimiya is good for me. Not a lot of romance like to get to where the fans want it to be within a reasonable time frame, hell sometimes it does literally within the final few chapters. It is nice to know that Horimiya doesn't follow in this category, which gives it some of its own ground to stand on, thus making it more something people should take a look at.

Now the second problem with Horimiya. The "Between Story"

I call it "Between Story" because "After Story" doesn't make too much sense relative to these characters' lives and Clannad. The title I have given doesn't actually matter as long as you understand what I will give below. That was just a simplification.

As spoilerless and implicit as I can get, there are growing bonds between MCs. But what happens after is what makes the story worse. In romance stories, after the pinnacle of the story, or the climax if you like, nothing really happens from there on out, it is sad but real life isn't that exciting all the time, you can only shove so much until the plot gets ridiculous with trying to play with what is going to happen next. This isn't a bad thing to maintain realism, or for "nothing really happens" to happen, what is a bad thing is if that segment isn't of standard. That is where Horimiya falls. It doesn't have anything of high quality going for itself, maybe that is why most writers won't let characters get with each other until the very end. It makes sense because a drawn-out experience is better than one with the glory that dies out early. Horimiya is comparable to any, and I mean any, generic s.o.l out there. Two examples I will give, being the now completed "Pseudo Harem", and the second being the well-known "Komi-san can't Communicate" which is basically Horimiya but each important moment is split up very far apart. Stories like these get incredibly tedious because as said, real life isn't always outrageously exciting or intriguing, not that I hate realistic stories, but they tend to be generic. There is no real attempt to try something outside the box too if it could at all. Horimiya's later parts are just, that's it, no more goodness, just people doing stuff.

Now for the characters, I would say that they are, ironically in my taste, fine. They fit this type of story and I would argue that they are somewhat better than most characters in the manga I have mentioned above. Despite pacing being a little fast, character development is present. Is it good? Not the best. But it is liveable for sure, it gets slightly better on too. I feel like nothing is wrong with the characters, rather, they were handled poorly due to the story. If you really want arbitrary criticism, there is a tsundere and a gloomy dense dude but that blows away quickly, not the tsundere archetype, of course, there just had to be one. They both can't accept truths sometimes too, but that too disappears. Horimiya knows how to make a character, not a spectacular one, but decent nonetheless. They are basically what you would expect average high school students to be, growing with their friends as time goes by too. I won't look too deeply into characters for this review because there is nothing out of the ordinary that happens with these characters. The only one I can point out is Miyamura and how he changes for the "better" as a human. He grows out of his shell more and interacts with others like they were osananajimi from back in the PS2 days. Everyone else really doesn't have a selling point in all honesty. Quite forgettable in my eyes even though they are the top quality of their genre. I didn't have much interest in the characters, to begin with, so that might just be my bias you can consider if you want. There are also side characters coming and going because plot plot plot please let there be plot. Since side characters don't get the treatment of being remotely important, I won't even spend the time going on about them, you just need to know that you will only come out fully remembering 7 or 8 characters at most. The MCs do have development and a sense of humanity, but they are just the top players on a still very common field. You can reach the ceiling of floor 1, but that isn't the start of floor 2.


Art:
The art is painfully simple, it is easy to compare this with other similar manga and see the similarity in plain art style. In saying this though Hagiwara has no doubt coined this style for their own, it looks a little manhwa webtoon-ish at times but even if Miyamura was rocking with Sung Jin-woo hair, you could still no doubt tell a difference between the two. Sometimes the scenes feel a bit magical like they were out of a bubbly version of Shaft, but I noticed this early on and it doesn't seem to hold true later on in the story. I suppose in the grand scheme of things, it is pleasant to look.

Also multi-coloured monochromatic hair lol.


Enjoyment:
I will say this again for those who read my reviews or are new to reading them. I enjoy everything (in some shape or form). Everything. Horimiya is no exception. Sometimes Horimiya makes me laugh. Sometimes Horimiya doesn't make me laugh. Sometimes Horimiya is yes. Sometimes Horimiya is no. In a more universal enjoyment approach, I would like to imagine that all fans, regardless of if you hate this or not, probably found something at the very minimum decent with this. Whether it be the fun cliche setups here or the humorous misunderstandings. Other aspects that would arise is just how plain simple this is, whilst Horimiya seemed very confused, at least it has simplicity somewhere. I didn't mind reading about high school students vibing even if it didn't work storywise. It just happens for so long that it does feel boring to read at times, but it was endurable for me. I just happen to have crazy endurance. It is also really sweet at times. That's a win.


Overall - 5.5 (6)
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TLDR Review:
Story - 4: Hey, it does a good thing with the pacing—though even that has its problems—in allowing itself to stand on its own, but really and truly Horimiya is rather low quality and baseline, with prior elements changing for the sake of whenever the plot needs to go somewhere. It tries to incite a real story but ends up being rather bland.
Characters - 6: Only Miyamura is good. Others are decent characters, top of their game in terms of the genre, but there is nothing to expand on that making them rather average. Side characters you won't remember too.
Art - 6: Simple art you will remember if shown again to you with its coined character design. Bubbly at times too.
Enjoyment - 6: This is fine, I liked it, but it should have got cut off ages ago or tried something out of the ordinary. It is very simple.

Overall - 5.5 (6)
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I remember coming across Horimiya a while ago on most popular or top-rated, I can't remember, and thinking to myself, "hey this looks decent" and decent it was, more like generic, but I am being nice here. Horimiya in the grand light of things is truly overhyped beyond belief. I have been told time and time again that simplicity is what gives it the credit it receives but it tried to incite a real story with its pseudo-deep writing and then proceed to say it never happened and then do the "nothing happens". Bruh. I mean, it is just an alright manga in my eyes. Nothing too deep or special. I would recommend this but it would be as if it were some other romance manga no one really talks about. It has its benefits and doesn't at the same time. There is better out there.

Yes, I will recommend Kimi ni Todoke. The pinnacle of wholesome vanilla ice cream on a good beach episode. Horimiya probably stole from it anyway. How shameless! :kuuderehmph:

Well, after more than a year of reading Horimiya every month I've decided to drop it. I'm writing this review because I am yet to see any negative review for this manga.

SHORT REVIEW - Overall (4/10): If you're looking for romance do NOT read Hormiya. If you want a sort of slice of life (with very little progression) comedy, then It may be the thing you want, although if you are like me you won't find it to be funny.

FULL REVIEW: CONTAINS VERY MINOR SPOILERS

Story (5/10): At the begging, the concept for the story appears to be somewhat original and refreshing, and the execution of said concept is rather good. We have a steady progression. Relationships developed naturally and every chapter functions as an extra step in the stairway that is the relationship of our two main characters (more on the characters soon). But then the stairway turns in to a hall. Since a little bit before chapter 40 things have been stagnant. The original plot has not moved at all. At this point (chapter 75) I've read more than 40 chapters of nothing going on, with the exception of more and more side characters. The quality of the comedy has also declined and the chapters seem to be getting shorter; and that is extremely annoying given that this is a monthly release. At this point, half of this manga is filler, and is all packed together after the first 40ish chapters. But maybe, the saddest of things is not how the main plot stagnates, but how it reverts. For the last 40+ chapters the main characters relationship is supposedly more serious than before, but you don't even see them holding hands.

Characters (3/10): Quirks and little oddities are a good portion of what makes a person, but it's no the only thing. Horimiya seems to forget that as the two main characters are more and more used as means to joke around with cowardice and sadism, and soon enough there is no mention of the things they had to do (cleaning the house, hide your own body) at the beginning, and those things were part of the characters. Without them they've lost richness. Our two main characters have transformed in to side characters as well. And let me tell you, there is an invasion of those. What we lack in progression we compensate (not) with side characters that look the same (the art style doesn't help) and have nothing to add. They are almost always the means to execute a joke. I've been reading this for some time now, and really, I don't know who most of these people are beside their name or position in the school. They're extremely shallow. From time to time a couple of interesting characters appear. The thing is ¿Are they relevant to the main plot? They're not. I belive the author needs to write something else where he could fit these character concepts that he has.

Art (6/10): Don't get me wrong, the art in Horimiya is very clean and neat. Initially I found it to be very pleasing, but with the added characters it's short comings became evident. Many of the characters look alike, to the point of being annoying. The male main character begins being distinctively different from the rest, but this changes rather soon. Sadly not only his looks become less unique, but also his standing in the manga. Characters aside, the art style is really clean, maybe too clean for my liking. It uses very few shadows and doesn't plays much with light. In consequence most of the drawings lack depth, everything is a little bit to much 2D.

Enjoyment (3/10): For a long time now I felt like this manga had become way to slow. Every moth I read a new chapter with the hope of it finally moving forward. But after 40+ chapters of very little happening I've gotten tired of it. I don't really care about the side characters, maybe if they were attractive to me I'd be content to keep on reading, but I wanted something more romance focused, or simply put, more focused.

Warning: Spoilers (I guess if you call them that)
TW: Talks of abuse

I am completely and utterly disappointed with the manga.

This manga had so much going for it in the beginning.

You got two believable and even likable main characters (Hori and Miyamura). Both have secrets they wished to keep from their classmates, but end up somehow finding each other through a random event. Just as soon their secrets are revealed to each other, and they have since then confided each other as true friends. A type of friend that you have absolutely no fear that your secrets will be spilled to the world to see. It makes sense that from that, romantic feelings could evolve and thus their relationship changed. Hori didn't want her peers to know that she goes home right after school to look after her brother. Miyamura didn't want people to know about his many earrings and tattoos. At the same time, they dealt with serious issues from their past. Hori had to deal with her childhood having to be alone at home all the time, since her parents were always busy with work. Pretty much, abandonment issues. Miyamura had dealt with being ignored and bullied in middle school.

Not very original concepts, but you know what? They're easy enough to bite, and once you get a taste, you want to keep eating it. The creator had managed to weave everything in and breathe life and originality into it, even though none of this is new and original.

... now take all of this and chalk it out the window, and forget about it. After all, that's what the manga did, so you can do it too.

You can forget about the potential character development. You can forget about potential relationship development outside the "hey let's get married after school" shtick. You can forget about their secrets, which are never discussed ever again. You can forget about their past problems/trauma, because only Miyamura got anything out of it for like 2 seconds, and then forgotten about by the creator (we never even see the bullies ever again- WHY?!). You can forget EVERYTHING.

There is no development of any kind. The main characters get turned into side characters. Their personalities are utterly ruined. Their relationship is basically abuse in the form of Hori getting angry at Miyamura 24/7, and Miyamura having no balls to say or do anything in retaliation. Oh yeah, and Hori all of a sudden wants him to be angry at her all the time and hit her, in public, because yeah, let's ignore the fact that your boyfriend over there can get arrested for ABUSE. But that's fine, because everyone finds it funny. Even though Miyamura comes out of this abuse with bruises and bleeding (yes, that happened), it's totally fine, because it's just Hori being Hori. But Gods forbid that Hori shows up injured, because "Miyamura! How could you hurt her?!". Then we have Hori getting even angrier at her boyfriend for not getting angry at her, because apparently she's a masochist. She hits him. She kicks him. She controls what he does with his body (forbidding him from getting anymore tattoos and reopening his old ear holes for earrings, because the latter will leave scars (yeah, THAT MAKES SENSE! /s)). Let's ignore the fact that Miyamura had earrings and tattoos way before Hori noticed his existence. Him caring for her and loving her, earns him a cute blushing girlfriend that will slap him and call him stupid and run for the hills. Oh yeah, and he's supposed to apologize, even though she herself admitted that it's her fault for getting angry all the time (but does nothing about it). Let's not even talk about her possessive behaviour, which is so abnormal and off the charts, that it is scary. Oh yeah, and let's not talk about how she wants to catch Miyamura cheating on her, which he never does (b/c he's a good boyfriend- SHOCKERS), and then she gets angry at him over that. Hey, Hori, here is a little secret: this behaviour is NOT cute or funny.

It is actually scary how much people find this behaviour in Hori cute, adorable, and quirky.

Let's also talk about the rest of the side characters. I read all the chapters, and I STILL can't remember any of their names. I may recognize them, if they do something specific that is "unique" to their character design, but that's about it. They have little to no personality. They look almost the same. Their relationship to each other isn't unique. Sometimes we may get drama or (gasp) plot, but then it's all thrown out the window, again. I still don't understand why people are obsessed with Yagani (I had to look his name up). There are a lot of things that I don't understand, because nobody bothers explaining or gloss over it so fast and so low key, that it is missed.

I initially gave this manga a 7/10, but after reading everything and coming out of it frustrated and disappointed, I'm giving it a 3/10. Again, this manga had so much potential. If only they continued with the initial plot, this could have been a very different review and possibly on a more positive side. But as of now, it has invoke in me only dark realization and deep annoyance.

I would not recommend this to anyone, especially as a romance manga. This is anything but romance. It's slice of life, with humour, and with such abuse in it that I can not bring myself to support it anymore. Read it if you will, but I will not re-read this ever again, nor will I continue watching the show.

If the high ranking and overall rating doesn't convince u to take a peak at this manga then i don't know what will. It's hard to convince you that this is an extremely good manga without spoiling it but i will do my best.

First off, the manga is completely average in almost every aspect. How come its so good if it's average? The main aspect of this manga are the characters and the reader's enjoyment.

-Story-
Horimiya is a romantic comedy. Romantic comedies are similar and easily predictable. What's unique about Horimiya as a romcom is that the story doesn't focus on the romantic part that much and the comedy isn't focused around the romance either. Personally i can't stand in romcoms where something that isn't that embarrassing at all, is made into a huge deal. Rest assured, Horimiya isn't a manga where a character would be flustered if he/she is asked if the other person is their bf/gf. There aren't any big romantic scenes like the "dramatic first kiss." Like i said, Horimiya isn't focused on the romcom that much. In fact, it's more of a slice of life genre. The couple and their friends go through their last year in high school, having fun and hanging with a bunch of comedy. You also get the see the couple being together early on and enjoy how their relationship last. It's hard to describe the story any more without spoilers but i think you got the gist of it.

-Art-
Romcoms typically have similar styles of art and they are generally all pretty well done. Horimiya has nothing special in particular about the art but the expressions portrayed by the characters are priceless. The comedic scenes feel natural and not so forced if ya know what i mean. I don't see any flaws either.

-Characters-
The characters are what makes this manga above average. Especially Miyamura Izumi. In school, he is seen as a shady guy with glasses and a possible otaku. Looks can be deceiving though. Miyamura is in fact, not a otaku and looks like a a punk rock kind of guy with 9 piercings and a bunch of tattoos. In reality, he is actually an airhead that only excels in physical education and health despite his looks in school. Hori Kyokou is the MC (you read most of it in her perspective) of the manga. In school, she is cute, smart, and popular. After school though, she goes straight home and becomes similar to a housewife. She is also a sadist (but this is a realistic manga so it's more of the usual sadistic nature of some people in real life which i prefer). The overview of this manga makes a big deal about their split personalities but honestly they're more like just part of their life. They have different personalities and backgrounds but they're just normal people. They don't go into extreme ways of hiding their secret nor do any situation arise that could cost them their secret. Like i said, this is more of a slice of life manga and everything is realistic. Each character experiences a well developed character development including all the supporting characters.

-Enjoyment-
Who can't enjoy this? It's a nice, refreshing, slice of life/romcom manga without all the annoying bits in a typical romcom. For me, reading it was actually fun. I laughed my ass off so many times. I don't ever remember laughing so much in each chapter or each episode of an anime. Although i just finished reading all the way to the last chapter out (chapter 29), i want to go back and reread it again. This is a manga where you can reread multiple times and still enjoy it and get the same feelings as if you're reading it for the first time.

-Overall-
Overall i am rating this a 9 although i rated it as a 10 on my list. There isn't really a particular reason why im rating it a 9 instead of a 10. Honestly i can't think of any ways for this manga to improve. It is perfect the way it is. Even if they dragged it on, it would still be really good and consistent with the overall ratings. The one flaw might be the fact that there's no set goal. Unlike romcoms, Horimiya doesn't focus many chapters on getting the two to be together. They got together quite subtly and early on. Personally i prefer this. It's fine with no specific goal cause this manga is more of a slice of life genre. It's just their typical, pretty happy, life in school.

I hope you all like this review and i hope lots of manga readers read this and enjoy it as much as i do.

I have never given a Slice of Life manga a 10 until I finished Horimiya. Horimiya is a heartwarming manga that shows the lives of the main cast in the series. It has a lot of sweet and funny moments but that's not the reason why I gave Horimiya a 10. Before I start the main part of the review, I just wanna share my opinion about the two main characters of the series. Horimiya's male protagonist, Miyamura, is a beautifully well made character that made the show so much better. Miyamura is probably the main reason why I gave this show a 10 and I will be explaining that later (not because he's cute okay). The female protagonist, Hori, is a lovable character that makes the series very enjoyable like the other cast of characters. Now without further ado, let's see what scores I have given to Horimiya (Btw this is my opinion so if you disagree then you're free to do so) (Also, I don't usually make reviews so if this review is dog poop then I apologize)


Story: 9/10
The story is actually pretty simple. A guy meets a girl and BOOM, they start developing feelings for each other but I have a reason to why I gave this a 9. Horimiya shows the sweet and fun lives of the main cast (as expected from a slice of life) but the true meaning of this series is basically "Don't Judge a Book by it's Cover" and . The show gives such a simple lesson yet it still felt special.... Miyamura having a gloomy, dark and lonely past and slowly turning his life around and Hori seeing why we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover is such simple story yet there was something about Horimiya that made it feel so freaking special and I don't even know what it is. I don't even know why I love the story- there's just something to it that sparked my heart.

Art: 8/10
The art is clean and cute. That's it. There's nothing spectacular about the art but it was still beautiful

Characters: 10/10
Now this is where we taste the beauty of this series. The characters in this series makes this show such a masterpiece. I don't wanna say anything else because I don't wanna spoil the show for y'all but I can say this..... every character in Horimiya are lovable and flawless.

Enjoyment: 10/10
My enjoyment is immeasurable and my life has been fulfilled. Horimiya is such a enjoyable series. Everytime I read a chapter, my heart just gets filled with joy. This show is basically the definition of "wholesome"


Overall: 10
Should you read Horimiya? Absolutely. Can some people find this series not good? Definitely. I just wanna say thank you to the author for making such a well done Slice of Life manga. It's been such a fun ride and I'm glad I could ride it with y'all. I'm relieved I found this series and I hope y'all get something valuable out from Horimiya.

Horimiya: A Flawless Slice of Life

After seeing review after review of 10 and 9 ratings I thought it was about time to break up the reviews a little bit and give Horimiya a 6 out of 10.

Story
The sumary of this story is very cute. Hori and Miyamura act like a different person when at school, but when they get home they're true personality comes out. Hori is popular at school, but when at home she basically takes the role of mom. Miyamura is shy and withdrawn, but after school he shows off his piercings and tattoos. Then they find out about eachothers secret lives, and find comfort in the fact theres someone else out there that they can share their other half with.
Sounds adorable right? Well too bad this summary becomes totally irrelevant after about 26 chapters. Around the time Miyamura cuts his long hair is about the time that the plot loses all sense of direction.
I understand where the story is trying to go. Its trying to get to the point where Hori and miyamura accept and are open about the other half of their life. But the manga doesn't deliver on that. Instead, the manga focuses on unnecessary subplots and side characters, and Hori and Miya's involvement in those characters/sub plots. It gets to the point where the later chapters aren't even about Hori and Miya's relationship, and just about the other side characters drama.

Characters
The main characters are interesting. They have their quirks and are usually just a joy to read. Too bad the manga doesn't like to focus on the main characters, and instead focuses on the bland side characters.
Can you tell from my review yet that I don't like the side characters? becuase I dont. They're the root of this mangas problems.

Art
The art is very well done! Its actually one of the main reasons why I started reading this manga.

Overall this manga was 10 out of 10 for the first 25-30 chapters. Afterwards its become a jumble of short side plots lasting for a chapter each. And has gotten to the point where I dont care whats going on. Which is unfortnate, because I really liked this manga at first...

I'm a guy who enjoys to have a hot cup of joy, oh and this drink was very satisfactory.

Kyoko Hori is a popular high school girl, who excels in academics. Although she is a completely different person outside of school. She acts like a parent for her little brother, and does all the house chores including cooking, cleaning and grocery shopping. One day, Hori meets someone else who like her, does not present his true self at school. Her quiet, glasses-wearing classmate, Izumi Miyamura. his appearance at school is someone bookish and makes people assume that he an otaku. Hori realized she could not have been more wrong. Outside of school, Miyamura is a friendly guy with many piercings, and is actually not very good at academics. Miyamura’s encounter with Hori’s little brother and Hori’s discovery of Miyamura’s secret begins her new chapter in life.

Well, Horimiya is our usual comedy-romance-school life types of genre. It takes place in school and it’s about youth romance between our protagonist. Speaking of protagonist, the girl’s name is Kyouko Hori and the guy’s name is Izumi Miyamura.

What makes Horimiya different is that it's charms do not lie on the secret being exposed but on the calm and subtlety- which also reflects in the illustrator's art syle- it is dealt with and the relationship that blossoms from it. Far from cartoonish, it reflects what would happen if it was set in real life perfectly.

Hori is a popular girl in school. Beauty and smart, she has everything that every guys in school ever wanted. She might be a perfect dream girl in the school but she is low profile. Hori has a secret, she always appears like a plain housewife in her home. That’s because her parents are too busy at work so they’re rarely at home so Hori has to take care of her little brother, Sota and also taking care of cooking and also cleaning at home. That’s why she always rejecting her friend’s invitation to go out and have fun.While Miyamura is a plain looking guy with glasses who appearance is very much like an otaku.

Miyamura on the other hand is the perfect portrait of adorable-I-want-you. Some may fondly dub him as "loser" because of his docile personality. It is apparent how deeply he admires Hori with how reliable and noble she is. Perhaps this is a factor to why he goes out of his way to protect her and make her happy. A perfect gentleman. With an offhand way of making every reader into a gooey mess.Other characters like Toru, Yuki and the members of the student council keep the story dynamic and fresh. All of them spicing up the everyday life of Hori and Miyamura.

Truly, this manga is a character-driven story. The pacing is slow and sweet, guaranteeing a thorough look at the characters and building up the relationships of the cast, especially that of the two leads. Just when you think your heart can take on whatever happens next, the new chapter will taunt you, tease you and ultimately make your heart swell with the joy of budding love.

Out of all the romantic type of mangas that I’ve already read, I could say that Horimiya is one of the best. I highly recommend this manga especially to those who are just want some tingly feelings in themselves.

After finally deciding to return to Horimiya and catch up to the latest chapter, I'm coming off the experience with a bit of regret, to be honest. I feel as though it would have been better had I just stayed away and retained the sweet memories I had of when I first read it, but, alas, here we are.

Horimiya, unfortunately, suffers from the same problem majority of manga that get somewhat popular in the industry do -- it just... keeps... on... giving. This, in turn, means that the story will, pretty much by default, be bad. Not necessarily the worst thing ever, but due to the fact that the pace is almost always thrown out of the window, we tend to see a lot... yet very little at the same time.

Comparing the pace of the first 30-40 chapters and the last 50-60, this problem is quite evident. The latter chapters have far too much filler, with repeated introductions and returns to some minor characters, with our main duo pretty much taking a backseat for about 70-80% of the second part of the manga. I'm not saying that the side characters shouldn't be developed, but I am saying that the pace goes to shitters.

Story in and of itself, however, isn't just marred by the pace -- it's, quite frankly, by-the-book sort of a tale of highschool girls and boys, and if you've read any other highschool romance before, you can know what to expect. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but when compounded with some other problems, it does get a bit dull to read.

One problem that I think Horimiya has in terms of the story it that it doesn't have punchout moments -- those scenes in the stories that just hit you straight in the gut like a freight train. The manga, both in terms of the story as well as the characters, plays it too safe. While drama is present, don't get me wrong, it's the milder type that's oftentimes sidelined before it actually escalates. This would be completely fine -- even preferrable for me -- if the story had those few moments when it lets go of its inhibitions and limits and really delves into its characters' issues. Instead, however, we at most get a single chapter through which we, in retrospect, realize the character had some sort of an issue, and how they're better off now. This leaves little room for the moments you'll remember, and save for perhaps 2-3, most other chapters will fly over your head shortly after you've finished reading them.

The glaring issue that sticks out with both the story and the characters is actually rather simple -- there are just way too many characters. Way. Way. Way too many. Save for our main duo, there are approximately 10 other side characters that are given a considerable amount of screen time, and almost 20 if we include the ones that cameo frequently enough. The author is rather inclusive, especially in the second half of the manga, which would be great -- as I love me some well-developed side characters -- if not for the fact that I can barely get my head around how many characters there actually are out there in the wild.

Another -- mostly personal this time around, so take it with a grain of salt -- complaint I have when it comes to the characters has to do with Hori, our main girl. She gets progressively more violent throughout the manga, in addition to just outright possessive at times, which was funny the first few times it was used as a joke, but if you repeat it every chapter, it gets dull rather quickly. She's more of a violent tempest at this point rather than a compelling main character, and feels like a human-sized waste of potential if I'm being honest.

In general, a lot of characters are assigned some annoying traits not because they would be explored as flaws in the story, but because, well, humor I guess. Mind you, the flaws the characters display (such as obsessive jealousy) are almost never taken seriously. Someone of Hori's temper and jealousy would be almost impossible to actually date, whether she's jealous of the girls or the guys. The story takes a pissing pass onto these flaws and largely references them in a humorous ways, and while certainly quite funny the first few times, it gets more and more troubling as we go on.

It doesn't help that, with over a 100 chapters that we have, almost all side characters have stayed rooted in who they were when the manga started. Now that I think about it, that's actually the case for everyone in the manga. The greatest bit of development is that one guy stopped liking one girl and started kind of liking another one.

This also ties in to those gut-punching moments, as most flaws are either ignored or simply skimped over in a spitfire-style paneling and 'resolved' by the chapter's end. It's a shame, really, because a lot of the side characters are interesting -- or, rather, most of the manga's characters are interesting -- but they are played far too safe to truly make them spectacular.

It helps a bit, however, that the art is incredibly clean and, well, pretty, to be honest. Whether you're into good-looking studs or the cutesy girls, Horimiya has both in spades. Paneling is (most often) easy on the eyes, inking is extremely clean, and caricature during the comedy (and chibi) moments is both funny and endearing. I won't really stick to the art too much as I consider it of lesser importance, but it is by far the best part of the manga.

Despite all my complaints, all of your Horimiyans (Horimiyaians??) out there, relax -- I actually do enjoy the manga. It's funny, it's heart-warming on the occasion, and despite the lack of the (many) memorable moments, I didn't mind it much.

If you're looking for a decent rom-com, you can't go astray with this one. It's light, easygoing, funny, and, well, it has over a hundred freakin' chapters to read. Sheesh...

--my apologies for the potential grammatical mistakes; I am way too lazy to proofread this--

Before you decide my review is already too biased what with the perfect marks. . Do read this review and try the manga out first.
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Story: 10/10. Classic romcom story with nice, subtle changes.
Horimiya is, undeniably, a high school romance comedy. It's not something that can be argued about. Thus, you can predict the general idea of how the story goes- girl meets guy, they fall in love, but there's another who was already in love with girl. However, what makes the story so amazing (that is, for a highschool romcom) is that it takes the classic story line and adds twists to it. Sadly, as I want this to be a spoiler free review so you can properly enjoy the manga, I won't be able to provide any examples. Trust me when I say they are there, though, and that you will probably adore them.

Art: 9/10. Beautiful, detailled, and gorgeous; practically flawless.
As far as I can tell, almost all romcoms have beautiful art. Horimiya is not an exception. There's not much more to say here. If there are flaws in the art, they are so minor that I haven't even noticed them . . after rereading all available chapters four times.
. . Plus, the boys are pure eye candy. Just FYI. Every night, I cry when I remember that they don't exist in real life.

Character: 9/10. Nothing amazingly unique, but still loveable.
The characters are your somewhat "classic romcom characters." You have the pretty, smart, and housewife-like main female character, the handsome but broody-looking main male character, the second main male character that also likes the main female character, and the airheaded, but loving, best friend of both main characters. You can usually predict what they will do and say, but it doesn't make them any less amazing. Plus, they /do/ things that you don't expect them to at times. Furthermore, they go through a surprising amount of development; even some of the minor characters.

Enjoyment: 10/10.
How could I not enjoy this? As a person who is tired of the usual animes and mangas found in the shoujo genre, Horimiya is not just a breath of fresh air- it is a whole, friggin' whirlwind. But a good whirlwind. As I've said, I've read it 4 times already; why would I do that if I didn't absolutely love and enjoy the manga?

Overall: 10/10.
The mangaka splendidly twists the usual highschool romcom story to make a very enjoyable manga; on top of that, he/she/it also twists the characters, which at first seem just like your usual, average set of characters. Moreover, the art is just a visual feast. I highly recommend this to anybody craving some romcoms but incapable of watching things like Amnesia with a straight face. Of course, if you like Amnesia, you will still like Horimiya.

Thank you for reading this review, and I hoped it helped you. Please provide some feedback if possible so I can better my writing. C8

Overall: 7/10
Damn, a lot of big mangas are ending this year with Horimiya, the widely renown rom-com, being one of them. Surprisingly, I never really heard of Horimiya before the anime. After the first episode though, I was interested in seeing how things would play out and binged the manga in one night. And now here I am, watching something cherished by many going out with a bang.

However, I gotta say I don't think Horimiya is as amazing a masterpiece as people make it out to be. Trigger warning, but I actually think it's quite overrated: it's good, but at least in my books, it's not a 10. The story starts off pretty good, we have good character development at times, but the plot really fell off at a certain point, and it just felt like nothing was really happening in certain chapters. I get that it's supposed to be a slice of life and stuff, but I think we had more slices than we needed: more isn't always better.

That being said, Horimiya was still an enjoyable read. Is it something I'll reread in the future? Very unlikely, but as something I binged in a night, it was quite good.

Story: 6/10
Horimiya, a rom-com, is supposed to be a story primarily about how everyone has sides they don't want to show others, with some slight dashes of slice of life seasoning. While Horimiya does touch on the themes of feeling like a social outcast and social norms as a teenager, I can't help but feel like it wasn't as good as it could have been. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of touching chapters and moments where characters learn to grow and stuff, but I felt like there wasn't really a solid thematic throughout the entirety of the story. After a while, it was less about people overcoming their problems and just watching everyone get along with each other/their significant others. It was nice at first, but it did get quite boring after a while, especially for monthly releases, to just be tuning in to the same stuff reskinned over and over.

And I think this fault goes back to Horimiya's lack of a concrete plot. It starts out great, we see actual development in our characters, and we get to see them navigate relationships. But there isn't really a plot to follow. It's truly just a slice of life. And after a while, that can get a bit boring/repetitive, especially when we don't see much development/change to the main cast or the side characters. While the story was fair, I still think there was a huge missed opportunity to explore the themes brought up in the beginning but kind of forgotten near the end, and the slice of life format for the latter half of the manga ended up hurting itself more than helping. That being said, I will applaud Horimiya for having a serviceable final chapter, something a lot of mangas can't even seem to pull off.

Art: 9/10
Very nicely drawn, great emotions and character designs: overall, the manga is very visually appealing.

Character: 7/10
I really like Horimiya's characters because I think they did a great job of being realistic teenagers dealing with life and love in high school. It's not as simple as some people would make it out to be, but it's not overly exaggerated for the sake of comedy or drama. It really does feel like you're watching real people grow and learn.

That being said, I think character development just kind of disappeared after a while. We start off with getting Miyamura and Hori's development, up until they're in a relationship. Once they tie the knot, we explore the side characters and their lives/relationships as they develop. But for the latter, it's just kind of brushed off around 50-70% through the series. I wouldn't mind if their development was shelved to further explore Hori and Miyamura's dynamic and develop them further, but it isn't. It just goes to regular slice of life stuff, which is kind of sad considering how much more development and depth we could've gotten out the characters, especially the side ones: their entire arcs/developments can pretty much be concluded in 3-4 chapters which is a bit underwhelming.

As for the comedy aspect, it was good to start, but just like the slice of life part, it got a bit predictable and repetitive halfway through the manga. However, I still found the occasional jokes or gags humourous, but not really enough to make me chuckle or crack a wide smile.

Enjoyment: 7/10
With all that said, I still think Horimiya is a great read. As someone who was fortunate enough to binge almost the entire manga (122 chapters actually) all at once, I can definitely say I suffered less than those forced to wait entire months for releases. But even then, I gotta say for the last 30 chapters or so, I was just mindlessly reading and hitting "next chapter", waiting for something big or interesting to happen. And as a result, I don't think I will ever reread Horimiya because I can't say it'd be worth the time: the latter parts of the manga are just too repetitive and boring to be worth a reread (although they could pass for a first-time read).

For me, Horimiya is one of those things you enjoy the first time around, but after you've caught up/finished, I ask you to sit on it and think: how many unique moments or chapters can you truly remember? For me, it's not that much. And that's a bit depressing for a manga that started off so well.

Wasn't a huge fan.

I liked the art a lot, but the story itself didn't seem like it was going anywhere?
I liked it up to the point where the MCs get together (after the rainy day), then after that there was no character or plot development between them. This manga also focused on the side characters more, which is always nice– I have nothing against it but there was no story!

I skipped a few chapters, maybe 4, and have caught up all the way to chapter 92 because I was hoping SOMETHING would happen, but nope. So I'm done with this manga, won't be picking it back up.

The first chapters were amazing and all. I'd recommend it.

I dropped it because the whole thing was drifting away from having an overall plot and going more towards the slice of life, which I do not enjoy as it just got... boring, for me. (especially as the story drags on and is still being updated to this day)
However, the plot in itself is very good, the romance is cute, and if you like slice of life and you won't get bored reading it, then go ahead and finish the manga, but it has about 100+ chapters or so just about their daily lives.

After reading Hori-san Miyamura-kun or simply Horimiya, all i could think about is "This is not your average Romance Manga"



The story may not involve fantasy,fighting,heavy drama....a first impression of Horimiya would make you say that it has a simplistic story, but if you think about it The struggles of this characters, makes you connect to each one of them, they have those traits that make you want to sympathize with them, the struggles you face while growing up are clearly portrayed in the story, Horimiya is not your just romance or comedy...it has the power of making you feel nostalgia, it may be the romance part or simply their struggles as an adolescent. Horimiya is such a light, feel-good Manga.




The art is simply amazing, it's pleasant to the eyes, the mangaka has that unique touch in creating the manga, for a Shounen Manga.one can differentiate a shounen style manga to a shoujo style manga but the characters look really good it would pass as one of the best drawn Shounen out there, that kind off has a shoujo taste.

You can tell from the first chapter, the characters are well developed Horimiya is carefully planned out, I am in love with every single one of them, i can connect with all of them. Each and every one of those characters reminds me of my life in Highschool.

I enjoyed reading the manga to the point of getting hooked, i haven't even noticed that it was already 5AM in the morning, it has that kind of power..the comedy part kept me laughing, the romance made my heart beat faster..the friendship that Miyamura experienced through meeting Hori made me want to hang-out with each one of them.


Horimiya is simply precious and life-changing.

Horimiya is the shining light amongst the excessive flood of rehashed high school romances that Japan loves to print out. But what makes this manga so special? It has the same cliché scenario, after all: a popular female lead, a shut-in otaku male lead, high school setting; the list goes on and on. The premise may be unoriginal, but Horimiya excels greatly in the one aspect that most romances fail to deliver.

Intimacy.

The amount of intimacy that can be felt between our two lovers, Hori-san and Miyamura-kun, never ceases to amaze me. Unlike most romances, their love for each other never feels forced. HERO does a delicate job of developing the relationship between Hori and Miyamura so that their romance doesn't seem strained but rather genuinely real.

The honest love that can be felt between Hori and Miyamura stems from HERO's portrayal of them two as actual teenagers with doubts and insecurities. not as dimwits who can't spell out whether the other person likes him or her or not without it being blasted with big blockbuster letters. Hori and Miyamura are nothing like the slow, dense protagonists that we see so frequently. Their relationship doesn't progress with a simple 'yes' or 'no' to the question "Does the other person actually like me or is she acting flustered around me and devoting all of her time to me out of sheer friendship?" Instead, HERO progresses the story of Hori and Miyamura's relationship by showing them overcoming the insecurities each person has about their feelings for each other. Hori is a very popular girl at her school, so she has to face the doubtful and negative reactions from people discovering that she's dating a "closet otaku." Miyamura, who had been ostracized all of his life, struggles to gain the self-confidence to see himself as someone who can make a great girl such as Hori happy. HERO brings in a breath of fresh air by progressing the story through Hori and Miyamura overcoming their individual flaws and the problems that arise from an odd couple such as theirs.

Despite the uncertainty Hori and Miyamura have about their relationship, Horimiya is a very lighthearted and sweet read. The interactions between not only Hori and Miyamura, but also the rest of the cast feel very natural and often caused me to grin or chuckle. The frequent jabs at Miyamura's extreme aversion of thriller movies or Hori's aggressiveness never fail to bring out a laugh from me. HERO does a superb job of balancing a carefree atmosphere with moments that give me toothaches from how sweet they were.

Horimiya's story also has refreshingly fast pacing, unlike other romances where it seems to take forever for the main couple to realize their feelings for each other. The moment from when Hori and Miyamura meet to when they start dating moves along without any conflicts that feel stretched out into many chapters. The drama of the series is dealt with immediately and any misunderstandings aren't painfully drawn out (I'm looking at you, Kimi ni Todoke).

One notable fact about Horimiya that is often unheard of amongst high school romances is that HERO continues to develop Hori and Miyamura's relationship past the confession scene and shows the hurdles they must cross to maintain their romance. HERO even eventually goes on to develop the romances between the side characters while continuing to pump out the current stage of Hori and Miyamura's relationship. Horimiya is a fresh read among the many romances who call it quits after their main characters finally start dating.

Horimiya also excels in its above-average character design. Every character is distinguishable from the others and the designs are simply eye-candy. Yet, even though Horimiya's characters look great, its background detail isn't anything special. The school windows, desks, and so on are average in terms of how high school settings go. In many panels, it's even just the characters on a white and gray background. Despite this flaw, I find the characters' designs to make up for the lack of detail, especially Miyamura's transformation from his school image to his true image.

Horimiya is the manga that kicks clichés to the side and stands firmly atop the flood of high school romances that get published so often. It brings new hope for a genre I had thought to be decent at best; my only complaint is my growing struggle to wait an entire month between chapters.