I am a sucker for slice-of-life romances and if it wasn’t for someone pointing out this show to me, I would have completely missed it! Sometimes I look over a list and miss a show here and there or something gets added and slips under my radar. Whatever the case was this time around, it almost happened! However, am I glad someone pointed it out to me, or was Horimiya (Hori-san to Miyamura-kun) something that I would have to pass on?
Let’s Go!
First Episode Synopsis
Hori gets invited out by her friends but she politely declines. Apparently, this isn’t the first time she ended up ditching them to do other things. We find out that she has a younger brother that she picks up after school and watches while her mother is at work. She cooks, she cleans, she does everything a mother practically does in her place.
Also introduced is a boy named Miyamura who is kind of a soft-spoken loner. Everyone in the class brands him as a moe otaku and just leaves at that. One day, there is a knock on Hori’s front door where this odd-looking boy with piercings a chain that runs from his ear to his lip brings home Hori’s brother, Souta, with a bloody nose. Apparently, he saw a dog and fell down. She invites the boy in and makes him some coffee as a way of thanking him. Things turn a bit strange when he blurts out her name without her even introducing herself first.
Turns out that this odd-looking boy is Miyamura!
Both Hori and Morimiya have a secret life that they don’t want to show to anyone at school. The two of them end up hitting it off rather well; however, there is a bit of an obstacle in their way in the form of their classmate Tooru who has a crush on Hori. Tooru and Miyamura have a conversation where he asks if the two of them are dating. When Miyamura denies it, he asks if it’s okay to ask Hori out. Tooru goes for it but she also tells Hori everything that was said in their conversation… especially the part where Miyamura thinks that he and Hori wouldn’t make a good couple. Hori is very upset over this and makes it very apparent that she likes Morimiya. She even turned down Tooru!
And so ends our first episode
Worth Watching?
YES – It’s not every day when a really cute girl falls right into your lap and takes a liking to you. In fact, I can see myself in Miyamura in the sense that I like to keep to myself and if a girl ended up talking to me, I wouldn’t think much of it since I wouldn’t really be seeking a relationship. That’s just how I am. Miyamura wasn’t really expecting much of anything from his time with Hori as merely thought that he found someone he could share his secret life with.
This is a pretty interesting dynamic as you kind of has a one-sided love interest here but, at the same time, you’re trying to keep things hidden from everyone around you. There were hints throughout the episode that Miyamura may like Hori but I think he was just more content with the fact that he can actually be himself around someone. That could blossom into something and with Hiro making it painfully obvious that she likes him (without actually saying it), it sets the stage for how this series is going to go.
The opening showed a lot of other characters, though, so I’m not sure where it’s going to go from here but it’s apparent that we’re not going to stick to such a small cast. With this only having 13 episodes, I doubt that there’s going to be a slow burn as things are kicking off in a rather quick way as of the first episode. Then again, with a show like this, that might be the right type of pacing to have to keep things moving and interesting.
For now, I really enjoyed the first episode so a shoutout to my friend Atish who alerted me to this show’s existence! This just means I have another show to watch this season!
