We’ve reached the “Romance” genre of my genre review collection, and I’ve gone with something pretty well reviewed in Horimiya. I’ve watched a lot of anime that of course contained romance, but I don’t often get into something where...
We’ve reached the “Romance” genre of my genre review collection, and I’ve gone with something pretty well reviewed in Horimiya. I’ve watched a lot of anime that of course contained romance, but I don’t often get into something where romance is the main focus – which of course was my reason for wanting to watch anime of various genres to begin with!
Synopsis
A high-school girl who is attractive and well-liked by her peers ends up crossing paths with one of her classmates who has an image and reputation of being strange and reclusive. From this, she ends up realizing that there is a lot more to him than she originally realized…
A Romantic Slice of Life
I’m sure there are all kinds of romance anime out there, like drama, sci-fi, whatever. You name it, I’m sure there are romance anime that feature it in some way or another. In the case of Horimiya, what we get is primarily slice of life. It’s a slice of life romance anime. The fact that it takes place at a school sort of gives that away, although it could technically still be a drama / romance.
Of course, there IS still drama, because I have a suspicion that there’s no such thing as a romance anime or even story that doesn’t contain drama… but I wouldn’t say that the drama in Horimiya is all that dramatic compared to actual drama anime. If that makes sense. The drama isn’t all that heavy, I think.
Horimiya actually reminded me a lot of another romance anime I’d watched a few years ago – Tsurezure Children. Both are romance anime with a slice of life feel, and as you may expect, slice of life tends to like to incorporate comedy by teasing out real life situations. It’s really relaxed and lighthearted, and all about the interactions between the various characters.
That’s basically what Horimiya was like to me. A relaxed slice of life anime that puts a little more effort into showing us the romance between characters. There are some funny moments, some heartfelt moments, and a lot of just lighthearted interactions as the days go by in this series. The only real overarching story is that the characters we follow are all students who will end up graduating in the future. But until then, it’s all just day in and day out stuff.
Rating
I’m going to give Horimiya an 8 / 10.
I thought it was a pretty good anime for what it is. It’s fun, relaxed, but still has some of those dramatic or heartfelt moments that I assume are quintessential to the romance genre.
If you like this sort of anime, I’m sure you’ll like Horimiya. But then, I’m going to assume you’ve already seen it, since my understanding is that it’s a pretty popular romance anime!
And if that’s the case, then what did you think of Horimiya?
How would you rate it?
Until next time,
Thanks for reading.