Winter 2021: Horimiya

Synopsis

Although admired at school for her amiability and academic prowess, high school student Kyouko Hori has been hiding another side of her. With her parents often away from home due to work, Hori has to look after her younger brother and do the housework, leaving no chance to socialize away from school. Meanwhile, Izumi Miyamura is seen as a brooding, glasses-wearing otaku. However, in reality, he is a gentle person inept at studying. Furthermore, he has nine piercings hidden behind his long hair and a tattoo along his back and left shoulder. By sheer chance, Hori and Miyamura cross paths outside of school—neither looking as the other expects. These seemingly polar opposites become friends, sharing with each other a side they have never shown to anyone else. (MyAnimeList)

Comment

Vina Nurziani – The Indonesian Anime Times

I happened to read some quote that say something like, “a relationship is strong when they keep each other’s secret” and Horimiya seems to bring that out in its story; a story that is born from spilled secrets. Between the characters’ who share secrets, we can see different kinds of relationships develop, as in the case of Miyamura and Hori developing romantic feelings, or in the case of Miyamura and Ishikawa developing friendship. The staff at CloverWorks seem to have skillfully shown the realistic side of school-life, for example, through the way the characters are talking without background music in several scenes, while also giving some dramatic effects for the characters’ feelings. In the desert of recent romances where multiple rival heroines vying for relationship with a lone protagonist, Horimiya comes as an oasis of school-life romantic comedy that focuses on one-on-one relationships, but still with a colorful story. 

Horimiya has also been published in Indonesia by Elex Media Komputindo with the same title, with the latest volume released being volume 14.

Facts and Figures

Screenshots and Trailer

The Indonesian Anime Times