Reflection (Brief Horimiya review)
Horimiya
8/10, hot take but it’s quite surface level romance imo, though a lot more realistic than the usual anime tropes (they don't joke about sexual 'accidents' thankfully). A good watch in general. Pacing feels kinda quick as 10 episodes takes place in their last year. First few eps were very different compared to the rest with how they make a big deal of 'creating facades' when in public and in private life. But fizzled out over time an didn't really mention much about it for the rest of the season
Very episodic: most likely the manga didn’t have a direct plot line besides showing highschool lives of a group of friends so the studio tried adapting that instead of only focusing on the main couple. Some segments in one ep make seem out of place and unserious at times but then immediately goes into a really heartbreaking scene (the same ep of 2 characters reminiscing on how they first met then at the end, Hori complains about how much Horror films she consumes). Might put people off I think tho I didn't mind it as much.
Lighthearted in atmosphere: Some conflicts were built up haphazardly, seemed tense at first but afterwards were kinda brushed off as everyone got acquainted more with one another. I like how conflicts comes up more realistically: misunderstandings/overthinking among highschoolers. And gets resolved quick because they actually communicate with each other
There are a few really strong scenes in there that I wish were more prevalent, tho it wouldn’t be as impactful if they were that common ig.
Friends/friend group: that one scene in ep 3
Within that few minutes of Miyamura reflecting on how lonely he felt back in elementary and middle school in between the class setting up to do groupwork. Then Ishikawa places the notes in front of him, Yoshikawa moving her desk right in front of him followed by the other 2 moving their desks closer, and Hori casually split the work between the 4. And he sees all 4 of their names written on a piece of paper. A brief scene but it meant so much to me how that was basically what I felt once or twice back then.
Idek how but somewhere in 10th grade, might be during English or smth, teacher told us to split into any group freely and I waited til everyone got to their own group to then be put into ‘the leftovers’. Except that didn’t happen. The 4-5 people I’ve been talking to for the past 2 months now were asking if they could sit next to me.
I think once or twice I also asked if I could join their projects and one of them smiled and said ‘sure’. And now that person became the most important individual in my entire life.
I hate that I can’t recall the aftermath of those exchanges but most likely it was fine.
I wish I wrote smth down on that day so I could reminisce more clearly
I wish I had started writing a diary or smth just to recall every happy instance of my school life
I guess I never truly recognized how good I had it back then til now. I expected people to kinda ignore me the entire time and brush off whatever I say usually.
There was a few months where I frantically search up or watch a ton of YT videos on some obscure topics just to come up with any anecdotes to tell them. They looked happy whenever I do that so I only assume they wanted to hear them, not because I was the one talking to them.
I’m surprised they didn’t call me out for being weird or yell at me to be louder. They kinda just accepted that part of me ig.
I barely spoke up back then and most would lean in closer just to properly hear what I say. I was really bad at speaking, like I was born speaking this language yet some words I couldn’t even mutter out/remember.