English Dub Review: Horimiya: The Missing Pieces “Jealousy”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Hori and Miyamura get into another silly spat, and the longer Hori goes without apologizing, the harder she finds it to tell Miyamura how she really feels…

Our Take:

Trouble is brewing again for Hori, Miyamura, and the others, and I’m not talking about their homework. I may not have watched Horimiya before The Missing Pieces, but I know that Hori and Miyamura have grown as friends since the first series. However, they haven’t put an effort to make it past the friend zone. Sadly, their recent argument may have made this task seemingly harder for them to accomplish.

So, what silly reason caused them to have a falling out, you ask? Well, they’re fighting because of Miyamura’s stench. I wish I were joking. It turns out that Miyamura smells like someone else, upsetting Hori, who believes that Miyamura is cheating with someone. That particular someone isn’t another girl but instead a guy. The episode introduced us to a glasses-wearing student, Watabe, who likes reading Japanese horror manga and is intensely affectionate toward Miyamura. Judging by the hearts surrounding Watabe, it’s possible that he might be gay, although he does act more like a stalker based on his actions, like taking a picture of Miyamura without his consent.

To counter this problem, Miyamura starts smelling every guy in school to ensure Hori doesn’t cheat on him with another boy. Unfortunately, this plan didn’t work as planned, causing them to distance themselves and blame each other for their separation. However, we see that Hori is to blame due to her highly compulsive reactions toward Miyamura. Of course, their fight isn’t without a hilarious text prank by Hori, who jokingly tells Miyamura about her period. As a result, Miyamura does a spit take on Ishikawa. As expected, it was the best part of the episode regarding Miyamura’s hilarious reaction and Ishikawa’s response. Thankfully, their feud didn’t last long, as Miyamura patched things up with Hori by confessing his love to her.

Afterward, we have another silly scenario from Miyamura: he wears a hoodie to school instead of his usual school attire. Miyamura is breaking the school code because of it, but Hori doesn’t seem to mind, as she’s suddenly become affectionate toward it. She’s so obsessed with the hoodie that she refuses to take her eyes off it. At first, I’m willing to call it another random misadventure that doesn’t connect to the episode’s central narrative, but then its conclusion happened. The ending has Hori feeling happy that Miyamura smells like himself again, resulting in him kissing her. That crucial moment was a long time coming, even for a newcomer like me, and it was worth the satisfaction.  

“Jealousy” may seem like a serious episode regarding Hori’s relationship with Miyamura, but it still maintains the light-heartedness and humor we expect from the previous episodes. They fought over how they smell, so it might as well have fun with that dispute instead of going all “soap opera” on the topic. As a result, it provided plenty of hysterical scenarios like Miyamura’s spit take and Hori accidentally running head-first into the door frame. More importantly, the episode features some well-deserved heartwarming moments that strengthen Hori and Miyamura’s relationship, especially their kiss. What does it mean for their future going forward? We’ll just have to wait and see.